Highland Sorcerer (13 page)

"In here." Edeen took them into a
dried-up stream bed and beneath a jumble of slender fallen trees
and long branches that looked like a fast moving stream had carried
the debris all to a point where they caught against rocks jammed
together. There was just enough room to hunker down
inside.

They got the men situated. Once Col hit
the ground, it appeared all the reserves he'd utilized to get this
far left him and he promptly passed out.

Just perfect.

Toren moaned, curling over to his side
to ease the pressure on his ribs. His hair was plastered to his
scalp and face, his breathing harsh. There was a bit of blood at
his lips. Dammit. One of both of his ribs must have pierced
something internally. His breathing was harsh and ragged, but at
least he was still breathing. Maybe it wasn’t as bad as she
feared.

Whatever the damage, it couldn’t be
left any longer. She had to heal him now.

Charity pushed the damp hair from his
cheek and Toren flinched. "Nay."

Her heart clenching, Charity let her
hand drop.

Edeen's hand feathered over her arm.
"'Tis the fever."

"I guess I should be happy he let me
help him as much as I did. He thinks I'm working with Aldreth."
They didn’t have time for his delusions about her.

"I…" Edeen's shoulders hunched with
exhaustion. "Thank you for coming. Thank you for helping us get my
brother out." The ends of her hair swayed as she shook her head. "I
felt the depth of your connection—yours and Toren's. I know you
gave up his memories of you to travel beyond yer past. Charity,
'twas a brave thing to do. I wish…" Edeen didn't finish. Her hands
went to one of the bands still upon Toren's wrists. "We need to get
these off. As long as he wears them, Aldreth can find him and any
magic he possesses is useless against her."

Healing first. "I don't suppose we can
just cut them off?"

Edeen shook her head. "'Tis a powerful
spell. I tried, but could not unravel it fully."

Charity pushed a lock of Edeen's hair
behind her ear, a gesture she often made with Lenore. "You did
enough to get him out."

"But will it be enough?" Unshed tears
glistened in the girl's eyes. She pulled on the bands. "Aldreth has
the means to find him and take him back at will."

Charity stopped her before she did more
damage to the torn flesh beneath the leather. The symbols carved
into them glowed at her touch.

Both girls stilled, watching to see if
they would light up again. That couldn't be good.

"It will be all right," Charity
assured. "We didn't come this far to fail. Aldreth will have to go
through me to get at Toren."

"Aye." Edeen's lip fell into a thin
line. "Through me as well."

They shared a grim smile.

Charity shuffled closer to Toren. "I'm
going to do what I can to heal him."

"Ye're exhausted," Edeen
protested.

"I'll be more exhausted if I have to
keep taking half of his weight. Besides, I don’t think it can be
put off." He was so pale. “I have to do this now.” She glanced at
Col, softly snoring on the other side of Toren. "Toren’s hurt
pretty bad. I' don’t think I’ll have enough energy for Col as
well."

Edeen nodded. "Do what you must for
Toren. Col is merely weakened from remaining in his magical form
overlong. He should recover on his own." Edeen stroked the young
man's cheek. "I'm sure of it." Her tone didn't exactly convey the
same certainty. "Remain here. I'm going to go cover our
tracks."

Charity nodded, already placing her
palm upon Toren’s chest and gathering her magic from within her
core. “Please be careful.”

Edeen nodded and slipped
away.

Chapter
Nineteen

Aldreth will have to go
through me to get at Toren.

Her voice fluttered around
Toren's consciousness like ribbons of silk. He'd sensed that
conviction earlier.
I will save
you.

Toren panted around the sharpness in
his side, his breaths too shallow to fully expand his burdened
lungs. He was at once excruciatingly hot then brutally cold. Long
shivers seized muscles that brought more pain, more
torture.

He swam against the current in a sea of
delirium, uncomprehending of what was real.

Aldreth had won.

He couldn't think, could do naught but
tense his body, clench muscles to stave off the burning agony that
was his flesh. To make it stop, to climb out of this pit, he would
promise her anything.

"Toren, I'm going to fix this." The
soothing voice crooned across his forehead like a caress. 'Twas
Aldreth's healer, she of the ebony tresses and piercing violet
eyes. She ran to him through the mists, concern weighing down
delicate brows. The slight pressure of her palm rested upon his
sternum.

I'm going to save you Toren
Limont. Don't think I won't.

That had never happened.

Toren rolled his head back and forth,
cradled within a feminine lap. That had never happened, though the
scene rippled through his emotions like a lost memory.

I need your
name.

Her words whispered over his heated
skin.

And he had given it, trusted her with
his name like offering a pearl.

When? When had he done that? He
couldn't remember. Images overlaid upon another. He was in her
strange home. She refused to heal him. Nay, she did heal him. His
head rolled again. His arms flailed as he reached out…for
what?

Nothing made sense. An anvil hammered
inside his head.

Heat scalded his lungs. Burning. He was
on fire for nothing else could explain the flames.

His ribs moved. He cried out within the
tide of brutality, recognizing the vicious force demanded of a
healing.

He rolled to get away from it, unsure
that he'd survive it, yet an arm flew around him, holding him in
place and a voice wept close to his cheek.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It will be
better soon. I promise."

He settled for her, riding it through,
for he hadn't the strength to do aught else. Harsh breaths expanded
his chest in and out until he found his breathing slowed, following
another's pattern.

"In. Out. In. Out. That's good. Breath
with me. In. Out."

His eyes fluttered open to lips that
stretched into a smile. Lips that were above him and very close to
his own.

"Toren?"

He shoved away from her, half-surprised
he could do so without more than a dull ache. Still weak, his arms
buckled threatening to pitch him forward.

The healer, too, supported herself with
shaky arms, also weakened from the healing, yet 'twas the
crestfallen look of disbelief that made him want to rush back to
her side.

He pressed the flat of his palm to his
head as though he could push hard enough and reorder his jumbled
thoughts.

He had no recollection of what had
transpired or if what he did remember was actually truth. His
thoughts were a muddled mess.

They were inside a tangle of tree limbs
and mud. Col lay unconscious beside him in the muck.

"What have ye done to my
brother?"

"I—" If anything the healer looked
hurt. "I didn't do anything." She shifted toward them.

Toren threw out his hand. "Stay back.
I'm taking my brother out of here."

"What? Are you kidding me?" Now she
appeared indignant.

"Nay. I am not
kidding
ye." He didn't
like how unnaturally still Col was. "Col." He nudged his shoulder
and the lad's eyes stirred beneath his lids. If the healer had
harmed him…"

Edging out of the enclosure backwards,
Toren grabbed Col's arm and the fabric at his hip and pulled him
across the soft squishy ground.

The Healer Enchantress slammed her
fists on her hips. Even on her knees and tiny as she was, she
looked like a woman not to be trifled with.

"What are you doing? Where do you think
you're taking him?"

To his home. Someone in the
clan would know how to undo whatever she had done to him. Except…
He squinted through disordered memories, unable to think clearly.
That wasn’t right. He couldn’t take Col back to the village because
the clan had left. Surely they had gone to
Reolin Skene
by now.

He had to take Col there. Hopefully
they weren’t too late, but if they were, he would call on the Fae
to open the gateway and get his brother to the safety of the
Shadowrood. He expected that the Fae could also somehow rid him of
these spelled bands. And then once his entire clan was safe, he
would come back for Aldreth. She could no longer be free to wreak
havoc on the world, with or without his clan already
gone.

When he was finished with the witch,
he'd find a special punishment for the healer. He found Col's
saffron shirt and also his boots next to him and began clothing his
brother, tugging the shaggy head through the fabric and guiding the
limp arms through the sleeves.

"Fine," the healer said. "What of your
sister then?"

Toren went rigid, recalling his
sister's voice had been floating at the edge of his delirium. Did
the witch have her?

"What have ye done with
her?"

"Now you're just being
stupid." The healer crossed her arms. She was shaking and pale, at
the end of her endurance after healing him. Which why had she
bothered to heal him? Those violet eyes sparked with temper. "All
by myself, I overpowered a shape-shifter, an extraordinarily gifted
empath,
and
carried
your heavy sorry ass all over this godforsaken forest. For what
purpose? And then healed you. If I'm working with Aldreth, wouldn't
it have been easier to leave you all in the dungeon once I lured
Col and Edeen there? Sheesh."

Her eye’s sparked. They were far too
expressive. He could fair see every emotion flit across her lovely
face, though he was not prepared to stomp caution to the ground as
long as Col and Edeen were at risk.

He frowned, his head so muggy with
clashing images and conflicting emotions toward the woman, he
didn't know what to make of her. One moment he wanted to throttle
her while the next he felt the overwhelming need to scoop her into
his arms and kiss the scowl he’d put there off of her brow. As it
was, she was little threat right now in her weakened condition.
Right now, Col was his main concern.

"She makes a valid point, Toren." Edeen
crawled beneath the tangled branches.

Toren's gaze whipped to her, relief
pulling tight in his belly. Before he realized he'd covered the
small distance, even with the aches in his body, he had her crushed
against him. He hadn't dared believe he'd see any of his family
again, but here Edeen was, hale and free and he was determined to
keep her and Col that way.

Gods, what was doing here? She and Col
should have gone into the Shadowrood by now.

Edeen clung just as tightly to him,
unwilling to let go when he eased her back to look her over. She
was disheveled, the hem of her kirtle encrusted with dirt, but
otherwise appeared unscathed, a beautiful sight to his tortured
soul.

Behind him came the thump of a body
hitting the ground.

Edeen’s features went from relief to
concern and she was out of his arms moving forward.

Toren turned to find the little healer
unconscious on the ground.

For a moment all he could do was stare.
Conflicting feelings roiled through him. She looked so fragile,
dark hair spilled over the ground. Thick lashes formed half-circles
upon her pale cheeks.

He crouched, scooping her into his arms
before he realized he had even moved.

Beside them, Edeen smoothed a lock of
hair off Charity’s forehead. “Healing you has left her exhausted.”
She frowned at him. “Yer injuries were great.”

Toren frowned. He had been angry,
confused. He still didn’t know what to think of her or her part in
his torture or rescue, but he couldn’t think beyond the fact that
she had taxed herself for him and he wanted her to wake
up.

"What's happened?" He knew he would get
the truth of events from her.

"We've freed you, Toren. We got you
out."

"Aye." That much was obvious. His gaze
slanted to the healer, desiring to see those sparking violet eyes
open. "What ails Col?"

Worry lines puckered Edeen's forehead
and she shook her head and reached over to take Col's hand on her
other side. "He pushed into Aldreth's barriers while in the state
between shifting." Edeen winced up at him. "'Twas the only way to
get to you."

Toren went cold. 'Twas dangerous for a
shifter to hold that state of magic overlong. Many had tried and
been lost—simply dissipating into the ether. How long had he
maintained that form? 'Twas a testament to his brother's ability…or
his desperation.