Chapter 35

Aden lay on a cot with both of his arms pinned to his blouse. His back was sweaty. Sweat was pooling on his face, but he could not open his eyes yet. He listened.

“Not much hope for her,” someone said. “The last blow severed her spine. She can’t feel anything below her chest. Her organs are failing. She only has a few hours I think, but at least she cannot feel pain.”

Aden opened his eyes and grunted. He was in the infirmary and the torches were burning brightly. Someone had removed his boots.

“My arms?” he said to someone looking the other way.

“Sorry, sir,” a young man said. “The medic says you are to keep your arms still, so we pinned them to your shirt.”

“Unpin me and get me a couple of slings,” Aden said. “Is that Zaya?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Help me up and walk me over to her; that is an order,” Aden said. The man swept his arm under Aden’s back and helped him sit up. Aden’s hips were protesting, but he was determined. He took a deep breath and focused his phyzeec on reducing the inflammation in his hips and shoulders. While a damage assessment was necessary, he had a more pressing matter.

He stood with help. Hobbling over to the cot where she lay, he went down on his knees. She was moaning, sweat dripping off her face. Her eyes were encased in black circles, her cheeks were sunken, and her lips were cracked. Aden wanted to take rag and mop her brow, but he could not move his arms. Her eyelids fluttered.

“Why, Zaya,” Aden asked softly. “Why did you do it?”

“We were all going to die,” she whispered. “I was not going to die a coward. I am not a coward. You were ... you were...” She stopped whispering and her eyelids stilled. She was breathing shallowly, and her mouth was open in a peculiar “O” shape.

“She will go to her husband as she always wanted,” the captain said from behind Aden. “She wanted to die, Aden, and there was no one who could stop her. She clonked a soldier on the head and took his shield. Fear and regret make people do the unthinkable. You have nothing to regret.”

“Would I have retracted my last words with her?” Aden said, asking for himself as he tried to answer his own question. “I think not. There may be a direct line between what I said and her actions on the field, but she did as she wanted, no matter what I said. I was always talking past her, I think, from the first words that I spoke to her. She was like a child throwing fits and spitting vinegar at any possible target. I gave her too much credit when she wanted none anyways.”

“You were deep in the depths of your loss, like a nearly drowned man gulping air on the shore,” the captain said. “You showed potential though, even then. Now you are a Lord Mage and even my wife reminds me I’m supposed to call you by your title. How is that for change in our time?”

“I am standing on the shoulders of giants,” Aden said with a shrug.

“All of us are, but some of us actually realize it. A captain of a backwater fort in a backwater province going up against a Dominion King of yore? We are the descendants of giants though, and that was enough.”

“I can’t lift up a tankard in agreement,” Aden said.

“Then get your carcass back in the cot where it belongs. Your body isn’t broken; it just needs to heal. Just wait until you wake up tomorrow and see how ugly the nursemaids are.”

A week later Aden was hoisting a tankard with his hand, enjoying the contents as only a man without great burdens can. The governor, the captain, and the mage were sitting at the back bench and none would dare to approach.

“Have you decided what to do with the metal egg?” Aden asked.

“Load in on the mage’s sledge and return it to its underground tomb,” the governor said. “This time, none shall have to fear that the mad king will emerge again in the centuries to come. Nothing of flesh and blood could survive the heat the battle created. The egg was too hot to touch for two days. He was cooked through and his ashes are sealed forever.”

“If you use the oxcart, you can survey the new, direct highway to Kagan-cal,” Aden said. “You could save some time, assess the land, and prepare to lay claims for your forest retreat. Your wife may enjoy getting away from the intrigue of the city.”