Shadows Book 1 in the World of Shadows (5 page)

Staden knelt beside him and checked the
bandages across my stomach, neck, and shoulder. He nodded to
himself and left without saying a word. Dathien rose and followed
him. Puzzled, I turned back to Axon. “Why are you taking care of
me?”

He met my eyes, his own serious and
unsmiling. “You bled for us. You could have let us all die back
there, but you fought instead. No one expected that.”

“
Even you?” I asked
softly.

I could see the truth in his eyes before he
nodded. “Yes, even me. I saw how you were treated at the Caves. You
had no reason to put your life in danger for us.”

I looked away, embarrassed, and my eyes fell
on the manacle on my wrist. It looked strange now without the chain
attached to it. “I was chained. I couldn’t leave.”

“
We both know you could
have escaped. You could have climbed the tree and watched us die.”
I looked up and saw the corners of his mouth twitch as though he
held back a smile. “I think there’s more good in you than you let
on.”

I stared at him. “Why do you talk to me like
this? Why do you even tolerate my company? I’m a Duskie, if you
haven’t noticed.”

Axon hesitated, then said, “Maybe I’m trying
to change things. Life for Duskies isn’t always like at Firen
Caves. Maybe I’m trying to give you a second chance.”

I watched him, suspicious but caught by the
honesty in his voice. I sat up slowly, holding my side. He moved to
help me, then hesitated and dropped his hands when he saw I could
do it by myself. I waited a moment to catch my breath. “Your men
don’t like Duskies,” I said to the desert sand. “It can’t be that
different from the Caves.”

This time his voice held a curious note.
“Look around you. I think you might find things different this
time.”

I studied the faces around us. His men
worked to set up camp and mend the tent so that it was usable.
Dyloth and Jatha glanced in our direction from where they sewed the
canvas seams, and when our eyes met, they nodded and Jatha even
smiled before turning away. Rasa handed me two pieces of flat
bread, a generous serving of hard cheese, and two pieces of the
cactus fruit. I glanced around and noticed that the other men had
only been given one piece of fruit and bread, Axon included. Rasa
winked at me. “Enjoy,” he said before walking away.

I turned back to Axon and tried to hide my
amazement. “But why?”

Sadness crept into Axon’s eyes. “These men
have been loyal to me since the day I was born heir to the Lumini
throne. We’ve bled for each other, and I lost good friends on the
trek to Lysus.” He glanced at me. “But you’re not one of us. You’re
a Duskie, someone we’ve been raised to think of as inferior, yet
you risked your life and bled for us. You would have died, too, if
the Sathen had attacked any earlier.”

I knew he was right: a shudder ran through
me when I remembered hoping that the Sathen would finish me quickly
and not leave me to bleed to death while they ate me alive. I
touched the bandages at my neck. I was surprised to find that the
wounds weren’t as sore to the touch as they should be.

Axon must have seen my puzzlement. “Staden
and Jatha healed you the best that they could. You’ll still have
some healing to do on your own, but they were able to stop most of
the bleeding and cure any infection before the fever set in.”

I had heard of the healing powers of the
Luminos that they could call upon when channeling the sun. It took
a lot out of them and was dangerous if they tried to use too much
of their energy during the process. I had never seen an actual
healing performed.

Curious, I unwound the bandages around my
right hand where the Sathen had bitten it almost clean through. The
cloth fell away to show jagged teeth marks through my palm and the
back of my hand. But when I moved my fingers gingerly, they obeyed
and wiggled, bones healed and tendons repaired. Only skin
lacerations remained that would heal with time.

“
You’ll still have the
scars,” Axon said softly.

I met his gaze with lifted eyebrows. “And
that would be anything new?”
He stared at me in surprise, then shook his head. “I don’t know how
you can laugh about what others did to you.”

I looked back at my hand to avoid his gaze.
“Better laugh than cry, don’t you think?”

“
Especially when there’s
nothing you can do to change it?” he asked, his voice
quiet.

“
Exactly.” I took a bite of
the prickly pear and waved it at him. “This is definitely my
favorite food next to Marken's sand crab. Who knew food could taste
so good?”

He laughed and rose to his feet. “I’m glad
you enjoy it. I had more than my fill on our journey here.” He
tossed his piece of fruit on my lap and went to check on his
men.

I stared after him, puzzled and comforted at
the same time. My wounds throbbed, but it was with a healing pain.
I wrapped the bandages back around my hand and tucked the ends
underneath so they wouldn’t snag, then fell on the cactus fruit
with vigor.

Dyloth, the skinny Luminos with the ink
stains on his fingers, pulled out a set of panpipes after dinner
and started to play them. I didn’t know if it was to chase away
fears of the coming night or to say goodbye to the setting sun, but
the mournful notes filled me with a strange sort of peace.

Music had been scarce at the Caves. The
upper chambers where things like frivolity, having enough to eat,
and entertainment flourished, had been off-limits to the Duskies.
The notes touched my soul and made my bones ache to drift off in
the air after the deep, wooden tones. I sighed when Dyloth put his
pipes away and opened my eyes to face to coming night.

“
You don’t have to stay up,
you know,” Dathien said next to me.

I glanced at him. “No one else can.” He
already fought to keep his eyes open as the last of the sunstrength
left him.

“
But you wouldn’t be fit
enough to defend us if Sathen attacked anyway,” he pointed
out.

I shrugged at his concern. “If a fight
comes, I’ll do my best to match it.” We both knew how little impact
I would have against the creatures, but it was the truth. I would
give everything I had again if it would save even one life,
especially after the kindness they had shown me. I couldn’t explain
it, let alone tell Dathien my reasons. I looked away from the
compassion in his eyes.

He reached behind him and brought something
out. “For you.”

I glanced over, then stared. Dathien held
out a spear made from a staff and someone’s knife strapped securely
to the top. I touched the steel and noted the freshly sharpened
blade. “Thank you,” I whispered, not trusting my voice to remain
steady.

“
We noticed that that’s
what Duskies fought with at the Caves. Thought it might bring you
luck.” Dathien settled onto his back to sleep without waiting for a
reply.

I looked across the enclosure and found Axon
watching us. He met my eyes and gave a half smile with raised
brows. I lifted the spear and he nodded. I mouthed ‘thank you’ and
he just smiled again and laid back on the warm desert ground.

I studied the spear as much to avoid looking
out from my perch on the sand to the desert beyond the tattered
tent as to push down the emotions that rose in my chest at the
gift. No one had ever given me anything. My lips curled slightly at
the thought that the first gift I received was a weapon of death,
but given last night, it was fitting.

Dathien had wrapped blue cloth around the
handle of the shaft so I could grip it better. I smoothed the cloth
with a finger, my chest tight and a burning feeling in my heart. I
would protect them with everything I had, no matter what that would
mean to my own well-being.

I shifted my cushion in an effort to find a
less-painful way to sit, and leaned back against the extra cushion
Jatha had brought me. In Firen Caves, I had sometimes imagined how
it would feel to be pampered like the upper class; despite the pain
in my back and side and the numerous wounds along my body, it felt
pretty much how I thought it would. I gave a satisfied sigh and
studied the lonely stars winking back from their midnight blanket.
A tam awoke in the night and hissed at whatever had bothered it; a
smile touched my lips at the comfort the sound could give because
when the tams were out, the Sathen were far away.

Chapter 6

“
Still awake?” a voice
asked softly by my elbow. I turned wearily to find Axon looking
bright and chipper after the night’s sleep.

I nodded and waved my makeshift spear
weakly. “No Sathen dared attack us while I was on guard, Sir
Prince.” Marken and Rasa chuckled from nearby as they pulled out
rations for the morning.

“
How do you feel?” Axon
pressed.

I stretched carefully against the pull of
the bandages along my back. “I’ve been better, but the cushions
were nice.”

Axon laughed, a light, carefree sound. “I’m
glad you like them. We should be in Lysus before nightfall if we
push it today.”

The thought filled me with trepidation
because I had no idea what to expect when we got there, but I
nodded. “Good.”

He nodded, too, and a quick flicker of
emotion I couldn’t read showed in his eyes. “Good,” he repeated. He
then rose and walked away.

I stood up, then wobbled light-headedly.
Staden was there before I could fall. “Careful, you don’t want to
pull the stitches.” He offered me a water skin. “You’ll heal faster
if you keep hydrated.”

I accepted the skin and took a long pull. I
wiped the mouthpiece on my shirt before handing it back. “Thank
you.” I hesitated, then said, “Axon told me how you healed me.”

Staden nodded, a touch of color to his gray
cheeks. “We did what we could. I’m sorry it couldn’t be more.”

“
You used your strength to
heal a Duskie. Would you have done that before Firen Caves?” I
asked, watching him closely.

Staden looked at me for a moment, then
turned his eyes to a point on the desert he seemed to find
interesting. I realized then that the doctor was a lot older than
the rest of Axon's comrades. Age lines showed around his eyes and
his gray skin was weathered by the ceaseless sun that gave him
strength. His fair hair was touched with pure white at the temples,
and the pain of losing comrades to the Sathen showed in the weary
cast of his mouth. “No,” he replied honestly. “Not unless we were
ordered to.”

I looked away, hurt though I couldn’t
explain why. “Oh.”

Staden touched my arm and I looked back at
him. “We weren’t ordered to heal you, Nexa. We wanted to. You
risked everything for us.” He smiled and grooves deepened around
his mouth. “You’re one of us now, whether you want to be or
not.”

I blinked rapidly at the sudden tears that
came to my eyes and Staden mercifully turned away before I had to
respond. I kicked a small rock, wondering why I felt so emotional
when I was usually a rock myself, hard and impenetrable to everyone
because I knew no one really cared. But for some reason, these
Luminos cared in their own ways and I didn’t know how to handle
that.

Dathien and Jatha brought over the stretcher
made crudely from a strip of canvas from the shredded tent tied
between two walking staffs they had carried me in the day before.
“I can walk,” I argued.

Staden shook his head from where he packed
up his travel possessions a few feet away. “No, you can’t,” he
replied amiably. “We had to use a lot of your own energy in the
healing, and while you’re stronger than we expected, any strength
you exert now will slow the healing.”

Dathien gestured to the stretcher and smiled
to show his jutting front teeth. “Think of it as a private
carriage.”

I frowned. “What’s a carriage?”

He laughed deep in his throat, then picked
me up like a rag doll and set me on the canvas. He was surprisingly
gentle for someone so huge. “Just enjoy your nap,” he said with
another chuckle.

Seeing that I had no choice and knowing with
the exhaustion that ran through my limbs that I would have a hard
time keeping up on my own, I set the spear next to me with the
point toward my feet and settled on my side to keep the pressure
off my back. Dathien and Jatha picked up the stretcher, which
tipped up at the front due to Dathien’s tall stature. I quickly
fell asleep to the steady cadence of their feet.

I awoke as the stretcher was set carefully
on the ground. The sun beat down around us, bold and bright at its
noonday peak. I shaded my eyes with my hands and saw the Luminos
working quickly around me, pulling weapons from packs and stacking
their possessions against a tall cactus next to me. “What’s wrong?”
I asked no one in particular.

“
Sathen. They’ve spotted us
and are heading this way,” Axon said. He threw his pack onto the
pile.

I picked up my spear and attempted to stand,
but Axon gently held me down with his hand on my shoulder and shook
his head. “No. This time, we defend you.” He smiled at the protest
on my face. “Just sit back and watch the show; see what a little
sun can do.”

About thirty Sathen crested the dune in
front of us and began a quick descent. I gripped my spear tightly,
alarmed that the number of Sathen were getting larger. Sharp cries
and shrieks met our ears as they neared, running now at the promise
of an easy feast. The scent of decay hit us just before they
reached the Luminos.

Marken and Dyloth met the first wave with an
axe and curved sword in each hand. Red scaled bodies, either
decapitated or missing vital body parts, scattered to the ground
around them as they easily took down the first six, then turned to
meet the next wave. The Luminos barely seemed to break a sweat and
fell back only when Jatha shouted that they were taking all the
fun. The two Luminos let the next wave slip past them and took up
the stragglers, effectively trapping the Sathen between two rows of
lethal blades.