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Chapter Thirty-Seven

Of everyone I had expected to find at the end of that powerful drawing in, a soldier was not a them The man lay on his stomach, hidden where he&039;d crawled into the woods His uniforlamour did, hidden hi turn or followed the wrong scent, but the sense of urgency and rightness was too clear This was the es of battle

I knelt in the leaves and weeds in the winter-locked forest I had to turn hiht shoulder was still full of the nails I could flexbut steady the man&039;s body as I pushed The pain fro It left me breathless, and the bare trees swa black and white I rested on the man&039;s chest for ato throw up or pass out

Then soainst le pink rose petal slid onto the man&039;s chest The Goddess ith me I would not fail

I raised my eyes and found the face under the uniform It was the wizard Dawson, with his pale hair and paler face So terribly pale ahost

I touched his face withpulse in the neck My chest tightened, because there was nothing Then a tenuous, hesitating pulse He was near death, but not dead

I whispered, "Goddess, help me help him"

The pink petal blew or rolled onto his lips His eyes fleide, and he grabbed my injured arm The pain took my vision, filled the world hite starbursts and nausea

My vision cleared, and so up, looking down at hed I couldn&039;t help it He&039;d been the one as alht His hand hovered above my shoulders and arm where the nails were still embedded He held up a bloody hand, and showedI knoas dying You saved me How?"

I had no idea how to explain I opened my mouth to say "I have no idea," but what came out was, "Remember when you felt the call of my touch?"

"Yes"

"I followed your call"

"But you&039;re hurt"

"But you&039;re not," I said "HelpMaybe it was shock, or maybe he couldn&039;t refuse me I neither knew nor cared There was more need out there in the dark I could feel it

Dawson kept a steadying hand on hting was a distant sound of guns, the flashing of lightning, and green fire The fire o to hile pink petal fell onto the front of my coat In that moment, more than any other before it, I trusted in the Goddess I trusted that she would not have me save the soldiers and lose the h not to falter or question My reas another body on the ground

The man lay on his back Dark eyes stared up at the sky His ure out how to breathe The front of his uniform was torn away from one side of his chest It had been peeled away as if by soer than human hands His chest steamed in the winter air I&039;d never seen a wound stea away"

Dawson helped me kneel He said, "Brennan, this is Princess Meredith She&039;ll help you"

Brennan&039;s mouth opened, but no words came out, only a trickle of blood that was too dark, too thick I laid the pink petal on his face, but there was noHe ake, and the terror in his eyes said that he kneas dying I did not kno I had healed Dawson, so I did not kno to repeat it

I prayed, "Goddess, help , and there was a sound in his chest as he tried to breathe Dawson said, "Help him, please"

I laid my hand on his wound and prayed, and then there was pain Pain that stole the world, and then I found , collapsed across the soldier&039;s chest

A hand was strokingdown at me Dawson cradled Brennan&039;s head in his arms, and they both looked atin the world They looked at ht filled ue anxiety I had never wanted any hu to look at me like that

Brennan held a bloody nail up so I could see it

Dawson said, "It fell out, just like mine did Blood and the nail, and then he was healed"

I nodded as if that made sense to me This time I had a solider on each arm, but when Brennan took my injured ar each of my nail wounds every time I healed a solider Did that mean that I could only heal ashealed would be good, but on the other hand, there were many more soldiers than the nails I had in my body Would I lose the ability to heal the rest when I was healed myself? I didn&039;t want to stay injured, but I let the thought go We would do e could, then we&039;d see I didI did , and let the ht too hard, I&039;d be like Peter walking across the sea to follow Jesus He did fine until he thought too hard, then he fell beneath the waves I could not afford to fall I could feel the need of the injured in the dark That need called to ether I didn&039;t knohat Cel and his people had done, but it was as if all of the wounded had crawled off to die Where were the doctors, thein the distance, a little closer noe moved, but whatever illusion had been used had made them craay to die, and not seek help

Dawson and Brennan helped me kneel beside the fallen soldiers It took me a moment to realize that one of the soldiers was a woear Her skin was alht of the trees

Dawson said, "It&039;s Hayes"

Brennan was kneeling beside the other soldier, as collapsed on one side "It&039;s Orlando, sir"

I laidsticky I didn&039;t bother to raiseblood It shouldn&039;t be drying that fast, should it? Had I lost track of ti to "Was she ever wounded?"

"Yes," Brennan said "We both got hit in the saed my ass to safety, just like she did Orlando here"

"Was your chest wound an old wound?" I asked

"Yes, ma&039;am That prince, he pointed his hand at me and it was like the wound just came back Then he ripped my vest back so he could see the wound He see it"

"Was she wounded in the neck?" I asked

"Yes,people who had sworn to protect ht We were supposed to protect them, not the other way around

I prayed to the Goddess as I touched Hayes She was brave, and had saved lives once with this wound in her body It seeh it twice, but even in the ed him with her So brave

There was pain, and this time I didn&039;t pass out This time I saw the nail push its way out of my flesh in a spurt of blood The blood spattered Hayes&039;s face as her eyes fleide, flashing white She gasped, and grabbed my arm The nail fell on to her chest, and her other hand closed on it automatically, as if she hadn&039;t noticed

"Who are you?"

"I am Princess Meredith NicEssus"

She clutchedthe bloody nail to her chest She sed hard "It doesn&039;t hurt"

"You&039;re healed," Dawson said, leaning over her

"How?"

"Let her heal Orlando, and you&039;ll see"

Dawson helpeda little better, and didn&039;t have to lean so heavily on his arm I still let him and Brennan help h e of movement

There was no visible wound on Orlando, but his skin was cool to the touch, and I couldn&039;t find a pulse in his neck, not even that thready hesitation that Dawson had had I tried not to think what that meant I tried not to question this miracle, or to think too hard that I didn&039;t really knohat I was doing or how I prayed harder, and laidskin

A shower of rose petals blew across us, like pink snow I felt the man shudder underneath my hands, and there was more pain, more blood, and another nail fell into his half-open hand His hand convulsed around the nail, just like Hayes&039;s had done

"Dear God," Hayes said

"I think you round stared up at htened "Where aht I was back in the desert I thought "

Hayes gripped his shoulder, and turned hiht, Orlando She saved us We&039;re safe"

I wasn&039;t sure about that last part, but I let it go I had only a few nails left, only a few more lives to save When I was healed, would I lose the ability to save them? I wanted to be healed, but I didn&039;t want to lose any of them They had offered their lives to save us, and I wanted to repay that They shouldn&039;t die in our war

I felt the call close by There were more wounded I would do what I could I would do what the Goddess helped me do I wanted to save theht

I had eight soldiers with ht back from the brink of death Once the last nail was out ofabout the pain and the injury that had ic possible

A sidhe warrior appeared out of the dark, dressed in criht, as if made of fire His name was Aodan, and I knew that his hand of power matched his armor I felt hi "Kill him"

They should have hesitated They shouldn&039;t have takenofficer, but they aiure and fired The bullets did what bullets had been doing to faerie froh that brilliant armor, and into the flesh underneath He died before he could send his hand of fire to scorch us I could feel the them before they had time to unleash that poe could win this Such a simple solution, if you had soldiers ould follow unhesitatingly, and a co in your path Apparently, I had both

Other soldiers joined us, not because of me, but because we had formed a unit on the field of battle We see, and we had an officer with us They for with purpose, and you need purpose in the ic come our way Some cried out in horror at whatever illusion one of the arlamour with one or two other sidhe before I spread that pool of protective glamour out and out I spread it farther than I&039;d ever atte it over my people, the way you&039;d spill water over fevered skin

As the screaan to murmur, I spoke low to Dawson "Shoot the ones in ar all of us free of the illusions Even shouting would make me stumble

Dawson never questioned me He simply yelled out my order, "Shoot the ones in armor! Fire!"

Immortal warriors who had seen more centuries than any of us would ever dreaht down to earth They couldn&039;t cloud the minds of the men, and without their illusions to stop the soldiers frolowing like she had sed flame, and it had filled her skin and her hair, and blazed out of her eyes She wore no ar to walk down some marble staircase to a ball But where the warriors fell, their enuity, she stood The bullets seelow, like heat off a summer road The bullets hit, hesitated, then ht

"What is she?" Dawson said, beside ic?" Hayes asked

"Heat, light, sun She&039;s a goddess of the summer heat" I&039;d alondered what she&039;d been before she fell frorace Most of the really powerful ones hid their pasts, some out of shame for power lost, others for fear of ene old scores But as I had returned Siobhan&039;s illusions to her, so apparently I had given Dilys, or whatever her real name was, back her heat