The Chosen One: A Reverse Harem Fantasy (The Airluds Trilogy Book 2) Read online

  We were going to do this!

  Chapter Nine

  FLEA

  By the time Jaron had the guard out of the way, I had Calun dressed in the jacket. We eased him off the stretcher, and Jaron stowed it next to the guard behind the tent. Then, with monumental effort, Jaron pulled Calun to his feet and wrapped one of his brother's arms around his shoulder. I came up on the other side to take the other arm. Calun was dead weight, and my legs nearly buckled under me.

  'You can do it. It's not that far,' Jaron coaxed, even though we both knew we would have to carry him over a league, without being spotted. Thank the gods the moon was still at least a turn away from rising. Away from the firelight was almost pitch black. We would have been struggling to find our way back to where the airlings would meet us if not for Jaron's trail of shining moonstones.

  We needed to work our way back to where we had first entered the camp. That was not as hard as I expected. Calun kept coming around for short bursts, long enough to carry a little of his own weight. He behaved just like a real drunk would.

  There was only one worrying moment. A soldier noticed us passing and asked if we needed help.

  "We'll be right. Not much further. Heavy bastard, but we'll get there. Can't handle his grog," Jaron slurred. If I hadn't known he was stone cold sober I would have sworn he was actually tipsy.

  After that, we passed through the camp without question. It was lucky Calun didn't have a bandage around his head. I thought he might, after all the talk about head injuries.

  Once beyond the tents, we hunkered down to watch for the patrolling guards. Luckily, one passed by no more than minutes after we came to rest. Part of me wished it'd been longer. I was already feeling the physical strain. A chance to rest and put off the next stage would have been appreciated. But I knew the guards would be at the captain's tent at any moment and, once the missing guard and prisoner were discovered, the camp would go into uproar. We had to be out of here by then.

  So I was relieved when the guardsman had stalked past and was finally out of sight. Jaron hefted Calun up again, and we began our torturously slow, exhausting journey into the darkness.

  There were several minutes of panic when we couldn't find the moonstones where we thought they should have started. Rather than searching for the trail with Calun's weight slowing him down, Jaron put Calun on the ground and told me to wait with him while he scanned the area more thoroughly. When he came back some time later, a full turn or minutes, I had no idea, he was tutting under his breath.

  'We're off course by twenty strides. The trail starts over there.' He pointed off in the direction he'd just come. I could barely see a stride ahead of us by this time. But I obediently took up my burden and let Jaron edge us onto the right course.

  Our progress was slowed further by Jaron stooping to pick up stones as we passed them. 'Can't have the troopers following our trail,' he thought, more to himself than to me. I could tell by the slowness of his thoughts that he was tiring just as quickly as I was. Largely because he was bearing most of Calun's weight.

  It made sense to cover our tracks, but my patience and strength were running out fast. If it hadn't been my idea, and if it had been anyone but Calun, I would've given up and run away as far and as fast as I could.

  But it was Calun, and just being close to him filled me with renewed hope and confidence. We must have been about thirty or forty strides down the moonstone trail when the cry went up from the camp. Without a word or thought passing between us, we both knew our escape had been discovered and time was running out. We turned our staggering walk into a staggering run, drawing on a fresh wave of fear-fuelled energy to manage it. As if he sensed our spike in terror, Calun came around again and began helping us.

  By the time the hue and cry had been taken up by the whole camp, and torch lights flickered everywhere behind us, we had made it over half a league from the camp. By then Jaron had given up trying to pick up the stones. Speed was what we needed now. And a search party would have to be right on top of one of the stones, and know what it was for, to be able to follow the trail. He thought the chances of either happening were remote.

  As we reached the final stone, I was crying with fatigue. Calun had lost consciousness again and Jaron was swearing a blue streak in his mind. Worse was the continuous litany of abuse he piled on himself for agreeing to this impetuous plan. Darkin was right, he didn't think things through. He was an idiot, a child. They should never have let him do this, especially with a young girl as his partner in crime. What if he cost the three of us our lives because of his overconfidence.

  What we saw at the meeting place lifted my heart and stopped Jaron's flow of self-abuse. Instead of two airlings sitting on the ground awaiting us, there were three.

  "It's Calun's new airling. The one he was riding when he fell off. What is she doing here?"

  "Airsha?"

  Jaron shook his head, though I couldn't see it from my angle. I only sensed it from his mind.

  "Unlikely. Maybe she stayed in the area once she calmed down. She might've seen our airlings and joined them. This is better than I could have hoped for!"

  We approached the airlings, and the wave of affection and relief I picked up from them had me drawing in a sharp breath. So it wasn't my imagination, after all. I really could feel their emotions now.

  We dropped Calun gently to the ground and Jaron rummaged in his bag, which he'd kept over his shoulder the whole time. With a flourish, he withdrew more leather rigging.

  "I'm going to lay Calun across his airling's back and tie him around the waist to the horns. I just hope she's calmed down enough to handle a load spread across her back like that. If she banks too steeply he'll slip off and take her down with him. We kept Rama at the cavern after we rescued him from the Clifflings to avoid just such a risk. Why didn't I remember that before? This is crazy."

  "Isn't she used to carrying those stone bags Rama invented?"

  I felt his spike of excitement and relief. "Aye... Aye, she is. This'll feel like that, won't it? Good thought!"

  I grinned my pleasure at the praise, but Jaron couldn't see it. It was so dark we could barely make out the outline of the airlings.

  Calun's airling sat quietly while we lugged him up on her back and tied him in place. I could feel her apprehension, but there was also relief that her man was on her back again. I could only imagine what she must have been feeling for all the turns since she'd lost him.

  As soon as we had him in place, we mounted up. None too soon, if the yelling coming closer every minute was any indication. Torches were spreading out from the camp in all directions, like beams from the sun. I saw them clearly as we flew above them, just before we turned nor' west and began our long flight home.

  At different times during the journey, Jaron would peel off and come alongside Calun's airling, checking on his position. The moon had risen by then, and its light allowed me to see what he was doing and for him to see Calun. The airling was flying steadily, as if she was holding a precious, fragile bundle in her arms. She seemed determined not to lose him from her back again.

  The journey felt as if it took three times as long on the way back as it did going out. By the time my airling started to descend, my arms were so weak − and shaking so hard − I could barely hold on. My eyes were dry and sore. And the need to keep them closed had been warring for an age with the sure knowledge that, if I gave in and let them close, I'd fall asleep and slip from Bay's back.

  At the paddock a series of torches marked the flattest path for the airlings to navigate. But with the moonlight it was much easier for them to judge the distance. We landed with barely an extra hop.

  "Oh, Goddess!" Airsha cried out tearfully. "You got him! You got him!"

  I saw her running across the field toward us, faster than I thought such a short woman should be able to move. But Darkin and Rama outpaced her easily, and were already lowering Calun from the airling's back by the time she got to him.

  "How bad is
he?" she demanded, crying openly, angrily swiping at the tears as she did so. Tears pricked my eyes at the sight of such an outpouring of emotion from a woman who always appeared so strong. For the first time, I understood the depth of her love for Calun. He wasn't just one of four. He was special to her.

  "No broken bones or internal injuries. But he has a head injury that has him coming in and out of consciousness," Jaron told her.

  "Get him to the house. Be gentle," she told Rama and Darkin, all business suddenly. I doubted they needed her instruction, but neither commented as they did her bidding.

  She watched as they began carrying Calun toward the house and, once she was sure he was safely on his way, she turned back to Jaron, the airlings and me.

  "You are going to get a roasting, you know that," she warned us with mock severity, as she half-laughed and half-cried. But I could see she was just relieved and overjoyed to have Calun back.

  "Won't be the first or the last. And it was worth it. You didn't send his airling, did you?" Jaron asked as he drew her in for a long hug.

  "No. I somehow Knew that if you needed one, it would be there. This is his new airling, isn't it? The one who sent me the panicked message?"

  "Aye. She must have been staying close to him and found our airlings. She was there when we got back to the meeting spot, thank the Goddess!"

  Airsha sighed happily and extracted herself from his hug. She came to me and took my hands. My arms were like limp washcloths. "You're all done in, Flea. What an amazing thing you have helped to do tonight. Thank you!"

  I wanted to tell her I hadn't done it for her, but the gratitude I saw on her face was more than I could stand. Before I knew it, I was in her arms, crying my eyes out. The relief was intense.

  "Why do women have to cry when things are going well?" Jaron asked in exasperation.

  We broke apart to look at him and then burst into laughter. It was as much a relief as the tears had been. I felt oddly lighter after it was done.

  But the time we'd got ourselves under control again, Airsha had broken from our embrace and moved to the airlings. She pressed her face to each of theirs in turn, spending extra time with the airling that had carried Calun home. The affection flowing between them and out to me in waves only lightened me further.

  Sighing, I let Jaron take my arm and half-carry me up to the house. "You did good, kid. You did real good."

  "I didn't think we'd make it, you know? It felt like we dragged him across half the Badlunds. But we did it," I admitted tiredly, letting him carry more of my weight than I should have. Yet I didn't feel the need to be independent or strong right then. I'd proved myself to this man already so I could afford to be a girl for once.

  "We did," Jaron acknowledged with amazement. "I just hope he's all right and we didn't make him worse."

  "He would have been put to death as a rebel. Anything else is a win."

  He chuckled. "You're a bit of a hard-head, aren't you, Flea. The nick-name suits you."

  "Aye, fleas are really hard to catch and squash. So am I."

  Jaron laughed and dropped a kiss on the top of my head. "I won't let anybody squash you. Not after tonight."

  The kiss surprised me, and I felt my cheeks begin to burn with a blush. I was grateful we were still in the moonlight where the colour could not be seen. I couldn't remember the last time anyone had kissed me with affection like that. Not Mam. Maybe Dah? That was a long time ago. I wanted to think I was too old for such shows of affection, but it wasn't true. And I hoarded it to my heart like a thief hoards his stolen gold.

  It wasn't until much later that I realised I'd finally won the renegades' trust. I was in!

  Chapter Ten

  AIRSHA

  I sat at Calun's bedside for the rest of the night and through the next day. One or other of my men would come and try to make me rest, but all I would agree to were convenience breaks for me and sustenance for the babe. My worries for Calun had replaced my joy at having him back.

  Through the many turns I had watched him, studying the changes wrought to his face and body. His red-brown hair was filthy and clung in oily coils to the white pillow. His cheeks were hollowed out and covered with a light fuzz of red beard. His usually gentle, handsome face looked bleak and old, far older than the twenty suncycles I knew him to be.

  No marks beyond a few scratches and a little bruising blemished his face. When I'd washed the dirt from him I had discovered this much. It was to the back of his head that the damage had been done. There I'd felt a huge lump, though there was no sign of blood from an open wound. I'd made sure the pile of pillows kept as much pressure off the lump as possible.

  His long, leanly muscled body was a mass of bruises, though. Most of them were on his back. And shallow scratches marred skin that had not been covered by clothing. I wondered if some of these had happened when the troopers carried him to their encampment. They wouldn't have been gentle with a rebel, even if he'd make an excellent candidate for interrogation.

  It hurt to see him lying so limp and still, not like he was peacefully sleeping, but as if he was dreaming exhausting, painful dreams. What was wrong with him? Why did he only wake up for short spells before going under again? Was this normal?

  Darkin told me this was how it had been with me after I was rescued from the Godling. But I'd been near to death. Did that mean Calun was dying? And I'd had healers to care for me. Calun did not. I felt so helpless. All I could think to do was cool his brow with cold water from the well, get him to drink broth during his short bouts of wakefulness, and watch for any sign of fever.

  When his temperature started to rise, I began to worry.

  "Flea, can you fill the bath with cold water from the well? Get the men to do it. And put some of the healer's herbs in the water. I don't like it that he is starting to burn up."

  Flea had been hovering in the doorway most of the day, though she had fallen asleep as soon as Jaron got her inside the night before, and had stayed that way until several turns after sunrise.

  Jaron had filled us all in about their journey as we stood around Calun's sleeping form last night. He'd been generous with his praise of the girl, saying how it had been her idea to take Calun when they had the best chance to do so; how she'd hit the trooper over the head with a rock, though it was clear she hated doing it; and how she had helped him carry Calun a good league across the pitch black plains until they were both ready to drop. For someone so young, she was indomitable.

  So I did not begrudge her her need to watch over Calun as I did. She had earned the right.

  "Fever? That's not good. Do you think it's a brain fever? I've heard people go mad from those."

  I shook my head and felt tears sting my eyes. "I don't know. I'm not a healer and it would take days to get one here. I don't know what to do."

  "If he's got a fever then the bath sounds good," Flea said staunchly.

  I smiled at her a little, pleased she agreed with me on this. Helplessness ate at me, nonetheless.

  Why hadn't I been gifted with more earth magic? I could make the ground open up with the flick of my hand, why couldn't I heal my husband?

  That thought stopped my downward spiral. The Goddess had gifted me these four men. She wouldn't then take one away, after making sure he was returned to me. Who said I couldn't heal? I knew I still had untapped gifts. What if one was healing?

  Flea had gone to get the bath ready. I had half a turn before anyone would return to get Calun. Could I do something for him in the meantime?

  I looked down at his naked body again, pale against the white sheets, for all his tanned skin and mottled bruises. I had rubbed salve on the bruises but it didn't seem to have helped yet.

  Kneeling down beside his bed, which was a narrow cot in one of the spare rooms, I placed my hands on his chest as I remembered the healer doing to me. Closing my eyes, I dropped down into the calm, still place I was becoming only too familiar with these days. As I did so, I felt my hands begin to heat up. Fighting the urge to l
ook at them, I refocused on my purpose: healing Calun of his injuries.

  My hands grew hotter still. I kept them where they were and drifted. Without realising it, I found myself inside Calun's body. But it was not blood and gore I saw, but light tracks running through him from head to foot.

  Confused, I wondered what it was I was seeing. Dismissing the question before it side-tracked me, I instead noted there was an odd darkness in his head that seemed to be affecting the light lines. The Knowing came over me strongly. I needed to get rid of that darkness. To do that I had to flood that space with light.

  I moved my hands, placing them either side of his head toward the back, being careful to avoid the lump. Would the heat in my hands make him even hotter? Would I give him a brain fever?

  No, I couldn't think like that. Whatever I was doing was a gift of the Goddess. And Calun needed it.

  In my mind's eye I saw light flowing from my hands into his head − into the darkness in his head. At first it didn't seem to make any difference. Then, little by little, the darkness began to lighten.

  By the time I heard Flea's gasp, the darkness was completely gone. My eyes flew open and I stared at her as if from a long distance away.

  "What were you doing?" she asked in awe.

  I shrugged. "Healing him, I think. Or mayhap hope is a better word. There seemed to be a dark place in his head, and I was trying to remove it."

  "Your hands were glowing!"

  "They were?"

  "What's going on?" Dark demanded, coming into the room. He'd clearly been carrying buckets of well water because his shirt was soaked, making it cling to his muscular belly. My breath hitched at the sight.

  "Airsha just healed Calun."

  "Wait... I said I hope that is what I was doing. I decided that if I could split the earth open, why couldn't I heal? So I tried. I think it worked. I don't know..."