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What I’d heard when listening through the vent had taken my resentment for them into a whole new level of distrust. They had insisted I be matched with these three dragons, had even implied it was the fulfillment of a prophesy or something, but until I overheard them talking when they thought no one else could hear, I hadn’t realized how manipulative they were.
Before, when I was just cleaning up after people, my life wasn’t great but it wasn’t complicated like this. Clean, go home. Sleep. Now I was sick and had to decide whether to mate with these three dragons and what would happen if I didn’t and what was the mountain doing and what was happening to the lessers who were not able to fly. And what else were the council members up to?
Was there a connection between all these things?
One other thing occurred to me. If and when I mated these three, would I have the ability to free Hilda from her servitude? And if so, would I be able to help some of the others. Not that they’d been that nice to me; I always felt like an outsider, but if I had been losing my dragon, would I have been nice to anyone?
Was that what was happening? Were they being imprisoned within their shifters, or were they leaving? My dragon had always been there, inside me, as much a part of me as any other. If she were to leave…I couldn’t imagine what that would be like. Other than really bad.
Life-destroying bad.
If some of those people had that happen, and they were able to go on with life, they were stronger than me.
I didn’t know if I stood a chance of helping any of those who had already lost either their dragons or their ability to fly to regain any of that, but maybe I could stop worse damage from happening?
I spent the afternoon waking and sleeping, having chills and sweats and nightmares. So when Soren came in and asked me if I would go with him to look at the mountain, I was more than glad to get out of bed and breathe some fresh air.
That gladness lasted until we were about halfway to our destination—which wasn’t terribly far from our suite, really. I’d run up and down those pathways so many times and never even gotten winded. Until now. My steps flagged, and I struggled to keep up with Soren who finally lifted me in his arms and carried me the last bit as if I weighed nothing.
“Freya, this is getting worse. It was bad enough when you got tired on the flight. But that was a good distance. This is not. It’s time for you to see the healer.” He let me slide to my feet.
I shrugged off his suggestion. “The mountain isn’t doing anything. Do you think it will stay like that?”
“I have no idea, and that is not the topic at the moment. You don’t look good, and I am guessing you feel worse. I shouldn’t have brought you here.”
“No, it’s fine. I wanted to know what was going on. And it’s nothing. No glow, no shaking. Better.”
“Well, you’re not better.” Without giving me a chance to say anything else, he picked me up again and started down the path. “We are going to the healer. And we are going now.”
I clung to him as we descended the steep pathway. Lessers also had access to the healer, in theory. In practice, we usually just tried to get through any illness that came along. As in all things, the higher-ups had first priority to their services.
I shivered, unsure if it was cold out or if it was just another chill. Maybe the healer could help because it was getting depressing feeling like this.
Soren’s body was warm, though, and I cuddled closer. He was solid muscle, for a man who spent most of his time holed up in the library, and he seemed to have no trouble whatsoever carrying me. The path was rocky and steep and had a sheer edge that made care necessary, but his strides were long and even, barely jostling me at all.
“What do you think the healer will be able to do?” I asked, still not comfortable with going to him at all. “I would rather just have Hilda make me one of her teas. They always helped me when I was a little girl. And the one she gave me earlier today was good.”
“But you’re sick and getting sicker. You deserve the best.”
Those words silenced me because nobody had ever said that before.
Chapter Seventeen
It took Soren all of three seconds to overrule the woman who was doing her best to keep the lesser from seeing the healer. She looked me up and down, even in Soren’s arms, and sneered, her top lip curling up at my appearance.
“I don’t think he has time.”
Soren’s head cocked sideways as his growl rivaled the mountain’s rumblings. “He’ll make time for a royal dragon’s mate. Now, move aside, female, before I move you myself.”
Ouch.Even I felt the sting of that one, and it wasn’t pointed to me.
“Yes. Of course.” The woman stepped aside for her own good as Soren pushed past her.
“I’ve brought my mate. You need to see her—now.”
Soren deposited me on the sterile bed complete with the scratchy paper that let everyone see your buttprint after you were done. The healer was an older man and, though he cocked his eyebrow at Soren, he nodded and told him he would like to examine me in private.
The idea of being with this man in private made shudders flow down my spine but at this point, I would endure the creepiness if this damned fever went away.
