Chainfire: Chainfire Trilogy Part 1

"Be thankful you didn't try," Nicci said, her hand slipping under Richard's back as he writhed in pain. "If you'd pulled it out he'd be dead by now."

"But you can heal him." It sounded more a plea than a question.

Nicci didn't answer.

"You can heal him." That time the words hissed out through gritted teeth.

At the tone of command born of frayed patience, Richard realized that it was Cara. He hadn't had time to tell her before the attack. Surely she would have to know. But if she knew, then why didn't she say? Why didn't she put him at ease?

"If it hadn't been for him, we'd have been taken by surprise," said a man standing off to the side. "He saved us all when he waylaid those soldiers sneaking up on us."

"You have to help him," another man insisted.

Nicci impatiently waved her arm. "All of you, get out. This place is small enough as it is. I can't afford the distraction right now. I need some quiet."

Lightning flashed again, as if the good spirits intended to deny her what she needed. Thunder boomed with a deep, resonant threat of the storm closing around them.

"You'll send Cara out when you know something?" one of the men asked.

"Yes, yes. Go."

"And make sure there aren't any more soldiers around to surprise us," Cara added. "Keep out of sight in case there are. We can't afford to be discovered here-not right now."

Men swore to do her bidding. Hazy light spilled across a dingy plastered wall when the door opened. As the men departed, their shadows ghosted through the patch of light, like the good spirits themselves abandoning him.

On his way by, one of the men briefly touched Richard's shoulder-an offer of comfort and courage. Richard vaguely recognized the face. He hadn't seen these men for quite a while. The thought occurred to him that this was no way to have a reunion. The light vanished as the men pulled the door closed behind themselves, leaving the room in the gloom of light coming from the single window.

"Nicci," Cara pressed in a low voice, "you can heal him?"

Richard had been on his way to meet up with Nicci when troops sent to put down the uprising against the brutal rule of the Imperial Order had accidentally come upon his secluded camp. His first thought, just before the soldiers had blundered upon him, had been that he had to find Nicci. A spark of hope flared down into the darkness of his frantic worry; Nicci could help him.

Now Richard needed to get her to listen.

As she leaned close, her hand sliding around under him, apparently trying to see how close the arrow came to penetrating all the way through his back, Richard managed to clutch her black dress at the shoulder. He saw that his hand glistened with blood. He felt more running back across his face when he coughed.

Her blue eyes turned to him. "Everything will be all right, Richard. Lie still." A skein of blond hair slipped forward over her other shoulder as he tried to pull her closer. "I'm here. Calm down. I won't leave you. Lie still. It's all right. I'm going to help you."

Despite how smoothly she covered it, panic lurked in her voice. Despite her reassuring smile, her eyes glistened with tears. He knew then that his wound might very well be beyond her ability to heal.

That only made it all the more important that he get her to listen.

Richard opened his mouth, trying to speak. He couldn't seem to get enough air. He shivered with cold, each breath a struggle that produced little more than a wet rattle. He couldn't die, not here, not now. Tears stung his eyes.

Nicci gently pressed him back down.

"Lord Rahl," Cara said, "lie still. Please." She took his hand from its hold on Nicci's dress and held it against herself in a tight grip. "Nicci will take care of you. You'll be fine. Just lie still and let her do what she needs to do to heal you."

Where Nicci's blond hair was loose and flowing, Cara's was woven into a single braid. Despite how concerned he knew her to be, Richard could see in Cara's posture only her powerful presence, and in her features and her iron blue eyes her strength of will. Right then, that strength, that self-assurance, was solid ground for him in the quicksand of terror.

"The arrow doesn't go all the way through," Nicci told Cara as she pulled her hand out from under his back.

"I told you so. He managed to at least deflect it with his sword. That's good, isn't it? It's better that it didn't pierce his back as well, isn't it?"

"No," Nicci said under her breath.

"No?" Cara leaned closer to Nicci. "But how can it be worse that it didn't rip through his back as well?"

Nicci glanced up at Cara. "It's a crossbow bolt. If it were sticking out his back, or close enough to need only to be pushed just a little more, we could break off the barbed head and pull the shaft back out."

She left unsaid what they would now have to do.

"His bleeding isn't as bad," Cara offered. "We've stopped that, at least."

"Maybe on the outside," Nicci said in a confidential tone. "But he is bleeding into his chest-blood is filling his left lung."