Page 70 of To Touch A Silent Fury

I wrenched Shadow’s fur to the right, pulling his head with it and making him yelp. But he understood my unspoken command, shifting to the right just as the companion’s arrow loosed. I heard it, more than I felt it, as Shadow bounded past the men.

Finally, on the other side, no lights swelled in front of us. I held onto Shadow, whispering some encouragement even as the pain lanced deep in my thigh. I glanced down and saw an arrow sticking out of it.

I held onto Shadow as hard as I could, but with one arm cradling a shuffling and scratching creature, whose tiny claw had already dug hard into my belly, and one leg burning with hot flashing pain, each bounce nearly sent me flying off.

The wolf let out a low keening noise, slowing some, but it was still too difficult, and I gasped out at the pain as he bounded into the night. My grip on his fur was fading, and he was tired, trotting now through the woods. We needed more distancebetween us and the men, but neither of us had the strength to make it.

Shadow hopped over a broken log, and I landed badly, slipping to the right. There was nothing I could do but hold my arms in a protective circle as I collided heavily with the ground. I’d broken the fall for the baby, but not for myself, and my arm took the brunt of it as I hit awkwardly against muddy roots.

I lay there on my back, the arrow screaming out from my left leg, and my right arm blossoming with fresh, acute pain. Grey wispy clouds shifted over a waxing crescent moon, and then my starry vision was overtaken by inquisitive yellow eyes. A wet warm lash raked over my cheek, and I didn’t have the heart to wipe away the slobber my shadow had generously lathered me with. At my side, under my coat, a spongy claw poked into my waist, joined by a pitchy squawking noise.

I heard something then, some noise not of the forest, but of people.

I sent an apology to Vellintris as my eyes fell closed.I’m sorry. I tried my best.

19

Tani

The voices above me were so quiet I didn’t hear them at first. I fell in and out of sleep, seeing the torchlight flinting against Langnathin’s bloodied eyes, the baby’s wings failing to extend, and then more than both of those, I saw Vellintris’ huge blue eyes.Twinblood. Why? Darkness pressed against the backs of my closed eyes, and then brightness. New scents wrinkled my nose, pungent and earthy, and my body felt very heavy.

The next time I heard murmurs, I managed to piece some of the sounds into words.

“Can’t stay—”

A man’s voice.

“—of you.” A woman, probably.

“No.”

“What of him?”

“She interrupted the rite.”

“Shesaved him.”

They stopped talking, or at least, I stopped hearing them. This short act of listening had exhausted me, and I fell back to a fitful sleep.

This time, the Dragon Prince was the only thing I could think about. Standing there in the dirt, under the Gossamir sky, he hadn’t looked out of place.

I dreamt that this time, the wolf did not turn. We bounded straight for him, jumping as the bow loosed and Shadow opened his mouth for the killing bite. The arrow carved through my shadow’s upper jaw, severing his snout, and the blood splattered until all I could see was red.

Red hands, red fur, red eyes.

When I awoke, the pain was sharp and insistent, and my throat was dry. I opened my eyes and then squeezed them shut. Even filtering through towered stone, the light was too bright, the colours too vivid. I touched my hand to my throat and pushed my hands down against the soft surface beneath me, propping myself up.

I groaned as my leg pulled against fabric and tried to open my eyes again.

“Easy.”

My neck whipped towards the sound, and I blinked several times. A man in the corner stared at me from under a shock of white hair. Another sat beside me. Soft river stones piled high around me, with matted reed on the floor. One of the Sons’ towers. I looked at the woman next to me, recognising her as the speaker. She gasped.

Yvon. She’d taken her coat off, and the dark markings of her tribe painted her arms, her under-eyes smudged with dark violet, and her hair braided tighter than usual. Her back was rigid as her finger tapped on her knee. She stared at my face with a mixture of awe and shock.

I jolted as something touched my side, a warm body. It made some small noise, rubbing its nose against my left arm.

Awake?