The pines and boulders of the foothills—mounds of shadow in the morning twilight—crowded Kyen and Adeya. He strode between them at a feverish pace. Blood soaked the front of his tunic, spread a damp patch around his shoulder, and dripped from where he’d gripped the naked shard of his sword. Besides a tight clench to his jaw, he showed no signs of being slowed by the pain.
Neither spoke as he dragged Adeya behind him. She clung to his hand with both of hers. In the dimness she tripped on a jutting rock, but Kyen hauled her back up before she could fall.
Growing dawn gave shape to the trees and texture to the rocks. It illuminated the cold puffs of their breath.
Kyen clambered to the top of a stone outcrop with Adeya struggling behind him. One hand braced against a rock, he heaved her up the last stretch and turned to continue. Adeya’s eyes caught on a smear of blood he’d left on the rock as they passed.
“Kyen, you have to stop,” she said, her gaze on the dark wet streak that had spread down his back
He trudged towards a copse of trees.
“Kyen? Kyen, please. You’ll kill yourself if you keep going.”
He said nothing.
“Kyen!” Adeya jerked back on his arm, forcing him to a halt.
He turned his hard gray eyes on her and stared, uncomprehending and dazed. Slowly, his face softened.
“Please,” she repeated. “You’re wounded.”
His face pinched as if it took an effort to understand her.
“We should find somewhere to stop,” she repeated.
“You’re right.” He turned, letting go of her hand, and kept going.
Adeya watched him with concern, but he walked to some young pines that squatted together in a cluster. She followed as he pushed his way through their branches. In the center, a pocket between the branches sheltered from wind and offered a soft carpet of pine needles.
With a soft grunt, Kyen lowered himself to sit against a trunk. He looked at his cut hand in confusion as if just noticing it.
Adeya slung open her healer’s pouch and dug the water skin from their pack. “Take off your tunic. I need to get at those wounds.”
He unclasped his cloak and shrugged it off. It fell in a blood-smeared heap to the side. She took it and spread it over the ground.
“Tunic off, too,” she added, when he made to sit back again. She set out a jar of salve, bandages, a needle and thread.
With an odd, pinched frown, Kyen loosened the laces of his tunic. He pulled it over his head.
“Come over here. I can’t sew you up if you’re sitting all scrunched up.” She glanced at him as he shuffled over and stared.
Ennyen’s sword had cut a nasty gash that crossed his bare chest from shoulder to waist. Another gouge bled beside his neck. But what held Adeya’s eyes was an old scar. A starburst of rough, gray skin puckered the center of his chest. He scooted onto the cloak, revealing its twin on his back for an instant, before he laid down with a wince.
Adeya gave herself a little shake then threaded her needle. Sitting with her legs tucked under her, she put the needle in her teeth, poured water onto a cloth, and began cleaning the gash on his chest.
“Ennyen would have split you in half if you hadn’t leaned out of the way,” she said as she dabbed. “The blade nicked your ribs as it is.”
Kyen stared tiredly up at the patch of gray sky visible between the pine-tops.
“Wounds this bad are going to slow you down. Can’t Kade help with any of this?”
“He would have mended it already if he could. He used everything he had against the caladrius fiend. ”
“What would you do if I wasn’t a healer of Isea?”
Kyen didn’t answer.
“You’ll need to keep still for two or three days at least.” Adeya took the needle from her teeth and began to stitch him up.
“I want to make Bargston by tomorrow.”
“I just said you needed to keep still. Do you want to heal or not?”
“I’ll rest on the boat to Eope,” he said. “If we don’t make Bargston tomorrow, we may not make it at all.”
“But you wounded Ennyen. He’s not getting very far, very fast on that leg.”
“You’ve not met with a fully trained Blade of Avanna, have you?”
“Why? Are they all as inconsiderate of their health as you?” Adeya shot him a glare.
He said nothing.
“Why can’t we just hide in the foothills for a few days?” She tugged at the thread and bent for another stitch.
“Ennyen has a caladrius fiend.”
“So? Your body should hide Kade’s aura, like it does from the rest of the fiends.”
“It’s not a normal fiend,” said Kyen. “Most fiends are birthed when the Consuming Dark gets a hold of an animal, but caladrius aren’t like squirrels or cougars. They are creatures left over from the Firstwold. They live half on the mortal plain and half on the plain of the arcangels.”
“What are you saying?” Adeya, having sewed Kyen’s chest up most of the way, shifted around to sit at his shoulder to finish the rest.
“In the foothills, under the mountains, in me, Kade can’t hide from it. It can see him in his world, even though other fiends can’t see him in ours,” he said. “Eope is the only place where we might be able to shield Kade from its sight.”
“The wizards?” She bit off the end of her thread. “You talk like you’ve met with a caladrius fiend before. Sit up.”
Clenching his jaw, he eased himself upright.
Adeya started dabbing the gouge beside his neck.
For a few deep breaths, Kyen stared hard at the tree trunk across from him with his brows drawn together. “Illeth of Norgard kept a caladrius fiend.”
Adeya, poking a fresh thread through her needle, paused. “Illeth of Norgard?” She bent to seam up the gouge. “All the stories say you died when you fought Illeth of Norgard in the Black Wars, but you’re still here. Illeth of Norgard isn’t—she’s not still alive, too, is she?”
“I beheaded her.”
“Could it be her fiend is still alive?”
“And working with Ennyen now,” he said.
She bent to finish the last few stitches.
“I’m not sure how the Consuming Dark has twisted the caladrius’ original abilities, but it’s the only fiend that can eat aura,” said Kyen. “It nearly ate Kade. He had to burn up the pillar and everything else he had just to break off its hold. Without Kade, I may not have any choice but to fight Ennyen.”
“Not in this condition, you won’t!”
In the silence that fell between them, Adeya tied off the final stitch and bit the thread off. She wiped off her needle and curled up the thread without looking at them. Her eyes took in the nasty scar on the center of Kyen’s back.
“Did Illeth of Norgard do this to you?” She touched it.
Kyen arched his back away from her fingers, flushing. “Can I put my tunic back on, please?”
“I’ve to bandage you first. Hold on.”
He tried to edge away from her.
Adeya, gathering up her salve and bandages, scooched after him. “Hold still!”
He slouched as she spread the salve over the stitches then began wrapping his shoulder. He fixed his eyes on a pine cone, looking nettled, growing redder in the face.
“There’s no need to be embarrassed.”
“Kade normally—” He hesitated.
“Heals you?” she offered.
“He’d like you to know. He’s very pleased with your skills.”
“Praise from an arcangel.” Adeya blushed and smiled. “I’m flattered.”
“It was a lot less painful when Kade—” A flinch and a breath through clenched teeth finished his sentence as Adeya tied a bandage tight at his shoulder.
“You’re a warrior. Aren’t you used to pain by now?” She reached around to wrap several layers of bandage around the gash on his chest. She gave the ends a firm tug.
“Ah!” He tensed.
“There. You can put your tunic back on now.”
“Thank you,” Kyen said in a taut voice.
“But not this one. Use a new one.” Adeya arose, dug a fresh tunic from the pack and tossed it to him.
He tugged it over his head, slowing to be ginger with his injured shoulder. As he laced up the neck, he said, “We should keep moving.”
She sat back down with a huff, sweeping bits of hair out of her face. “Maybe you don’t need to rest, but I do. I’m exhausted! I didn’t hardly sleep at all.”
He frowned.
“Can’t we rest a little bit? We’d make better time in the long run, don’t you think?”
“Alright, but only until noon.” Kyen settled himself back against the tree trunk. “I’ll get you up.”
“You know, you’re so difficult sometimes.” Adeya, curling up in her cloak, leaned back and shot him a frown, but he didn’t hear. He stared into the space in front of him with unseeing eyes, a troubled look on his face.
Adeya sighed and laid her head down to rest.