Chapter 18 #3
He didn’t answer her. She hadn’t expected him to.
He’d finished testing her and didn’t seem to be in a mood to get into another fight.
But his silence hurt all the same. If only she could cut out the small scrap of hope still stubbornly clinging to her heart.
Then she might know some measure of peace.
Exhausted and melancholy, Aurora leaned against the man who seemed determined to break her heart in new and surprising ways, closing her eyes to sleep.
When she woke, the dappled shade of the forest was long gone, and the sun was beginning to set on endless fields of golden grain. In the distance, dark clouds and the humidity in the air promised rain. Hopefully that would provide a source of untainted water for the people here.
A stomach cramp had her adjusting her posture. She’d slept through the midday meal. Why had no one woken her?
Theron handed her water, and she was pleased to find her strength had returned.
No more trembling limbs or weakened grip.
The water quenched her thirst but did little to sate her hunger.
But just as she was about to ask about food, Theron tensed.
Aurora turned her head. They were nearly at their destination.
An enormous manor sprawled across her view, three stories high with bright walls and a tiled roof.
But that wasn’t what had Theron holding her tight and urging his loper to speed into the front courtyard.
An older woman with a rosy brown complexion and streaks of grey in her black hair held a young child in her thick arms, distress plain.
The boy lay limp and pale, stomach bloody, head bobbing with her every harried step.
“Hold on,” Theron said, closing the distance.
His loper streaked into the courtyard and he leapt off, quickly taking the child from the woman’s arms.
“He fell from the tree, Your Majesty! We pulled the branch from his stomach. Please, he’s barely breathing!”
Aurora slid from the saddle, landing in a heap as she scrambled to Theron’s side. When she reached him, the child started gasping for breath. He coughed up blood, red pouring from his blue lips.
Without thinking, Aurora reached out with her magic and froze the boy. The woman began shrieking as the boy stilled, caught in a pantomime of desperate terror. Theron’s gaze whipped to hers.
“Aurora, not here!”
She flinched.
“He’s going to die,” she said, feeling small.
“I know,” he replied quietly. “Let him go.”
“No! No! Please heal him, Your Majesty, I beg of you!” the woman cried.
“He’s too near death,” Theron explained gently. “I will ensure he doesn’t suffer.”
“No, please, Your Majesty, please save him! Please! He’s only a young boy!” she begged him.
The rest of the household had congregated in the courtyard. Maids hugged each other and wept as gruff men in rough spun fabrics wiped tears from their eyes.
“My magic knows when someone is too close to death to save. I’m afraid I can’t.”
“You might. If I hold him frozen like this, you can heal him before his condition deteriorates further,” Aurora said.
“Bless you, Lady. Please, save my little boy!”
Theron’s glare was censorious. He didn’t think it would work. In truth, she didn’t know either. She’d only done it once before when Theron had been savaged by the monstrosities in the vivarium. She could only pray that Theron’s magic could heal the boy while she’d frozen him in time.
“Please trust me and try, Theron,” Aurora whispered.
He turned from her and focused on the child in his arms. Sweat began beading her brow as Theron poured magic into the young child.
In the courtyard, everyone held their breath.
A dog barking in the distance was the only sound that broke the silence.
She prayed he would be able to help the boy soon because, as tired and hungry as she was, her energy was already waning.
“His wound! It’s closing!” the boy’s mother shouted.
“Pelias!” a man shouted.
The gathered crowd parted as a wiry, pale man with mud-coated legs and an oft-mended tunic rushed from the house and skidded to a stop by the woman. He fell to his knees, his grey eyes taking in the boy before him.
“Merciful Triad, please,” he begged, his arm pulling the woman close as she clutched his tunic in a desperate grip.
Aurora’s head began swimming.
“Theron,” she warned.
“Almost,” he replied, straining.
Her dizziness quickly turned to sharp, stabbing pain. One of the palace guards steadied her as her knees went weak. She bit back a groan as hot blood poured from her nose.
“Your Majesty,” the guard alerted him.
Theron caught his breath.
“Let him go now, Aurora,” Theron said.
She did, her magic snapping back with a vengeance. She cursed, her vision swimming.
A gasp was her reward.
“Mother? F-Father?” the young boy sobbed.
Cheers went up and Theron was at her side in an instant.
“Thank you! Thank you! My boy! You saved my boy!” the boy’s mother sobbed, clutching her child.
“Blessings of the Triad on the sun of Aureum!” the boy’s father cried, pulling his little family close.
Theron’s magic swirled around her, easing the pain in her head and clearing her vision. His eyes searched hers, disbelief and something more she couldn’t name swimming in the golden depths.
“Thank my wife. Without her magic, not even mine would have been able to save your son,” Theron replied, his gaze never leaving hers.
“Blessings of the Triad on the star of Aureum! Thank you,” the father grovelled.
“How are you feeling?” Theron asked quietly.
“Hungry. Exhausted. Like I got run over by a loper,” Aurora replied. “But relieved.”
There was one more person alive today because of her magic.
She’d never felt like she had what it took to save someone.
But she had. Not because panic overtook her.
Not because she was full of rage. Because she had wanted to.
For once, her magic had heeded her without feeding on her emotions.
It healed something inside her to know she could wield her magic without having to rely on anger or terror to provoke it.
“Your Majesty, Your Highness, Blessings of the Triad on you. You have my gratitude for saving the life of one of my people. Please, come inside. You must be weary.”
Theron turned his head and nodded at the nobleman and noblewoman who had come out of the manor. Dressed in fine, colourful fabrics, both looked winded and shocked, their hair and accessories in disarray. Kneeling on the ground, they kept their heads bowed.
The rest in attendance quickly hurried to do the same.
“We will accept your hospitality, Lord Mikkos, Lady Kleio.” He turned back to Aurora. “We’ll speak more inside.”
She didn’t protest when he held her in his arms and followed the lord and lady into their home or when they were ushered into a palatial room and waited on hand and foot by their own attendants and those of the manor.
They were bathed, changed, and offered food in record time.
Aurora gratefully filled and cleared her plate more than once.
Full and excused from having to socialize with their hosts, Aurora sank into the bed and decided the only pressing issue she wished to deal with was how quickly the soft mattress would send her off to sleep. By the time the sun had set, Aurora was ready to close her eyes once more.
As the attendants readied the room for the night, Aurora dozed, a feeling of warmth in her chest. She might be unable to face down Drakon without terror or fury to lean on, but aside from that?
Maybe when this was over, she would be able to use her magic to help people in her own time.
Maybe she would even be able to use it for her research.
After all, if she could stop time, slow it, speed it up, and had at least once reversed it, maybe she could restore ancient relics and structures.
She sat up, her mind buzzing with possibilities, frightening a gasp out of the nearest attendant.
What if she practised turning back an object’s time?
How far could she push it? A few years? Decades?
Centuries? How thrilling it would be to restore the ancient capital of Altanus to its former glory!
Given what she knew of its inner structure, she could even give lectures to the most senior academics.
What she wouldn’t give to share all the things she’d seen and experienced with her fellow clerics.
It was simply a shame so much had been lost in the intervening millennia.
She could already settle several tense disputes with what she now knew, but who would believe her without evidence?
As she watched the attendants placing her jewellery inside lacquered cases, an idea struck her.
What if she cached objects and documents before she returned to her own time?
If she got lucky, she could go back and excavate them.
The desert would be the best place to do so, except what she recalled as desert was currently lush farmland.
Maybe if she visited the strip of Aureum near the Between?
As far as she knew, that had always been a desert.
“What does the land near the Between look like?” Aurora asked the attendant with the jewellery box.
“In Niveum, it borders the Dragon’s Spine Mountains. Here in Aureum, it borders a dry, desolate desert, Your Highness,” the attendant answered.
“You’re curious about the Between?” Theron asked, just then entering the room.
Aurora kept quiet. A secret cache was only safe if no one knew about it.
“You’re all dismissed,” Theron said, waving off the remaining attendants.
When he sat down on the bed to remove his boots, Aurora nearly tumbled over on her side.
Apparently the bedding was a tad too soft.
She glared at him. He’d best not be thinking he was going to share this bed with her.
They might have saved a life together, but he was still an ass. “What you did today was reckless.”
“A boy is alive because I was reckless,” she retorted, struggling to right herself.