Karu woke to the feel of something cold and hard at his back. The soldier in him automatically tried to place it, running through familiar possibilities so he could get his bearings—too hard for wood, too smooth for quarried stone, not smooth enough for marble—but came up with nothing.
It wasn’t until he had regained enough of his senses to remember that he was no longer at home that he realized he lay atop the fake stone-stuff that the humans called concrete. What had happened…? Oh….yes. The fight. With the alien woman. He had seen her before, heard her voice many times over the years, but never fought with her. She fought like a demon; were he from one of the more superstitious faerie kinds, that was exactly what he would have assumed her to be. He should be dead right now, by all rights—
And yet he wasn’t. With horror, he realized that could only mean that Tengu had sacrificed their chance to complete their mission to heal him.
Shoving himself raggedly to his feet, he stumbled up the ramp to the interior of their stolen ship. It was dark; he could barely make out his brother’s form, dimly illuminated by the lights of the control panel in front of him, into which he stared like stone. When his presence brought no response, Karu ventured to speak cautiously. “…Brother…?”
“A second time.” The answer was tight, overwound with tension that Karu was helpless to ease. “A second time she was within arm’s reach, and yet she slipped away from me..!” With a sudden flare of temper that made Karu shrink back, the healer slammed his fist into the control panel, the occasional spark mixing with the small droplets of blood that splattered onto the lighted display before the small hurts closed over again, and Tengu fell silent, eyes closing resignedly.
“Tengu…” There were no words, really. They had failed, miserably and utterly. Karu had been on the wrong end of the queen’s wrath before, and he did not relish the thought of being so again; but more, Tengu had failed in what he had set out to do, and Karu knew very well how that would eat at him.
His reflections were interrupted by his brother’s voice, harsh and rather distant. “She would speak with me. I will go in the morning; you will stay here.”
“I’ll go with—“
“It will be far easier if I don’t have to defend the both of us from her anger, don’t you think…?”
Karu winced at that. Swords, arrows, cannons….those he could deal with. But the magicks that ruled his brother’s world he was a liability against, and that ate at him. “Very well.”
“Good. Go rest; you aren’t done healing.”
“What about you…?” It was seldom that he’d seen his brother looking so haggard and worn. It was wearing at him, being in this strange place, among strange people, with what seemed to be an impossible task in front of them. He could almost hate Puck and the human girl for that reason alone.
“Soon.”
Karu knew when argument was pointless. Sighing softly, he made his way to the back of the ship and sprawled out on one of the bunks, but he did not sleep; his mind was working too furiously, behind his closed eyes.
I went to Biv’s room first, as per my instructions. Really, I just didn’t want to see a stranger with red, puffy eyes and a nose that was still slightly runny. He answered the door almost at the first knock, either because he was anxious for my arrival or he was trying to keep the noise down for Kiasis’ sake, and he smiled and threw his arms around me in a tight hug, his voice as soft as ever. “I’m so glad you’re alright…!”
I wasn’t really used to that much physical contact all in the same day, but I hugged him back anyway. It was kind of hard to resist. “I’m sorry I worried everybody.”
“Don’t worry about it,” he started to say, but I cut him off.
“I didn’t think. I mean….I don’t know if it would have kept me from going, but…I’m sorry anyway.” I was stumbling all over the words, and I knew it, but at least it was an apology.
He blushed, suddenly looking like he didn’t quite know what to do; I got the impression he wasn’t all that used to people apologizing to him, so I changed the subject, my eyes settling on Kiasis’ sleeping form in the bed on the other side of the room. “Is it really alright for somebody with a head wound to be asleep like that…?”
“For her, I guess it is.” Biv cast a rather worried glance in her direction. “
“She looks like she’s breathing okay, anyway.” At least, the rise and fall of her chest was regular and unlabored; I had no idea how fast or slow Sch’silians were supposed to breathe. “Maybe we ought to go outside in the hallway, so we don’t wake her up.”
Biv nodded, and we walked outside, closing the door quietly behind us. I noticed, when we stepped out into the brighter light of the hallway, that Biv wasn’t looking all that great himself; he had dark circles under his eyes, and his clothes were a little wrinkled, as if he’d slept in them. “Are you okay…? You look…tired.”
“I’m fine,” he said absently. “I didn’t sleep all that well last night.”
I felt a pang of guilt. Sure, I’m sure I wasn’t the only one he was worrying over, but I was the only one I had any control over. “Sorry.”
“No, it wasn’t that, it was—“ He stopped suddenly, waving me off, and changed the subject. “What happened last night, anyway?” I recognized it for what it was, but I figured if he wanted to keep whatever was bothering him to himself, he was entitled. “
“Yeah….I guess he was pretty pissed off. But we didn’t really sneak out. I snuck out. And then I think Tallana snuck out after Kiasis.” I had a bit of a hard time picturing Kiasis sneaking anywhere. She didn’t much seem to give a damn what people thought of her actions. Suddenly feeling the lack of sleep, I sighed and slid down the wall to sit on the floor. Biv followed me, pulling his knees up to his chest, and I quietly told him every detail of what happened.
By the time I was done, Biv was frowning. “It’s a shame about his….what’s his name? Victor? …..his sister. But I think you’re lucky you’re all alive.”
“Yeah,” I nodded, rubbing at my face. “It was worth it, though. At least he’s still alive.”
“Are you going to go check on him?”
I nodded. I wasn’t particularly looking forward to it. I could understand why he wasn’t the most pleasant person in the world right now, but I felt bad enough that his sister didn’t make it. I wasn’t sure I was eager to have him pile a little more guilt onto the load. But like Puck had said, it was my responsibility to look in on him. “I just wanted to stop in and see you first.” Taking a deep breath, I pushed myself to my feet. “I guess I ought to go, though.”
Biv nodded his agreement as he rose as well. “If he’s hungry, I can go downstairs and make him something to eat.”
“That’s a relief. My cooking couldn’t do anything but make him feel worse.” I grinned weakly.
Stepping forward, Biv’s arms closed around me in another brief hug. “Just let me know. Tallana took him to the room at the end of the hall.”
Steeling myself for an unpleasant experience, I said my goodbyes to Biv and headed down the hallway. He wasn’t exactly going to be happy to see me, I was sure. Taking another deep breath, I lifted my fist and knocked on the door. When a few minutes went by and nothing happened, I knocked again. No response.
Carefully, I cracked the door open, expecting to find him asleep on the bed. The bed, however, was empty and unmade, and I frowned, opening the door up further to look around the room.
Turned out all I had to do was look up, because he was dangling by his neck from the lighting fixture in the center of the ceiling.
