Lara fought with Xandrix, struggling to keep him from pulling away. Serai swore to fix him, to unravel the horrors forced on him. She wondered at times what her purpose was in returning at such a time, to a place so unfamiliar with only Malek at her side. Seren still slept, as did many of the Nodes. Now she knew.
She laid a hand on Reven’s brow, brushing back the hair that she loved to play with so much. Fate sent him to her, dropped him into her cave as if dropping an angel from the sky. He was hers, and he was not well. She frowned, feeling a weak pulse and weaker Power.
“What did he do?” she asked, fixing Liam with a hard stare. The man swallowed hard then sighed.
“Tried t’save the kid,” he finally answered with a jerk of his head toward Aeron. “I tol’ him it weren’t worth it. Kid was already done for. He don’ listen too good though. I know where the winged brat gets it from.”
Kaleo sneered at the thief-taker, standing beside his cousins, each of them tucked beneath an arm. Nadya and her companion stood nearby with Jaysen between them, the olven boy unable to stand on his own for long. Serai turned her attention to Navid instead. He cradled the tirsai boy in his arms. She moved to him, placing her cool hand on the boy’s head, feeling his brows bunch together. He fought for his life, renewed by the energy that was given to him. She had so much to learn and more still to teach. She looked at Reven again, her bard, her gift, and smiled.
“They need rest,” she said simply. “He is fighting. That is good.”
She looked to Kaleo as he was most familiar with the Grove as it was now. In Serai’s time, it was larger, spreading out from a large temple in reverence to Sulis, mother goddess of Creation, now long forgotten by the people of Doranelle. Lara continued to struggle, making Serai frown. She made a vexed sound and walked to the growling demon-olve, laying a single finger at the center-most part of his forehead.
“Quiet,” she said. He stilled immediately, eyelids falling heavy over hazy eyes. Lara sagged as the man went still, standing as if waiting for a command with limp arms and head lolled to the side. “Kaleo, where do we go?”
He blinked at her, but jerked a thumb in the direction they needed to walk. She looked to Malek and Fionn, to Jaysen. They would cause more problems than they needed.
“Stay here,” she said to them, then looked at the boy with clawed hands. “With Jaysen. Keep him safe.”
Malek rumbled by way of response but settled into the soft grass around him. Fionn did the same after a nod from Kaleo who took a moment to help Jaysen settle in against the giant chimera. The boy could not see and had just lost his audeas but was otherwise very Powerful and a stubborn fighter. She admired him.
“Kaleo,” Serai repeated. He led the way, taking the surprisingly large party through thick jungles and awkwardly placed evergreens that Serai did not remember. Much had changed. They finally stopped when a party of olve - a mix of duende and tirsai - surrounded them with weapons drawn. Kaleo raised his hands, but it was Navid that spoke.
“There is no cause for alarm, Valance,” the centaur said. “We mean no harm.”
“Navid?” the one named Valance said, dropping his spear. The others followed suit, all of them muttering or whispering. “Azrus take us, where did you go? What happened? Maeve did not say much but when you did not return, we feared the worst.”
“The worst may still come to pass. Aeron is not well. He needs rest,” Navid said. Valance paled but nodded. He lead them back to a sweeping set of ruins filled to bursting with sad-looking olve. The Temple to Sulis.
“We gonna keep walkin’ or wha’?” Liam finally growled. Ajana and Serai both shot him a glare that he returned. “Wha’? He ain’t gettin’ no lightah!”
A tirsai woman with a severe braid stormed through the ring of gathering people toward them with fury in her pale blue eyes. She charged right at them, at Kaleo, then slowed when she saw the boy in Navid’s arms.
“Aeron…” she breathed out. “Is he…?”
“Fighting,” Navid said. “But it remains to be seen.”
The tirsai woman recovered quickly from her shock, rounding on Kaleo with a resounding slap across his face that startled everyone.
“Highness,” Navid said but she glared at the centaur with the such ferocity that he was immediately silenced. Serai did not like her at all.
“Have you completely lost your mind?!” she hollered, all of her ire directed at Kaleo. “Are you trying to get us all killed! Tondra was here, Kaleo. Again. She said you attacked your mother and nearly killed their Speaker to free prisoners! Some filthy thief and a ruddy strumpet! Now this! What is this! What happened to Aeron?”
Kaleo’s jaw clenched and nostrils flared. He stared at the woman, the eye where he was struck welling with tears.
“Demons,” Kaleo finally answered in a gruff voice so full of anger Serai could see it rolling off of him. “And I didn’t attack her, I put her to sleep. There’s a difference.”
“Do not play semantics with me, young man. Your stupidity is single-handedly throwing this entire camp into complete chaos.”
“It’s also returned the heir apparent,” Kaleo threw back. “You’re welcome.”
“Watch yourself,” she warned. Kaleo scoffed.
“Or what? You can’t actually do a dammed thing to me. You can’t do a dammed thing, period. If you had the power you’ve managed to pretend you have, you’d have done something about this mess three years ago when you first got here, but you can’t because not a single one of those refugees will follow a woman no matter how desperate they are. You’re not Joline and they’ll follow a disgraced bastard before they’ll follow you.
