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But then, it bowed to me.
Obeyed me.
Rivoza answered my call and blanketed me in its weightless invisibility.
And I flew.
Across the grass, through the very fire of the central courtyard, straight into the healer’s lupic, where I swallowed a scream and dropped to my knees beside a stiff-legged, dying Natim.
Chapter Fifty-Two
. Darro .
I SAW HER CONTROL RIVOZA with pure instinct.
I witnessed Hyath’s shock as Runa disappeared in a wake of air-conjured speed and studied Solin as he stood alone with cheeks glistening with sadness, muttering to flames I couldn’t hear.
I paused where I stood, wrapped up in air and shadow as Hyath chased after Runa. Her sobs trailed after her, catching my ears with Natim’s name.
My heart kicked, and I looked at where Runa had vanished.
What happened?
A flash of pain suddenly drenched me.
Runa...
“Take me to her,” I commanded the air.
Rivoza whipped around me, obeying without question now I’d learned the mastery of its element. I followed the eddies left behind by Runa’s speed, avoiding the fire in the centre of the camp, slowing to a stop outside the healer’s lupic.
A few Nhil males who were threading meat onto skewers for the feast tonight, jolted at my sudden appearance.
They launched into Firenese, but I ignored them, batting aside the entrance flaps and slipping into the shadowy lupic.
I froze.
The healer named Way, with her large almond eyes and glossy black hair, sat with her arms wrapped around her knees, her jaw clenched, and gaze locked on Runa.
Runa bowed over Natim, who lay on his side unmoving.
Her hands rested on his shoulder, her forehead pressed to his stiff neck.
The fawn wasn’t such a fawn anymore.
He’d grown far faster than I expected.
His spotty coat had faded into the solid dark cream of his brethren. The pelt around his neck thickened with a darker russet, and his tiny antlers were already as big as Syn’s. His long legs sprawled and tense, his hooves dust-covered and unmoving as Runa kneeled between them.
Runa’s despair slipped through the heartlink as her shoulders quaked, and she wrapped her arms tighter around the young stag.
My own arms ached to comfort her.
To cradle her close, all while the stench of death grew thicker. Sprigs of drying plants and medicinal flowers couldn’t rid the stale scent of sickness.
Runa trembled. “You can’t have him. I won’t let you. Death is not welcome here.”
I flinched.
Was she talking about me?
Had I been drawn here because of her or because of Natim?
Was that another facet of my power?
To travel to the bedsides of dying creatures?
Because he was dying.
His heart was only a few beats from stopping.
I could hear it.
Sense the laborious chug and the wrongness of his blood as it pumped poison around his fading form. An oozing wound caught the afternoon light from the smoke hole, puss as bright as sunflowers, fevers making his entire hock swollen and red.
Another wash of agony bled from Runa as she cried into Natim’s neck.
This time, I couldn’t stop myself. It didn’t matter that I carried death in my veins. I was not here for Natim. I was not here to steal his spirit like I had so many innocent beasts.
I was here for the female who owned my heart. A female I would do anything for and give everything I could to stop her from feeling so wretched.
“Runa...” I moved to her, reaching out to stroke her quaking back.
“No. You can’t have him. You can’t.” She cried into Natim.
Way caught my eyes, shaking her head and whispering softly, “She’s in denial. She’s not aware of us. Stay back and let her grieve as he dies.”
I bared my teeth. “She’s in pieces.”
“It’s almost over.” Way hugged her knees tighter, her eyes bright. “I did my best. Truly, I did. I tried to suck out the venom like I have with hunters who have been bitten in the past. I applied bronze thread flowers and managed to get powdered ankol and crushed ribwort into him, but...it’s no use.”
I balled my hands as Runa hugged Natim tighter. She acted as if she didn’t hear us or even knew I stood so close, desperate to offer comfort. “How did it happen?”
Way sniffed, her young face belying her skills as a healer. “Natim is free to do what he likes. He’s taken to grazing the greener shoots amongst the dying grasses. I heard Hyath scream for me, and I ran. I ran as fast as if he were Nhil. We carried him here and...” She sniffed again as a tear ran down her cheek. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry I couldn’t...” Burying her face into her knees, she blocked me out as she gave in to her own grief. A healer who was so used to blood and death undone by the passing of a deer.
I stilled as Natim’s heart stuttered, filling my ears with unnatural knowledge that he was one breath from the end. My eyes fell to the fawn, my own heart pounding in sympathy. I didn’t want him to die. I didn’t like the waste of saving him, bringing him to the Nhil, and letting Runa fall madly in love with him. Why had we bothered if his fate was always to die so young?
