A pulse of sickly gray magic cracked through the air, blowing apart the ground near them. The horse screamed and reared violently in response, but Egan managed to keep them both seated on the horse as he growled, "Mages!"
Sienna watched with a pounding heart as figures burst from the reeds ahead. Slavers. A dozen at least. Despair overcame him. I'm helpless…no, he thought as he glanced back Egan's determined face, I'm worse than that, I'm baggage, useless baggage.
"Stop them!" A slaver, with a familiar voice, shouted in desperation.
Egan drew his sword. I can't risk fire here, but I have to somehow get us out of this mess. He huffed internally, well…better to be outed as a swordmaster than an Ashbound.
A glow rippled along the blade as Egan flared his aura as he swung his sword from horseback.
Steel flashed as his aura lashed out toward the slavers, the first mage screamed with mouth full of blood as he fell.
But Egan could not control the horse, defend Sienna, attack the mages and protect the horse, so when another spell came and this time struck the ground beneath the horse, Egan was powerless to stop it.
Egan and Sienna shared the same thought, Shit!
The horse screamed at the explosion, and reared, throwing its riders. No longer willing to put up with this madness, it bolted before its riders could even hit the ground.
Egan threw his sword away and twisted midair. He didn't much care for the idea of stabbing himself or Sienna, thank you very much! He wrapped an arm around Sienna and slammed into the ground first. Pain exploded through his shoulder.
He quickly dragged himself and Sienna to their feet and shoved Sienna forward, "Run!" Egan shouted.
As Sienna staggered toward the mangroves with fear pounding in his ears, Egan dove for his sword narrowly avoiding a mage's blast as it tore into the earth where he had just stood.
Egan grabbed his sword as he rolled, coming to stand in time to block a blow from another slaver armed with his own sword. Slip parrying his opponent's blade to the side, Egan lunged forward and drove his own blade into his opponent's chest. Using his foot to dislodge his sword, he shoved the dead slaver off his blade and turned, raising his blade above his head in a hanging guard to protect from yet another slaver's blade powerful overcut.
As he fought one handed, Egan saw out of the corner of his eye, slavers following Sienna into the thicket of mangroves. Panic reared within him, but something within seized him and demanded more from him.
Son of a…!
The bond rose up and seized control of Egan's power, his injured arm rose, aimed toward the pursuing slavers, and let loose a massive fireball.
Egan had once, a long time ago, used both his sword aura and his flame ability at the same time, and the resulting consequences had convinced him to never do so again. However, he was not given a choice by the bond, which demanded he protect Sienna no matter the price.
Fire consumed many of the slavers' numbers, though some escaped into the waters of the grove, as Egan felt deep pain roar within him. He coughed up a worrisome amount of blood right into his opponent's face.
The slaver staggered back, screaming in agony as face bubbled and smoked where the blood had touched him. His distraction cost him, as Egan ran him through with his sword in that moment.
Breathing hard, Egan wiped the blood of his mouth, staining the bandages wrapping his hand and knuckles.
Well, guess the cats out of the bag now. Egan thought as the panicked slavers were exclaiming, "Flame elementalist!"
He sheathed his sword and shoving his agony aside, he flung out his hand and letting loose a jet of flame that consumed all that was before it.
Egan didn't wait to listen to the dying men's screams. Instead, he rushed toward the mangroves. He vaulted from the roots to the trunk and used the tangled branches like a ladder. In moments he was in the canopy, using the interwoven limbs to cross above the swamp without ever entering the water.
Egan could feel the bond tugging him in Sienna's direction, and he prayed to the elements that he would get there in time.
****
Sienna forced his aching body through the waist deep water. His heart was pounding so loud he could hardly hear the water splashing and sloshing in his wake.
He was cursing himself even as he ran. Logically, he knew that he would only be a burden to Egan if he stayed, but the apex predator that was suppressed within him rebelled at the thought of running from his enemies. Or, at least, that was what Sienna told himself as he left Egan to face all those enemies by himself.
He definitely wasn't thinking of chains and whips, of pain and humiliation. He absolutely wasn't thinking about how kind and caring Egan had been towards him, or how fiercely Egan was currently fighting to protect him.
No, no, no! Sienna thought as he momentarily squeezed his eye shut, still running from the pursuers that had followed him into the mangroves. He'll be fine. He has to be fine. Sienna thought without looking too closely at why Egan needed to be okay.
The mangroves grew thicker the deeper Sienna stumbled into them. Twisted roots rose from the brackish water like grasping claws, forcing him to weave awkwardly between them. Mud sucked at his bare feet. Every breath scraped his lungs raw.
He could hear them behind him. Boots. Two of the slavers crashed through the undergrowth.
"There!" one shouted. "Don't let the beast get away!"
Sienna tried to run, but his body refused. Pain lanced through his ribs and down his legs. The collar at his throat pulsed faintly, draining what little strength he had left. He barely made it three steps before a rough hand seized his arm.
"Got you." The slaver jerked him backward. Sienna cried out as the man's grip tightened like iron around his collar.
"Boss'll skin us alive if we lose you again," the man snarled. "You're coming back."
No! Not again! Sienna struggled weakly, fury and terror twisting together in his chest. Please, not again!
He twisted and clawed at the grip, but the slaver only laughed and began dragging him toward the open water channel between the mangrove roots.
"Should've just killed that asshole from the start and broken your legs, dragon. Well, we'll be a'remedying that."
"Forget breaking!" Spat the other slaver, "We should just chop 'em off!"
Then the water moved. At first it was only a ripple, a slow bulge beneath the dark surface.
Sienna went pale. He knew when he was being stalked. Something enormous shifted beneath the water, but the slaver didn't notice. He was too busy hauling Sienna backward.
The surface exploded, and a colossal shape erupted from the brackish channel. An open jaw, rows of jagged teeth.
The Brine Maw surged upward like a living nightmare. Its scaled head was the size of a wagon wheel, barnacled plates scraping against mangrove roots as it lunged. The slaver had time for one scream before the creature's jaws snapped shut around his torso, rending him in two, and spraying blood across the tangled roots as the monster dragged the corpse beneath the water.
Sienna fell backward, staring in horror. Just what in the Wastes was that!! Sienna screeched in the privacy of his own mind. No, he did not sound like a little girl! He was a mighty dragon, damn it.
The other slaver stood frozen for half a heartbeat before panic sent him turning to try and run through the waist high waters.
"Gods—!" He cried, but, perhaps, due to his foul deeds, it was the water that answered in a surge with the Brine Maw erupting from the murky depths with terrifying speed, its eel-like body whipping through the mangroves.
Powerful jaws opened, parting the water. Snap! Snap! Serrated teeth closed around the fleeing man with a sickening crunch. The screams broke with a bloody gargle.
A heavy silence returned to the mangroves as bloody ripples disturbed the dark water.
Sienna's breath came in short gasps. I'm going to die! Eaten in a swamp by something I don't even know what in the skies it is!?
Sienna's eyes widened further as the water in front of him bulged again. The Brine Maw rose from the channel, massive head lifting slowly from the black water. Pale eyes fixed on him, and Sienna felt his heart stop.
Shit!!
The creature opened its jaws. Sienna scrambled backward, hands slipping in the mud unable to look away from its teeth glistening with blood. His panicked breaths brought the smell of death and rot to him.
No, no, no, no! Just before those horrifying jaws lunged toward him, something dropped from the trees in blur of dark cloak and crimson hair. An arm wrapped tightly around Sienna's waist, pulling him clear of the water just as the monster's teeth snapped shut with harsh crack where he had been a moment ago.
Sienna barely had time to register Egan's presence as the world lurched upward. Egan had launched them into the mangrove canopy with impossible strength to land on a thick branch high above the water. Below them, the Brine Maw thrashed in the shallows, jaws snapping at empty air, vexed at having its meal stolen.
Sienna clung to Egan, heart hammering violently, hands trembling uncontrollably.
"What," panted Sienna, "in the name of Avaloria is that!?"
Egan leaned out over the branch to get a closer look, "Hmm. Looks like a Brine Maw."
Sienna shot him a disbelieving look, "A what?" he screeched. He knows the answer?!
Before Egan could answer him, branches snapped and five more slavers burst into the clearing. Their entry had the Brine Maw flipping around to eye them with pale predator eyes.
The slavers skidded to a halt when they saw the massive creature coiling through the mangrove's dim water.
"By the Gods! What foul monstrosity is that?" One of them cried, spurring the Brine Maw into motion as it lunged toward them, tail thrashing.
"Fu—" Another started to swear, but his companion cut him off, raising his hands to throw magic toward the beast as he shouted an order, "Kill it!"
Magic gathered as three of the mages that managed to pull themselves together in the face of the death rushing toward them. They thrust the magic forward; arrows of spell hurtled toward the monster, yet they never struck the ravenous beast.
Water rose, no mere wave, the entire channel lifted as a wall of seawater surged upward between the monster and the slavers, stopping the spells midair with a violent hiss.
The mages were thrown backward into the trees as the wall of water gushed crashed down towards them.
As the men groaned and the water settled, a woman appeared. Her steps left small ripples as she walked on the water's surface her long dark blue hair swung in a braid down her back, her light blue robes flowed around her as water drifted in a parody of a mantle, but it was her eyes that were most striking thing about her. They glowed, sea foam coming to life within them; their light highlighting a thin scar that ran from above her right eyebrow and down craving a crescent in her cheek before disappearing into her hairline behind her ear.
It was as though an angry sea Goddess had descend before them, and for a moment, even the wind held its breath.
The slavers stared, and it seemed as though she looked down on them with all the aloofness one would expect in a being of the divine.
"Who—"
A chilling voice cut off the slaver's quandary with a single word, "Eat."
The Brine Maw that had stilled at her entry shifted ravenous eyes that had watched her every movement toward the slavers. It surged forward, its powerful movements causing the water to explode into spray.
The first slaver vanished beneath its jaws before he could register what was happening. As his blood darkened the waters, some of the others screamed in horror. Magic was forgotten as they fled through the mangroves. A nightmare snapping at their heels as it pursued them through the water channels with terrifying ease. Screams echoing through the trees told of their ending.
Into the silence came a voice as clear as water, "You are," the woman looked up into the trees where Egan had sagged in relief at the sight of her, "a reckless idiot."
Egan gave her a careless grin as Sienna stared in stunned disbelief.
"Mira, perfect timing." Egan praised as he swung down from the canopy to perch on a branch by the water.
Sienna blinked both at the words and Egan's action. Sienna had no desire to get close to that water again. He really is an idiot.
Refusing to budge from his high haven above the water, Sienna called down to Egan, "You know her?" Sienna eyed the woman who had just commanded that atrocity like a trained hound.
Egan looked up to give Sienna a crooked smile. "Yes," Egan looked back to Mira, "She's a friend." He gestured to her, "Meet Mira of Thalasseren. Mira, that's Sienna the dragon." Egan introduced the two with a wide grin.
The woman ignored the introduction in favor for looking Egan over, "You're bleeding."
"Occupational hazard." Egan shot back in a joking tone to conceal how truly injured he was.
Mira sighed heavily, and she flicked her eyes up toward Sienna. "So, this is what your current trouble looks like." She sighed again, "At least he's easy on the eyes."
Sienna blinked.
Egan snorted, "I'm beginning to feel personally attacked."
Mira's lips twitched.
She turned toward the Brine Maw that was returning, "They were fools to chase you into my wetlands," she said coldly as she petted the scaled monster that glided through the water and raised its terrifying head, so she could pet it with ease. "But what else is new?"
The Brine Maw's massive body was splayed languidly through mangroves as it kept it his armor-plated head still under Mira's hand. It was to that scene that Egan looked up at Sienna and beckoned him down.
"You can come down now, Sienna" he assured.
Sienna glanced away from the disconcerting scene, crossing his arms, "I prefer it up here."
Egan roared with sudden laugher, "Have it your way." He guffawed.
Sienna glared down at Egan, yet still didn't move.
Mira sighed again and with a put-upon air she told Egan, "You're impossible."
Mira looked up at Sienna and smiled invitingly, "Do come down." She entreated, "I would like to take you both Azurefall. It would be fastest if we rode."
Sienna blanched. Rode? Rode what?!
"…What?" Sienna ventured hesitantly.
Mira sighed as Egan tried to stifle his chortling, "The Brine Maw will not harm you—"
Sienna interrupted with a screech, "Not harm me? I've seen the inside of its mouth!"
Egan nearly fell from his branch as he now laughed uncontrollably at the sight of Mira's exasperated face.
Ignoring Egan, she replied, "It will not harm you, so long as I am here." She patiently continued, "I would like to get you both to Azurefall and seen by healers as soon as possible."
"Couldn't we just…?" Sienna tried desperately to think of another way, but Mira had exhausted her patience. A tendril of water wrapped around a surprised Sienna, and lifted him down to the Brine Maw's back.
"Damn it!" Sienna cursed as he eyed the Brine Maw, which eyed him back.
"Well?" Questioned Mira gazing at Egan as he wiped tears of laughter from his eyes. "Don't worry. I'll make sure it keeps you out of the water."
Egan smiled, "Thanks, Mira." And he jumped onto the creatures back with the grace of a flame in the wind.
Sienna smirked at Egan, "You're afraid of water?"
Egan smiled and opened his mouth to reply, but it was Mira who answered, "He'd die if he swam in the marsh."
Sienna whipped his head towards her then back at Egan, who was indignant. "I wouldn't die." He protested. "You make it sound like I never so much as bathe because a drop of water will kill me!"
Mira huffed and turned away as the Brine Maw moved them through the marsh and towards Azurefall. "I do not consider what you call bathing to be bathing!" She shot back.
"That was one time! How was I supposed to know a water elementalist couldn't handle the water!" Egan snapped.
She whirled to face him, glaring, "That wasn't water! It was a boiling mix of volcanic minerals in liquid form!"
"Ha! Some people call those hot springs, you know!"
"That was no hot spring! It was cooking pot! If I wasn't a water elementalist, I would've died."
"Don't be dramatic!"
"Dramatic? You torch-brained idiot!" Mira snarled.
Sienna felt a little baffled. They are friends, right?
"Umm…" Sienna tentatively interjected into their growing quarrel, "You two…ah…know each other…well?"
****
The Brine Maw sped through the mangroves, which gradually began to thin the further north they went. As night began to fall as they travelled, Egan created two fireballs to light their way until they reached open water.
Soon twisted roots gave way to an open water channel that glittered in the moonlight. On the other side of the channel was a sandbar where several small boats were moored, the area lit by the bioluminescent plankton drifting beneath the boats making the shoreline shimmer like fallen stars.
Sienna was thrilled to disembark the Brine Maw, hopping on to the sand and putting as much distance between it and him as the sandbar would allow. Egan leaped nimbly from its armored back onto the sand while Mira slid into the water and patted the monstrous creature gratefully on the head before sending it back wince came from.
Mira guided them aboard one of the small boats. Standing at the bow, she raised her arms before spreading out to her sides in a parody of a breaststroke, and the boat began to glide through the water at her direction.
In the distance, glowing, undulating, waves revealed Azurefall, the capital of Thalasseren, and the seat of the Tidecrown.
The city's majestic form seemed to rise directly from the ocean. White stone towers reflected moonlight like polished shell. Waterfalls cascaded down terraced cliffs into glowing canals that wound through the city like veins of liquid silver. Bridges arched across the waterways and lanterns swayed in the sea breeze.
Sienna stared. They could create such beautiful place?
"I've never seen the like." Sienna breathed in awe.
Egan and Mira shared a smile, "It is wonderous, isn't it?" Mira said as she gazed at her homeland. Though her rearing here brought many conflicting feelings, she couldn't deny, seeing the bioluminescent plants lining canal edges and the lanterns floating gently along the waterways, made it seem as though heaven had fallen to earth.
Their boat drifted past the lanterns and the Stormwatch towers stationed at the entrance to the outer ring of the city—the Saltward.
As they traveled, Sienna saw wide docks made of pale stone, carved with intricate wave patterns worn smooth by countless tides. Fishermen hauled glittering nets from the water while others sorted their catches beneath hanging lanterns that swayed in the night breeze. Crates of silver-scaled fish, coiled sea serpents, and enormous shellfish were stacked along the quay.
Further along, long piers stretched like fingers into the harbor where merchant vessels from distant coasts bobbed gently at their moorings. Sailors shouted across gangplanks while port wardens in sea-blue cloaks inspected cargo by the light of floating lanterns.
Water moved everywhere, and not only in the sea. Thin canals threaded between the dock houses and warehouses, their currents flowing steadily through stone channels etched with glowing runes.
Sienna observed as a pair of water elementalists guided the currents with lazy gestures, sending crates gliding along the water like drifting leaves toward waiting workers.
Beyond the docks rose the first tier of the city itself.
The Saltward was built in ascending terraces of white stone, each level connected by wide stairways and arched bridges that crossed the flowing canals. Low market halls, shipwright workshops, and storehouses lined the waterfront, their roofs tiled in sea-green ceramic that shimmered under the moon.
Here and there stood tall watchtowers crowned with rotating rings of water that circled their tops like living halos. Guards stood within them, scanning the dark horizon.
Sienna leaned forward slightly, staring. The entire district felt alive.
Water ran along the narrow streets in channels beside the small walkways as clearly, water was the preferred method of travel. Lamps of blown glass floated within the currents, their soft blue light reflecting off the wet stone so that the streets seemed to glow.
Even the air felt different, threaded with the constant whisper of moving water.
Sienna realized suddenly that every structure seemed designed with the tides in mind. No wall stood flush against the sea and every building rose slightly above the canals, supported by carved stone pillars that allowed water to pass beneath them during high tide.
"This…" Sienna said slowly, still staring.
"…is only the outer ring." Mira glanced back at him from the bow. "The Saltward," she continued. "It's where traders, sailors, and travelers first enter Thalasseren."
Egan gave Sienna a faint grin. "Wait until you see the inner city."
Sienna gazed as their boat slipped deeper into the glowing harbor. If this was merely the outer ring, he could scarcely imagine what the heart of the city must look like.
Their boat drifted toward waterfall and Egan called out to Sienna, "Sienna, come here." He had moved off the seat and was leaning his back against it at the stern of the small boat while Sienna was seated closer to the bow.
Sienna turned to look back at Egan curious, but remained unmoving, "Why?"
Egan grinned, "Ah, so you don't drown?"
Sienna's eyebrows flew up to meet his hairline, "What?!"
Egan sighed, "The little tempest apparently doesn't want to go the long way around." At Sienna's bewilderment and Mira's rekindled ire, Egan pointed to the waterfall they grew ever nearer to. "She's taking us the route of the water elementalists."
Sienna's jaw dropped he as realized what Egan was implying even as Mira snapped, "Well, perhaps I wouldn't feel compelled to rush if you were able to stay out of trouble."
Egan huffed with feigned indignation, "I don't see what they have to do with each other."
Sienna, after traveling with them throughout the day, was able to ignore their squabbling. He carefully rose and moved to sit next to Egan, yet Egan had him sit in his lap.
His face like a red lantern, Sienna squeaked, "W–What?"
Egan grinned and his warm, deep voice spoke into his ear, tickling his hair across his curved ear, "We don't want to lose you. Do we now?"
Sienna gripped the arm that wrapped firmly but gently around his middle, "How are you going to keep us in the boat?"
Egan chuckled lowly in his ear causing something to flip low in his belly. As he pressed his feet into the wood that formed the middle seat, he replied, "Well, let's see, shall we?"
Mira eyes flared before the waterfall that gleamed silver in the moonlight; she stepped up on to the edge of the bow and slowly the boat rose to be vertical with the waterfall as she stood atop it, eyes locked upward.
Sienna's eyes widened as the boat rose and gravity dragged at him although, he noted, did not seem to touch Mira. As she stood on the edge of the boat, she made an ethereal picture as strands of her blue hair that had escaped her braid floated and moved in wind not felt or seen, drops of water danced around her, and her blue and white robes swam through the air.
Sienna felt the strength in Egan's hold around his middle, and he pulled his eyes away from the celestial seeming Mira and looked to the rim of the boat where Egan's hands were crushing the wood. He could hear the wood creak around them as Egan kept them within the boat through pure strength.
Oh, he thought, impressed and for some reason the thing in his belly flipped and warmed even more at the sight.
Before he could think too much on it, the boat tilted forward as Mira seamlessly, gracefully, stepped once, twice, coming to stand inside the boat as it once again came to drift horizontally on the water.
Egan moved himself and Sienna to sit on the bench once more. Sienna ignored Egan's chuckle as he moved to sit next to Egan.
"We have entered the second ring, the Living Canals." Mira informed them without looking back at them. "We'll be at the Hall of Healing soon."
Sienna took that time to look around at the city once more. The change was immediate.
The chaos of the docks faded behind them as the boat drifted into a vast network of waterways that wound through the city like living veins. The canals here were wider and calmer, their surfaces glowing faintly with soft blue light from clusters of bioluminescent plants that clung to the stone walls beneath the waterline.
The air felt cooler. Cleaner.
Where the Saltward had smelled of fish, salt, and ship tar, the Living Canals carried the scent of fresh water and flowering reeds.
Stone walkways bordered the canals on either side, smooth and pale as polished shell. Elegant bridges arched across the waterways at regular intervals, their railings carved into flowing patterns of waves and sea creatures. Lanterns hung from curved posts along the paths, their glass tinted sea-green so that the entire district glowed with a gentle aquatic light.
Homes rose in graceful tiers above the canals.
Unlike the crowded dock houses of the outer ring, these buildings were open and airy. White stone walls were shaped in soft curves rather than hard angles, and balconies overflowed with trailing vines and blue-white flowers that swayed in the ocean breeze.
Water flowed everywhere. Not only through the canals.
Thin streams ran along the edges of the streets in shallow channels, weaving around stairways and under bridges before spilling gently back into the larger waterways. Sienna looked on as one of the currents suddenly lifted into the air, forming a smooth arch above a walkway before flowing neatly back into its channel.
A water elementalist stood nearby, guiding the motion with nothing more than a flick of her wrist.
Further along the canal, several children laughed as they balanced atop floating discs of water no larger than shields. With small gestures they propelled themselves along the canal like drifting leaves.
Sienna blinked. They're… playing with it.
To them, the water was not something to fear or fight. It was simply part of life.
Boats passed them quietly as they drifted deeper into the district—long, slender craft carved from pale wood that seemed to glide without oars. Some were steered by elementalists, while others moved along currents that had clearly been shaped long before their arrival.
Above it all rose towering structures of white stone and glass that reflected the moonlight like polished pearl while waterfalls cascaded from their upper terraces, falling in shimmering ribbons that fed the canals below.
Sienna leaned forward slightly, captivated.
"This place…" he murmured. "…it's alive."
Egan smiled at his wonder.
Mira's voice drifted back from the bow. "The canals were shaped centuries ago, so the water itself circulates through the city. Fresh currents flow in from the sea, pass through the canals, and return through the lower channels." She gestured ahead. "It keeps the city clean… and makes it easier for us to listen."
"Listen?" Sienna asked.
Mira did not turn. "Water remembers."
It didn't feel like he would receive a clear answer, so Sienna fell silent at that.
As the boat rounded another bend in the canal, the buildings began to grow taller and more ornate, their terraces lit by floating lanterns and glowing water gardens. Rising above them all, like a crown of moonlit stone, stood a vast structure carved into the cliffside, and Mira guided the slowing boat toward it and a wide marble landing carved directly into the edifice wall.
It rose from the water, a structure unlike anything Sienna had ever seen. The Hall of Healing did not resemble a fortress or palace. Instead, it seemed almost hewn from the stone itself. Pale white columns curved upward like the ribs of some enormous sea creature, arching together overhead to form a vaulted canopy adorned in water, magnifying the light of the stars in the night sky.
Clear streams cascaded down the outer walls in thin shimmering sheets, collecting in shallow basins before spilling gently into the canals below. The falling water caught the lantern light and scattered it across the stone so that the entire building shimmered like moonlight on waves.
Sienna stared. "This… is a healer's hall?" he murmured
Despite the beauty of the city he had admired as they traversed, he still had expected something darker, quieter. He had thought the grim chambers the mages had dragged him through were similar to what lay beneath all of the mortals' veneer of gorgeous architecture. However, he could not deny the peace which emanated from this place. It felt almost…sacred.
Egan helped him from the boat, and, with Mira leading the way, they climbed three wide, shallow steps, entering the hall proper.
Sienna froze as the interior opened into an immense circular chamber. The floor, with polished white stone veined faintly with blue, reflected the soft glow of lanterns suspended in spheres of gently rotating water overhead. Channels of flowing water wound through the floor itself, forming delicate patterns that connected pools and fountains scattered throughout the chamber.
A few healers moved quietly between channels with most of them wearing pale blue and white robes, their sleeves tied back as they worked. Some knelt beside patients resting on low stone platforms. Others stood waist-deep in shallow pools where faintly glowing water swirled around the injured. Wherever a healer moved their hands, the water followed.
Sienna gazed as one woman guided a ribbon of water across a fisherman's arm. The liquid glowed softly as it passed over a deep cut. When the water withdrew, the wound beneath it had already begun to close.
Sienna's breath caught at the display of power so tranquilly delivered to those in need.
They're… healing.
Nearby another healer murmured softly while a swirling sphere of water hovered around a young child's leg. The boy sniffled, but the healer's serene voice and gentle touch kept him still.
No chains. No cages. No screaming. Just serenity washing away pain.
Sienna felt something strange twist painfully in his chest. So, there are places like this, too. These humans…perhaps they're different…He swallowed hard, absorbed by the sight before him.
Beside him, Egan shifted slightly. The movement was small, but Sienna noticed immediately, and his eyes snapped toward him. Egan's easy smile had faded. His skin was pale beneath the lantern light, and there was a tightness in his posture that hadn't been there before. In the light of the chamber, Sienna could see the blood that had pooled at Egan's neckline.
Egan staggered and coughed, unable to suppress any longer the damage within him, Sienna's stomach dropped as he watched blood spill in disturbing amounts from Egan's mouth at each cough.
Sienna stood frozen as Egan fell to his knees and Mira rushed to his side. It had hit him all at once. The slavers, the fire, the fall, the mangroves. All of it. Egan had been injured protecting him, but he had laughed. The scene before him had him clutching his painfully tightening chest.
Before he could move or say anything, Mira's voice cut through the hall. "I, March Warden Mira, require assistance," she announced evenly as she supported Egan's flagging form. Several healers were already in the process of moving toward them long before Mira even finished speaking.
They stepped across the channels of water running through the floor. When the first healer reached them, he hesitated and bowed his head in respect, "March Warden," he said as the others arriving behind him followed suit, but she barely noticed their actions.
"I need help moving him," she said evenly. "He's a flame elementalist," She warned. Water elementalists always had difficulty healing flame elementalists as their dual natures directly clashed with one another. Though the healers showed their surprise, they didn't hesitate to aid him. Two healers stepped forward immediately, each placing one of Egan's arms over their shoulders as they all but dragged him toward the nearest stone platform. Egan's boots dragged weakly against the floor, echoing in the vast chamber. Sienna followed behind the healers and Egan without being conscious of movements.
Egan's breathing had grown shallow and ragged as frequent bloody coughs racked his frame. When they slowly laid Egan down, his body shuddered and another, more violent, cough tore from his chest, and spilled blood across the white stone.
The stark contrast of the white and red made Sienna freeze. His stomach dropped. Those colors would haunt his nightmares in the future, he was certain. Surely, that was too much blood for any mortal to lose.
One of the older healers lifted a hand and water rose from the channels in the floor, gathering into a hovering sphere above Egan's chest. "Prepare yourself, child of flame. This will most certainly hurt." He said grimly.
Yet before the healer could do anything, Egan's hand twitched, and he caught the healer's sleeve weakly. "Wait." The word came out as breath, but the healer heard him and paused as did Mira, who leaned closer.
"What is it?" She asked, worry leaking into her usually stoic voice.
Egan's eyes shifted toward Sienna. "Treat…" A strangled rasp filled the chamber as he struggled to get enough air to speak, "…him too."
Sienna stiffened. "No." The word slipped out before any healer could move towards him.
Mira and the healer looked between them for a short moment. After looking at Sienna for a moment, Mira observed, "You are injured."
"I'm fine." Sienna asserted defiantly, yet he and everyone else in the room knew he wasn't. Mud still clung to his legs, dried blood stained the shirt Egan had given him as the lash marks on his back had reopened during the chase, yet Sienna couldn't even look at the healer. His eyes were locked on Egan.
Egan's mouth twitched faintly. "Stubborn dragon…" he rasped.
Mira snorted, "You're one to talk, you damned Torch-brain!"
The healer on the opposite side of Egan from Mira, cleared his throat at the unexpected crass language from the Watch Warden, and gently pried Egan's hand from his sleeve.
"We will treat both of you in due time," he said diplomatically. "But if we do not begin now, you are not likely to survive, flame elementalist."
Sienna's breath hitched at the healer's declaration as Egan nodded his assent for them to begin.
The healer gave him a grim look and reminded him, "Brace yourself," lifting his hand to direct the sphere of water causing it to descend towards Egan's chest.
The moment the water touched Egan, his entire body jerked uncontrollably, and a soft moan escaped his lips as his face contorted in pain. A hissing sound came where water touched his skin and steam began to waft into the air.
A strangled sound tore from his throat as the water seeped within his body and flared brighter as it spread across his ribs. Sienna felt his own chest tighten in response.
"Easy," the healer murmured, "Try not to fight it."
Egan's hands clenched into fists and his teeth ground together. He's asking the impossible! Egan thought through the haze of pain.
Glowing water surged deeper within him, guided by the healer's fluid movements. The glow moved beneath Egan's skin like currents in a river and slipped within his lungs.
Egan arched sharply at the painful invasion and a hoarse cry escaped him before he could stop it.
Sienna flinched, "You're hurting him!" He cried as he moved to step toward Egan in his defense.
The healer's words stopped him, "Flame elementalists resist water healing. It is always painful for his kind, but his body is fighting the current more than most."
Mira frowned and stepped forward, "Move." She commanded.
The healer obeyed without hesitation, relinquishing control of the water to her. Mira's eyes began to glow a brilliant sea foam color as she summoned more power than the other healer could attempt to. Unlike the other healer, she did not guide the water gently; she forced it, favoring speed over gentleness.
The glowing current plunged deeper into Egan's chest, causing his back to arch on the stone platform as another cry tore from him—louder this time.
The sound scraped something raw inside Sienna's chest. He had heard men scream under the whip, but he had never believed he would hear Egan's cry of agony. He had always seemed so unwaveringly strong.
Mira's expression remained as stone, but her voice wavered as she encouraged Egan, "Breathe."
Egan tried, but the attempt ended in a choking cough that sent still more blood spilling down his chin and neck. Mira and the healers around her inhaled sharply.
"His lungs are burned." Mira breathed in disbelief. She narrowed her eyes and focused more intensely as the water moved through his chest. Her eyes widen as understanding dawned.
"You used both!" Mira cried, "What possessed you?!"
The healer beside her blinked bewildered. "Both what?"
With gaze fixed on the glowing currents inside Egan's ribs, Mira answered "Sword aura… and flame."
The old healer's face paled, "That is not possible." His voice was low as he spoke.
Mira shook her head slowly. "No," Her jaw tightened, "It is. The fool's done it before." She frowned down at Egan, "You swore you would never do such a thing again!" It didn't make sense. She knew how deeply Egan prized his vows, and when she had won that one from him, she had known deep in her heart that he would truly never attempt it again.
With the water within him, there was no way he could answer, but she saw him slightly shake his head. He had not broken his vow then, yet I know what I sense. Just what is going on? Mira thought as she watched him tremble with agony.
The question became trivial when another violent cough shook him and blood spilled across the glowing water.
Sienna felt his legs give out as Mira's and the healer's surrounding her movements became more urgent. Their medical jargon flew over him as he sank to the floor beside the platform without them noticing. The cold stone beneath his knees barely registered as trembling hands propped him up so he could stare at Egan writhing form.
Why? He thought desperately. Why would he do that? Why would anyone do that? As a dragon, Sienna had spent much of his life alone. Draconic parents would leave their children when they were but a year old. They were powerful enough to fend for themselves at that age, and most dragons continued their long lives in solitude, never seeing their families again, and Sienna had been no exception. He simply could not fathom Egan's care and dedication toward him when he could not imagine his own kind being willing to do as much for him.
Words drifted in and out of the haze overcoming Sienna's mind.
An urgent voice cried out, "March Warden!"
"I know!" Bit a tight, sharp voice.
Vaguely, Sienna registered other healers rushing toward Egan and the intensifying glow of flowing water, Egan's body jerking violently as the water flushed through his lungs, and a broken cry drowning in liquid.
Sienna felt tears blur his vision as they fell unimpeded to the white marble floor. Each anguished cry was a blade twisting into his heart made all the more agonizing by the understanding that Egan would likely not hesitate to do it all once more if given the chance.
Through the haze and blurred vision, Sienna suddenly realized that Egan's eyes were locked on him. Sienna quickly scrubbed his tears away to be sure of what he was seeing.
Within those green orbs, Sienna saw Egan's concern for him even now—Egan smiled, trying to comfort Sienna without words, but the blood on his lips and teeth made Sienna's breath hitch and called forth more tears.
Sienna felt as though his chest was collapsing inward. He opened his mouth to say something, anything, but not a sound came out. Instead, his shoulders began to shake and tears came harder, silent and relentless.
Egan frowned faintly as if to say, "Don't cry." But another spasm of pain tore Egan's gaze from Sienna's. His fingers dug into the platform he lay upon, leaving deep gouges in the hard stone. Water was surging in currents within him, like rapids, it threatened to sweep Egan away.
"Hold him steady," Mira's commanding voice echoed in the hall as it directed the healers.
Egan's body arched off the platform as he screamed himself raw.
Then suddenly—His body went limp against the stone platform, and for a moment there was only silence echoing within the hall of healing.
"Thank the elementals!" One of the healers gasped in relief, "He's finally lost consciousness." Egan's tormented screams had affected all of them.
Mira's hands never stopped their flowing movements as she guided the water to heal Egan's now limp body. They were still far from in the clear.
For another hour Mira and the healers moved around Egan, directing their healing water to the injuries within.
Finally, Mira and the healers slumped in relief. They had healed his internal injuries.
Exhaustion filled her voice as Mira smiled at Egan, "Get some rest, Torch-brain."
Through it all, Sienna had remained kneeling on the hard marble floor near the platform, unmoving and silent as tears trailed down his cheeks.
Mira shoved her tired body up and away from the platform where Egan lay, and turned toward the dragon he had risked so much for.
She faltered sightly in her fatigue, but waved away the concerned healers who had rushed to her side in concern.
She walked up to the dragon and bluntly told him, "You need healing. Come with me."
Sienna shook his head without looking at her, "I won't leave him."
Mira sighed, "Who said anything about leaving him?"
Sienna looked up at her in confusion. "I just want you to walk over to that pool." She pointed at the pool to the left of the platform where Egan lay. "I'll heal you there while another healer fetches a chair to place by the platform."
When Sienna still hesitated, Mira sighed again. He's just the same as Egan! Elements help me! I'm surrounded by idiots.
Channeling patience she felt had fled with the tides, she said, "He went through much so that you could be healed. Will you defy him and all he has done for you?"
Sienna flinched, but he rose and followed Mira into the pool of softly glowing water.
She raised a tired hand, "This shouldn't take long." Water surged up and covered all of Sienna save his head. As its glow brightened, he felt his wounds heal. In mere minutes, the water retreated, leaving him healed.
"There." Mira said, "Done." She left the water while tossing back, "I'll leave him to you; I'm going to sleep."
Sienna blinked at her retreating form before taking up vigil next to Egan.
***
The Hall of Healing was quiet in the hours before dawn. The lanterns had dimmed to soft glows within their floating spheres of water, and the gentle sound of the channels running through the floor had become the dominant rhythm of the chamber.
Sienna had fallen asleep beside the stone platform, and at some point during the night he had shifted closer, his head now resting against the edge of the slab where Egan lay. One hand had curled loosely around Egan's as though he had been unwilling to let go even in sleep.
Mira had risen before dawn despite her short night and stood nearby, speaking quietly with one of the senior healers when it happened.
A shadow swept across the threshold as something large, landed outside. A moment later, heavy boots struck the marble floor, and a man strode into the chamber carrying the aftermath of the landing with him — air still swirling faintly around his cloak as if the sky had not quite let go of him yet.
Long silver-gray hair shifted against his shoulders, and a few feathers drifted lazily through the open doorway behind him.
The man's sharp predatory eyes swept the chamber.