Page 28 of Hidden Dragons

When the lesser wounds were free of the acid taint, Isabelle went quietly to work on them, using the burnjelly and other medicines Silla and she had prepared. She knew from her mother’s teachings that true healing took a lot out of the healer. It was better to keep such abilities for the really important injuries that might otherwise maim or kill a dragon, and stick to the more traditional remedies for the things that weren’t life threatening. Isabelle kept a careful eye on Belora while they both worked on the auburn-colored dragon. When the princess was nearing the end of her work, Isabelle was at her side, ready to support her.

Sure enough, Belora teetered on her feet when she came out of the healing, but Isabelle was there to steady her. Belora gave her a surprised look and checked over the rest of the dragon’s injuries.

“You’ve done good work here, Isabelle,” Belora finally said when the dragon had been made as comfortable as possible. He would not be moved for some time, as his wounds were too severe and he was unconscious. “Thank you for catching me. You’ve seen true healing before, haven’t you?”

Isabelle saw no reason to hide the truth from these people. While she would never breathe a word to the villagers, the people in the Lair were very different.

“My mother had a small gift, but her mother was a true healer, or so she told me.” Isabelle missed her mother, but it felt somehow good to speak of her again, especially with people who she would have liked. “But she healed with song. Healing chants,” Isabelle said, remembering the long winter evenings when her mother taught her of such things by the fire in their lonely cottage.

“Do you know the way of such things?” Belora asked, apparently interested.

“She taught me the words, but I’ve never used them. Well, not out in the open,” Isabelle admitted. “On rare occasions, when I work with the village’s animals and I’m alone, I have been known to hum under my breath. It has a calming effect on the beasts.” Isabelle smiled and knew Belora understood what she was saying.

Belora was about to say something when a dragon’s cry of anguish sounded. A new pair was coming in for a landing and one of the knights was barely hanging on. As the dragon landed, his knight slid from his back, unconscious on the floor, a trail of blood smearing along his dragon’s back.

Belora and Isabelle ran to help. Isabelle sluiced the dragon, who had areas of burned flesh along his side, while Belora looked at the knight. Silla and Adora came over and worked on him too, while Belora tried to calm the frantic dragon.

Isabelle couldn’t figure why Belora wasn’t using her magic on the knight. Clearly, he was in very bad shape and could use all the help he could get. Belora beckoned her over and Isabelle stepped carefully around the agitated dragon.

“Now would be a very good time for you to try out one of those healing chants at full volume, Lady Isabelle. My healing ability only works on dragons.”

Isabelle was surprised, but filed that information away for later examination. The knight was dying and she had to at least try the things her mother had taught her. Isabelle began to chant, digging her toes into the stone beneath her feet and calling on the energy of the Mother of All to aid her in her quest to bring comfort to the gravely injured man.

For the first time in her life, Isabelle sang her chant at full volume within the vicinity of people—dragons and men—who were badly hurt. She had no idea what would happen. Perhaps nothing. But perhaps she would be able to help them in some small way. She clung to that thought. That small glimmer of hope.

She began to build the chant into something more substantial, just as her mother had taught her. It began to flow out of her and into the air around her. She could almost see the energy floating through the air from her mouth to the injured knight.

Isabelle was only peripherally aware that everyone on the ledge had stilled. Tranquility was part of her chant and if that sense of peace was imparted to those in pain or distress, she counted that as a good thing. Right now, her focus was on the man who lay dying between Silla and Adora’s working hands. She reached for his fading spirit with her song and cradled him in the chant, not allowing him to leave, using the ancient words to bind him to his body and imparting some of the Goddess’s energy into him, to sustain him while the healers did their work.

Buoyed by the power she could feel flowing through her at full strength for the first time in her life, Isabelle did all she could think of to help the knight. He was no longer dying and that brought a sense of satisfaction.

When she thought he was safely ensconced in his own body again, she drew back, taking the thread of energy the chant wrought with her, allowing it to spread around the ledge again before she finally ended her song. A stunned silence greeted her when she closed her mouth.

And then it was like everyone began talking at once, only they were using hushed voices and low murmurs. And they were looking at her with wide eyes.

“Milady,”the dragon behind her spoke into her mind for the first time. This was the dragon who had brought the badly injured knight in. This was his partner.“Thank you, milady. You saved him and I will be forever grateful. I did not believe Tildeth when she claimed you had the blood of the Fair Folk in your lineage, but I have seen the truth of it here today. Thank you for sharing your gift with my knight.”The dragon bowed its great head to her and Isabelle was overwhelmed by both his words and his gesture. Dragons bowed to no one. Well, very few people, at any rate.

“Sir…” she addressed him, not knowing his name, “…you do me too great an honor.”

Belora touched her hand. “He’s right though.” The princess’s words startled Isabelle into looking at her. “You have magic in your voice, Isabelle. It’s unlike any I have heard or felt before. It is potent and pure, and of the Lady. Thank you for saving this knight’s life, for without your chant, he would have left us.”

“I—” Isabelle was about to protest again, but she remembered what she had felt and seen while she’d been using the chant. She stopped talking, unsure of what to say. She simply waved her hands in the air and then fled to man the water buckets as another dragon flew in, needing help.

Slowly, the rest of the gathering on the ledge went back to work. After a while, the moment passed and they were almost overwhelmed by dragons and knights with burns that needed treatment.

Then Growloranth flew in. He was hurt, and so was Robert. Her heart in her throat, Isabelle ran to them, dumping water over Growloranth’s burns as she looked for Robert.

And then he was there, taking her shoulders, but keeping her at arm’s length. She understood. His leathers were smoking with the pungent acid of skith venom.

Chapter Nine

“Come with me quickly, we’ll wash you off.” She tugged him toward one of the small areas set aside nearer the cisterns where they could rinse off people and things that came into contact with the acidic venom. In that spot, the contaminated water would be caught in the channels and sent down the side of the mountain, away from the Lair.

“It’s only on the leather, except for one spot,” Robert claimed, already unbuckling his armor as he walked. “Growloranth needs help more—” he began, but she cut him off.

“And he’s getting it. Both princesses are seeing to his burns, which is more than enough. They are dragon healers.”

“Yes, I know. Ouch!” he exclaimed as his armor came away and good piece of his shirt with it.

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