Chapter 13
Chapter
Thirteen
Talon threw Boone across the room, his ill humor venting itself on his sparring partner’s poor body. He wasn’t trying to be mean, he was just really frustrated.
Poor Mercury had been so ill, everything he smelled made him throw up. And even with Rowan working on all sorts of solutions, he was beginning to think they were going to have to search for a magical cure to the morning sickness.
Mercury had been thin already after existing on tinned fish and beans, and he wasn’t sure that the poor darling had any weight to lose. Especially not when he was going to be supporting a baby.
“Man, you’re in a mood.” Boone picked himself up off the floor and shook himself. “Everything okay? Your hailee decided he didn’t want you anymore or something?”
“Of course he wants me,” Talon roared. “And I can’t help it that he’s so sick. I don’t know how to fix it.”
“Have you asked Rowan?”
His second roar shook the walls. “Of course I have asked. He’s coming…he’s visiting every day, and Mercury just keeps getting smaller.”
Boone tilted his head, then headed for the door. “Come with me.”
“What?”
“I’m serious. Come with me. I have a little bit of an in with a healer.”
Talon was utterly confused. “What are you talking about?”
Boone kept walking. “Dex took in the teenagers from the healers, but my mate Eyv was their teacher, so I happen to know the kids really, really well. One of the girls is a healer. Maybe she can help.”
“Do you think so? Do you imagine she can really do something?”
Boone nodded. “I do. Her name’s Anemone. She’s a sweetheart, and she’s really talented. What could it hurt?”
Boone had a point, but Talon had to wonder why Rowan hadn’t mentioned such a thing. Then again, Rowan was a midwife, and he seemed to think everything needed to be as natural as possible with babies. So maybe he didn’t think a magical healer was a good idea.
It didn’t matter to Talon. He wanted Mercury to be well.
“All right. I’ll try anything. He needs to stop being so sick all the time. He needs to gain weight, or he’s going to lose the baby. I’m not sure that his spirit can take that.”
He wasn’t sure his could.
Boone nodded solemnly. “I can imagine that he’s had a very rough time, and there isn’t a lot of peace in his relatively short life, just like you’ve had a lot of life in your relatively long existence, buddy.”
Talon swallowed around the lump in his throat. “I feel as though I have. I just need both of us to be safe and happy, and for Mercury to be well.”
Boone grabbed a towel and then tossed him one as well, so they could dry off from the sweat as they walked out of the salle “Well, Anemone may not be able to do anything specific, but she may know someone who can, even if she can’t help.
She’s been training with the other older healers for a while.
The nice thing about her is that she’s really instinctively good with babies.
So maybe she can fix something if there’s a block going on. ”
Hope was beginning to rise up in Talon’s chest the way Boone was talking about this young healer dragon. He really hoped she could help. Talon was willing to jump through all manner of hoops to get Mercury to feel better.
They went to Jack and Dex’s quarters, which he had only been to once or twice for parties, and knocked on the door. He hoped they weren’t supposed to have made an appointment. Jack could be a little grumpy alpha sometimes.
Dex opened the door, his eyebrows rising up when he saw Talon and Boone. “Well, hello! Is there something I can help you with, guys?”
“We were hoping Anemone would be home.”
Dex laughed lightly, standing back to let them in. “As it happens, you’re in luck. She is here. She was just about to head out to a meal with some of the other healers. So come on in and I’ll get her for you.”
“Thanks, Dex.” Boone winked at him once Dex turned away, and he hoped they weren’t gonna get in trouble for butting their heads in and putting everyone off their schedule.
Stop worrying so much, man. It’s going to be fine. I don’t mean about Mercury. I understand you have to worry about him, but an enemy is not going to take your head off, and neither is Dex.
Talon blew out a breath. I feel like I did when I was back in training as a warrior, and my mentor was so harsh and cruel. I feel like I’m on edge about everything. I can’t seem to get myself to calm down.
A young dragon with long, gorgeous hair wearing a dress in a deep rose color came gliding into the room, smiling at Boone and going to kiss his cheek. “Hello, Uncle Boone.”
“Hello, sweeting. How are you?”
“Very well. Talon! It’s good to see you too.” Anemone seemed to recognize him, and he knew he’d met the young one before. But Jack and Dex had so many sweet dragons living in their quarters.
He bowed to her gently. “It’s also good to see you.”
She glanced back and forth between the two of them. “So, tell me, what’s going on?”
Talon glanced at Boone, who nodded gently in a smile, encouraging him. He took a deep breath and then let it out. “It’s my mate. He’s pregnant, and I don’t think he’s doing well.”
Anemone moved to take a seat on the couch. So they joined her, sitting down in the other chairs in the room. “I’m sorry to hear that, Talon. Can you tell me what his main problem seems to be?”
“He can’t keep any food down. He just keeps throwing up, and he’s getting skinnier and skinnier.
He wasn’t well when he got here. He was very thin, and he had lost his heartstone.
It took him a great deal longer than Kami did to recover, so I worried about that.
But he had been locked in a tower for many years, so maybe that’s why. ”
Anemone’s eyes widened, her eyes flashing with a metallic sheen for a moment. “Locked in a tower. Who would do such a thing?”
Boone rolled his eyes “You know as well as I do that the way of the old keeps, the grakke, can be terrible sometimes.”
“You’re right. I do know that. So now, however, he has a new heartstone.” She sat forward, hands on her knees, eyes on Talon’s face, reading his expression.
“Yes, he has a new one, and he’s bonded with it. But it still took him weeks to come back to what seemed like health, and then he immediately became pregnant.”
She hummed, and then power glowed around her—a silvery-blue light that just came out of nowhere and flashed like lightning. “I need to see him. Let me send a message to the people I was going to meet, and I’ll come home with you.”
Talon nodded and stood. “Thank you. Honestly, he’s my world.”
She nodded and beamed at him. “Of course he is. That’s how it should be. I’ll be right back.”
She fluttered out, and he glanced at Boone. “Do you think this was the right thing to do?”
Boone nodded. “I think so. She’s really smart and she has a knack.”
Dex grinned at them as he wandered back through, a few glasses in his hands. “She does at that. Can I get you all anything while you’re waiting?”
Talon shook his head and smiled. “You’ve got a great house here.”
It was fancier than any of the other apartments he had seen—not bigger, Triton’s apartments were huge—but this was a well-appointed, modern home created by someone who had money and knew it.
“Thanks.” Dex nodded to him, glancing around in obvious joy. “We’re in here a lot, so we might as well be comfortable, right?”
“That’s the rumor.” Talon nodded back like he was a bobbing head doll, smiled, and tried not to tap his foot because he was really ready to get this going. He wanted this over with so that Mercury could be happy.
Hopefully, Mercury could be happy.
When she came back in, Anemone looked much more like just a teenager in a loose tunic and a pair of dark leggings. A jaunty little hat on her head.
“Okay, I’m ready. Let’s go do this.”
“I hope that we didn’t interfere with your plans too much.”
She shook her head no. “Healer’s guild meeting. Boring. This is way more up my alley than listening to everyone discuss teas. I’m ready.”
She grinned and winked at them, and then she waved to Dex. “Uncle Dex, l will be with Uncle Boone if you need anything.”
“I know where to find you.”
“Excellent. I’m probably going to visit with Uncle Boone and Eyv and everyone instead of coming right back up, so don’t worry.”
Dex chuckled softly and shook his head with a dramatic sigh. “Felicity’s with her father learning how to fly. Why would I be worried?”
Anemone laughed and then swooped out of the door and down the hallway. Soon they were heading downstairs, and he listened to her chatting to Boone with half an ear as they walked.
She was a bright young lady, charming and dear, and it would be amazing to listen to her, if, of course, his hailee hadn’t been so damn sick.
He opened the door, finding Mercury curled up on the sofa in a huge blanket, pale and gaunt. “Hailee, I’ve brought someone to see you. This is Anemone, she’s one of Dex and Jack’s wards.”
Mercury offered her a weak smile. “Hi, I’m sorry I didn’t realize there was going to be company.”
He didn’t offer to stand up or brush his hair or anything, but he did try to smile.
“Oh my dear, you seem like you don’t feel well,” Anemone said, coming to sit close and take one of Mercury’s pale hands.
Mercury nodded, his eyes filling with tears. “The midwife says I’ll be okay. He keeps trying to give me tea; it keeps not staying down.”
She nodded, and then it was almost as if she stared right into Mercury—not his eyes, but his soul.
“You know, it wasn’t your fault that your friend died at all, and you are allowed to be happy.”
How many times had he told Mercury that?
“I’m trying,” Mercury admitted, “I’m doing everything I can. I love it here, and I don’t want to leave.”
“You have to trust that there’s room for you and your baby here.” She touched his heart, not his stomach. “And then also that there’s room for food in here.”
Mercury’s eyes were closed, and he shivered, his lower lip quivering. “I try to believe it, but it’s been so long, and it was so hard.”
“I know.” Her voice just remained as calm as placid water. “They starved you of everything: affection, food, warmth. But that’s not how it is here. There’s room for all of it deep inside you, and for you to let it out.”
“I’m not trying to be difficult.” Mercury shook his head, dashing away tears. “I just don’t feel good.”
“Will you let me help you?” She turned more fully toward Mercury, grasping his hands firmly. “Look at me, Mercury. Look into my eyes and hum with me.”
Mercury fastened his gaze on her, and Talon watched and listened as she stared into Mercury’s eyes and began humming with this low, almost metallic buzz of a sound.
Mercury started to hum with her, the sound a bit louder than Anemone’s. The room began to vibrate with it. Small things sitting on tables or on the kitchen counter rattled just a little bit. Talon was beginning to worry that the windows were going to cave in.
This wasn’t anything like the kind of singing that Kami did as a stone singer. This was almost like a tuning, like they were tuning up a very fine engine or resonating with some sort of metal tuning fork.
Fascinated, Talon reached out for Mercury’s hand when Mercury held it out to him. Suddenly, he was drawn into the circle of the three of them, and Anemone’s voice became sweeter and more distinct as he had physical contact.
He added his own bass rumble to the sound because they weren’t making music. They were vibrating. They were bringing Mercury’s magic in line with itself and in line with the world around them.
By the time they were done, Mercury slumped back, hand on his belly, and he was asleep. Truly, really asleep. The dark shadows under his eyes already fading a little bit.
Anemone winked at him, then Boone. “I think that will help. We can do it again as many times as we need, but once he wakes up, I want you to feed him.”
He shook his head as if he was trying to rid his ears of the noise, then stuck one finger in his right ear as if trying to drill it out a little bit. “Did you say feed him?”
Anemone stood, coming to pat Talon’s shoulder.
She had to reach up quite a way to do it.
“He has had a great deal of trouble in just a very short time. And everything is a little off balance inside of him, both in his heart and his spirit. His body has been mending, but other things have not.” She yawned suddenly, a huge bearing of her tiny little sharp teeth.
“I’m very sleepy now, Boone. I think I would like for you to take me home. ”
“Okay, sweetie.” Boone hopped to his feet and linked his arm with Anemone’s. “If you need something, Talon, just let us know. Any of us. Including Jack and Dex or Cain, okay?”
“I can do that.” Talon was just so relieved to see Mercury relaxing completely, his chest rising and falling in a nice, even rhythm, that he wasn’t sure what else to say.
The sense of community in this place, the sense of family, never ceased to amaze him.
And he was more used to it than Mercury. He needed to remember that.
Boone clapped him on the back with his free hand on the way by. “We got this, man. Don’t worry about it. Mercury’s gonna be good.”
Goddess, he hoped so.