“Thank you, sir.”
He didn’t acknowledge my thanks, but he didn’t move either, simply looked me dead in the eyes. If only I understood what that meant.
“I am assuming,” he said softly, “that the adrenaline has hidden the truth from you, Flight Sergeant Segast, but that whip did not miss your face.”
The automatic frown failed, the muscle twitch too painful to sustain the expression. My hand rose to my face as I realised that part of the difficulty I was having breathing was that my nose was broken. Sliced by the spikes of the whip end. My check was hanging open.
“Can you heal yourself?” he asked.
I wasn’t sure that I had the strength left, but I nodded.
“Then do so before you return to your rooms.” His voice was low and considerate. “I wouldn’t want you to frighten your son. He has been through enough.”
Chapter Three
I couldn’t manage it all.
I wanted to be strong for Fin. He’d suffered enough. I knew I left him sleeping, but what if he woke and I wasn’t there? Lifting feet that felt like lead weights, I attempted to scale the stairs. I attempted to close the wounds on my face. At least I could sniff back blood again.
Walking and magic at the same time was too much. I sank down on the steps. The lights were on, but they seemed to be dimming. I slumped against the wall.
One thing at a time. The nose, so I could breathe. I willed my cheek to heal, but every attempt was more difficult than the last.
Muffled voices because shouts, movement of shadows before my eyes. Gravity forsook me. I was shaken upside down, up into the tunnel, along a corridor of wind. I floated on a bed I couldn’t see.
“Segast?”
A voice called me, one I couldn’t name. A figure sat over me. Long black hair.
“Sasha?”
“Sasha?” Was that the flight captain?
“His late wife, sir.” That was Jimny.
He was the only one who had bothered to ask me about her. It was all too much. I closed my eyes, let them talk about me. Or whatever.
“Sir, when is the next rotation for the healer?”
“Another two weeks,” the flight captain said.
“Twenty days?” Jimny again. “Will he last that long?”
“He had better.”
Not sure what to make of that dark rumble.
Shi cleared his throat. “Flight Sergeant Segast is a healer, but not a particularly skilled one. If Fin’s back was as bad as he says, I suspect that took a great deal of energy. Then to go fight Eustace, which would have been adrenaline-fuelled. Doubtless it took the last reserves of energy he had to heal his own face.”
“Almost,” Jimny pointed out. “That cheek is going to scar, sir.”
“Better a scar than a death, Rider Jimny.”
I heard movement.
“You will stay with the Segasts,” the flight captain ordered. “Take care of them. I will go and rearrange the rotas for the next few days at least, let me know when they recover enough to talk sense.”
“Yes, sir.”
