Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Three

Finn was dreaming of a beach under a bright, shining, midday sun. Heat blanketed him and warmed him from the inside out. It was so pleasant, he never wanted to move. He was lying on his back, naked of course, because he wanted to take full advantage of the sunlight and get an all-over tan. He wanted nothing more than to sink down into a deep and calming sleep. Except someone was poking him in the side relentlessly and urging him to please wake up. Saying things to him in that sexy, growly voice he loved so much. He barely opened his eyes to take a peek at who it was, just to make sure—he wasn’t leaving this dream for just anybody, after all.

He saw Jazdon lying beside him, his eyes tightly shut, his handsome face filled with pain. What happened? Was someone ill? Who was it? He couldn’t keep his eyes open too long—he was far too tired and sleepy—but he stirred and squirmed to get away from whatever it was that was still poking his side. Then he realized what that had to be, and a smile curved his lips. It was one of Jaz’s best features, by far, and maybe the one he loved the most.

He slid his hand across his stomach to take hold of it and he heard a sharp gasp. He pried open his eyes to look directly into Jazdon’s startled ones.

“Hi,” he said and was shocked to hear his voice come out hoarse and weak.

“Hi, yourself,” Jaz said in a thick, saddened voice and then moved over to lay on top of him fast, taking his face in his hands, Jazdon holding him like he couldn’t ever get enough. Like it was the end of the world, and they were the only two people left in it.

“You scared me,” Jaz said softly against his mouth. His voice was so low-pitched he could barely hear him, which seemed about right. Jaz would hate to admit anything ever scared him, which made his confession all the sweeter.

“W-what happened?” Finn asked. “I-I don’t think I know where I am.” He put a hand to his head, so dizzy now that his eyes were open again that he was suddenly afraid he would fall off whatever this table was underneath him. It wasn’t his own bed, for sure, and he clung even tighter to Jazdon.

“You’re here with me, love, and I’ve got you. You’re going to be fine, but you need to rest.”

Finn looked down at where his arm was stinging and saw he was hooked up to a bag of fluids. “Why do I have this? What’s wrong with me?”

“Nothing’s wrong. The doctor just wanted you to have some fluids, in case you were dehydrated.”

A sudden shiver wracked his body as a flash of memory came back. He was in the water—freezing and fighting for his life. But how? Why? That couldn’t be right, could it?

“I-I was in the sea. I remember now. It was freezing… and I couldn’t shift.” Another shudder and this one was harder than the one before. Jaz pulled him closer and looked down directly into his eyes.

“You’re fine now. You need to calm down, okay? I’m going to get the doctor back in here to give you something. Just hold on—there’s nothing to be upset about.”

The next few minutes were a blur as Jaz held him tightly against him and somehow still managed to alert the doctor. Meridous was there too, and some others, but he was barely conscious after the doctor put something in his IV.

It kind of pissed him off, because he wanted to talk about this and figure it out. It was all there on the tip of his tongue—things he needed to tell Jaz. Important things. But he was so sleepy, and the need to rest was dragging him under again. He heard the doctor talking to Jaz.

“It’s not the same as before, so please don’t be alarmed. This is normal sleep, and it will give his body a chance to fully heal. He’s suffering from a bit of hypothermia and dehydration, which is common after what he’s been through. He’s had a definite shock to his system and needs this rest. Just give him some time, Your Highness, and he’ll make a full recovery.”

Then Jaz said something and maybe Maridous did too. Finn was drifting back to his dream of the beach again and couldn’t be bothered to listen. The best part was that Jazdon hadn’t taken his arms away from him—not for a minute. Finn snuggled shamelessly against his body and relaxed completely. He could remember the important things he had to say later.

****

Finn gradually drifted back up to the surface and opened his eyes. He was alone in a strange bed in a dimly lit room. And he was pretty sure that every damn muscle in his body was throbbing.

What the hell had happened to him? He shifted on the hard bed, trying to ease himself, but it was no use. It felt like he’d sprained every joint and wrenched and strained every muscle. It didn’t hurt much as long as he didn’t move, which really wasn’t an option at that moment. He seriously had to use the bedpan or else this bed was about to be drenched.

He looked around frantically for help, but the room was empty. Where was Jaz? If he had to try to make it out of bed on his own, he didn’t think this would end well for anybody. But the situation was rapidly becoming a little desperate.

He opened his mouth to yell for help, when to his immense relief, he saw the doorknob turning. Very slowly, almost as if someone were trying to be stealthy about it, the door began to ease open. What the hell was this about? He saw a head come slowly around the door and sagged with relief as he recognized the gray-haired Anola, the older lady who had taken care of him when he’d first arrived. She must be here on nursing duty.

“Anola,” he said, and she froze, ducking quickly back behind the door.

“Anola? Is that you? Come in here please and help me.”

Ever so slowly, the door began to ease open again, and the old lady peered around to look at him, her eyes wide and staring in the uncertain light.

“Hey, Anola, it’s me, Finn. Come in, please. I need the bedpan, and there doesn’t seem to be anyone here. Could you get it for me, please? Or find me a nurse?” He smiled at her, motioning her forward. “Come on in, it’s okay. There’s nobody here but me.”

“Of course, sir.” She stepped inside then, closing the door behind her so gently that it barely clicked in the lock. She smiled at him, though it didn’t quite reach her eyes. He wondered what her problem was, but she was coming closer, hobbling just a little, like her joints were stiff. Maybe that was it.

“Are you okay?” Finn asked. “Is your knee still bothering you?”

It was like a light bulb came on in his head. Anola—she had been the one he’d met in the hallway who had taken him out to the parapet. She’d said she had arthritis in her knee. And she had been the one who’d pushed him over the side!

She must have seen his sudden, horrified realization, and as soon as she did, she rushed toward him, pulling a hypodermic needle from one of her voluminous pockets.

Somehow, he managed to get his hands up to ward her off and he gave a hoarse shout for help as loudly as he could. She fell over onto him, as he tried to hold her off, her hands curved into claws as she attacked him. How could she possibly be so strong? One of her hands still clutched the hypodermic needle, and she was trying her best to get free of his restraining grip so she could plunge it into him.

The door flew open behind them and Jazdon was there, his face a mask of outrage and fury. He ripped her away from Finn as easily as if she’d been an annoying insect and flung her against the wall. She hit with a sickening thud, so hard it cracked something in the plastered wall, and Finn watched in horror as she slid to the floor, bleeding and obviously unconscious. More people were crowding into the room, and Jaz had pulled Finn roughly into his arms, kissing his face and patting him all over to make sure he was all right.

“Are you okay? I only left for a minute to check on Vargla. Damn it, she could have killed you!” He was still shouting with fury, but Finn knew it was only because he was scared.

Finn allowed himself to be mauled for a few more minutes, and then he managed to whisper in Jaz’s ear. “I’m fine…I promise. But if you don’t get me a bedpan pretty quick, we’re going to have to swim our way out of here.”

Lifting Finn from the bed, Jazdon pointed at the crumpled form of Anola and snarled. “Get that piece of garbage out of here.” Meridous snapped at the guards standing around to take Anola to the dungeon and lock her up until the prince could deal with her. What she’d tried to do was treasonous, and the penalty was death. Finn was sorry for the old woman, despite what she’d tried to do and wondered how hard it would be for Jaz to kill her. She had been his childhood nurse, after all.

He glanced up at Jazdon’s furious face, though, and reminded himself again that these dragons were unlike humans. And that he himself was too softhearted. Maybe that needed to change, like Jazdon always told him it did. He sighed and decided to think about it all later.

Much later, as Finn was helped back into bed—Jaz had simply picked him up and carried him to the bathroom—he eased back onto the mattress and sighed with relief.

“Sorry you have to haul me around, but I think I’ve strained every muscle in my body.”

“It was the fall from the parapet. It’s really a wonder you didn’t break some bones. I’m afraid you’ll be sore like this for a while, but as soon as you can stand up on your own, you can shift and heal.”

“About that… I tried to shift in the water, and again on that boat, but I couldn’t.  Nothing happened at all. What was that, do you think?”

“It was too much stress. Common to beginners, and it takes a while to learn what to do. But I’ll teach you as soon as you’re better. Nothing’s wrong with you, so don’t worry. You can always call your dragon no matter what happens, but it’s an advanced skill. If you remember, the time you shifted with Daltor was because you were so angry. You just didn’t get angry enough when you fell.”

“I think I definitely am angry enough now.”

“You and me both. To think that old witch fooled us all this time.” He shook his head in disbelief.  “When you’re feeling better, we need to talk about all of this. Figure out exactly what you remember. It seems to me that we’ve been harboring a snake in our bosom.”

“Indeed,” the doctor said from behind them, holding up the needle. “I’m pretty sure this is a large injection of hemlock, which would have caused cardiac arrest if she’d managed to inject it in him. We’ll check to make sure, but if he hadn’t been awake and able to hold her off, or if you’d been a little later getting back…”

“He’d be dead,” Jaz said, his voice grim.

“Yes, I’m afraid so. It looks like a heavy dose.”

“That was the second time she tried to kill me then,” Finn told them. “She was the one who pushed me off the parapet too.”

It took Jazdon a few seconds to recover from that little tidbit, and his rage caused even the doctor to back away a few steps toward the door. When Jaz flew into anger, Finn had learned, nobody wanted to get close. Except for him, of course. He put his arms around him and kissed his cheek. “I’m okay. You saved me from the big, bad, little-old-lady.”

Jaz rolled his eyes and laughed—sort of. At least he tried. It would be a while before he found anything about this to be funny, Finn thought. And maybe he never would. Jaz shuddered and wrapped Finn up in his arms. “From now on, I want a guard in this room at all times. Two of them.”

“I’ll see to it, Your Highness,” the doctor replied and left the room. Maridous was still there too, staying quiet and just watching them both. She smiled at Finn when he glanced at her.

“You’re being awfully quiet over there.”

“Just trying to take it all in. I can’t get over the idea that Anola was involved in this thing. We’ve been close to her since we were children. How could she?”

Jaz squeezed her hand. “I know. I’m going to interrogate her myself soon.”

“I have some of our best people looking into that for us, Jazdon. I’ll let you know as soon as we find out anything.”

“Is she conscious yet? Can I get started?”

“No, and I wasn’t sure at first that she would be ever again. She’s an old lady, Jaz. Almost a hundred and fifty. You almost killed her.”

“Is that supposed to make me feel sorry? She tried to kill my mate. Twice. If I could hit her again, I would.”

Maridous looked a bit scandalized, but Finn knew Jaz meant every word. He was loyal and good to those who were the same to him. But Jaz was not a man to be crossed.