OathBlade (Wattys2015)

42. Seedling*

Isandel and Taelin took Elery back to her room while Zethir left to gather the others. Even the ithmis weed wasn't strong enough to quell the renewed pain in her shoulder. She groaned as Isandel let her sit on the bed and unbound the sling. He opened her tunic to expose her injured shoulder. The swelling became immediately apparent as the cloth slid away and she gritted her teeth. "Their rough treatment has done me no favors."

Taelin shook his head as he approached the bed. "I can do nothing for healing, but I might be able to help with the swelling." He walked from the room to the adjoining bathroom. His footsteps gave way to the creak of a water pump handle.

Isandel frowned. "If you'd have allowed me, I would have killed them."

"And prove them correct? I would not give them the satisfaction." She drew in slow, deep breaths to maintain composure. Of the many injuries she'd sustained over time serving in her kingdom's army, she could recall none that hurt so badly.

Isandel tied the various strings down the front of her tunic to close it again and brushed her hair away from the injured shoulder. Even the minuscule weight of the cloth sent throbbing heat and pain racing through the swollen flesh and she squeezed her eyes shut against the persistent ache.

As Taelin re-entered, two spheres of water hovered near his shoulders. They quivered as he stepped, as though the force of his footfalls jostled them, even though the liquid lacked any contact with his body. She watched the spheres through blurry eyes, past tears brought by pain, and wondered how one could have so much control over something so...formless.

He knelt on the bed and raised his hands. The orbs floated to hover over his palms. "I'll need scraps of cloth."

Isandel ripped several from his robe and folded them. "You've great skill with your familiar," he said as Taelin soaked the rags.

"Zethir and I found our familiars when we were children. We learned together from an old man who merely adopted the name 'Viccer'. He taught us the ways of the thief's guild." He waved his hands and the remaining water splattered against the walls. "Academic lessons are not wasted on those who cannot pay."

The concept of any seryn in such a position was shocking to Elery. There was no such problem in Lyewryn—her father had often waived the tuition of many who could not afford an education. She watched Taelin take the soaked rags as her mind spun around this new information. "There were many like you in Andethayn?"

He smiled wistfully and raised the drenched cloth. "More rags. Something to place between the ice and her shirt, and another to bind them in place.

Isandel ripped more from his clothes and draped a thick strip of cloth over her shoulder. The soaked rags stiffened and grew glossy as Taelin said, "Brace yourself."

Elery hardly had a moment to react before he pressed the frozen rags against her shoulder. Even through protective barrier of cloth she could feel the bite of the cold. She gasped and flinched away.

Isandel gripped her opposite shoulder to hold her still.

Taelin placed a second iced cloth on her back. "There are a great many like Zethir and I, Princess. We cannot all be so privileged as to come from the Jewel of the World like you."

Cylphi hurried through the door moments before Zethir and Dakkan arrived. "The nerve of—"

"Forget the knights," Elery said. "Right now they are not important. We have other matters." She hissed as Isandel bound the cloth around the ice rags. It was tighter than she imagined it should be, though she would not argue. "I am useless in battle now and that must change. Without the use of my sword arm I must move past whatever has prevented me from utilizing Misani to her fullest."