UNSHEATHED

Chapter Twenty One

It was raining lightly when Elena woke. Her hands were sticky with blood. She propped herself up and moved aside when she realized she was draped across the Prince's chest. At least the steady rise and fall meant he was breathing. His eyes were closed, but his face was its normal pallor.

She shivered with cold, utterly exhausted. She felt about and located her jacket. She tugged it over her shoulders and fitted herself between Liran's arm and his chest and fell back into darkness as she warmed.

When she woke once more, she no longer felt drained. She looked around and saw that she lay on the ground alone now. It was getting dark and the forest loomed above with reaching branches and the fluttering of leaves. Only a few large drops fell from time to time. She sat up to see the Prince sitting against the trunk of a tree, looking much better. He smiled.

"Welcome back, Captain," he said. He had made a fire.

"You are well, My Lord?" she asked.

"I am, and you?"

She stretched and yawned. It surprised her to realize she was perfectly well.

"I'm fine as well."

He looked down as if shamed.

"I didn't think I could do it, but you were right. I didn't think I would be able to control myself." The words were only a whisper. "I owe you my life."

His words puzzled her.

"Why did you resist if you were able to heal yourself?"

For a moment, the Prince looked away.

"It can be intoxicating. Very hard to resist."

"Maru?"

"Yes, when you take it from another."

"I thought for a moment you might drain me too well, and you were holding my hand so hard."

The Prince's eyes grew veiled and his expression turned to stone.

"I'm sorry. I fear if you hadn't cried out, I might have gone too far, so it seems the pain served a purpose."

"It wasn't so bad." Elena flexed her fingers to show that everything worked fine. The Prince stoked the fire and turned a stick with meat skewered on it. She sat and warmed herself by the fire.

"My mother discovered how to take maru when she rescued my father from capture in Kalad. He had been tortured and was in terrible shape. She transported him away from his captors using maru, but didn't have enough strength left to heal him afterwards. When she looked up, her vision shifted to show her that maru was everywhere."

"Is that how you figured out that I had maru?"

"Yes, I have this ability too, and to be precise, I mean that you have a great deal more maru than one would ever expect a Trillas to have, or even a Hilliri."

Elena raised an eyebrow at that. Just one more thing she needed to have her mother explain when she found her.

"When my mother saw maru all around her, she had the thought that she might be able to borrow some. She did, and was able to heal my father. But she also discovered the after-effects."

Liran turned the cooking stick once more. It was starting to smell good.

"Imagine if others were to learn of this? Those who are ruled by greed would take maru they wished. They would become too powerful to resist. This knowledge must remain secret. That's why I made you swear never to tell what happened here."

Elena shook her head. "I won't."

"Do you think our assailants might be under some kind of influence like the man in Ergin's village?"