“Bo!” Kirsten shouted as soon as Anders arrived at her side.
He arched his trajectory to match hers while she ran toward the charred ground and then crawled through the grass where Raffa had torched the crystal bearer. Kirsten fell to her knees at Bo’s side, his armored protection cut through by the enemy’s energy. Anders doused the burning grass around Bo’s downward-facing body while Kirsten keened with worry, her sobbing ringing over the battlefield. Kirsten rolled Bo onto his side and held his limp body. Anders knelt beside them to examine the extent of his injuries. The force of the hurled magic had burned through Bo’s metal armor, cutting and burning into his flesh along the length of his entire backside, ending along his neck. Kirsten wept while holding him. Then Anders witnessed something he couldn’t explain. Bo’s lethal injuries began to steam and the exposed flesh began to heal. He sensed Tarron in his sword, but the magical being wasn’t the one healing Bo. Some other presence had stopped the wound from taking Bo’s life.
Anders looked to Kirsten, noticing for the first time a pinkish sapphire hanging around her neck on a gold chain. Red veins swelled in her left hand as she cupped Bo’s face. When she looked at Bo, Anders recognized the look in her eyes. She felt deeply for Bo and was realizing it in that moment. He had seen the same look in Maija’s eyes when he let it slip that he loved her.
Not knowing how or what was keeping Bo alive, Anders told her, “Stay with him and he’ll live.” Anders rose, looking at Thomas’ horrified face. Grabbing him by the shoulder, Anders pinched down hard enough to get his attention. “Protect them,” he said, hoping his words got through to his cousin.
Anders now turned his attention to the kurr still attacking into the forest. He connected with Zahara’s mental link, Zahara, have Raffa and Maija continue to burn back the kurr. I need to keep an eye on Kirsten and Thomas while I help out in the forest. Anders felt her agree and turned his mind to finding Max and Britt.
Locating them, still alive and fighting, Anders moved toward them, felling the kurr that had been blocking them from their fellow soldiers. Anders saw a look of hope flash over their faces, and couldn’t help but smile, even in this dire situation. Standing several dead kurr lengths from them, he shouted, “Don’t just stand there, we have a battle to win!”
Max and Britt smiled at each other, then rushed forward, following Anders as he moved to take on more kurr. Gathering survivors in their effort, Anders used a combination of magic and his sword to gain ground against the enemies who’d been cut off between the dragon fire and the rebel army. The army had retreated into the forest. With their numbers growing and the enemy’s dwindling, Anders led the rebels to victory while Maija and her red dragon forced the enemy army to flee across the Bareback Plains. Dawn brought a grim visual of the devastation that had occurred on the plain’s edge. Anders returned to Zahara, who stood guard with Thomas.
Bo’s eyes were open as he rested in Kirsten’s arms. Once the kurr had gone, they had removed his armor. In a glance at Zahara, Anders felt her recollection of events. He saw as she had, Thomas and Kirsten removing Bo’s armor and Zahara using her remaining magic to bring Bo’s wound to a close. It would require more mending, but with the help of whatever presence had stayed his death, Bo appeared to have survived the injury. As Zahara’s memory came to an end, Anders saw a fleeting glimpse of Kirsten and Bo locking lips. Zahara had then looked away, giving the humans their privacy. Anders came to their side, a shared grin of hope on all of their faces.
Max ran to the group and wrapped his arms around his brother. At the same time, Thomas grabbed Anders in a heartfelt hug. Anders returned his cousin’s embrace, and then saw Kirsten move in toward them. Now in a group hug, the three held onto one another for a minute while laughing with the joy of having survived a battle.
Pulling away, Thomas said, “We should never split up again.”
Rubbing his cousin’s head in a brotherly way, Anders said, “Letting you go off on your own was the most irrational mistake I’ve ever made. We’re a family and we are better together.”
“I can’t believe we made it this far without you,” Kirsten said, pushing her left hand through her battle-grimed blonde hair.
Anders caught sight of the red veins in her hand and asked, “What happened to your hand?”
Kirsten looked to her hand, examining it as though she didn’t even see the red streaks scarring her body. After checking the backside and the palm, she nodded, “Oh, you mean the venom.”
“Venom? What venom? Are you alright?” he asked, taking her arm.
He pulled back her chainmail sleeve to see the red lines continue up her forearm and out of sight. Pulling her arm from his grip, she said, “I’m fine now. It would be better if I showed you.” Kirsten removed her chainmail shirt and Anders noticed she was insistent that the sapphire necklace didn’t lift over her head with the shirt, holding it fast against her chest. As she pulled up the short-sleeved shirt underneath, he could see the white oval where the goblin had taken her flesh. While Anders looked closely, she said, “I was bitten by a goblin when we were fleeing Grandwood. Luckily, we bumped into a surgeon on the road who took us to Solomon’s. Once there, these guys found a potion to pull me from my coma. Since then, as long as I have this necklace on, I’m fine.”
“A goblin did this?” he asked, ignoring the other points of her story and focusing on what he knew about goblin venom.
“Yeah. Rune said everyone he knows who’s been bitten has died if the infected limb isn’t removed within the hour,” Thomas interjected.
Anders’ forehead creased and he considered this development. He wanted to learn more about what drove them from Grandwood and how the old wise man had fared after the battle and how he had returned to Westland so quickly, but he forced the questions from his mind. In all his studying and training to be a dragonrider, he had learned nothing about treating goblin bites. Racking his brain, Anders searched for the answer but didn’t know what solution was right. Before he made his decision, he asked, “How did you manage to survive long enough to make it to Solomon’s?”
“It was this sapphire necklace,” Kirsten said, pointing to the special stone. She pulled back her collar to reveal where the red faded near her heart. “It stopped the venom from reaching my heart and kept me alive while they carried me to Brookside.” Anders suddenly identified the presence he had felt, the one that had stopped Bo from being killed by the energy thrashing.
As he thought, Thomas asked, “Can you heal her? So she won’t die if the necklace comes off?”
“I have an idea of something that might work,” Anders answered, looking at Kirsten. “But it’s going to hurt.”
Meeting his gaze, Kirsten nodded, “Do it.”
Anders withdrew the knife from the backside of his belt. Quickly passing his hand over the knife’s edge, he purified the steel of any external contamination. Grabbing Kirsten’s left arm, he pulled her close to him. Raising the blade to the white patch of skin where she had been bitten, he asked her, “Ready?” She nodded and Anders cut his knife into her arm, tracing the white flesh.
Kirsten groaned and clenched against the pain, while Anders used his magic to remove the patch of dead skin that had filled the goblin’s bite. When he did, Kirsten screamed and passed out, Thomas catching her so Anders could continue without hesitation. Anders focused on his thoughts and used his powers to separate the goblin venom from her blood. Pulling the poison out at its point of entry, Anders drew the venom from Kirsten’s veins. As the red liquid floated in the air, Anders saw all those around them take a step back. He lowered the poison to the ground and, with a single word, set the venom on fire. Once the poison was taken care of, Anders turned his magic on restoring Kirsten’s flesh. With his magic once again draining from his body, he used his energy to heal his cousin’s shoulder.
Stepping back to catch himself from fainting, Anders sourced enough energy from Lazuran’s crystal to replace that lost to him in his act of healing. Feeling his lightheadedness subside, he saw Kirsten open her eyes. She looked from Anders to her arm, turning it over to see that the red streaking was gone. She felt at her shoulder and pushed it forward to examine her healed scar. The white patch of dead flesh was gone; as if to verify that what she saw was real, she poked herself with her finger where the bite had been.
Laughing, she said, “I can feel that.”
“Go ahead,” Anders said, motioning to her necklace. “Take it off.”
Kirsten looked to Thomas, then to Bo and the others. They all stood by nervously. Kirsten slowly lifted the sapphire necklace, holding the chain open and hovering over her head. She paused for a moment; when nothing happened, she held the sapphire in her hand at her side.
Kirsten tossed the necklace to Thomas and said, “It’s all yours now,” then rushed to Anders, hugging him again.
As she thanked him, Anders saw Raffagaun circle in and land near Zahara. As Maija’s dragon captured the attention of all those around them, Anders said to Kirsten, “You’re welcome. I know you would do the same for me.” Anders followed Kirsten’s eyes, seeing them train on Maija. The others swarmed around her and her newly bonded dragon. The small group bombarded Maija with questions. Still standing apart from the others, Anders noticed Kirsten’s gaze staying on Bo as he leaned against his brother for support. Nudging her with his elbow, he said, “I saw the look when you chose him.”
Pulled from her stare by his words, Kirsten asked, “How did you know I was choosing him?”
Anders raised an eyebrow and scoffed, “Really? You think I don’t know when one of my own realizes she should be with someone?”
Kirsten shook her head, “That’s right, you have that mind-reading gift now.”
“It wasn’t that,” Anders said. “I saw the same look Maija gave me when I told her,” Anders paused, “When I told her that I wanted to be with her.”
“You approve then?” she asked. “Not that I need it or anything,” she quickly added.
Anders nudged her with his elbow again, “I think you picked a good one.”
He stepped away from Kirsten and joined the others gathered around Maija. Taking her aside, he said, “We’ll need to use our magic to help as many of the wounded as we can. I can teach you the magic to heal superficial injuries, but believe me, you don’t want to overdo it. Giving too much of your energy to heal others can kill you. I almost did it to save you, but Zahara came just in time.”
There’s another way to generate more energy, you know, Tarron’s voice sounded into both of their minds.
And how’s that achieved? Anders asked, curious as to what else this ancient being could teach them.
