Traveller's Refuge (11 page)

Merlyn’s eyes widened in shock with Dai’s rare use of the crude term. “Dai!”

“What? You know exactly what I’m talking about. You and Jade certainly spend enough time making love. How do you explain all those children you have? Not to mention the new little ones you planted in her belly,” he added slyly. “Don’t you think you’re getting old enough to switch from Papa to Grandpa?”

Ignoring Dai’s teasing, Merlyn stalked ahead of him, head high. He loved all of his children but found it faintly embarrassing that he was going to be a new father again. His cheeks were flushed a pale lavender as he contemplated explaining the sexual mores of the valley to his brother. In his youth, before he and Jade had arrived in the valley, he was the one the others teased for being so prudish. Shaking his head in remembrance, he wondered what they would have thought if they had known his celibacy was because of his early
attachment
with Jade.

They walked along a wide turn in the path and suddenly faced Dancer and Eppie. Merlyn rushed forward and tried to take Eppie in his arms but she backed up against Dancer. Narrowly studying his bond-father, Dancer embraced Eppie protectively.

“Are you all right?” Merlyn demanded.

“She is now,
Baron Merlyn Llewellyn
.”

Merlyn winced.

“It would have been better if she had not been in the line of fire when I found out you’d both lied to me.” Dai and Merlyn shifted uncomfortably at Dancer’s cool observation.

“When should I have told you?” Merlyn asked quietly. “You were already hurting. Was I supposed to kick you when you were already down?”

“There was ample time to mention it somewhere along the way,” Dancer replied coldly. “I don’t have time now to discuss it. Trav’s more important but there will be a reckoning—sooner rather than later—once he finds out he’s landed in Llewellyn land.”

“Bishop’s in Lost Market.”

“I know. If you’re asking if I’m going to kill him, then the answer’s no. He’s Trav’s friend. I’m not so sure about you. Can we go now?”

“We can go.” Merlyn turned toward the village, still singed by Eppie’s clear decision to side with Dancer. It was right but it hurt.

Chapter Eight

Sunlight poured over the valley like liquid gold. Bish numbly followed Llyon and the others as they carefully moved Trav to the village. Something very strange was taking place here. There was no way that Dancer would have ignored his injured brother, thought Bish. And the odd disappearance of Baron and Dai bothered him.

When they arrived in Lost Market, he found it to be a surprisingly large charming village, composed of round adobe domed homes painted a variety of pastel colors. Some were simple one-room buildings, while others appeared to be comprised of many linked circular rooms. Neat yards with stone walls enclosing flourishing gardens lined the paths leading through the village. In one yard, bright blue and green birds picked at some kind of feed scattered in the dirt. He decided that they must be a type of domesticated bird, similar to chickens. At the other end of the village, two more of the enormous dogs silently observed the commotion while a woman arranged wet garments on a wooden “tree”.

They headed for one of the largest buildings in the village and carried Trav inside, placing him on a bed in a small treatment room. Wrenna had prepared the bed and room and waited stoically in the corner until they had Traveller in place. Then she moved to his head, gently placed both hands on each side of his face and closed her eyes.

Bishop watched with increasing astonishment as Llyon slipped a
flicknife
from the sheath below his knee and ran it along the outside seams on Trav’s jeans. The fabric parted smoothly as though unzipped. His eyes widened as Llyon quickly treated the other seams the same way. Evidently, Trav wasn’t the only one who kept his knives sharp.

Then Llyon slowly moved his hands along Trav’s body, muttering to Jonas. With each comment, Jonas wrote something down on a sheet of stiff material. “What are you doing?” Bish asked with growing curiosity.

“I am trying to see exactly how badly he’s hurt. Jonas is filling in his record. Once I know the extent of his injuries, I will make a decision about what to heal first,” Llyon explained patiently.

“But how will you heal him?” Bish demanded. “Shouldn’t you be doing something with IVs and X-rays and stuff like that?”

“I’m sure that where you come from, such things are common,” Llyon replied steadily, “but we have nothing like that here. My father explained some of those things to me but we don’t have them here.” He moved down Trav’s right leg, indicating for Jonas, “a break here, here and here. The ankle is sprained. Let’s see about the other leg…hmm, not too bad. Only one small fracture here just below the knee. He’s not going to be hiking across the valley anytime soon.”

Tyger slipped into the room and stood next to Wrenna. “How bad is it?” he asked softly.

“Could be worse, I suppose.” Llyon rotated his head, trying to loosen the stiff muscles in his neck. “I’ll need to work on the internal injuries which aren’t nearly as bad as I anticipated and stop any bleeding before I worry about the bones. Can you have things ready when I finish?”
Please take Bishop with you
, he added in mind speech.

“Of course,” Tyger agreed, drawing his uncle from the room with him. “Will you help me get things ready?”

“What is he doing? What do we have to get ready?” Bish’s puzzlement grew as he watched Tyger arrange food and drink on a tray. Carrying it down the hall to their compartment, Tyger set it next to the bed. He watched as his odd nephew located a scented candle and lit it, then sprinkled some herbs among the pillows. “What are you doing? What does this have to do with Trav?”

“Llyon is a healer. Papa told us that you don’t have healers. A healer
heals
with the mind, using his personal energy. When Llyon finishes doing what he must for Traveller, he will collapse from exhaustion. He will need to eat, drink and sleep at once.”

“What about medicine or painkillers for Trav?” Bish’s frustration threatened to escape his control.

“Jonas and Mali have enough healing talent to take turns blocking his pain until Dai gets back,” Tyger assured him quietly. “He will be fine.”

“Why isn’t Dai or Baron healing him?” Bish’s temper snapped. “Why did they go off like that?”

Tyger gripped him by the shoulders and forced him to sit down on a stool by the hearth. Stooping down so he could look directly in Bish’s eyes, he said with barely controlled anger, “First of all, they went to take care of Eppie and Dancer. Dancer was very angry when he arrived in the valley. We don’t believe that he would harm Eppie but Papa and Dai feel responsible because they withheld information.” He sighed in frustration.

“Secondly,
Llyon
is the most powerful healer in the valley. If anyone can save your friend, then it will be Llyon!” He stood and stretched slowly. “Every healer has a caretaker, a
katuazha
—someone who will see to their needs when they must extend their energies while healing. I am Llyon’s
katuazha
. Now if you have more questions, please wait for Dai or Papa to return. I need to be ready when Ly finishes, he probably won’t even have enough strength to stand.”

Deep in
rapport
with Trav, Wrenna was barely aware of movement around her. This was not how she had envisioned meeting her bond mate, even in her wildest imaginings. The broken, pain-driven man she was linked to bore very little resemblance to the man to whom she’d struggled to explain their future relationship. That man had been strong, dominant and confident even while his life was in danger.

Subconsciously, Traveller was reaching out for Dancer, anxious because his brother wasn’t present. Anger welled up in Wrenna’s chest when she thought of Dancer’s focus, not on Trav’s injuries but on his own sense of betrayal. Trav sensed her disturbing thoughts and fought to break their
rapport
.

Abruptly, he threw off their link and demanded blurrily, “Take me to your leader!”

Squashing the angry frustration, Wrenna silently soothed him.
It
’
s all right
,
Traveller
.
Dancer will be here soon
.
Relax
…

She felt the rigidity in his body subside and realized that Dai had indeed returned with Dancer and Eppie. With Dai’s added strength, Mali and Jonas were able to block his pain more completely.

Llyon sighed softly in exhaustion. “Dancer! I’m glad you’re here. Wrenna needs help with Trav. We’ve blocked out as much of his pain as we can. We need to straighten and immobilize this leg. Try to distract him!”

Dancer cleared his throat and asked his brother, “I’m not their leader but will I do?”

Traveller, obviously in pain, very slowly turned his head and studied Dancer with foggy blue eyes that moved incredulously from Dancer’s face, taking in the changes in his appearance, down to his soft purple sharda. His eyelids fluttered closed and he moaned. “What have they done to you, Dance? You’ve turned into a blue Vulcan!”

Unable to contain his amusement, Dancer laughed out loud before leaning down close to Traveller’s ear and murmuring, “And that’s the least of it. You must get well as quickly as you can, Trav. I found my woman—and our grandfather. I have a lot to tell you once you’re better.”

Llyon and Merlyn worked on Trav’s body with deep concentration as Mali, Jonas and Dai, deep in a trance, held back the pain. Even so, he groaned when they straightened the breaks in his legs. Gritting his teeth, he cocked one eye open and took another disbelieving look at Dancer. “You’re insane,” he gritted out. “Certifiable. What’s with the kilts?”

Dancer squashed down the impulse to leap on the men working on Trav and beat them to a pulp for the pain they were causing because he
knew
they were doing their best to help him. Seeking a way to take Traveller’s attention away from what was happening to him, Dance leaned back down next to his ear and said, “You’re going to be an uncle. Eppie and I are going to have a baby.”

“A what?” Trav just knew that his hearing must have been affected when he hit his head. He was positive Dancer couldn’t be talking about babies.

“A baby. We’re going to have a little blue-skinned, pointy-eared baby. A girl.” Almost as an afterthought, Dancer added, “And it’s half Llewellyn.”

At that bit of news, it became clear to Traveller that Dancer had been thoroughly brainwashed. His eyes flew open and he stared at Dancer in consternation. Finally, he declared, “Don’ worry, Dance. Jus’ ‘s soon as I get well, I’ll save you. When we get back ‘ome, you’ll feel better.”

Shaking his head very slowly, Dancer asked, “Have you met your hosts, Trav? No? Allow me to introduce them, then.” Gesturing at them in turn, he said, “The little guy there with the silver hair is our grandfather, Dai. He was Mama’s papa. And the fellow working on your arm is Baron Merlyn Llewellyn—Bishop’s missing brother. He and his wife, Jade, have been here in this valley over twenty-five years.” Trav twitched involuntarily and groaned as he processed that information. “The young man healing your legs is Llyon Llewellyn, my bond-brother and Merlyn’s son. He’s going to be a master healer soon,” Dancer added with obvious pride.

In spite of his pain and discomfort, Trav regarded him with growing dismay. “You’ve completely forgotten what they’ve done to our family,” he panted angrily. “Well, I won’t! I won’t forget that they’re all dead because of a Llewellyn! I won’t ever forget!”

Rushing out to the hallway, Wrenna suddenly bent over and clutched her belly. Eppie and Wolfe grabbed her before she could slip to the floor and eased her into a chair.

“What am I going to do now?” Wrenna whimpered.

Eppie hugged her tightly and rocked her gently. “I know. I know.”

“What? What!” Tyger demanded in growing alarm as Wolfe rubbed her back and shoulders.

Worried, Eppie stared into Tyger’s eyes over Wrenna’s head and reminded him, “Trav is Wrenna’s bond mate. He
hates
Llewellyns. And she’s begun
schalzina
.”

Pursing his lips in thought, Tyger observed, “But he’s not going anywhere for a while. And I have complete faith in Wrenna and her general stubbornness. In a showdown between them, my barter credits are on her.”

“What will I do?” Wrenna demanded with clenched teeth.

“He’s naked and can’t move—the possibilities are endless. If you can’t change his mind, you’re not the woman I know you to be,” Ty retorted with a wide grin. “I can see that I’m going to have to build a new loom posthaste if I’m going to get your bonding blanket completed in time. In the meantime, I have to go take care of Llyon.”

With a comforting pat on her shoulder, Wolfe turned away and stalked down the hall to the kitchen. “Until you convince Trav that all Llewellyns aren’t evil, we’re going to need more
wachaz
tea. Lots of
wachaz
tea…”

After Tyger left the compartment, Bish sat deep in thought. The strange welter of impressions and emotions was overwhelming. He felt like he was suffering from brain freeze. Thoughts flittered just out of reach. He couldn’t seem to pin anything down.

He was still sitting there when Tyger carried a very limp and exhausted Llyon through the doorway and deposited him gently on the bed. Stripping off his
sharda
and sandals, he got Ly covered up and then shifted him so that Ly’s head was leaning against his chest. “Come on, Llyon. You must at least drink the tea. Then I will let you sleep. Come on,” he crooned softly.

“Soo-oo cold, Ty.” Llyon’s teeth were chattering. “Sooo cold.”

“I know. You did too much, Ly. Just drink your tea and I will hold you and warm you up. Just a couple more sips…” He set the mug back on the tray, stripped off his own clothes and climbed into the bed with Llyon. Bish watched in confusion as Tyger shifted around until he had his shivering twin comfortably nestled in his strong arms. “Bishop, will you close the door on your way out?” he requested as he turned his attention to caring for Llyon.

Bishop closed the door and went in search of someone—anyone—with answers.