Chapter 15
Inkiri
The mate call and the two years of yearning had been both revelation and punishment, but the very moment I had laid eyes on my mate, it had all been worth it. Rory, my sweet human, was worth so much more.
So my mate lying limp and unmoving in the street with a Raikenga bent over him as rain pelted down was a terror. I ran toward them as fast as I could, tense and alert, keeping my panic at bay so that I would be able to act as needed.
“What happened?” I asked the Raikenga. A pointless question really. The Raikenga was quick to step aside as I sank to my knees next to Rory. Ash and rain had mixed on his face, painting his skin gray. I wiped the stain away as best as I could. He was cold to the touch.
“He…did magic,” the Raikenga said. “I’ve never seen anything like it. He was just standing there with his lips moving.”
I’d seen Vergis’s dumbstruck face, and Nokim feeling along where deep wounds had soaked his clothing. He’d been shot again.
The wounds were gone when Fellisse, Lissir, and I got there. Vergis had seen a Koa Esher die before him, or rather, watched him turn to sacrificial dust. We’d all seen the dust washed away in the downpour as we opened fire on the Koa Esher who still lingered.
Vergis jogged along the street and knelt next to me.
He touched Rory’s chest and frowned. “He’s completely out of it.
I felt the same magic he did back at the Stone.
” Vergis’s drawling accent did little to soften his words.
“Fucking princess who can spin straw into gold and make small forest creatures sing him songs. And make rain.” Vergis looked up at a sky that had opened completely.
“Fellisse!” I leaned over Rory’s head so the rain wouldn’t hit his face. “I’m here, Sadir.” I hoped he heard me. I took his hand and found his fingers were cold too. I longed to scoop him up, but I’d seen combat and knew not to move a fallen comrade without Fellisse first examining him.
Fellisse came running and put the heavy weapon bags down by Rory’s head. Then he touched along the vital points. The rain slowed.
Vergis frowned. “That was a lot of rain. Like, more than I thought he’d manage. Way more. Weather is supposed to be difficult.”
I scooted aside, but Rory’s fingers had tightened somewhat around my hand. I might have been imagining it. I didn’t care. I would always hold on to him.
Fellisse spoke up. “Inki, I see nothing that I can fix. He has no wounds, no fractures. His head is unhurt.”
Vergis was pacing with his arms crossed. Lissir and Noki came around the corner into the street, and Noki’s eyes went to Vergis, who glanced up as well, then quickly turned to hide it.
“His skin is colder to the touch than normal,” Fellisse went on, and Vergis stopped his pacing.
“He shouldn’t have been able to make that much rain, and then what he did to Nokim…for Nokim. And the Koa Esher… That’s not normal magic.”
Vergis was speaking in English, and the Raikengana around us were uncertain how to act. Vergis wasn’t Raikenga, but he had a reputation, and even if he denied it, most already considered him of our sentenmen. He was.
“He said the magic hurt him before,” I said in English, then shifted to Lugarra.
“We regroup at the Raiken. It’s safe there.
The group Lissir and Noki joined up with more than did their part in repelling the Koa Esher and defending the wall.
Flushing out the agents that yet remain in Esaka will be something the dena and visdena should be capable of, along with the Raikengana here. ”
Fellisse nodded, although I could see he was concerned in that way he got when he couldn’t help a patient.
The Raikengana that had formed a loose circle around us nodded and straightened, reading the praise in my words and wanting to rise to it.
All of them had done well, not that I’d have expected anything different from anyone stationed here in Esaka, which was never not dangerous, given how close to the border it was.
Lissir, cut up from all the blades he had dodged today, but otherwise unharmed, was calming Nokim by stroking his back and holding his hand. Nokim, who had been in a similar overexcited and incredulous state just two days ago when we had all seen him lie dead.
Today, we’d only seen him fall when he’d been hit, too late for us to help or prevent it. His shirt had been pierced by a bullet right above his heart, and we all knew it was enough to kill. We knew by rights he shouldn’t have been breathing.
Nokim let out a low wail. “It was him again, wasn’t it? He saved me. Vergis, say he will be well.”
Nokim spoke in Lugarra, like one would with their sentenmen. Vergis didn’t like it, so Nokim never did. It had to be the shock.
“I don’t know. I have no idea what our princess was thinking.”
Vergis retreated into his calm mask, but his restless energy lingered just underneath the surface, as was his wont.
I lifted my mate into my arms, careful of his neck like Vergis had told me was important with humans.
Vergis, despite what he sometimes said about them, knew all about giving “first aid” to humans.
Humans had gods they prayed to, I knew. I’d not yet asked Rory which god or pantheon, if any, he worshipped.
If I’d known, I would have said prayers, not perhaps to some ephemeral being, but so he might hear me and know that I wished for him to return to me, that someone was pleading for him and wanted him to wake up soon.
For now, all I could do was hope and stay close to him. He’d known that I’d been there the last time, and I hoped he would know I cared for him now also.