Storm Breaking

:I'll never leave you, Karal,: Altra promised. :Never. Not for as long as you live.:

Firesong remembered the exact moment when Need lost her battle to shield him, which was right after Yfandes had evaporated into motes of energy. She had screamed—a warning, he thought—and he had let her go and flung one arm over his eyes to protect them. All he remembered after that was pain.

He hadn't ever lost consciousness, and right now, loss of all awareness would have been a blessing. Silverfox had given him something that turned the terrible agony into bearable agony, but he still hurt. Almost as bad was the knowledge of what had happened to him. He knew what he looked like—and worse, he knew what he was going to look like. No Healer would be able to keep scar tissue from forming, and his face—

He struggled to keep back tears, tears of pain, tears of loss. Yes he had been vain, and why not? His face had won him all the lovers he had ever wanted, and now no one would ever give him a second glance.

A touch on his arm made him start and open his tightly-closed eyes. 'Ashke, I am here,' said Silverfox, his face full of concern. 'Are you in pain?'

'Better to ask, what doesn't hurt,' he replied, trying to make a feeble joke of it. 'I am trying not to scream; it is very impolite, and would frighten An'desha.'

'We have sent the Kal'enedral out for stronger pain drugs,' Silverfox told him tenderly, resting one hand on the part of his arm that was not burned. 'They should be back soon. The blizzard stopped, and the snow is melting, and in a little we will have gryphons or horses here to take you to k'Leshya. Kaled'a'in Healers are very good.' He hesitated, then added, 'It is a pity they are not good enough to help Karal.'

That snapped him out of the slough of self-pity he was wallowing in. 'What about Karal?' he asked sharply.

'I think—he has lost his sight.' Silverfox looked away for a moment.

Lost his sight? For one bitter moment, Firesong actually envied him. Better to lose his sight than to go through life, scorned and pitied, to have people look away from you because they could not bear the sight of you—

But even as he thought that, he rejected the thought with anger at himself. You fool, he told himself scornfully. You vain, self-important fool! You are alive with all your senses; you are neither crippled nor incapacitated, and you still have Aya.

As if to underscore that last, the firebird trilled a little from his perch beside Firesong's pallet.

Poor Karal, came the thought at last. 'Poor lad,' he sighed, 'Florian, and this—' then involuntarily whimpered as the movement sent pain lacing through the burns on his face. He felt tears start up, and soak into his bandages.

Silverfox cupped his hands at Firesong's temples, and started into his eyes with fierce concentration. As Firesong looked into his eyes, some of the pain began to recede, and he almost wept again, this time with relief. 'I will be glad—' he gasped, '—when those pain drugs arrive.'

'They cannot arrive soon enough for me,' Silverfox muttered, then managed something of a wan smile. 'You are being much braver than I would. I cannot bear pain.'

'It is not too bad, except when I am alone,' Firesong said, still gazing into those warmly compassionate eyes.

And somehow, those eyes softened further. 'In that case, ashke, I will never leave you.' the handsome kestra'chern said softly. 'If you think you can bear to have me here.'

And for a moment, Firesong forgot any pain at all.

An'desha lay curled up with his face to the wall, and Karal could tell by his shaking shoulders that he was weeping silently. The view through Altra's eyes was rather disconcerting, given that Altra's head was about at knee-height, and he had to look up to see peoples' faces when they stood. But at least now, with Altra glued to his leg and lending him the view, he wasn't bumping into things, nor tripping over them.

Karal knelt down beside An'desha's pallet, and put a hand on his shoulder. 'If you keep this up much longer,' he said, trying not to dissolve into tears himself and make things worse, 'you're going to be sick.'

An'desha only shook his head violently, and Karal tried to remember exactly what it was that Lo'isha had told him.