Swallowing Darkness

I just kept trying to reach the sword. It was as if the world had narrowed down to me getting the hilt back in my hand. I couldn't let them touch it. They wouldn't know. They wouldn't understand.

Gregorio ripped my cloak away. I crawled back up on the seat as Corporal Lance drove us over the uneven road. My hand closed on the hilt as I felt Gregorio behind me. "I have to see the wounds, Princess, please."

She'd climbed into the back with me. Her hands were bloody as she reached for me. I turned from her, and used every bit of concentration I had left to slide Aben-dul into its sheath and set the locks.

Gregorio turned me to face her as the Humvee bounced over the road. "Fuck! We need a medic, now!"

I looked down where she was looking, and saw nails sticking out of my body where the leather coat had left it bare. I stared down at the blood and the things sticking out of me, and thought, "Shouldn't it hurt more?"

"Her skin's cold. She's going into shock. Shit!"

I thought, "No, I can't go into shock. That might kill me. Wouldn't it?" I couldn't seem to think clearly. But the moment I decided not to go into shock, the pain hit me. It was like a smaller cut, when it doesn't hurt until you see the blood. But this was not small, and the pain was shearing, burning. Why did it burn? Was it my imagination, or could I really feel the nails embedded in my flesh?

I grabbed Gregorio with my left hand, because I couldn't raise the right one. Something was very wrong with my shoulder. "I need Doyle. I need Rhys. I need my men."

"We're getting you to safety, then we'll worry about your guards," the driver yelled back.

Corporal Lance kept us moving, and the other Humvees moved so that we could. We were moving past the car that had held Galen, Sholto, and Mistral. They weren't in it. Gregorio was trying to get me to lie down. I batted her hands away. Where were they?

I sent my magic seeking them, and felt a tug on that line of power. Someone who was attached to my power was hurt, very hurt. His life flickered like fire in a strong wind. Death was coming.

I couldn't think of anything else but that I had to get to him. Had to get to him. Had to... I touched Gregorio on her face, and whispered, "I'm sorry," then smiled at her. I called my glamour and let her see not what I wanted her to see, but anything she wished to see. Anything if it would get me out of here, and to that flickering light I could feel out there in the dark.

Her face softened, and she whispered, "Kevin."

I smiled, and when she leaned in to kiss me, I kissed her back, ever so gently, and laid her down on the seat with a smile still curling her lips. She would dream of the man who had given her that kiss. It was a type of glamour that was completely illegal, under the same heading as a date-rape drug. But I had no interest in anything but getting out.

I opened the door. Lance slammed on the brakes, and yelled, "What are you doing, Princess?"

"He's dying. I have to help him." I stepped out into the road. I used my good arm to cradle the injured one, and began to move through the trees. I would have run, but that line of power was flickering too low. If I ran, I would lose it, as if my ru