It was the one thing we hadn’t tried. The one thing we couldn’t here. The pool in the hall of sight had drained with the collapse of the cave, leaving Dramin as starved as everyone else. I couldn’t ignore the desperate need I felt. I needed to try it. I would try anything for her.
I leaned down to encompass her with my arms, my cheek pressing against hers as I mended and braced the new break in her skull. Her body was so broken. So many of her bones were covered with the heavy magical casings I had been applying, so many tendons were still trying to join back together. If we were in the mortal world, she would be in a full body cast by now.
I only nodded once, knowing they were waiting for my approval, also knowing there was no way I could say no. It may not have been the best decision, but for the people around me, it was the right one, and I couldn’t lead them astray. Those were the requirements of my position.
My inheritance.
Chapter Thirteen
We walked down the large stone tunnel slowly, my ears perking up toward any sound. My fear of another cave-in was strong, much higher than it should be to attempt something like this. This area wasn’t like the training room; this small, claustrophobic space could collapse at any time. We could be crushed to death in an instant.
I straightened my back as I walked, Joclyn held in my arms like an infant, my magic peeking into the rock as I monitored it. Although I couldn’t do much with such a weak connection, I could at least give us warning if something was coming.
The light from the glowing orb that Dramin held in his hand flickered around the walls of the tunnel as we walked, the shadows moving and swaying like living hands coming to tear the rock down around us. I watched them for a moment before looking away, placing my gaze ahead of Dramin and toward the task at hand.
“I heard what you said back there,” Thom said from beside me, his voice calm. I looked toward him, but he wasn’t looking at me, obviously uncomfortable about what he was going to say.
So I said nothing. I just waited for him to continue. I was fairly sure he was going to be overstepping his bounds with what he was going to say, but I wasn’t going to pull out any haughty orders, not right now.
“You really aren’t going to force Ryland and the Siln? apart?”
“No.” I kept my answer short, my voice making it clear I wasn’t going to elaborate. He had already heard what I said. I saw no reason to continue.
“I always wondered why you didn’t after you discovered Cail was controlling her nightmares.” Thom stated, and I tensed.
“I would never break her bond with another without her permission.” I raised my voice a bit, letting my tone set the end of the conversation. If only Thom had picked up on it.
“Did you even ask?”
I tried not to fume at his off-hand comment. I kept my eyes ahead, and my fingers curled around Joclyn as my magic pulsed through her.
No, I had not asked. I was afraid to hear what she would say, afraid that she would get the wrong idea and think my intentions impure. Asking her to break the bond was the equivalent of sentencing Ryland to death. I could not ask that of her. I could not ask that of myself. My time with Joclyn would come.
I chose not to respond to Thom, instead hoping, once again in vain, that he would understand that our conversation had ended.
“What if the bond is what is keeping her in the T?uha?” He paused and I felt my muscles tighten. This wasn’t a new thought. I had felt this line of thinking cross over my mind several times before. I had maintained my opinion on the matter. It was not my place to break their sacred bond and doom Ryland to a painful death. The T?uha was caused by the connection between Ryland and Joclyn. You destroy the bond you destroy the T?uha.
“What if by breaking the bond you would release her?” Thom continued when I didn’t respond. “She couldn’t be hurt anymore. You could save her.”
“I have thought of it,” I said, willing to give him some insight. “But what happens if you break the bond and her mind is still trapped… Co se stane potom?”
I looked to him, waiting for an answer, but he said nothing. He hadn’t experienced a bonding, as I had not, but at least I was more aware of how a bonding occurred and what the T?uhas were.
“She would be gone,” Thom sighed after a moment, his own desperation showing in his voice.
Dramin’s light bounced off the rock that surrounded us, casting flickering shadows on the boulders that had begun to obstruct our path. We weaved our way around them, the path becoming more of a single file labyrinth full of jagged stones and loose rocks.
We had been working in this tunnel for the past few days after exhausting all other outlets of escape. This was our only chance. Thom and I had shifted, melted, and moved the rock to make the narrow path we now traveled down, but it wasn’t enough.