Chapter 3

Brena

The messenger stood and bowed to Brena, “My Lady, I have been sent to report to you on what was learned from the spy. We have managed to raid the headquarters of the organization he belongs to. Most of the people with them either fled or took their own lives before we could fully secure the building. What little we learned right away is they are employed by a trading firm that deals directly with the Nations to the north of the Ice Spine wall.”

“So, they want to find out what we know about them then?” asked Brena.

“No, my Lady,” he said quietly. “They have been contracted to terminate you and your companions. It seems you are a threat to the leaders of the Ice Spine, and they are acting preemptively.” He hesitated, “We found the missing prison jar there as well. It is still sealed, thankfully. They had a key maker working on finding a way to open it and release the creature within.”

Brena sat in silence for a few minutes, deep in thought. “Where is the prison jar now?” she asked.

“We have it in the vault here for the time being,” he replied.

Brena frowned, looking around, quickly spotting what she wanted. Aco saw what she was looking at and picked up the old bag of holding. “I wonder if it would be safer in here instead?” Brena said. The assassin handed her the cylinder. She looked up at Robin, “You have been quieter than usual, Robin. What’s wrong?” As she asked, Brena dropped the glowing cylinder into the bag, whispering the recall command that only she could use.

Robin had remained silent to keep the throbbing headache she had down to a dull roar. She understood Ledger’s joke about Banshee’s screaming in his head now. The back of her head had two large knots from getting smacked by the raft maker. “I was testing today down at the seashore. I got a little out of control and paid for it,” she said quietly.

“Still blowing up barrels?” asked Aco.

“Not so much now.” She blushed, thinking about what she had almost done, “I made a cloud drop all the water in it as rain.” The looks around the room were quizzical. “That isn’t what got me these lumps on the back of my head. I tried to sing up a storm out over the water. I did too good of a job and took a board up the back of my head to knock me out before I could sink a good part of the fishing fleet.”

Ledger stared at Robin in surprise. “That was you? I saw the storm build and felt the pull on the Weave. You were really drawing the power, then it just stopped, and the storm fell apart in a few minutes.” He left the food cart he was leaning on and checked his lover’s head. He frowned when he saw the large lumps. The larger one had bled a little bit when she had taken the hit. “Robin, we need to get you looked at. These are serious hits you took.”

Gareth had joined Ledger in checking the injuries the singer had received. He saw that Robin was in trouble when he looked into her eyes. One was more dilated than the other. “Shit, she has a cracked skull and internal damage. I’m glad I brought this with me.” He held up a sphere of metal that looked old.

Without a word, he gently touched it to the more minor bump. Robin’s legs collapsed out from under her as soon as he applied the device to begin healing the injuries. Ledger and the Brotherhood Agent caught her and set Robin on another couch. “Thanks,” said Ledger to the other man. Glancing at the man, “Do any of you have names, or all of you just called agents?” he asked.

The agent smiled, “We have names, but they are kept secret to protect us and our families from those who would do us harm.” Ledger just nodded in agreement. Gareth continued to hold the ancient device to Robin’s head when it stopped working. He held it up and shook it a bit, but nothing would make it start to heal again. Ledger looked it over and shook his head sadly.

“This old thing requires materials inside it to work. Whatever it used is gone now.” Ledger took it from Gareth, “I can power it, but it won’t work as a healer again, or anything else for that matter.” He tossed it to Gareth, who reached to catch it. He froze when the sphere froze in the air and didn’t move. Ledger saw that and frowned, “Hmm. That was unexpected.” He tried plucking it out of the air, but it wouldn’t move. “Very unexpected. I will study it later as time permits.”

Brena had been listening to the byplay and saw when the device failed to heal Robin. ‘If I do this, I will have a headache for a few hours. She needs my help, and I can heal the damage. Well, at least I hope I can.’ Brena thought. She slowly stood with Andrew holding her steady. He had seen the look on her face and knew what she was about to try.

“Are you sure you want to do this, Brena?” he asked quietly.

Brena replied quietly, “If I don’t, she could die if she sleeps.”

Andrew looked around, “Everybody except Ledger, please leave. Oh, leave the food. We will need all of it and more before this night ends.” Gareth nodded and motioned to the maids to bring more food and drink.

Gareth took the maids and the agent as he left. The sphere hung across the room from him, mocking him in its refusal to move or fall to the floor. Once the room was only the four of them, Andrew helped Brena over to Robin. “Andy, hold my head. I want to know what you feel is happening if I can make this work.” Brena reached down and began to run her hands across Robin’s face, then around to the back of the singer’s skull.

“I can feel the damage done to her. She won’t last the night if I can’t help her.” Brena knelt so she wouldn’t fall when the pain she knew was coming hit her. Andrew and Ledger watched as the yellow, flowing energy seeped out of her hands and flowed across Robin. Rather than focus on just her head, it flowed out and down Robin’s body. As it passed across her, scars and other minor cuts and scrapes rapidly faded and vanished. Ledger was watching Brena through his link to the life energy around them. He saw the danger she was in. “She doesn’t have the power to survive this time, Andrew; I am going to give Brena a power boost to keep the damage from killing her.”

Ledger reached out and took a hand full of the power, pulling it down to Brena. He shoved it into her, hoping he didn’t make matters worse. Andrew held her in place as her eyes flew open, her back arched, and her body shuddered as the energy of life poured into her. Andrew felt the bumps on Brena’s skull grow, then shrink as they healed. Robin began crying out in agony as the power Brena used to heal her raced around, fixing every little scar, and worn system in her body. She felt a burning sensation inside, just between her legs. ‘No, you have got to be kidding.’ That was all she managed to think when darkness finally claimed her.

Andrew watched as the glowing energy pulled out of Robin and returned to Brena. When it seemed the last of the power had returned to her, Brena collapsed to the floor, unconscious again. ‘This has got to be rough on her,’ thought Andrew. He picked Brena up and took her back to their bed. He stripped her to wipe her down and was startled at what he saw. Healing cuts and bruises covered her entire body. ‘Every injury Robin has suffered is here now.’ He thought. Andrew continued to wipe Brena down with a damp cloth, hoping he could ease the pain she must be feeling in her current state.

He covered Brena, then returned to the front room to find Robin awake and standing. She was looking around the room like she was lost. Ledger was holding her hands in his, trying to get her attention. Seeing she wasn’t all there yet, Ledger assisted her back to their rooms.

Andrew poured a large mug of wine and relaxed in his favorite chair to think. ‘She has been healed of every injury she has ever had, so her body is almost new.’ He continued to think when it hit him, ‘Every injury she has ever had.’ He snorted in mild amusement at the realization that could be considered an injury too.’ Andrew wondered if Brena was going to have the same problem. Then he took his shirt off and looked at his arms. The binding scars for Bloodrend were gone. ‘Not good.’ ‘Bloodrend?’

‘Fear not, we are still bound in spirit.’ The sword remained silent after that.

He returned to their room and checked on Brena’s condition. Her skin was clear now, with no more bruising, cuts, or scars showing. ‘I wonder if she will have the same problem.’ He undressed and washed, then joined Brena in bed, pulling her to him, and soon he was asleep.

Robin and Ledger

Ledger half carried Robin back to their rooms. “Robin how are you feeling now?” he asked as he sat her on a couch in the main room.

She thought about it, her head still throbbing from the headache she had been dealing with. “Head still hurts, but I can think again, at least,” she said quietly. She laid back and closed her eyes for what she thought was a few seconds. She jumped when she was shaken by a hand on her arm.

“Wake up, lover,” said Ledger. “You fell asleep about three hours ago. Dinner will be over soon, and I think some food will do you some good.”

Robin blinked, her thoughts a disturbed jumble. ‘Three hours,’ she thought. “I was tired from the healing; let’s eat then.” She said slowly. She was taking it slow, but the headache was gone now. Ledger helped her to her feet and soon had her in the lift to the main floor. As Robin walked, she felt a funny sensation between her legs that she couldn’t understand. She remembered what had been said before Ledger had taken her back to their room. ‘Fixed everything?’ kept wandering in and out of her thoughts.

“Ledger, I need to stop for a minute. I should have gone before we came down.” He nodded and stepped into the room for visitors to relieve themselves. His bladder was complaining, too. Robin stepped into a stall and pulled the curtain closed. She slipped the pants down and removed them, then the undershorts. She felt herself around her slit, discovering that several scars were missing. They had been created when she had been raped as a child. She gently slipped a finger into her opening, only to find it was closed most of the way over with a new flap of flesh.

‘You have got to be kidding me,’ Robin thought. ‘I’m a repaired virgin?’ She wondered how Ledger would feel about this and how much it would hurt her to be opened again.

Later, after Robin had told Ledger about her new problem, he was reluctant to hurt her in the way he was sure it would. “Ledger, I need to be reopened, so you get to pop a new cherry and open my passage. If the healing was total, I could be pregnant by the end of the night if you do me right.” She knew telling a man to knock her up made them work harder at pleasuring the woman. Ledger had her a shaking wreck before he tried to enter her. It turned out the hymen was thick and hard. After several attempts at being slow and gentle, she finally said, “Slam through it, lover. That’s the only way you’re getting in.”

He looked at her, not believing she had just said that. He looked her in the eyes, bent down, and kissed her. As his lips rested on hers, he slammed his cock into her opening. The new hymen tore, and Robin screamed into his mouth from the sudden burst of pain between her legs. Her memories flashed; she was back on the road as a nine-year-old girl. The five men had ambushed her while she was returning home after gathering spices from the lake shore near the Tavern. They held her and raped her repeatedly until it was nearly sundown. She could see each of their faces clearly. She felt satisfaction at knowing that three of them had died painfully at her hands. The remaining two had managed to escape her revenge over the years. The memory brought them back into clear memory. Robin gasped in shock at this new memory. She had seen them both at Bards College in the Cove. ‘They lied to me. All of them lied to me,’ she thought.

Ledger had driven into her vagina. After several strokes, he was fully seated in her. Robin’s eyes snapped open, and she pulled him down for another kiss. “Do me, lover, do me hard. Put your child in me,” she whispered, “Give me a baby.” Ledger, being younger and less experienced, did as he was told, not seeing the rage in her eyes. He saw Robin grab a hand cloth and stuff it in her mouth to muffle her screams. As she came, his own body responded, and he sent a load of his seed into her newly opened vagina. He could feel her legs clamping down on him, holding him in place. When she finally relaxed, he could pull out. He looked down and saw the damage he had done.

“I need to get you cleaned up, Robin. I think you will bleed for most of the night from the looks of the mess we made down there.” Ledger fetched a small water basin and filled it with warm water. He wiped her lower lips down, wiping their combined juices and blood away. “Will you be able to walk after this?” She nodded; she would, but her memory returned to the day she had tried to forget.