Page 21 (1/2)

Chapter Forty-One

There were voices Screa, but I could hear the heavy I found that I had hands, arht on top of me, but I could not ainst it, theat Cloth, and under the cloth flesh; I was pushing at soe and heavy, and Jonty

I whispered his name, still trapped in the darkness underneath hi but the diround underneathto h for our body heat to begin to war had we lain here? Howfor help? It wasn&039;t the Red Caps They would not scream The soldiers, the human soldiers, it had to be them Oh, Goddess, help me help them Don&039;t let them die like this Don&039;t let theround, and pushed with all her, but that was it I had a ht simply did not an to soak into ood Either it was his blood, and he was still alive enough for it to be warical blood fro at all ht It was still night My aran to treht fro an to trickle down the side of er The darkness seehtness I&039;d seen

The blood trickled down the side of e to wipe at it, since I couldn&039;t reach it anyway It was just blood Blood wasn&039;t bad, and it ar would not help me I used what little movement I had with my hands to search for Jonty&039;s heartbeat I was h enough to touch his heart Was there another pulse point close to my hands? Was there any way for me to tell if he was still alive?

If I couldn&039;t reach higher, could I reach lower? There was a big pulse point on the inner groin The feood as the carotid in the neck, it was just usually too intimate to use But, under the circumstances, I didn&039;t think Jonty would mind

I inched my hand down the side of my body until I found the joint of his hip, then I traced inward, fighting against the weight and the sheer bulk of hi but the darkness of hiers, on what I was feeling

My fingers found soh, which ers down a little and to the side As I pushed e and soft was beco less soft Did that mean that Jonty was alive? I tried to remember what I knew of the freshly dead I knew that death soasainst n that he was alive? I couldn&039;t ree had ever talked about it; probably not, too ot in trouble for asking things like that, or I had That embarrassed silence, the ers slipped inside his thigh I had to squirers just a little more into that warainst n of life, but I wanted to feel the beat of his pulse I wanted to know that the swelling of his groin was not the last beat of his heart, the last thing he would ever feel "Please, Goddess, please don&039;t let him be dead"

I was alertips here they needed to be to feel the pulse Ade, but I was al I took a deep breath in and held it I held ers, into feeling what there was to feel I stilled my body so that I wouldn&039;t ers into his flesh through his clothes, and willed that pulse to beat against ain, slow and thick against ers It was slower than it should have been, but it was there If we could get hiet help, Jonty would not have to die for ht

The bomb had worked I could hear the e was any indication, the Red Caps were badly hurt too Why had the Unseelie nobles not hunted me down and finishedfor?

I felt the screaht No, didn&039;t want to fight I couldn&039;t move I couldn&039;t help Jonty I couldn&039;t see as happening I couldn&039;t fight back, but I could scream That I could do, and it was as if even that would be a release, a help topanic I took deep, even breaths, forcedsensation that was trying to stealfrom sheer panic, I wouldn&039;t stop I&039;d scream, and squirm under Jonty&039;s body until my enemies found me I had no illusions ould happen if Cel&039;s people found ht too? If they found me, would they try to take me back to Taranis? Probably Death, or more rape by my uncle Please, Goddess, let there be other choices

Where was Doyle? He hadn&039;t been the body at their feet, but if he was able to come to my side, where was he? Galen, or Rhys, Mistral, Sholto, any of the? Were they dead? Were all whom I had loved dead?

Jonty moved above me "Jonty," I said

He didn&039;t answer, and I realized that I couldn&039;t feel hisat all He was still unconscious aboveat all So him A few moments before I&039;d wanted hiht down panic Noasn&039;t so certain Whether the Red Cap being lifted slowly off ofdepended entirely on as doing the lifting

My pulse sped up as Jonty&039;s big chest rose upward It was taking so long that I began to wonder if it was the hu hi of a uniforner suit I said, "Doyle!"

He knelt, hands still on the big Red Cap, pushing like you&039;d shoulder press a weight "I&039; My hand came back with blood on it Was it Jonty&039;s, or Doyle&039;s? What had been happening while I lay unconscious? In that moment, I almost didn&039;t care, because Doyle was here I could touch hiht, because he was there

I could see s Another was in black trousers and boots - Mistral I re soldiers&039; uniforms They were all here, all of them Thank you, Goddess

"Are you hurt?" Doyle asked

"I don&039;t think so"

"Can you ht about it, and realized that I could I began to pushbody I had to do a sort of modified crab walk on my elbows and butt, but finally my face was in the clean, fresh air I took a deep breath of winter air, and kept pushing When I was clear enough, I turned and crawled on my hands and knees A hand took my arm and helped me stand It was Dawson He looked unhurt

"Princess," he said, "are you all right?"

I nodded "I think so" I touched his hand "I&039;"

He got a strange look on his face "I&039;ht it was an odd way to phrase it But Galen was besideme into his arms, and there was no ti htly that I couldn&039;t see his face clearly But I could see Jonty&039;s back over Galen&039;s shoulder The sight stole the smile from my face

The Red Cap&039;s back was a ently down on the grass I knehy they&039;d moved him slowly now "Oh, h to see rass "I&039; on the side of his face froash near his temple

"You&039;re hurt"

He smiled "Not as bad as sorouped around him They were too serious, too quiet I didn&039;t like it "Jonty&039;s heart is still beating If we can get him to a healer he won&039;t die"

Galen&039;s face was stricken in the ht, so pain-filled "But you would have died"

He was right If the boe to a Red Cap, then I&039;d have been so much red ruin Me, and our babies, would have been turned into so much raw meat

"Cel&039;s followers did this," I said

"Dawson told us," Galen said

I started toward Jonty and the others Galen slid his hand in mine and alked to hiainst ainst his hand "The Red Caps did our duty for us," he said

The comment made me raise uards Soldiers were standing, helping wounded ures lying across the grass Al

"How are the humans up and the Red Caps so hurt?"

"We were hurt," Dawson said, "but we healed"

"What?" I asked

"Every solider who you healed earlier healed on their own Then we healed the others"

"What?" I asked again, because it still didn&039;t make sense

"We healed them," Dawson said "We used the nails They were like soic wands"

"Can it heal the Red Caps?" Doyle asked

"They&039;re , Meredith I don&039;t think it will hurt the, and the sleeve of his uniform was blackened

Mistral&039;s coat was a blackened ruin across his back Had Taranis himself attacked with his Seelie warriors? I realized that Sholto was still

"Where&039;s Sholto?"

Doyle dropped his hand fro away "Sholto is well The sluagh came to his call It is all that saved us frorabbed Doyle&039;s arhtly in Galen&039;s hand There was too , and I didn&039;t kno to cope with it all But I knew one thing; I didn&039;t want Doyle&039;s face to look like that

He turned and looked at me, but his face was that old unreadable darkness, only his eyes flinching around the edges Now I knehat that little flinch meant

"I want to wrap you around me like a coat, and cover you in kisses, but we have wounded to save But do not doubt what I feel for you, even in the midst of this" The first hard tear slid down ht you were dead, and "

Galen&039;s hand dropped away, and Doyle wrappedto hi I needed to live

I heard Rhys say, "Come on, Dawson, let&039;s see if those little nails will help Jonty"

I wanted to melt into Doyle&039;s kiss and never come up for air, but there was duty There was always duty, and soht, or healed, or Everyone thinks they want an extraordinary life, but you don&039;t When standing knee-deep in yet another disaster, ordinary begins to look very good

We broke apart, and he led round He held the nail that had come out of me when I healed him He held it point down above one of the wounds

"We&039;ll have to get the shrapnel out of his body first," Rhys said

"It didn&039;t work that way for us," Dawson said

"How did it work?" I asked, th of hiood to be real

Galen was carefully not looking at Doyle and me I realized that he had coh I had been glad to see his I had had for Doyle It sie how s of one of an to pass the nail over Jonty&039;s wounds, point down, as if he were invisibly carving soled

I stepped away from Doyle He tried to catch my hand, but I drew it away before he could touch it So the hand of blood while it was itching to be used would be a good thing I didn&039;t entirely understand as happening, but I didn&039;t question the urge to step up and drop tothe for me to speak them, and with each word, it was as if ti "You call me with blood and metal What would you have of me?"

Dawson looked at me, and his lips moved, but it was as if he too wasn&039;t in complete control of what he said "Heal hiic you have given to this flesh"

"So be it," I said, and I spread my hand over Jonty&039;s back My skin ran with heat, as if the blood into molten metal There was a moment of almost unbearable pain, then blood fountained upward from Jonty&039;s body Metal rained upward, expelled froasp But the blood kept pouring out I scrambled back froh the

Jonty turned his head with obvious effort, and said, "You call my blood, My Queen You cleanse me of the human metal I die for you, and I am content"

I shook my head "I don&039;t want you to die for s are not meant to be, Princess," he said

"It looks like it&039;s a good thing we didn&039;t co too," said a voice frooblin twins, Ash and Holly In the dark you could have ht, only a little ym a little harder could explain that away Their yellow hair was a little short, just touching their shoulders If it had been longer, they could have indeed passed for sidhe

It was too dark to see that Ash&039;s eyes were a solid green like the leaf of the tree he was named after, and Holly&039;s eyes were the scarlet of winter berries Only the solid color of their eyes with no whites truly betrayed their goblin blood

"I did not call to you," I said

"Your ic calls to the Red Caps, and our father&039;s blood is in us," Ash said

"I hate that your white-fleshed ic calls to us," Holly said

They nodded in unison "We hate that your hand of blood calls to us as if ere Red Caps We are Seelie, and you have helped us understand that there is oblin blood, but yet your power calls to us as if we are lesser things," Ash said

"For eles ht it would oblins had once been," Holly said "But, even I, even we, are still less, or yourto its master&039;s whistle" His voice was bitter

"Would you let theoblins," Holly said "We do not heal anything We slaughter and destroy It is e are, and the treaty that brought us to Ao stole us away frooblins any on the hehed at ot it Knew it; understood it I wasn&039;t even certain in that moment what "it" was, but the co across the winter grass, the frosted weeds ainst the leather of my coat

Doyle caht to be cautious, but the feeling inside ht, too The scent of flowers rode the air, as if a breath of suht

Rhys came to our side and touched Doyle&039;s arht"

I kissed Doyle first, and he had to bend down to help me do it, then I kissed Rhys He looked at me, and there was sadness on his face But it was not a sadness that I could fix I could only kiss hiently on the lips, and let hi that either of us could do would make me love him the way I loved Doyle or Frost That it pained hie it

I walked the rest of the way alone Ash and Holly stood in front of ant or hostile - their handsome faces were made for both - but under all of it was uncertainty I oblin warriors are accustohtness is absolute in azed into their eyes, and wasn&039;t sure as about to happen, but as the scent of roses grew stronger on the cold air, I knew the Goddess was coled with the rich scent of herbs and leaves, as if we stood on the edge of solade

"Do you smell flowers?" Holly asked

"I s in this land"

"What are you doing to us?" Holly asked

"You wanted to be sidhe" I held my hands out to them