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Olga came forward carrying two of their men…dead men. She was limping on oddly angled legs and bleeding from a stomach wound. A woman he didn’t recognize dragged an unconscious Gerard on the sand, his body filled with gashes and a rib poking out.
“Leave him,” Klaus snapped, then toned down his voice when the strangers he assumed to be the slaves flinched and backed away—at least, those who were conscious. Too many weren’t, piled high on the small boat they had with them. “I’ll take him. Those who can walk…”
“Those who can walk, follow me,” Sapphire’s voice snapped as she strode forward. The shard he had noticed earlier was gone, but the rest weren’t. Belly came trailing after her. “Bernard!”
Bernard and a few men sprinted over with stretchers and began to transfer the unconscious figures that Miko and Olga carried. Gerard was transferred next, then a few ones from the boat. When Miko and Olga swayed, Klaus caught their bodies before they could crash to the ground.
“Everyone underground,” he called out.
“You heard him,” Bernard added loudly. “Move fast! They’re losing blood. Heal the most injured first.”
When most had already moved forward, Sapphire stood beside him. “Klaus, they might have been followed.”
Klaus gritted his teeth then nodded, letting Miko and Olga go. The two were transferred onto stretchers. He took one last glance at Sapphire’s retreating form, glimpsing her energy glow behind her ankle as she pushed another shard out.
He transferred back to his dragon form and returned to the skies.
The third sweep of Oslo took longer than anticipated as he expanded his coverage to ensure that even the farthest seas held no hidden threats. When he was done, Klaus took care of cleanup next, destroying the boat and clearing the trail that Miko and Olga had missed erasing in their rush home. The rain had cleared up by the time he was done with the cleanup, allowing him a better vision for a fourth sweep. His night patrollers waited for him at the underground entrance, armed to the teeth.
“Your grace, let us take over. We’ll sound the alarm at the first sign of trouble. You need to rest.”
He nodded but didn’t fly toward the castle. Instead, he slipped inside the underground sanctuary and followed the sounds that led him to one of the bigger lounging areas. The couches were pushed back against the walls to make space for cots and blankets at the center, where the freed slaves and the injured men were lined up. Chaos echoed throughout the space as healers jumped from one person to another, but it was the sight of the unmoving figures covered from head to toe with blankets that stopped him.
“Lydia,” he called out to the nearest woman kneeling beside a bandaged man, wiping remnants of blood away. “What’s the update?”
Lydia looked up, her eyes haunted and her face grim. “Five dead. They were already dead on the boat and we couldn’t revive them.” Her mouth thinned, then trembled. “Gerard…”
His heart dropped. Even before she could finish, he already knew what she was going to say about Gerard. Grief punched him hard before Sapphire’s faint, frustrated voice carried to his ears.
“Miko, damn it. Please.”
Klaus moved in that direction until he spotted Miko and Olga side-by-side, bleeding to their deaths despite healers hastening to stitch them everywhere. Sapphire knelt over their heads and continued pumping energy into their chests, which glowed repeatedly. Beside her, Belly kept a steady supply of potion at the ready, but Sapphire’s hands were trembling and the glow was dimming out. Even from his position, he could feel both hearts giving out and dying by the second…
No. NO.
“Everyone, step aside.” When no one listened, he growled until the healers jumped, registered his words, and hesitantly backed away…except for Sapphire, who still hadn’t heard him. He knelt beside Olga. “Saph, step aside.”
“What?” She glanced up, blue eyes clearing. “No. The stitches! What are you doing?”
“Sharing.”
He lifted a claw and slashed his wrists, where blood instantly gushed out. Bernard strode forward and gasped.
“Your grace, it’s dangerous. You’re going to hurt yourself—”
“I didn’t ask for an opinion, Bernard. More towels,” he snapped. “Give me space.”
“Klaus…”
He met her questioning gaze. “Stop and gather your energy. When I tell you it’s time, pump their hearts again. Do you hear me?”
There was a short pause before she nodded, not asking questions. Without waiting for Bernard, he lifted Olga’s head and urged her mouth open just enough to take his blood, then massaged her throat so she could swallow it in her unconscious state. He did the same to Miko, then alternated repeatedly until Sapphire got the picture and positioned her body to support their heads.
Out of the corner of his eye, he took in the makeshift curtain Bernard and Lydia spread over their space to give them privacy. But they couldn’t block the sounds of muffled crying and the sense of grief on the other side of the curtain, where he knew they were losing more lives. It set his body on edge, but he fought to maintain his concentration.
“Are there aftereffects to this?” Sapphire asked after a while.
“Yes. Either I accelerate their death, or they live.”
