So this is ... well, the 7th chapter. I don't think there's so much to say about it, and hopefully, you'll be eager to read it after the cliffhanger in chapter 6.

So now, you won't have to wait any more ...

Chapter 7: Reunion

"So ... you think she'll survive, do you?"

"Well, of course she'll survive! What do you think of her? It's Arya we're speaking about, isn't it?"

"Yes, it is, of course. But still ... that was a huge effort, wasn't it?"

"Yes, it was, and a stupid reason for it as well! Breaking the Isidar Mithrim ... You realize how angry the dwarves will be when they find out, don't you?"

The voices seemed to be dragging Arya towards the wakefulness, despite her efforts to remain in the warm, soothing sleep. She did not want to wake, but knew she would have to. Dimly, she sensed that there was something she had to tell someone, but she could not remember what it was. It must be something important, or else it wouldn't keep nagging at her consciousness like this.

The sound of a door slamming finally made Arya's eyes flicker open. She looked around, but the large room was unfamiliar. It was not the same room as she had woken in a few days ago. This one was larger, and there was room for more than one bed in here.

By the door stood a woman whom she recognized at once. And at the same time, all that had happened came back to her.

"Angela!" she burst out, sitting up and fixing her eyes upon the herbalist. "Are Eragon and Saphira all right? Have they told you what happened?"

"Dear me!" Angela said, hurrying over to Arya and placing a hand on her shoulder. "Calm down, please! Do you never rest?"

Ignoring her question, Arya said:

"I have to know what happened! Did Eragon and Saphira ... survive?"

At the same time as she spoke the words, terror struck Arya like a physical blow. What if Eragon and Saphira had not survived? Closing her eyes, she tried to relive that moment in the air, high above the floor of Tronjheim, when she'd seen Eragon and Durza. Eragon had been kneeling, but she had not managed to see more than that. and Durza! He had been standing over Eragon, just like he had done with her in Gil'ead. But ...

"They are alive", Angela said wearily. "Barely. I can't understand how you two manage to get into such a lot of trouble within just a few minutes."

"May I see them?" asked Arya, but Angela shook her head.

"Certainly not!" she said. "Eragon is not even awake yet, and you ought to rest for longer than this before you do anything."

Arya tried to raise a hand in protest, but stopped when she noticed how stiff and clumsy her arm felt. Looking down at it, she realized Angela had bandaged it while she was asleep. But for how long had she been asleep? And what was going on out there in the battle? Had they lost, or won, or what?

"What's happened?" Arya said slowly, taking a deep breath and trying not to sound as upset as she felt because of the lack of information. "Have we lost or won the battle?"

"We won, I think", said Angela, sinking into a chair beside her bed with an air of exhaustion about her. "However, you and Eragon have kept me so busy, I haven't heard any news lately. There might be something going on out there right now which I know nothing about."

She let out a sigh, but Arya was not listening.

So they had won. They had won the battle, they had killed Durza. There was no Shade in Alagaësia any longer. Saphira's words seemed to come back to her, echoing through her mind. "We did it."

Yes, thought Arya. We did it. But the joy and the triumph she had expected to feel simply did not come. All she felt right now was anxiety. Anxiety and an immense tiredness.

"And ...", Arya said. "How did I come to be here? If Eragon was unconscious, who told you about the combat with Durza and all that?"

"Saphira", said Angela. "I let her into my mind, because I realized I had to. I don't think I had any choice either. Anyway, she came flying here with you on her back and Eragon dangling from her claws. Both of you were unconscious, and Saphira herself was almost incoherent. I don't know if she was distressed or what. But she did manage to tell me all I needed to know. She'd taken you to me, she said, because I was the best healer she knew. I don't know about that, though. I'm a herbalist, and a seeress, not a healer. That's a huge difference."

"I do not think Saphira pays that much attention to names", said Arya, smiling almost in spite of herself. "She will call you whatever she likes."

"Yes, I bet she will", said Angela, getting to her feet again. "Now, I'll go over to see how Eragon is. Don't you dare do anything while I'm gone!"

With that, she turned and left the room.

Arya spent the next half hour or so drifting through a state in which fragments, both from the waking world and the world of dreams, floated by like flakes of snow, impossible to catch and impossible to ignore. When she finally was woken by Angela shaking her arm, she felt almost as disorientated as she had done when she first awoke in Farthen Dûr.

"Arya!" Angela was saying loudly. "Do you want to see Saphira and Murtagh or not?"

"Well, yes, I do ...", Arya mumbled, getting to her feet. "So ... Murtagh is all right then? I have not seen him since the battle began."

"He's been unconscious, like you", Angela explained, leading the way out into a large hall. "But yes. I'll have to return to Eragon, because I think he'll wake up quite soon. You can see him then, I think."

And she hurried off through another door, at the opposite end of the hall.

Arya was met by a deep growl, and Saphira moved forwards to greet her. The dragon looked almost as tired as Angela, but otherwise completely unharmed. Without being able to help herself, Arya laid a hand on her side, feeling a wave of warmth and power stream into her.

- I have been waiting for you to wake up, Saphira told her. Didn't you see when I breathed fire?

- Breathed fire? Arya asked, completely bewildered. When?

- Just after you broke the Isidar Mithrim, Saphira said in what sounded like irritation.

- No, I did not see that, Arya admitted. I'm sorry, Saphira, but ...

Saphira's tone changed from irritation to laughing, and Arya understood that she had only been pretending.

- Oh, it does not matter, the dragon said. I just wondered.

Turning to look at Murtagh, Arya was surprised to see a faint smile on his face. He had a bandage around his head, but hardly seemed to notice. It was clear that he had been in combat before.

"Angela told me what you, Eragon and Saphira did", he said. "That was incredible! I'd have liked to see it. You breaking the Isidar Mithrim, Saphira breathing fire for the first time and Eragon killing a Shade! He must be the first one in a century, at least, to have done a thing like that."

"Yes ...", Arya mumbled, though she hardly knew what she was confirming. "What happened to you? And what happened in the battle? It was going badly when I left. How did you manage to win?"

"It was actually quite odd", said Murtagh. "When Durza was killed, something that looked like ... balls of light flew across Farthen Dûr. And as soon as the Urgals saw them ... it was like a spell lifted, almost. They all turned and began to battle against each other, and it wasn't hard for us to defeat them. Some of them fled into the tunnels, though. There are men chasing after them now. I tried to do the same, but one of them hit me in the head and then I was sent back here."

Silence fell in the hall after his words. None of them could think of any more to say. Arya knew that feeling of desperate impatience only too well, and judging by Murtagh's expression, he did as well.

It felt as though hours went by. Arya was sitting with her head in her hands, struggling to prevent her worried thoughts from taking over her completely. Murtagh was walking up and down the length of the hall, muttering under his breath as he went.

Finally, the door to Eragon's room swung open and Angela appeared, saying:

"He's awake now and he wants to see you. Come on!"

In sudden relief, Arya jumped up and followed Angela and Murtagh into the room, with Saphira squeezing her head in behind her.

Eragon was lying in the bed, wrapped in several blankets. He looked pale and weak, but when he caught sight of them, his face broke into a smile. Arya could feel his mind reaching out to touch Saphira's, but was unable to hear the words they spoke to each other.

"We've been sitting in the hall for hours", Murtagh said. "Waiting for you to wake up."

"What ... what happened?" Eragon asked, his voice as faint as he looked.

For a short moment, his eyes rested upon Arya, and then they returned to Murtagh, who had begun to speak.

Arya listened silently as Murtagh explained, once more, how the Varden and the dwarves had finally managed to defeat the Urgals. She had difficulties shaking off that feeling Eragon's eyes had left within her, even though she knew she had to. It was so strange! This was not the first time something like this happened, and it was certainly beyond her ability to understand it.

"But where were the twins?" Eragon asked. "They weren't where they were supposed to be. I couldn't contact them."

"I was told they bravely fought off a group of Urgals that broke into Tronjheim somewhere else", Murtagh said.

Arya was silent. Not until now did she remember the strange absence of the twins. But like Eragon had said, they had been supposed to keep watch from the Isidar Mithrim, hadn't they? And even if they had been taken by surprise, they would surely have had time to shout something to Eragon. But evidently, they had not done that, and it worried Arya more than she let the others know.

Slowly, Arya explained to Eragon about how she and Saphira had broken through the Isidar Mithrim, and how she'd been holding the pieces in the air, so as they would not hit Eragon when they reached the floor. But to her surprise, her words caused an expression of fear to appear on Eragon's face. Pulling down the blankets and twisting around in the bed, he revealed the reason.

Arya could hardly keep from wincing as she saw the long scar, stretching across Eragon's back. It was made by Durza, and she knew that it was not only a scar, though she was unsure in which ways it would affect Eragon. Someone would have to heal him, but not she. She had never been good at healing. But if they went to Ellesméra, then maybe ...

Making an effort to return to the reality, Arya said in a quiet voice:

"You have paid a terrible price for your deed, Eragon Shadeslayer."

Bursting into a sudden laugh, Murtagh exclaimed:

"Yes! Now you're exactly like me."

But Arya had drifted away into her own thoughts yet again. Despite the terrible price Eragon had had to pay, she could not help feeling a thrill rising inside her as she repeated the word to herself: Shadeslayer. That was what Eragon was now, a Súndavar-Vergandí. And Brom, she was sure, would have been proud of him.