He was still bleeding. Despite her best efforts, it just wouldn't stop. On top of it, that fight against Osaron had taken a toll on all of them, making her magic less than half as effective. Holland, blinded and weak and last but not least robbed of any drop of magic he'd ever possessed, had split from them a while ago. Not that it mattered. Even if she'd forgiven his crimes, that didn't mean she had to like him. Lila Bard had decided to neither trust nor depend on the white Antari.
Also, she had other things to worry about.
Rhy looked pale and pained, but could walk on his own two legs just fine, even if he had to stop every once in a while, which was fine by Lila. With Kell, who was more than half unconscious, leaning on her, she could use these breaks too. The copperhaired Antari had suffered a nasty stabwound to his side, being basically impaled by Osaron, then almost lost his powers when Holland activated the Inheritor as was the plan, leaving his own healing capabilites crippled.
Why did that idiot have to run over to Rhy in the first place? If he'd stayed with them, fought with them, maybe the void man wouldn't have had such an easy target. But blaming him for trying to save his brother was hardly a thing Lila could – or would for that matter – do. She knew about their tight bond, knew what Kell had sacrificed to save Rhy from death, knew they shared not only their lifeforce but also pain and emotions through the scar both shared. Kell had been pained all their way back to the castle, even if it wasn't his own pain but Rhy's, who'd gotten stabbed by a traitorous princess and – of course – survived the attack. What followed was Rhy going to Osaron's shadow castle to do.. what? Kill himself which was impossible? Talk the shadow out of his plans? Weird how two men with such different looks could have the same, dumb stubborn head and that unlikely luck to get themselves into trouble.
The castle was finally in view and Lila sighed in relief. With the black plague gone, they'd get to take a breath for once, recover from the ordeals, lick their wounds and maybe – maybe! - help repairing the damages afterwards. She renewed the grip on her fellow Antari's arm and hip and was about to go on, when she suddenly heard Rhy hiss sharply behind her, then felt Kell next to her get heavier as he pulled her down with him as he lost whatever consciousness had kept him going. Lila, being agile, managed to somehow land in a crouching stance, but failed to catch Kell, who landed with a heavy THUD on the ground, lifeless. Though he still had to be alive, for Rhy came over, gasping for air, as he knelt beside his brother, shaking his shoulder. When there was no reaction, he started calling Kell's name, each call getting louder until his voice cracked and he started – quite un-kingly – sobbing. The nerves.
Then she had an idea. Lila stood, which went unnoticed by Rhy who still tried his best to wake his brother – and all kingdom would be awake before he'd be successful –, and told him she'd be right back. Wether he heard it or not, she made to run for the castle, had to slow down after half the distance though, hungrily gulping down air, to haste – a bit slower but more steady – towards the castle once again. Maybe Tieren was back from the spell-induced slumber and could help!
As it turned out, the priest was just as drained as she. That spell had sent all London to sleep, in order to deprive Osaron of alternative bodies and servants alike, which in fact had worked. But not only the spell needed an anchor and Tieren had been the only available – and capable – magician around, but it'd also cost him and his fellow priests a large amount of power, rendering them even more unable to do healing than Lila. The trick with healing spells was that they required more energy than they'd heal. Using it on oneself was pointless, since it'd knock you right out. And for another person to use it on you, that person had to be in a better shape than you, which wasn't the case for Lila. Not that she hadn't attempted anyway, back at Osaron's falling shadow castle. Up to a point it even had worked, but that stubborn stabwound refused to close.
With Tieren out of commission – but very much awake – he'd sent a couple of the remaining guards with her. That and some weird, magic tonic he said would help with the bleeding.
It hadn't. Not at all.
They'd somehow made it to Kell's chamber, where the guards had placed the pale Antari on the bed and retreated. There Lila had waited, clueless on what to do for once, just for Tieren to appear a few moments later, a servant behind, carrying old-fashioned bandages and bottles with mysterious content. When he was done with packing the wounds in thick linen, he'd told Lila what each bottle contained and how to dose them when needed, then he'd disappeared as quickly as he'd come, knowing he wouldn't be of much help right now. Trusting his pupil's – and the prince's - life to her.
She was used to stress, but this strained even her. Carefully she pulled the satin cover over the shivering Kell, taking his hand as it twitched fitfully. That helped a little, but it still was awfully cold, in stark contast to everything else. A fever. His body was fighting back. Which meant he'd be alright, but for now he looked closer to death than anything else, with his usually pale complexion going to almost white. She'd seen him like this just one time, back when Holland, that son of a dog, had cast a bleeding spell on Kell and the Antari had almost bled out. But it hadn't been like this. He looked almost frail. So easy to break..
Her hand wiped away one copper lock of his, moving it out of his face. He was burning up and had a hard time breathing. Every breath came with a pained hitch, followed by a cramped sigh. The potions Tieren had left her would numb the pains, lower the fever and probably speed up the healing process, but Kell'd be out for a while, according to the priest. And if that wound didn't close soon, so the old man had said, it might get infected, so he'd left her some ill-smelling desinfectant as well.
It was times like these when Lila seriously contemplated giving in to the impulse of simply running away. She'd fought enough, hadn't she? She was tired. With all the things gone wrong in just a few weeks and her currently aching bones, all the sorceress wished for was a good, long, nice nap. Before she realised what she was doing, her head already had sunk on her crossed arms, upper body leaning over the bed, the sweet caress of slumber weighting down her eyelids.
Rhy woke with a start.
It took a few seconds to realise where he was and to find it was his own room, more exactly his bed. Pointless to ask how he'd gotten here. Where the memories of that should be was all but a blank spot, causing his head to ache whenever he tried figuring it out. All he knew was that he was hurting all over – especially from his side, the only place where he didn't find little, punctured wounds.
As he pondered on that, finally, some parts of last night came back to him. Osaron's shadow castle. He'd encountered the creature, to put an end to the threat. To protect the people. Pain. A blank spot. Delilah Bard's voice, calling for Kell. Another blank. Bright light and a tormented scream. Blank. Him sitting on the ground, holding his brother. Blood everywhere. Tiredness. A long walk. The smell of blood on his clothes and red-tinted earth below his feet.
He was about to remember how they'd gotten to the castle, when he heard a soft knock on his door and called a hoarse reply, after which the winged doors opened and Tieren entered. The old priest looked as if he'd aged twenty years within the last day. Or was it days? Just how long had he slept?
"I see you are amongst the living again, my prince", Tieren began and took a chair, put it down next to Rhy's bed and sat down.
"What happened while I was out?", Rhy asked in return, trying to lose that scratching sound his voice made whenever he spoke by coughing in his hand. So un-princely...
"Nothing you should concern yourself about. You need to concentrate on healing. My potions can only help so far, your body will do the healing."
"What about Osaron?"
"I have no knowledge of that. Neither master Kell nor Delilah have been in any condition for sharing information so far, my prince."
His heart skipped a beat, only to beat twice as fast afterwards. At least he now knew where that pains came from. An echo. Which meant..
"Tieren, please tell me.. how bad is it?"
"You will be fine soon."
"Not me. My brother. I seem to remember ... things"
"I am afraid Kell may have lost his powers. The wound he suffered does not react to any oinments or magic applied, there have been no signs of autonomous healing either. He lost so much blood I can not tell if or when he will awake."
A fist to the guts wouldn't have hit that hard. As Tieren's words repeated over and over in his head, a sense of dizziness overcame Rhy and he had the sudden urge to retch. Kell was powerless.. because of him..
The priest saw his obvious discomfort as he stood and filled a glass with the content of one of the bottles that always stood on the shelf, offered it to him and made sure every last drop had gone down Rhy's throat before he took the glass back and settled once again. As always, the brew had a strong calming effect, even the sickness pulled back. On bad days and after nightmares, it'd banish the terror of his own thoughts and clear his head. Right now, it might've been the only thing keeping his nerves from breaking down. Still, his breathing was off and he forced himself to calm that too before he spoke.
"This is my fault, isn't it.. if I hadn't gone.."
"You should not think like this, my prince. You did what you deemed best."
"He turned his back on Osaron, Tieren. To save me. He'd never been hurt this badly if I hadn't selfishly gone there.. If I had stayed in safety..."
"You did what you deemed best. I do not know your motivations for doing this foolishness..-" - here Rhy flinched slightly at the harshness - "-.. but I know you must've had your own reasons."
"I just... I just.. I wanted to protect my people.. with my father dead, I wanted to stop Osaron, if need be on my own... but then..."
Tieren listened in silence, nodded in understanding, then stood, much to Rhy's confusion.
"Please sleep for a while. Your body needs the rest. Let's talk more later."
With that, the old priest bowed as far as his creaking back allowed – which wasn't that far – then left Rhy to his own thoughts. Luckily for the prince, these were drowned by the potion, which finally took full effect and granted him a deep, dreamless sleep.
Excruciating pain was the first coming to his senses. Pain on every inch of his body, every bone alit with fire, his head a mix of needles and slamming hammers. And Sanct, everything was spinning..
Kell carefully forced his eyes to open and closed them right afterwards when the light invaded his pupils with gruesome intensity. After a few moments he tried a second – and third – time, then slowly got used to the dimmed brightness, trying to focus. As the room sorted itself out and became less blurry second by second, he contemplated where he was and how he'd gotten here, shoved the thought aside as he came to no conclusion and sluggishly turned his head to the side where he heard a soft breathing sound.
Lila was fast asleep and only moved to re-align her head's position. Yet her hand held his, even subconsciously. He thought about giving in to the rising temptation of blacking out again, when the girl mumbled something, shifted and half opened her eyes, just to sit up suddenly.
"Kell!", she exclaimed when she noticed his gaze on her. "Wait, I'll go and get Tieren..", she said, starting to stand, but before she could run off, his hand had grabbed her wrist.
"Don't..", he whispered and Lila stopped, slowly sitting down again. For a little while they just stayed this way, then Lila growled "You idiot!", for which she earned a confused stare from the other Antari.
"That was reckless! Just.. why!? We had the upperhand! Why'd you give that jerk such a chance?!"
He tried to answer, but the first take-in of air just ended in a hacking cough that only subsided when a glass of water was pressed to his lips and was drunk in big, thirsty gulps. He'd never noticed the thirst until then, but it came back with revenge. Lila watched and returned the empty glass to its place, then resumed in a quieter, more collected tone.
"Really.. you're such a..."
"I'm sorry.."
"Don't you 'I'm sorry' me, mister. You could've gotten yourself killed there. And us with you. What about Rhy?"
"Rhy.."
"Yes, Rhy. Amongst others."
Lila snorted and forced herself to calm down, if just a little. Folding Kell together for being an idiot would have to wait until he'd be able to appreciate the effort. Or not fall asleep on her right while she was talking... Shaking her head she watched as the redhaired Antari slept once again. At least it was progress. Should she tell Tieren?
Then again.. if she left now, who knew what this stubborn guy might do.. foolishness, probably. Maybe try to follow her and get himself killed in the process. So she stayed, contemplating her future.
Her feet ached on land. She'd noticed that quite a while ago, but only after leaving the Night Spire. Not a real pain, but the serious wish to travel. Staying in one place only worked for so long. She'd never been the type to settle down and become some weird housewife. So claiming what that royal pain-in-the-ass named Rhy owed her was out of the question. This castle; it wouldn't hold her for long. She needed the sea, needed her freedom, the world called for her and she was stuck here. At least until Kell either died – and took Rhy and the whole kingdom down with him – or recovered enough to decide wether to join or not.
Though he had promised, right?
Somehow her hand found its way to his face and touched the glowing hot cheek. It took her a while to realise what she was doing and before she could pull back, Kell had started mumbling. Murmured her name all over, a broken sentence that asked her not to go. Lila felt her own cheeks flush and finally backed off, throwing over the chair.
What in .. whoever's name was she doing?
"Jerk.", she growled and turned to go, was already at the door and about to press the handle down, when it lowered by itself. Consternated for a moment she just stared, then stepped back when the wing was pushed open.
"Oh. Delilah", said Tieren, with a half-toothless smile. "You don't need to leave. I will be done in a short while."
".. was on my way anyway. Need some fresh air."
The priest nodded and let her pass, knowing fully well of her lie. She could've opened one of the giant windows – or go onto the balcony. She needn't leave the castle. Not that it was the main reason. He could feel her palpatable restlessnes and just shook his head over her impatience.
"Youth."