Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 109099 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 545(@200wpm)___ 436(@250wpm)___ 364(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109099 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 545(@200wpm)___ 436(@250wpm)___ 364(@300wpm)
Her eyes grew wide.
“No, my Queen—you mustn’t! Bitterworm is a deadly poison—the first sip of their blood would kill you or drive you mad!”
“There has to be a way, though!” I said stubbornly. “Some way I can heal them!”
“But my Queen, though you can heal the wounds of those you bite, you are not a Healer,” Lady Nolana said gently. “As powerful as you are, you have no Healing Magic with which to counteract the poison.”
“No,” I said. “No, I guess not. I—” Then I stopped. “The Palace Healer!” I exclaimed.
“What?” Lady Nolana asked, frowning.
“The Palace Healer—I know there is one. I heard Sel and Krynn talking about him,” I said. I looked up at the young guard who had asked if I needed help. “You—go and fetch me the Palace Healer at once and bring him here.”
“Yes, my Queen!” He and several other Palace Guards rushed off. When they returned shortly afterwards, they were dragging an older High Fae with a long silver beard dressed in a white robe. ‘The Healer, my Queen!” the young guard said and pushed him forward.
The older Fae looked at me fearfully.
“My Queen—what can I do for you?” he asked.
“These two have been given bitterworm poison,” I said to him. “Can you cure them with your Healing Magic?”
“Let me see their eyes.” The Healer knelt beside me and lifted one of Krynn’s eyelids. When he saw the dark brown color, he shook his head. “My Queen, I am very sorry but this one is too far gone! My magic alone isn’t enough. You would need a thousand Healers to cleanse the corruption from his system.” He looked at Sel’s eyes and shook his head again. “I am sorry—the Captain of the Guard is also too ill to be saved.”
But I refused to listen to his pessimism. Instead his words “you would need a thousand Healers” seemed to echo in my brain.
A thousand Healers…the magic of a thousand Healers…or maybe just the magic of one Healer magnified a thousand times. Would that work?
I didn’t have a thousand Healers, but I could feel the Power of the entire Court still pumping through my veins. Even though I was no longer at the end of the long chain of hands, the magic I had absorbed from my people lingered inside me.
I looked at the Healer.
“Give me your vein.”
“Excuse me? What?” He grew suddenly pale. “My Queen, I don’t understand!”
“You don’t have to understand—just give me your wrist so I can bite you!” I snapped. “I need your blood—I need to absorb some of your Healing Magic!”
Trembling, the Healer pushed up the arm of his long white robe and held his wrist in front of my face.
I felt a certain distaste in biting anyone I didn’t know and love, but in this case I was willing to make an exception. Baring my fangs, I sank them into the bracelet of veins on the underside of his wrist.
The Healer gasped but didn’t move a muscle as I began to suck. I closed my eyes as the salty flow of blood rushed into my mouth and down my throat. I called to the Healing Magic I felt in his blood—I invited it to enter me—to live in me and make me its host.
And I felt the magic answering my call. A warm flush went through my whole body, infusing me with heat and light and healing energy. I knew instinctively that I had what I needed.
Hastily licking the wound closed, I pushed the Healer’s wrist away. Then I placed one hand on Krynn’s forehead and one on Sel’s and began to push the Healing Magic, bolstered by the power of the many, many Dark Fae who were now my people, into their bodies.
“Heal,” I told the magic. “Heal them—heal the ones I love. Cleanse their systems of the poison…purge all the toxins…make them well and whole again!”
At first I didn’t know if it was working. I kept pouring more and more power and magic into both my guys, but neither of them was moving. Then, suddenly, Sel’s eyes popped open.
“Princess?” he gasped and I saw that his eyes were back to bronze again. Even better, every last bit of the ugly polluted brown was gone.
“Sel!” I exclaimed, keeping my hand on his head. “Are you all right?”
“I don’t fucking know. Feels like someone’s pumping me full of pure energy!” he growled, his big body twitching.
“Oh, sorry.” I took my hand off his forehead, but kept pushing magic into Krynn. “Just give me a minute,” I told Sel. “Let me just—”
“My lady!” Krynn’s eyes popped open with a gasp. He sat up abruptly and stretched his wings. “They’re healed!” he exclaimed. “Lady Elgiana left them in tatters, but now they’re healed!”
“She healed more than your wings, Krynn,” Sel pointed out, sitting up as well. “You should see your eyes—they’re not brown anymore.”