A Way of Honor (Champions of the Crystal Book 2)

Chapter 18.1

The atmosphere aboard Khediva was tense with anticipation; Scotty and Sabrina felt the difference the moment they found themselves on the control deck. Tirqwin's chrysalis lay in his room, where Mara had placed it when Khediva told her his awakening was imminent. They had all agreed that he should be somewhere familiar when he woke, and Khediva said he would need a great quantity of nutritious food and drink.

Scotty and Sabrina hurried to the galley and picked up the trays of food Khediva had produced, then followed Mara into Tirqwin's room. It was not a room they had ever been allowed into before, and if they had been less excited about Tirqwin's emergence they would have been disappointed in its normalcy.

The hard shell of the chrysalis was criss-crossed with hairline cracks, and around the cracks it was flaking like pastry. Scotty and Sabrina stared in amazement as Mara clasped her hands together, closed her eyes, and reached out for Tirqwin's mind. When she found it, she gave a little sob of relief, her expression turning beatific as her sense of aloneness dropped away.

There came a tapping sound from the weakening chrysalis, and at last a hand punched a small hole in it. Scotty grinned. "Just like baby chickens," he said.

"Ssh," Sabrina said.

Mara held on to Tirqwin's free hand for a moment, then helped him fight his way clear of the rest of the chrysalis. He sat up, blinking in confusion, as Mara threw her arms around him. "Oh, Tirqwin!"

"Mara," he said, his voice hoarse from disuse. Then his gaze found the platter of food Scotty was holding, and he nearly knocked Mara over reaching for it. Mara laughed a little and handed him a plate.

Sabrina examined him closely for signs of damage. His hair was lighter, more a blond color, and his face was, perhaps, a little less thin, but otherwise he was still the same Tirqwin she remembered. With one other difference, she realized in horror: his clothes, charred and bloody from the explosion and turned stiff and brittle by the chrysalis, were falling off him in ragged strips. She put her platter of food down and reached for a blanket, throwing it over his lap and tying it in a rough kilt arrangement at his hip.

"Well," she said, as Mara and Scotty grinned at her, "now at least I'll find out whether that's been the same suit all along. It's not coming back from the dead after this."

Tirqwin gave her a glance to show he had heard her, then continued eating. She and Mara took turns dabbing food off his chin or handing him something to drink, while Scotty sat by and watched in amusement.

"He's very happy to see us all," Mara told them.

"Not as happy as he is to see all this food," Scotty laughed.

"Scotty," Mara chided. "When Tirqwin lost consciousness, he did not know if I would survive. He knew only that you were in Malvarak's hands, and that Sabrina had survived—but he did not know her condition—and was trying to reconnect Khediva. Naturally he is relieved to see that we all are intact." Mara reached up to wipe a smear of liquid from Tirqwin's cheek, and he turned his face slightly to kiss her finger. "But we are all well, and even Uncle Rayland will be all right—you saved his life, Tirqwin—and after the wedding everything will be fine."

"Mara," Sabrina reproved. "You are not to speak to him about that yet. Not," she added with a grin, "until he is acting at least a little more normal."

Tirqwin casually reached over and jammed a small cookie into Sabrina's mouth, causing Mara and Scotty to nearly double over laughing.

"Well," Sabrina said, gulping down the tasty cookie, "I know when I'm not wanted! I have some things to do, so—"

Tirqwin caught her arm and pulled her back down beside him. "You are never not wanted, Sabrina," he said between mouthfuls. "Particularly since Mara says we cannot be married without your approval."