Starsinger

Waking Up

Slowly the ocean grew calmer, until he found himself floating on the surface, the waves rocking him back and forth. He slept.

Aaron woke when he felt solid ground beneath him. Shore. He opened his eyes, but instead of a rocky beach he saw the slats and beams of a wooden ceiling. Around the sides of his face puffed the yellowing sheets of a feather pillow.

Delia leaned over the bed, eyes shut and hands aglow with emerald light as she murmured to herself. Aaron looked up at her and instantly her eyes flew open. A fierce joy lit her face. "He's awake."

Jace bolted to the bedside in a tangle of limbs, Raelyn and Sapphire a second behind. Three sets of shoulders relaxed at once. Aaron tried to laugh, but his chest hurt. Why am I so tired?

"You're alive," said Jace. He blinked his wet eyes in irritation.

"Can't get rid of me that easily." Aaron's voice came out like a wheeze, and he cleared his throat forcefully.

"I did it," Delia said, swaying slightly, her tone nearly delirious with pride. "Three nights and three days, but godsdamn it, I did it."

Then her knees buckled and she promptly fell to the floor.

Jace caught her before she smacked her head. "What's wrong?"

"I'm fine," Delia said, pushing him away before she was fully back on her feet. Her eyes were glazed and drooping. "Just tired."

Raelyn sighed. "I said you were pushing yourself too hard." She put a hand to Delia's forehead. "You need rest. I'm taking you back to your room to make sure you don't faint."

Bur first Raelyn bent to plant a quick kiss on Aaron's forehead. "You gave us quite a scare," she murmured. "Good to have you back."

"Try not to move too much," Jace told Aaron as Raelyn slung her arm around Delia's waist and helped the exhausted mage from the room. "Delia said you'd be sore. You'll need time to sleep it off."

Aaron groaned. His head was pounding. "Where are we?"

"Mercali," Sapphire answered. "In the tavern."

Still? Delia was supposed to be long gone by now, and Sapphire headed back to Ellanoi. Aaron looked harder at Jace. There were dark bags under the striker's eyes and his hair was greasy, sticking up at odd angles. His clothes looked as if he'd slept in them.

"You look awful," Aaron said.

Jace grinned. "Not as bad as you."

"What happened?"

Jace's mouth pulled taut. "The bastard got you with some fatemonger magic."

Aaron remembered something important. "It was one of them, Jace. Another black-eyed..." He broke off. There was a word he wanted, but he couldn't find it. He furrowed his brow. What was it?

"Raven," Jace finished. "We know."

Aaron blinked. "You know?"

"We've got a lot to catch up on." Jace laid a hand on his shoulder and squeezed. "But first you've got to rest. Delia said you might feel—"

A frustrated sound echoed from the hallway. "Jace?" Raelyn called. "I need a hand."

"Hold on," Jace called. He turned to Aaron. "I'll come back with some water."

Aaron's stomach rumbled painfully. "And food, please."

"So demanding." Jace shot Aaron one last grin and slipped out the door.

While they'd been talking, Sapphire had moved so she was standing across the room with her arms crossed. Her relief had been replaced with a carefully guarded expression, and Aaron felt his stomach clench uncomfortably. "The stablehand?" he asked.

"Safe. Scratched up a bit, minor concussion, but she's fine."

"Did she say what happened?"

"Someone struck her from behind. She tried to fight back but the attacker had a knife. Said he was using the blood to draw something in the straw. You interrupted him. Then Delia said he got inside your head and made you hallucinate your most terrifying memory." She dropped her eyes and Aaron sucked in a breath. She knows.

"It was a long time ago," he said, throat tight. Already he could feel his heart bruising, scabbing over the reopened wound. Never gone. But livable. At least it had been before.

He tried to focus. "The stone, he used a piece of..." An empty silence bloomed in Aaron's head where the word used to be. He could see the stone in his mind's eye, black and glittering darkly right before the world went to hell. He knew the word, he knew he knew it. Godsdamn it, what's wrong with me?

"Obsidian."

"Yes!" Aaron cried. "Wait. You saw?"

Was he imagining it, or did she flush? "I followed you," Sapphire said. "When I came through the door, he bolted."

Aaron remembered the strong hands pulling him back, the voice calling for help. "You held me down."

"I thought you were going to hurt yourself. Or somebody else."

The heat creeping up his neck was very unhelpful. "He got away?"

Sapphire bit her lip. "We tracked him," she said quietly. "Jace and I and a few of the villagers. The trail led us to a cave in the Wood. That's where we found the body."

A cold satisfaction chilled Aaron's chest. "I killed him."

Sapphire pressed her lips together in silent confirmation.

He pulled the blankets closer, but it was no good. The cold was inside him. "Gavran did the hard work. All I had to do was finish him off." The thought caught the edges of Aaron's grief, and he forced himself to return to the present. "We need information. Someone has to interview the villagers, figure out if anyone saw him—"

"Jace is on it. Once Delia can function again, we'll debrief." Sapphire saw Aaron shivering and straightened. "You should rest. I'll leave you."

"Sapphire."

She paused, hand on the doorknob, and turned back to him. Aaron's mouth was dry. "About before, in the Teeth—"

"Don't."

"I said some things I didn't mean."

"You meant every word." But she was looking at him differently now, sizing him up. "I'm not sorry for lying to you. I did my duty, and I would do it again a thousand times over."

"I know," he said quietly.

"But I didn't enjoy it." Sapphire's eyes flicked around the room, looking everywhere except for Aaron's face. "I didn't want to keep secrets from you. You should know that."

He swallowed the lightness in his chest. Keep it together, Talus.

She glanced back at Aaron. "But I don't regret it, so I can't apologize."

"No," he said. "No apologies." There was a pause. Aaron wanted to say more, but he could feel his eyelids drooping closed, his body crying for sleep.

Sapphire saw him struggling and shook her head. "You need rest. Go to sleep."

"So demanding."

She snorted and Aaron heard her open the door. "I'm glad you didn't die."