Chapter 27
Thepileofblanketsbefore Darcy shifted. Instantly he was on his feet, hurrying towards Jack on legs cramped by spending the long, cold night lying on the bench. Frederica had pleaded with him to go back inside to wait, but he could not bring himself to let his brother out of his sight.
“Jack?” he asked urgently, kneeling beside his covered form. “Are you awake?”
His brother rolled onto his back, knocking the blankets off, gazing blankly into the first light trickling into the sky.
Fear rose in Darcy. “Jack, say something. I beg you.”
Jack turned his head to look at him. “Ugh.”
“Can you stand up? Or should I bring you anything?” Was Jack still the same person he had been before, or had this magic changed him? Darcy no longer cared if it was the King's Bond or not, as long as he got his brother back.
“No...not. Yet. Need to...think.” His words seemed to be coming from far away. He picked up one hand and studied it, turning it back and forth as if trying to decide what it was.
A sick feeling built in Darcy's stomach. This was more than the result of lying on the cold ground overnight. Still, the sense of power roiling through the land had settled back to simply being a strong presence, ratherthan a stormy sea. Did that mean the bond had taken? Or had it failed? “The land - is it still making you ill?” he asked.
Jack moved his head slowly from side to side, as if afraid to shake it too hard. “No. Just need...to remember. Talking. Moving. How to do it.” He raised his shoulders, then fell back. “Sit. Help me sit.”
Darcy slid his arm under his brother's shoulders and lifted him. Jack groaned as though even that small motion was painful, but he managed to stay seated, even when Darcy released the pressure holding him up.
Perhaps this was normal. When he went too deep into the land, he sometimes had trouble speaking and dealing with people when he first emerged. This might be nothing more than that. It might not be the King's Bond at all.
“Do you want to try going inside?” Darcy asked.
A wry smile twisted Jack's face. “Not sure my legs work. Only one way to find out.” His words were already coming out more fluently.
Darcy helped him up, wrapping his free arm around him when it became clear that no, Jack's legs were not fully functional yet. Perhaps the best he could do was to get him to the bench. Fortunately, someone was striding their way, someone in uniform.
A royal guard. Of course they were being watched. Strange behavior like lying in the churchyard through the night could not go unnoticed in the middle of the palace grounds.
“May I be of service, sir?” the guard asked.
“Could you help me get him inside? Preferably somewhere he can rest?”
“Yes, sir.” He swung Jack's other arm over his shoulder. Together he and Darcy half-led, half-carried Jack across the churchyard and into the castle.
By the time they were indoors, Jack was managing to carry more of his own weight. Darcy's heart ached to see his hearty brother so weak. It was full dawn by the time Jack collapsed on a sofa in the anteroom the guard had taken them to.
The guard bowed and left, no doubt to send word to his superiors that the madmen who spent the nightoutdoors were back.
As soon as he was out of the room, Darcy could no longer restrain himself. “What happened?”
Jack stared at him blankly. “How can I explain? I was everywhere and nowhere. In the ground, in the air, in the trees. In the white cliffs and the sea. There are things I never knew, creatures and strange powers. Did that happen to you with your land bond?”
So itwasthe King's Bond, if it stretched that far. “Something similar, though much smaller in scope, and it came on me more gradually. I had always been there.”
“Smaller? I wonder why.”
Of course; Jack had not been privy to the discussion of the King's Bond, and it would no more occur to him as a possibility than that he might be named King of Italy. “Roderick guessed it may be a different sort of bond, since it hit you so hard. Are you still feeling ill?”
“Not the same way as before. Achy, tired, not quite myself. Like there are voices in my head that are saying something important, but I cannot quite hear them. And I can feel that spot like a pull, almost a tether - the place in the churchyard. What did this do to me?”
“I do not know.” And unfortunately, it was true. His brother still seemed oddly distant. “But you were there all night, so it is hardly surprising you are uncomfortable. Have you reached out to Gentiane? He was worried about you.”
“Gentiane? Good God, I had forgotten about him! How could I forget about my dragon?” It was not a rhetorical question, but a frantic one. He stared into the air, but it took a few minutes before his eyes unfocused in that way common to sendings. Then he tensed.
Finally Jack blinked twice. “He says I am changed.” His voice was hoarse. “That something is different, but our bond is still intact. He is coming here.”
