“By Magorah,” I said, then took in a deep breath to ease the tremors in my body. “You scared the living hell out of me.”
Warmth swept through me as his arms tightened a little more snugly around me and he rested his triangular chin on the top of my head. “Are you alright, Sunaya?”
“Aside from my hand, I think I’m okay.” There was also the fact that my stomach was doing somersaults right now, but there was no need to bring that up.
Iannis swore, and he gently grasped my hand and lifted it to the light filtering in from above. It was already starting to heal, but the slices were very deep, and now that adrenaline was wearing off the wound hurt like hell.
“I’ll deal with this when we get topside,” he promised.
“Thanks.” I sighed, relieved that I wouldn’t have to suffer with the pain for several hours.
“No, thank you.” There was a hint of admiration in Iannis’s tone. “If you hadn’t severed Argon’s leg just then, I’m not sure what would have happened.”
“I’m sure you would have figured something out.” But pride swelled my chest, and I grinned for a moment until I remembered that Argon had escaped. “How the hell did we lose him, though? I don’t understand.”
“He had a gulaya.” Iannis’s voice tightened. “It’s an old-fashioned type of charm, very powerful and rare, that anchors the wearer to a particular place. It requires a lot of power to create, not to mention illegal ingredients, but if the charm is made properly the wearer can use it to teleport back to that single location at any time.”
“Well fuck.” I wanted to say more, but we floated out of the shaft, and I had to shield my gaze as my eyes worked to adjust to the morning sunlight spilling over the horizon. Iannis set me down, then gently encircled my wrist with his hand and spoke a few Words. A blue glow enveloped my hand, and I squeezed my eyes shut against the searing pain that ripped through my fingers as the magic knitted my flesh and bone back together.
After what seemed like an eternity, the pain faded. I opened my eyes to see that my hand was healed, and let out a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding.
“There you are.” Iannis let my hand fall to my side, and as I looked up at him, I was surprised to see his face was paler than usual. Maybe healing exhausted him more than I thought. “Are you alright now? I need to go speak to the other delegates.”
“I’m fine,” I said, biting back the questions that sprang to my lips. I stood to the side as Iannis went to talk to Fenris and the delegates, feeling a little bereft but knowing I couldn’t monopolize his company. The way the delegates blinked in the light as they spoke to Iannis, a combination of awe and gratitude on their faces, was a little bemusing since I was used to seeing little to no emotion on their faces. But I guess being rescued from impending execution after several days of forced drug injections and incarceration would bring out emotion in anyone.
I wondered if Chartis would survive the blood loss, gulaya or not. The detached part of his leg lay buried under the rubble by now. But then, he was a powerful mage in his own right, and I imagined he’d be nearly as hard to kill as Iannis.
Bosal ar’Nuris, the Education Secretary, spotted me standing by the mineshaft entrance and struggled to his feet. Fenris caught him by the elbow and helped him the rest of the way, and when I realized he was making his way toward me I closed the distance so he wouldn’t have to walk so far.
“Thank you for coming back for us,” Bosal said, his voice steady despite the rings of exhaustion around his eyes. His long, pale hair was scraggly, his robes stained with dirt and who knew what else, but despite his ordeal he held himself with the dignity I’d come to expect of mages. “I am ashamed to say that I worried you might not, but glad that I misjudged you.”
“You’re welcome.” I smiled and extended my hand. “I guess us shifters aren’t so bad after all?”
“I don’t know about all of them, but you and Fenris here are all right. I will try to keep an open mind about your species.” He patted Fenris’s hand, which was still firmly wrapped around his arm, then shook my offered hand. “If I can ever be of service to you, don’t hesitate to ask.”
The next couple of hours were spent rounding up the soldiers and securing the camp. With Chartis gone, it was easy enough for Iannis and the delegates to tamper with the wards, making it so that only mages could pass through the perimeter of the camp and effectively trapping the soldiers inside. The soldiers tried to stop us when they saw what we were doing, but between Annia, Fenris, and I, we managed to hold them off until the mages could finish their work. Once the soldiers were secured, we set up camp near the airship so that we could rest for a while and Iannis and Fenris could heal the delegates.
“By Magorah,” I groaned to Annia, collapsing onto my bedroll, which I’d laid out in the middle of the grass. “I’m exhausted. How the hell does he do it?” I turned to look at Iannis, who was kneeling on the ground next to the ancient Legal Secretary. His hand was pressed against the other mage’s forehead as he performed a healing spell. He’d been working on that particular delegate for at least twenty minutes, his eyes closed in concentration and his hands glowing with magic.
“I’ve heard that a mage’s power grows along with their lifespan,” Annia, who was stretched out next to me, commented. “Maybe Iannis is really old. Have you never asked his age? Fenris might know. They age so slowly and use magic to make themselves look pretty, so I guess anything’s possible.”