Page 35 of The Song of the Void

Is this why he's such a prick all the time? It's not a good excuse, but I almost…pity him…

Rain fell around us again with a crash of sound, breaking me out of my reverie. I hauled him to his feet, and without the unbearable pain, he proved to be less heavy.

“Tell Ash what happened, and to get the medicine and surgical supplies from my bag,” I said. “You need more emergency care than just my first aid. Your blood loss is going to speed up again soon. My power only works for a time…for both things.”

My gentle warning that he would be in pain again soon didn’t seem to affect him at all, but he did listen to me. He raised a shaky hand to his earring. “Ash. Hey. We’re coming back. Ran into some trouble. The carpenter is dead.”

He paused. Ash must have been talking back to him. Low-hanging branches weighed down with water-laden leaves blocked our way, so I went against my better judgment and pulled him back outside the forest, behind the houses. The shouts of Vaetrik’s crew seemed more distant, so I could only pray to the Spirits that no one would spot us.

“She's alright. Yeah, I'm fine, too.”

“Reiven Miyasagi,” I said, mimicking the disapproving tone he always used when calling Ash by his full name. “Tell him the truth right now, or I’m going to drop you and drag you through the mud back to the Maiden.”

He winced and spoke again to Ashkade. “I might have been shot once or twice—” He grimaced. I had no doubt Ash was yelling at him through their magical connection, and I didn’t blame him.

Lightning split the black sky above us, but just before the clap of thunder, a voice caught in my mind. Panic cut through me as I whirled, expecting to see one of Vaetrik’s pirate crew.

“Zephra! Hurry!” A drenched, panicked Druinn girl dashed towards us, away from the houses. Without bothering to ask, Calinia hauled Reiven’s other arm over her shoulder and helped me drag him faster towards the beach. “I suppose Shaddan cannot be reasoned with. He was actually going to kill me.”

With Calinia’s help, we made it back to the ship in good time. Ashkade had been waiting on the deck long enough to be as soaked from the rain as us, but he went pale the moment we arrived.

“Calinia?”

She just gave him a stony glare.

“You know her?” I asked.

“She…she’s the Druinn who saved me…” Ash shook himself and refocused on asking Captain Larsel to weigh anchor immediately while Calinia and I lugged Reiven to the captain’s quarters.

We turned Ash’s workbench into an operating table by flinging all his jewelry and tools onto the floor and setting a clean towel on top before resting Reiven on it. Ash had already brought the sterile equipment I had requested, and he even prepared hot water and iodine, several more towels, and bandages. His room looked as close to a clinic as we would probably get on this ship.

He motioned for me to hold Reiven down after examining his wounds. “We have to dig the bullet out, and it’s gonna hurt like Mourner Hell.”

“Oh, just slap a bandage on it and I’ll be fine,” Reiven moaned unconvincingly.

Was that how he got through life, slapping bandages on his wounds? What an idiot. Both Calinia and I held him still as he weakly struggled against us.

“You’re just gonna keep hemorrhaging if we leave it there. Luckily, the two in your limbs went straight through. You’re lucky to even be alive.” Ash threw me a meaningful look, but I avoided his eyes, instead focusing intently on Reiven’s face.

“It’ll be fine,” I said quietly, resting one hand on his stomach and one on his cheek. “I’ll slow his blood flow as best I can and take the pain away so he can get through it without passing out.”

It felt like it took hours for Ash to pack and wrap the wounds in his extremities, and to carefully dislodge the bullet in Reiven’s stomach. I did my best to keep Reiven focused on me, and that same odd mix of emotion filled his eyes as I extracted his pain. I dried off his face and hair with some of the spare towels, whispering reassurances to keep him comfortable and distracted for the worst of it.

My arms and legs trembled as Ash finally tied a bandage around Reiven’s newly packed wound, and I practically fell over into the chair he offered me. The storm raged outside, tossing the Maiden about to the point I had to hold Reiven steady to keep him from falling off the table.

With some help from Captain Larsel and Lyneca, we transferred him to Ash’s cot for the night. Ash ordered me to go rest, and Lyneca swept Calinia away to find a place for her to sleep, too. I used the scratchy wooden wall to support myself as the floor pitched beneath my feet, but I made it to the room Reiven and I shared, and promptly collapsed on his cot.

Everything felt weighed down, from my eyelids to my legs. “Your bed is mine now, Rei,” I taunted sleepily, my mind caught somewhere between exhaustion and worry. I buried my face in his pillow and breathed in the unmistakable smoky scent he carried with him—and while I thought I had grown accustomed to it, I detected a new note within that smell.

“Lemons…” A silly grin spread across my face as I gave in to the beckoning darkness of sleep.

The next morning, the sky was as perfect and clear as could be. We were back on the open sea, putting as much distance between us and Vaetrik’s crew as possible. I grabbed some bowls of oatmeal sweetened with brown sugar from Lyneca and carried them over to Ash’s room, only to open the door to a commotion.

Poor Ashkade had one hand on Reiven’s chest and was attempting to push him to sit back on the bed, but his wounded bodyguard stood solid as a rock.

“Zephra, help me!” Ash cried. “He’s tryin’ to act like he’s just fine!”

I set down the tray and stalked over. Fresh blood dyed all three of his bandages, but Reiven just glowered like a crow ruffling his feathers, as if we were holding him hostage instead of keeping him healthy. Ash and I took turns berating him about the dangers of infection and reopening his wounds, that gunshots took time to heal, and that Ash wouldn’t make him any prosthetics if he lost his injured limbs because of his own foolishness, no, sir. Eventually, we annoyed him into giving up and lying back down with a wince.