Chapter 38

CHAPTER 38

WREN

Finn took the other knight's hand, wrapping it with his own, holding him down while Hestia set to work. ‘It's going to be all right, Anselm. I promise. We're going to help you. Wren is going to help you. Aren't you?'

He didn't have to sound like he doubted her, she thought, and it must have showed on her face. Anselm turned his gaze to her and all she could read there was terror.

What had she done? What had happened when she lost herself back there?

Hestia's servants arrived with all she had demanded. She tipped the contents of a small amber bottle into his mouth, and then she cut the arrow from his shoulder with a terrible efficiency. Anselm cried out, unable to stop himself. His back arched but a moment later, Hestia's hand on the wound stilled him completely. He took a deep breath, his eyes wide.

‘Wren?'

‘Yes,' she blurted out, a bit too loud. ‘Yes, I'm not going to let anything happen to you. You helped me. You came with me for Elodie. Of course I'm not going to let anything happen. You're my friend. Do you hear me?'

She focused her attention and reached for the light, any she could still find inside and beyond, pulling it into her body and ready to release it. There wasn't much. It was the dead of night and she was exhausted and they were in the Ilanthian embassy and…

Hestia's hand closed on Wren's wrist like a metal band. ‘Not here, my lady. You can't do that here.'

‘What do you mean?'

‘It will likely kill him. There are shadows threaded through him. You must have…I'm sure you were trying to help but…Tearing them out will do more damage than even you can heal.'

‘But I didn't…' What had she done? She didn't know. She had acted on instinct and now look at the mess she had made.

‘Without them he would probably be dead already. And even if you succeeded, all you would do would be to bind him to your service as securely as…' She glanced at Finn again. ‘Well…' she finished and dropped her gaze.

‘What do you mean, bound?' Wren asked.

‘It doesn't matter,' Finn replied, far too quickly. ‘Hestia, can you help him? Please?'

‘I can and I will. We must do something to allay suspicion after that fiasco today. If Roland de Silvius believes we had anything to do with Sassone, we will be in trouble indeed. No amount of diplomacy will help me then. Go, rest, refresh yourselves. I will see to him. You have my word.'

And healing Sassone's son was going to help how? Wren thought grimly. But Anselm was one of Roland's knights. That had to count for something.

They held him as Hestia removed the broken arrow and set about healing his wounds. She called for more water and bandages and a flurry of servants came to her summons.

Helpless, unsure of what else she could do other than get in Hestia's way, Wren stood and looked for Finn. He took her hand and then, without warning, pulled her against him, holding her close.

‘I could have lost you,' he whispered into her hair and Wren felt all the strength go from her body. What had she been thinking?

She should have stayed in the palace and waited, done as she was told. But then…but then Elodie would have burned. She knew that as surely as she could still breathe.

‘I'm here,' she told him. ‘I'm safe. With you.'

And she was. Seeing Finn had brought her back to herself. He grounded her in this reality and whatever else was trying to claw its way out through her had no power when they were together. Where they belonged.

Finn stroked her hair and strands of it tried to twine themselves around his fingers, sliding like silk over his skin.

‘Your highness,' said a uniformed man, from the doorway. ‘What do we do about the other one?'

Finn glared at the Ilanthian and his interruption. ‘What other one?'

The man nodded out into the hall where two of the other guards were holding a struggling Olivier. Wren and Finn had barged in here, intent only on the wounded man in Finn's arms, leaving Olivier, an armed Knight of the Aurum, at the gates of the Ilanthian embassy. The moment he charged after them, as no doubt he did, they had taken him prisoner. From the shaken look of some of them, that capture had not happened quickly enough.

When Olivier saw Finn and Wren, he fell still. ‘What have you done with him?'

‘He's in here. With a healer,' Finn told him firmly. Then he glanced at the Ilanthian guards. ‘Let him go.'

They reluctantly released Olivier at Finn's command.

He staggered forward, unarmed and clearly dishevelled. They hadn't been gentle with him, but then Wren figured that went both ways. Her knights would never go quietly, none of them. Perhaps Roland had taught them that.

She moved towards him. ‘Were you hurt?'

But even as she reached out Olivier shied back from her, wary as a horse about to bolt. ‘Lady…' he began nervously, and then seemed to lose sight of whatever he had been about to say to her. He glanced helplessly at Finn who was no help at all. ‘I don't know what happened back there. The things I saw…'

The monster she had become, she wanted to say, the creatures she had summoned. ‘I know,' she whispered. ‘And I understand.' She stepped back, withdrawing from him. If he needed to leave so be it. She couldn't ask him, someone with his faith and belief, to stay with her now, to help her, someone who had willingly surrendered what the Aurum gave him in order to serve it, to accept how she used its power.

‘Do you?' he sounded incredulous. ‘Because I don't. But we would have died in there without you. So would the queen and any number of my brother knights. I know that much. Is Anselm…is he…?'

‘He's sleeping,' said Hestia, coming to the door behind them. ‘And you're all making far too much noise.' But as she noticed Olivier, she hesitated, reading something on his face. ‘We can move him to a bedroom now. I'll have the servants see to it. Go with him, if you must, Paladin, but he needs to rest. Can you supervise that for me? Watch over him?'

‘I'm not a Paladin,' Olivier replied, almost automatically.

‘Oh but I think you are,' said Hestia firmly. ‘Both of you. And now he needs your care. You have my word as to your princess's safety. And that of Prince Finnian, of course.'

To his credit, Olivier hesitated, looking towards Wren. He had sworn to protect her, had given Roland his word. But clearly Anselm was all he could really think about.

‘I've got her now,' said Finn and relief spread over the other knight's features.

‘Thank you,' he murmured to them, and made for the door, both of them forgotten.

‘Poor boy,' Hestia murmured as he vanished inside. ‘The Aurum is a cold and hard thing to follow. He would be happier without it. Then he could be what he was meant to be and love freely where he wanted.'

‘He can love where he wants,' Finn replied in curt tones but she shook her head.

‘Can any of you really? So many strictures. The Aurum took the magic he was born with, didn't it? It would take everything. What do any of you know of freedom? Come, let's get a room sorted for them. And send word to the palace that you are safe. Otherwise we'll be accused of kidnapping Wren to compound all of this.'

Finn wrapped his arms around Wren and held her close, long after his cousin was out of sight.

‘You must be exhausted,' he murmured, but Wren shook her head. ‘What do you need? We can supply anything. You're our honoured guest. More than that.'

We, she thought. Our. He was even sounding like an Ilanthian.

‘I need you,' she told him and pressed her lips to his, like she might somehow be able to claim him back.