Frost Bound (Entangled with Trickery #1)

Neve

Chapter Twenty-Two

Neve

He ran.

Olwen, Eyri, and Flyka fell in by his side. The crowd parted with gasps as he sprinted toward the city. His gaze flew down to the valles in his arms. Her lips were a stark blue against her pale complexion that seemed almost translucent. Little puffs of air came from her slack mouth, her eyelids almost closed, eyes rolled back into her head.

Qovving hell.

Neve shook her but she only groaned, limp against his chest.

The crowd thickened around the edge of town with little huts.

“Make way!” Flyka shouted.

Neve assessed the area. It was an hour walk to reach the Seed—the center of the city.

She won’t make it that long.

“Your grandmother who is the healer still lives near here, no?” he huffed, glancing at Olwen.

“Yes.”

That’s all the confirmation Neve needed. He veered down a snow-packed road, and then up the main street of the village. He loped up the steps to the healer’s home and barged in.

Olwen’s grandmother and two of her nonnaette - her apprentices - squeaked in surprise at his intrusion. Warmth curled around him immediately, along with the scent of herbs as he made his way into the large room. Nonnae stood from her stool near the fire and met him midway, her attention scouring him, and then the valles in his arms.

“What happened?” she muttered, her lips thinning as she pressed the back of her black hand to his loviaye ’s forehead.

“Our bonding didn’t go as planned.”

“She’s too cold. Bring her to the fire.” She hustled to the hearth and yanked a cot in front of it. “Lianna, Loshika, get the bath ready. We need to get this saloes warm now .”

Neve followed her, water dripping down his legs, leaving a path behind him. Nonnae grabbed a pair of scissors and nodded to him. “Lay her on the cot. We need to get the wet clothes off of her.”

He did as she bid, agony and breathlessness crashing over him at the movement. Neve pushed through it and knelt beside the cot. The old woman shoved a blade into his hand.

“Help me. We don’t have much time.”

A kernel of fear rooted in his gut as he cut the ties of the bodice. He placed the knife between his teeth and ripped the garment from her body. He frowned at the undergarment beneath it. “Is that bone?” he whispered to himself as he tugged at the tightly bound cage that seemed to be squeezing her breasts right out the top, leaving bloody sores near her armpits.

“Stop gawking and start cutting,” Nonnae reprimanded, snipping the last of the skirt away. “Each minute could mean her life.”

Neve sliced the top of the undergarment and then pulled the tight fabric apart. The rending of wet satin filled his ears. He kept his gaze averted as her breasts slipped free, and focused on her sleeves. While he didn’t know much about humans, he knew they were prudes when it came to nudity. His wife wouldn’t want him gawking at her body, even if it was in morbid curiosity and not desire.

A breath whistled out of his nose at the bruising around the shoulder of her right arm. A dislocation.

“ Lae reillov ?” Olwen’s voice sounded behind him.

Neve curled over his niliave . Frost giants didn’t care about nudity, but his little valles did. “Get out. Flyka, I need you.”

He registered two sets of boots leaving as the giantess squatted next him. The door closed, cutting off the cold air.

“What do you need of me?”

“Her other arm.”

Flyka got to work, carefully slicing off the other sleeve as Neve ran his claw gently over Dahlia’s bruised shoulder.

A sharp breath pulled his attention to Nonnae , who stared at one of the valles ’ legs. His jaw slackened. Her legs were … a pattern of different-colored skin. A puzzle of flesh.

“What caused this?” he whispered. Humans changed colors constantly with their emotions, but something like this? It didn’t seem possible.

Nonnae ’s gaze flew to his for a moment, her hands resting near the human’s knee. “I’m not sure, reillov , I’ve never treated a human before.”

“A witch?” Flyka offered.

The healer tsk ed. “There’s no such thing in any land, only charlatans.”

Neve glanced away as Nonnae continued to cut the trousers from the human to stare at her face. Just what sort of creature was she? Just whom had he bound himself to?

“ Qov ,” the healer muttered.

“What?” he asked, still staring at Dahlia’s face, particularly the dots on her nose.

“Infection.”

“From the water?”

“Her thighs, my lord.”

This time he did look. His gorge rose as he got a good look at the mess that was her inner thighs. Flesh peeled away as the healer gently tugged at the soaked bandage that was stuck to the skin, blood and pus sullying the linen.

“How did this happen?” the healer hissed.

“I’m not sure. She’s been stiff on the journey, but I attributed it to her being a saloes .” Shame pricked him.

Nonnae chuckled, but it wasn’t nice, pushing her black and silver braid from her shoulder. “She was limping because she was so qovving saddle sore. It was a bloody miracle she made it so far.” A tsk . “She must have an extremely high pain tolerance and a will of stone.”

Neve looked away as the healer continued cutting, and glanced at Flyka, who frowned fiercely.

“I should have known,” his Haunt whispered, guilt in her tone. “She never took off her pants around us—even me. I thought it was human propriety.”

“It’s not your fault.” It was his . She was his charge. He unbuckled the thin belt hanging on her bare waist, pocketing her old dagger, slingshot, necklace, and ring. “Her injury rests on my shoulders alone.”

“Not to break up this guilt session, but it’s time for you to make amends, my lord, and take care of your wife. She needs a bath, and you’ll need to climb in with her,” Nonnae murmured.

He gently lifted his loviaye from the cot, cuddling her body close to his, making sure his claws and fingers went nowhere near her wounds on the inside of her thighs. Neve followed the healer into the next room, where a natural stone pool stood in the middle. Steam curled off the surface, and he broke out in a sweat just from the heat of the room alone.

Nonnae gestured to the pool. “In you go.”

The first step into the tub burned, the second scorched, and finally he stood in the waist-deep water. He stepped to the edge and the healer knelt next to him, brushing a wet lock of hair from Dahlia’s cheek.

“Make sure you have a good hold on her. She won’t like this bit.”

Neve lowered the valles into the water until it reached the bottom of her chin. She came to life with a scream that made his ears ring. She struggled in his arms, wailing about burning. He held her tight, his jaw clenching at the sobs that wracked her body.

“I’m burning alive,” she cried out, eyes glassy.

He pressed a kiss to her hair and held her tighter. “It’s okay, jaivelle . You’re okay,” he crooned, rocking slightly as she continued to cry and thrash.

Her cries and sobs turned into bone-rattling coughs. Her body slowly warmed, and then the shakes began. Dahlia’s flat teeth chattered so hard he thought they would fall right out of her mouth.

“That’s enough,” Nonnae commented. “We need to set her shoulder, and then get her warm and dry. Her lips are still blue.”

Neve stood, lifting the valles out of the water, and she began shivering harder. Water sluiced down their bodies as he once again followed the healer to a small room to the left. The heat from the roaring fire was almost smothering. Flyka waited next to a mattress on the floor in front of the fire, and what seemed like a hundred blankets.

“Hand the saloes to your Haunt, lae reillov . I need to get a look at you,” Nonnae commanded.

“I’m fine.”

“I’m sure you are, but you won’t be much help to your bride if I can’t check on you. I can see you hiding your pain.”

He reluctantly handed the princess over to Flyka who, with the help of the nonnaette, toweled off the shuddering princess. Neve stood still, dripping water onto the floor as the healer inspected his back, her claws running softly along tender spots.

“No internal damage,” she muttered. “Only large bruises and a few fractured ribs. Did you inhale any water?”

“A little.”

“I’ll give you tonic to help with lung health, then.” She stepped away, pursing her deep purple lips. “Strip, lae reillov .”

He reached for the laces of his leathers. “Why?” With the heat of his room and body, they would soon be dry.

Dahlia screamed, and his eyes snapped to her over his shoulder. The nonnaette stepped away from Flyka as she placed the princess’ arm back down. They’d reset her shoulder.

“Your mate needs body heat,” Nonnae replied, answering his question. “You’re her best option so that she doesn’t lose any fingers or toes.”

He blanched, but wiped the look from his face when the healer bared her fangs at him. Neve didn’t need to be told twice by the old crone.

Neve divested himself of his pants and stalked to the nest of blankets on the floor, naked. Sweat beaded on the back of his neck and forehead at the blazing heat from the fire. He took a towel proffered by the nonnaette with a broken claw and dried off quickly. He then lifted the covers and scooted in, jerking when her freezing body touched him. A hissed breath escaped between his teeth when he pulled her back flush against chest, his sorav aching so much he pulled his hips away from her rounded buttocks. She whimpered again and he cursed, forcing himself to press his whole body to hers despite the pain.

A moan escaped her as she shook in his arms. Dahlia tucked into a ball, and he curled around her, trying to touch as much of his skin to her as he could. She was so bloody cold. And tiny . It triggered his protective instincts. He ran his thumb soothingly across her dimpled navel, tucking her feet between his thighs.

Nonnae dropped to her knees in the nest, holding a cup in her hand and began to try to get the liquid into the princess. He watched silently as the healer patiently fed the human small sips. He inhaled deeply, his nose twitching with the scent of the ice spirits.

His brows rose. “Something so strong?” Most giants couldn’t handle more than a few sips.

“She needs it to heat her from the inside.” The healer set the cup aside and placed her fingers on the inside of Dahlia’s wrists. “I’m not sure how fast her heart is supposed to beat,” Nonnae huffed, frustration twisting her lips. “But I think hers is too slow. I don’t like it.”

The nonnaette with a pockmarked neck stepped forward and held out a long metallic cylinder with a tapered middle. The healer pulled back the blankets and gestured to Neve. “Turn her onto her back so I can listen to her breathing.”

Dahlia moaned and shivered harder, but her eyes stayed closed. Nonnae bent over the valles and placed the metal cylinder just above each breast.

“Now her back.”

Neve rotated the human carefully onto her belly so the healer could listen there. He scowled at all the bruising and scratches along her fair skin. When had those happened? He arranged Dahlia back into his arms as the old woman leaned back, scowling.

“She’s sick.” It was said like an accusation.

“From the water?”

“No, there was already liquid in her lungs, lae reillov .” Her eyes narrowed on Neve. “Did she show any indication of sickness on your journey?”

“She grew paler the longer we traveled, and she had dark smudges beneath her eyes.”

“The princess has been coughing,” Flyka added. “And she was cold all the time.”

Neve nodded. “Her nose was red. Does that mean anything?”

Nonnae pursed her lips, and placed her hand over the valles ’ forehead. “They are not as physically strong as we are, but I believe humans don’t tolerate the weather like we do either. What were the traveling conditions like?”

“Rain, sleet, snow.” The usual .

She winced. “I think extended exposure to such weather can kill a saloes .”

He blinked slowly at Nonnae . “The cold will kill my loviaye ?”

“ Extended exposure.” She pushed back from her knees and onto her feet, gesturing to the nonnaette . “My apprentices will clean her thighs and dress the wounds. I know a vallos who had a human wife before she died. I’ll send for him.”

“How did she die?” he asked, already knowing the answer.

“Birth.”

“I’ll do it,” Flyka piped in, taking a step toward the door.

Nonnae pointed a knobby finger at Flyka. “Don’t think I can’t see you limping either. Send my grandson for him. He’ll know the vallos . Then sit down until one of us can look at that leg.”

Flyka nodded once before disappearing from Neve’s view. He grimaced as Dahlia continued to shake. “What do I do?” he asked, helplessness crashing over him.

“Keep her warm and pray that she survives until I can get some answers.”