Aquitain boosted thelight from a nearby torch, and asked Zephira to look at Miranda andsend him an image. It didn’t look good. She was bright red all overas if she had been burnt in a fire, and her respiration waslaboured.
‘What happened?’ askedZephira, suddenly afraid for Miranda.
‘She acted as the focusfor a mind concert, without having any idea what was likely tohappen. She saved us all by giving me the power, but this is thecost.’
‘Can’t you do somethingfor her? She might die,’ said Zephira urgently.
‘Rori, do you have ahealing song?’ asked Aquitain.
Rori was a bit hesitantin answering.
‘Yes, Spirit Lord, butit is hurting us a lot to be singing it, and we are being tootired.’
‘Can you tell me thewords of the song with the mindspeak?’ asked Aquitain.
‘As long as you not betelling Kami,’ said Rori.
‘No, I won’t let on toanyone that you told me,’ replied Aquitain, and Rori sang the wordsand Aquitain memorised them, then began translating them to workout their magical meaning.
‘By the Powers, nowonder they don’t like singing the healing song,’ said Aquitain toZephira. ‘It uses empathetic healing. When they sing it they alltake the pain and damage into their own bodies. Whoever taught themhow to do it knew that they would only do it if they could all beconvinced that it was for the common good of the tribe. I think Ican modify it to use it myself, but it is likely to hurt.’
He flowed his slimybody over and around Miranda and began chanting the modifiedversion of the healing song into his mind, feeling excruciatingpain all over his body. It was like deliberately standing in alarge fire and letting yourself burn. Every fibre of his bodyscreamed with pain, and he had no mouth or lungs to scream vocally.He had to use all his willpower just to continue. When he couldhardly block the pain anymore and was likely to fall unconscious hestopped, and used his power to heal his own body. He repeated theprocess twice more. After the third attempt, he wearily uncoveredher body and asked Zephira to check it closely.
‘By the Powers cousin,you’ve done it,’ said Zephira. ‘You’ve healed her. She looks normaland is breathing normally as if she is sleeping. Did it hurt much?’Zephira shook her, but she wouldn’t wake up.
‘More than you couldever imagine. Mother uses this type of healing regularly. I neverknew what it cost her in pain and suffering. Now I know why shewould often come home dead tired, and lie in a bathtub of coolwater for an hour.’
He tried to contactMiranda mentally, but she didn’t respond. ‘I’ve healed all thephysical damage, but it looks like there might be some mentaldamage as well. Maybe Alpha can unlock some knowledge about thetype of mental damage that is caused by power narcosis. She’s outof danger now, but I’m dead tired and still full of poison. I willhave to rest until the morning, then I can get Alpha and see whatmore I can do. We also have another problem. Before she left,Jaztrix told me that there are lots of Barra children held captiveat the temple ruins. We need to mount a rescue tomorrow.’
‘Right cousin, leave itto me. I’ll get Goth to carry Miranda to the Jeti village and thencome back for you; then I might teleport with Goth back toChantalot at the Barra village to tell them what’s happened, andsee if I can organise them for a rescue operation first thingtomorrow.’
Before turning in forthe night Aquitain negotiated passage through the village for theCrin with the Jeti village chief. He also forged an agreement withXentos that the Crin would wait for them the next day to the eastof the temple, where they would join forces to investigate theproblem there and search for the missing Barra children. Aquitainwasn’t quite sure why Xentos had suddenly become cooperative, butwas happy to have the platoon of Crin fighters help out, as none ofthem could guess what awaited them at the temple.
Chapter 34 The PassionFlower
Miranda busied herselfover the metal stove in her little cottage near a gently flowing,sparkling clean stream. She had flowers growing near the frontdoor, a vegetable garden growing out the back, and herb gardensgrowing on either side. She had blossoming fruit trees and bushesthat gave off wonderful scents planted all around, to attract thebirds and the small fruit bats, which she thought were cute.
She was wearing the newrobe that she had just finished embroidering this afternoon. It hademblazoned across the front an image of a brown bear. She left apot bubbling contentedly over the fire while she carefully placedtwo sets of fine ceramic plates marked with a royal crest, goldcutlery and two sparkling crystal goblets on the beautiful spidersilk tablecloth that shimmered with a rainbow of colours.
She eyed the bedthrough the open doorway and smiled. He was going to remove thecursed tattoo tonight, after they had eaten the sumptuous meal shewas preparing. It would be a perfect night. In fact, they hadenough supplies for several perfect nights, and she was going tomake sure they enjoyed every one of them to the limit of theirendurance.
She heard him callingfor her outside, but she wasn’t going out. She was determined thathe would have to come in and see the beautiful things that sheprepared for them. She could wait. She had the food cooking slowlyto make it extra tender and to bring out the wonderful flavour ofthe special herbs and mushrooms that she had searched for in thejungle. It was a meal fit for a king, her king.
**
Aquitain rested forseveral hours, periodically checking to see whether Miranda’smental state had changed. He was desperately impatient for thepoison to clear from his body, and for his two teleport rings torecharge. Several times he mentally reviewed the fight with themask to see whether he could have done anything to change theoutcome, but in the end decided it was pointless. What had happenedhad happened. He couldn’t change the past. She had saved him andeveryone else with her courageous actions, but
