The crowd stepped back. The bodies lay on stretchers. Someone had dressed wounds, had cleaned burnsburns!had done what they could to preserve life. Freed of the constraints that the ancient bracer placed on her magic, Kaylin knelt between two of these stretchers and touched two foreheads with her right and left palms. She was gentle, although she didnt have to bethe men here were in no danger of regaining consciousness anytime soon. They had that gray-white pallor that spoke of loss of blood. She was surprised that they hadnt succumbed to the wounds they had taken. Many of those wounds werent clean cuts; they had been caused by people who werent used to handling weapons.
Kaylin grimaced. Severn?
She saw his shadow. Knew he was listening.
Get water, she told him. Ill need it.
There are four men
I can do this. Justwater. Food.
His shadow was still for a moment, but he was silent. Everything they said or did nowevery single thingwould be watched by all of the Thaalani, no matter where they were, no matter how young or how old, how strong or how weak. All of the Thaalani who watched would see, and what they saw would become part of the Thaalaan, the living memory of the entire race; Thaalani children four hundred years from now could search the Thaalaan and see the events of this day through the eyes of these witnesses.
And for once in her life, Kaylin was determined to make a good impression.
Severn knew; he wasnt an idiot. He knew that humansher kind, and hishad done this damage. He knew how important it was to the city that humans be seen to undo it. She didnt even hear him go.
It was hard.
It was harder than destroying walls that were solid stone, harder than killing a man. Healing always was. It was harder than saving infants who were trapped in a womb; harder, even, than holding their mothers when shock and loss of blood threatened their lives.
Harder than saving a child in the Foundling Hall.
But she had done all of that.
She felt the shape of their bodies and the beaterratic and laboredof their hearts. She heard their thoughts, not as thoughts, but as memories, almost inseparable from her own. She felt their injuries, the broken bones, the old scars fromfalling out of a tree? She even snorted. These werent men who got caught out in bar brawls.
They werent men who were accustomed to war of any kind.
She could save them. She could see where infection had taken its toll, eating into flesh and muscle. Two men. If she wanted them to live, she couldnt use any more power than was absolutely necessary. No miracles, not yet. No obvious miracles.
But the subtle ones were the only ones that counted.
The bones that would knit on their own, she left; the ones that wouldnt mend properly, she fixed. She tried not to see what had caused the breaks, but gave up quickly. That took too much effort, too much energy.
When she lifted her hands from their faces, she felt the touch of their stalks, clinging briefly to her skin. She told them to sleep.
She heard Ybellines voice. Felt Severns hands under her arms, shoring her up as she stood and wobbled. She didnt brush him off, didnt try. She let him carry some of her weight as she approached the last two men, their stretchers like pale bruises on the ground.
She felt grass beneath her knees as she crushed it, folding too quickly to the ground. Righting herself, which really meant letting Severn pick her up, she reached out to touch them.
Shuddered.
They didnt wear helmets. And the most obvious weapon they hadin the eyes of humans, of anyone outsidewere their stalks. One mans were broken. Just broken. There were no bones in the stalks themselvesbut even muscle and tendon could be crushed out of shape, smeared against a skull that was also fractured badly. Bones dont hurt. The stalksthere were nerves there, so many nerves.
Gritting her teeth, she said, YbellineI think this is going to hurt him. I think hell
Ybelline knelt in her shadow, knowing which of the two Kaylin meant. She reached out, caught the mans bruised hands (two fingers broken), and held them fast. Leaning, she bent over his face, and her own stalks, whole, un-bruised, reached out to stroke the sides of his face, his cheeks, his jaw. Do it, she said softly.
Kaylin nodded.
Here, too, she reached out with her power, with the power that had come the day the marks had appeared on her arms and legs. Words burned on the inside of her thighs, where no one could see them. They burned up and down the length of her arms, and flared on the back of her neck.
She didnt care.
Its very important that no one know of this, Marcus said, in memory. Its important that you do not reveal your power to anyone. Do you understand, Kaylin?
Get stuffed, she told him.
He fell silent, memory closing its windows. What she had actually said? More polite, longer, a promise of secrecy.
It didnt matter. Nothing mattered, now, but this: healing those horribly damaged stalks.
The man woke when shed knit bone and brain into something like its former shape; she had known he would. He screamed, once, when she started on his stalks. The scream cut out in the middle, and silence eradicated its echoes.
The last man shouldnt have been alive. He had taken a single clean wound to one side of the heart, and he had bled so much. Kaylin felt magic in him, around him, when she touched his chest. She let it be, and concentrated, though it was much, much harder now.
But it didnt matter, for he was the last. The three would live, and the fourthdamn ithed live too. She felt her lips cracking as she spoke. Her hands were shaking too much to keep steady; she didnt even bother to try.
Just this one, she thought. Just this one, and Ill be good. Ill be good for months. Ill be good for-bloody-ever. Just this.
Shes awake, someone said. A young someone. Either that or a very skinny midget with a very high voice. Kaylin winced and managed to lift an eyelid. She regretted it almost instantly. There was just too much damn light.
Shes speaking! the child said. He said it loudly.
Kaylin opened her eyesboth of themand winced again, lifting her hands to her face. Getting up was almost out of the question.
Youre awake, arent you? The child spoke slowly, his Elantran deliberate.
Im awake, she answered. She could see his eyesthey were brown, and they were wide. His stalks were flapping in the nonexistent breeze.
Im supposed to tell Ybelline youre awake. When youre awake.
She must trust you a lot, Kaylin managed.
The childboy? Girl?beamed. Im going to grow up to be castelord!
Its a very hard job, Kaylin replied, wanting him to take his smile and play somewhere else. Feeling bad about it, too. There wasnt much you could feel that couldnt be made worse by a solid dose of guilt.
Its an Important job.
That too. Are my friends still here?
Yes!
Good. Um, where am I?
In the home of Ybelline Rabonalani, Severn said, his voice drifting in from an archway that she could barely see. Its more crowded than it was the last time we were here.
That too. Are my friends still here?
Yes!
Good. Um, where am I?
In the home of Ybelline Rabonalani, Severn said, his voice drifting in from an archway that she could barely see. Its more crowded than it was the last time we were here.
Id noticed. She tried to sit up. Gave up halfway through.
I brought water, and food. Ybelline had you carried here when you collapsed. He glanced at the child as he made his way to Kaylin. I would have waited, he said, but Rennick wished to speak with Ybellineand her advisors, as he calls themand I thought it best to translate. She asked Ellis to watch over you.
Ellis?
Severn glanced pointedly at the backwell, top, reallyof the childs head. He joined us when we were on the way here, and there wasnt much that could be done to convince him it wasnt safe. Youre known here, he added, with a slight smile. And Ybelline knew you were concerned about the absence of the children.
Kaylin did not nod. It would have hurt too much. But she did manage a feeble smile. Where did thethe others go?
The Thaalani guards that were injured are in the longhouse. Two of them are awake, two of them are sleeping. None of them are now in danger. The Thaalani doctors are quite surprised.
She winced. Its not as if theyll tell anyone.
Its not the Thaalani that Im worried about.
Then who? Oh. Rennick.
Ellis, come and hold this waterskin for Kaylin. You can feed her anything shell eat, he added. He bent down quickly and kissed her forehead. Well done, Kaylin, he said softly. I dont want to leave Rennick alone.
She was stupid; she nodded.
Oh, and Ellis? Shell tell you shes ready to get up and walk around long before shes actually ready to get up and walk around.
Ellis looked a bit doubtful, and the waterskin shook in his hands. It looked huge in contrast, like some headless, stuffed toy. How will I know when its okay?
When shes finished eating all the food and drinking all the water.
Severn gave Kaylin the sweetest of smiles.
What she wanted to give him would not endear her to the future would-be castelord, and she tried very hard to remember this.
CHAPTER 3
Kaylin wanted to sleep for a day. Sadly, she wanted that day to be now, and would also have liked it to be longer by forty-eight hours than the average day. Ellis didnt talk a lot; the effort of making Elantran words was obviously not trivial. But, mindful of Severns dictate, he encouraged her to eat and drink.
He must have either had younger siblings or spent time in the Thaalaan watching other peoples children, because his form of coaching left something to be desired. The cooing, Kaylin admitted to herself, might be cuteand even hilariously funnyon another day.
Like, say, a day in which she didnt feel like shed been on the losing end of a bar brawl with the occupants of an entire tavern. But the food did help, as did the effort of keeping the ill humor out of the words she was speaking to a child. She did not, however, offer to let him touch her forehead with his stalks. If he wanted to be castelord, he was going to damn well have to learn how to talk the hard way.
And explaining the words that she was thinking to a young child of any racenever mind a young child with an entire Quarters worth of parents and grandparents in attendance courtesy of the racial gift of mindspeakingwas not on her list of things to do on any day.
When she had finished eating and drinking everythingand Ellis had shaken the waterskin up and down just to make certainEllis tried to help her to her feet. She was certain that her knees would recover from the way she had to fall in order not to crush him.
But even at her crankiestand this was pretty much the nadirshe found something about his solemnity touching. She stumbled beside him as he led her to Ybelline because, even if she couldnt read minds, it didnt take mind-reading to know that he considered this babysitting of a Real Adult a task of honor and importance, and she didnt want to take it away from him.
She was entirely unprepared for Ybelline, because Ybelline met her on one side of the arch that Ellis, talking to her as if she were a sick puppy, was urging her toward. Ybellines hair was downliterallyin a honey-gold cascade that obscured her shoulders. Her eyes were the same color, the same almost gold, almost brown. The light that came infar too brightlyfrom the open windows and half-walls seemed to have stopped there for the sheer pleasure of illuminating the castelord of the Thaalani.
The Thaalani woman who wasnt classically beautifulif there was such a thingwas radiant anyway. She had changed into a simple, cream gown that fell from her shoulders to her ankles unimpeded. All of this, Kaylin took in at a glanceand even if shed wanted to see more, she wouldnt have been able to, because Ybelline Rabonalani crossed the distance, ignoring Elliss loud warnings, and enfolded Kaylin Neya, scruffy and severely under-rested Hawk, in her arms.
It felt like home, to Kaylin. She let her forehead lean against the taller womans shoulder, and she wanted to stand that way forever. But that wasnt why shed come, and she knew that Severn and Rennick were waiting somewhere. She hoped that Rennick hadnt offended anyone. Anyone else.
Hes been remarkably quiet, Ybelline replied, speaking with the ease of long practice.
Thats probably bad.
Ybelline was silent for a moment, and when she spoke, her tone was guarded. Possibly bad for you.
For me? Why?
He was at the longhouse. I would have refused him entry into the Quarter, but I was distracted.
You had every right to be. The others
Theyll live. Theyre well. Her voice was soft, and soothing.
Good. I wanted
You had to be the one to help them. Kravel was beyond us, Ybelline added. Even had we been able to heal him in other ways, he would have been lost to the Thaalaan. But they have seen, and they have understood. Not all of your kind are insane. Not all of them are so maddened by fear that they must, in turn, be feared.
Theyll forget, Kaylin said.
They are not human, Kaylin. They will not forget.
And if they do, youll remind them?
Ybelline shook her head, and her hair brushed Kaylins face as she lifted it. No. You are not Thaalani. But you have touched the Thaalaan. What you understand might change in timebut they will remember you because they desire it. Not one of them wishes to fear the whole of a race. To fear even the ones who injured them is burden enough.
And it is my fault and my responsibility. I have worked among your kind for most of my adult life, and I didnt think before I left the Quarter. I didnt think about how it would look to people who have so little knowledge. I should have realized
You were trying to save a city. You had a lot on your mind.
The smile on Ybellines face was wry, but the panic was gone. Have you had a chance to speak at length with Richard Rennick?
A number of answers came and went. Kaylin said simply, Not at length. It was about as polite as she could be, given everything.