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You are recovering from your attack. I failed you my leika and it will not happen again. Never when you need me, will I not be there.
Saieke let his words sink in. Pleasure rushed through her. You did not fail me, she whispered. You came. And what does leika mean?
He did not contradict her. Yet she felt a deadly and implacable resolve inside of him when he had spoken.
My mate.
She smiled inside. A part of her was really beginning to like the phrase. Are you claiming me?
Cold silence.
I was so very afraid, she said. Cullen and Chedra…
They are safe and you are all being guarded.
My pain lessens with every passing moment. How is this possible without the elixir?
There was a long pause before he slid against her mind.
Not only has your hearing and vision changed, so has your physiology. You now heal at the same rate that I do.
So I am becoming a Darkan.
She felt that deep amusement again. No. From what I could glean from our tomes and scrolls, you should only adapt some characteristics. It is impossible for you to become a Darkan as you have no beast. It may take us a while to figure out what is happening, and until we do it must be a well-guarded secret.
She contemplated that for a few moments. Cullen and Chedra are recovered?
Yes, because of you. Cullen would have died without the aid you rendered him. Chedra would have slowly healed, but the severity of Cullen’s wounds would have been too much for him to recover from. Our kingdom is in your debt.
No debt, she whispered back. It is a kindness I would do for anyone, and I hope to call Chedra my friend.
Unrelenting keening that bespoke unimaginable suffering slid across her consciousness once more.
Someone suffers. She felt his pause and then the recoil of his mind from hers.
Sleep. He commanded and then removed his mind from hers fully.
Saieke reached out and felt her mind slide against his to be met with a barrier. She struggled to breach it, and tiring from her effort, fell into a deep sleep with the lingering thought that she really needed to address his constant need to give her orders.
***
Gidon raised his brow at the small smile that curved the princess’s lips in sleep. She lay on a massive bed in Drac’s private rooms. Chedra and Cullen now recovered were being held tightly in Tzar’s arms. Every few minutes or so, Cullen would rush over and brush his lips against the princess’s cheek and then return to his parents.
Gidon had received a report from Tehdra on what had transpired. A coldness born of rage had unfurled inside of him and had yet to subside. War could have been brought to their nation and everything he had worked ruthlessly for would have been jeopardized. The Mevians were working with Darkans. Mevia was a nation of immense size and strength. They had wealth and power and wielded them like weapons. He had read reports over the years on the beauty and destruction the Mevians controlled by manipulating sounds.
They did not want the union of the Princess of the Wind to the Nurian king. Why? Her death on Darkan lands would have brought war.
The Nurian king would have declared war as she was still his oath-bound queen. Gidon refused to think on what Drac’s reaction would have been. He did not think the princess had thought of that at all, when she opted to save the two Darkans she had only met today, instead of giving herself the elixir. Her compassion had stunned them all, and it had left many swearing repayment to her. Tzar and Chedra would do anything for her, for saving the life of their son. Even the high chancellor, Drac’s father, had been stunned speechless when Tehdra reported on what took place.
No one had ever valued a Darkan life more than their own before.
The healers had bathed her wounds and dressed them with infinite care. She lay beneath covers, clothed in the softest white caftan that flowed loosely around her. They had washed the debris and blood splatters from her hair and brushed it until it shone. They had all been amazed when the small scratches on her skin and face had healed before them.
Even though Amagarians healed fast in general, it should have taken her a couple of days before they disappeared. She would be fully healed in a few hours at the rate that she was mending. Chedra also told him she was sure the princess could see perfectly in the dark. All who gathered in the room looked at her with deep speculation.
Another eerie wail that bespoke horror rent through the air. It brought Gidon sharply out of his musing. He glided to the window and overlooked the dark. Lachlan and Talon came up beside him, and all in the room lifted their heads, inhaled deep and fed their beasts. The sounds that emitted from the Mevian under Drac’s claws as he tortured him for information were as sweet as nectar to them. The windows rattled and vibrated as the purity of his screams echoed over hills and settled over their lands. The dark became quiet as the Mevian screamed no more.
“Let’s go” he commanded and he shiktred away with Lachlan and Talon flanking him.
