Kerrigan handed it over without comment, and Cyrene slung it around his shoulders. She nodded once at Vera, who stepped up to his side. Kerrigan shouldered the other side.
“You’re injured,” Kerrigan said baldly. “Now, lead the way.”
Cyrene didn’t argue. She just escorted him like the criminal that he was, away from the portal and any prying eyes. She deposited him in her own tent. Since she didn’t have anywhere else to put a prisoner. They hadn’t planned on taking anyone prisoner. Cyrene didn’t even have enough energy left to make a shield. Not that he could go anywhere in his condition.
Kael promptly collapsed backward on the cot.
Vera moved in to look at his shoulder. “I think I can do something about this here. Kerrigan, I need you to hold down his chest. Cyrene, get his legs.”
Vera cut away his shirt, revealing the toned body beneath. His shoulder was a mess, covered in blood and oozing black darkness. As if whatever Malysa had been throwing around up there had seeped into him.
Kerrigan threw her body over his, and he groaned. Cyrene winced as she put pressure on his legs. Her arm was decidedly not okay, but she held down his legs regardless. Vera poured water over the wound. He screamed bloody murder as the water washed clean what had been contaminating him. Then she used her magic to draw out the darkness lurking beneath. The infestation that had kept him weak and tried to find a way back inside of him. It came out in an inky-black stream. She withdrew until the wound only bled red. Then she dropped it back into a basin nearby, where it writhed as if it were alive. She contained it with her magic but looked uncertainly at it.
Vera wiped her brow and then knit the tissue back together. The bleeding slowed and then stopped. She sighed when Kael finally passed out. “That will have to do. I’m no healer, but ordinary wounds are much easier than magical ones. He will need a lot of rest to recover his strength.” She glanced up at Cyrene. “Are you certain that you want to give him that option?”
Cyrene nodded. “He deserves to stand trial for his crimes. I will not be judge, jury, and executioner for the king of Byern.”
Vera smiled softly. “I understand.”
“Can you put up a shield to contain him?”
Vera nodded without question, effortlessly erecting a shimmery shield that popped into place, and then reached for the basin. “I will dispose of this. Wouldn’t want it to get in the wrong hands.”
“Thank you. For everything.”
“No, Cyrene,” Vera said warmly. “Thank you.”
She disappeared through the tent flap just as a cheer rose up outside. Cyrene and Kerrigan darted back outside and saw that the entire army was raising their voices in triumph. Whistling and clapping and screaming their victory.
Cyrene laughed. And then she raised her own voice, jumping up and down and twirling in a circle. Kerrigan danced with her, taking part in the merriment and the end of the war. A hard-won victory. With so much death and destruction. And yet, they had won out in the end.
They both stopped when they were exhausted. Cyrene leaned forward and panted, protectively cradling her arm. Kerrigan just grinned at her.
“So, Domina, what are you going to do now?”
Cyrene stared off into the distance. “Sleep. Lots of sleep.”
Kerrigan snorted. “No, really?”
“We’re going to start over,” she told her seriously. “We lost a lot of lives on both sides. Unnecessary death because of one person. The world will never be the same. But we can rebuild and try to create a better world in the process.” She looked back to Kerrigan. “That’s what I want to do. I want to build a better world.”
74
The Recovery
Cyrene stood outside of Avoca’s healing room and paced. And paced some more. She knew that there was so much more that she needed to be doing. But her head wasn’t in it. She couldn’t focus until she knew what had happened with Avoca.
“She’s going to be okay,” Dean said, putting a hand on her arm to try to get her to stop.
“Maybe,” Cyrene muttered. “Maybe I should go help somewhere.”
He shook his head. “The generals have it covered. Maybe you should get some rest.”
“Can’t rest. Can’t close my eyes.”
So, he just let her pace. Keeping an eye on her all the while. Surely seeing all the signs of exhaustion she was exhibiting. But she didn’t leave Avoca’s tent.
“Cyrene!” a voice carried over the tents.
She turned and saw Ahlvie barreling toward her in nothing but a pair of torn pants. He hadn’t bothered with a shirt or boots. And he looked frantic.
“Ahlvie, you’re alive!” She threw her arms around him and held him tight. “I was so worried. I haven’t heard any reports about who has made it.”
“I made it,” he confirmed. “How is she? I just got off the front line after the surrender and heard she was with a healer.”
“No one has come out. Malysa hit her with some kind of darkness. It broke the bond and blackened her arm up to her elbow. But Helly went in there with her.”
He breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank the Creator we have Helly. She’s the best. If anyone can help, it’s Helly.”
Cyrene nodded. But she was still worried. Helly hadn’t looked confident when she rushed off with Avoca. And it’d been hours since Cyrene heard anything.
“Cyrene, I have to tell you something.”
Cyrene braced for the worst, but that was the moment the flap finally opened, and Helly appeared.
“How is she?” Ahlvie asked at the same time Cyrene said, “Can we see her?”
Helly held up her hand. “She’s stable now, but she needs her rest. I was able to stop the spread of the darkness. It’s been contained to her arm, but she will have to live with it that way. I did all that I could, but I have never seen anything like this. It’s not an illness of any sort. Whatever the goddess did to her is beyond my expertise.”
Cyrene grasped her hands. “Thank you. You did so much more than we would have been able to.”
“Thank you.” Ahlvie tugged Helly into a hug. She laughed and patted his back.
“Go on inside. She needs to sleep, but she’s been asking for you both. Try not to overwhelm her.”
They both agreed and then hurried with Dean past Helly to where Avoca lay across a cot. Her left arm was visible to the shoulder where her leathers had been cut off of her. The arm was as black as the night sky to the elbow. The area from the elbow nearly to the shoulder was a blur of black, as if shading into daylight. Not quite as dark as the lower part of the arm, but not as creamy white as her fair skin had once been.
“Hey, Ava,” Cyrene said as she stepped up to her side.
“It’s good to see you awake again,” Dean said from the other side.
“Love,” Ahlvie said, pressing a kiss onto her forehead. He knelt before her and gently took her ruined left arm in his hand. “You still look beautiful to me.”
She laughed softly and then coughed as if that hurt too bad. “Thank you for that. I don’t particularly feel beautiful.” She looked down at her ruined arm. “Helly said it would be like this forever.”