Title: Of Healing and Love
Author: I Dream of Peace
Category: drama, missing scene, pre-romance (pairing Numair/Daine)
Rating: PG-13, there's going to be a bit of violence, nothing too intense, but definitely some blood, and blink-and-you'll-miss-it reference to non-graphic sexual assault
Spoilers: all the Immortals books, but really, you wouldn't be reading this if you haven't read those
Archive: anyone can have it, just please tell me so I can come and visit
Feedback: I know you are all capable of pushing the review button…
Series: stand-alone
Summary: When Daine is gravely injured, Numair comes to see how much she means to him
Disclaimer: You all know the drill. All this wonderful stuff belongs to Tamora Pierce. I'm obviously not making money off this, because if I were I would have a better computer! It's all just for fun.
Author's Notes: This missing scene takes place sometime between books two and three. At this point in time, Numair is acting from a strictly parental (or perhaps worried older brother) manner towards Daine. I've included the passage from the third book where this incident is mentioned:
"Last spring we were rounding up killer unicorns, and bandits cornered me. I'd gotten separated from Numair and panicked. I changed into a wild goose." Remembering, she sighed.
"Big mistake?" There was sympathy in his voice.
"They got me with a barbed arrow. I escaped, but almost lost the arm…I used to hunt and eat game with the best of them, but not anymore."
The Immortals: Book 3:Emperor Mage
Daine talking to Kaddar, pages 92-3
Veralidaine Sarrasri glanced warily back down the road. She and Master Numair Salmalìn were riding through the moors of northeastern Tortall, travelling to a small village marked on Numair's map as Ravenswood. It was eerily quiet: the only sounds came from the steps of Numair's gelding Spots and Daine's pony Cloud on the well-trodden path. Daine strung her bow, just in case. She couldn't hear any of the People, and that worried her. An early spring day like this should have been alive with the calls of birds and other creatures. Cloud snorted, shaking her head slightly. I don't like this any more than you do, Daine assured her oldest friend silently. Cloud tossed her head in agreement.
Numair was just as unhappy as his student. He would never have brought her to this dangerous section of the country by choice, not during raiding season, but King Jonathon had received so many reports of killer unicorns in this area lately—two entire villages massacred—that he had no choice but to send someone. All the Rider groups were thoroughly occupied with the raids on the coast, and the King's Own were busy with similar attacks along the border. It had been Daine's idea in the first place, pointing out to the king and her teacher that she would be able to hear the immortals from miles away. Numair was just glad Ravenswood was the last village they needed to visit before returning to Corus.
The first arrow whistled past Daine's ear; Spots reared in fright, and only Daine's order to stop kept him from dumping Numair and bolting. Bandits sprung up from the surrounding terrain, Numair silently cursed himself for not sensing the cloaking spell they must have employed earlier as Daine dismounted and began rapidly firing arrows at any of the raiders who tried to creep too close.
Suddenly an arrow grazed Spots' hindquarters, not really harming him, but startling him badly enough that a distracted warning from Daine was not enough to deter him from throwing his rider. Numair hit the ground with a thud, wincing slightly. For one terrible moment Daine saw him lying there, and then he was on his feet again. Daine sighed with relief but was suddenly grabbed from behind by a bandit that had crept up behind her while she had been watching Numair. He tried to drag her away and would have succeeded, had Cloud not kicked him hard in the ribs. Daine stumbled and fell, hitting her head on a rock. Only rock on the road, figures I'd manage to hit it, she thought.
Cloud came and stood protectively over Daine, who needed a moment to regain her feet. Once she had, the landscape spun around terribly, and Daine was afraid for a moment she might pass out. Clutching cloud's mane she was able to keep her feet; she swallowed hard and bit her lip to overcome the waves of nausea that flowed over her. Daine was vaguely conscious of Numair somewhere to her left, but her thoughts were too clouded to register much else. When three—or was it six?—bandits broke away from the large group attacking Numair, Daine was helpless to do more than yell for her teacher.
Numair whipped his head around at Daine's call. She sounded sick and fatigued, her voice hoarse and strained. Numair's heart leapt painfully when he saw Daine struggling futilely against three bandits: one pinning her arms behind her back, and one touching her in terrible, degrading ways, as the third looked on and laughed, calling out lewd suggestions. Numair began shouting powerful, complex, and often fatal spells at random, not taking time to aim or see if they hit. At first he had been reluctant to do so, but a building rage inside his chest pushed out the voice of reason. Numair's only thought was to get to Daine as quickly as possible. He vaguely heard, or thought he heard a rustle in the grass, but he was otherwise occupied with a large churlish man with some small Gift. He blocked Numair's first spell, barely, but his magical shield was destroyed, Numair rapidly hit him with a succession of random spells, hoping one of them might do damage. The man glowed with the black light of Numair's Gift for a moment and then crumpled. Numair glanced quickly around, noting with detachment the crowd of twenty bandits had been reduced to ten, all looking frightened and ready to run.
Meanwhile, Daine continued struggling with the bandits tormenting her. The same small movement of grass that Numair had paid no mind to turned out to be a wild goose. Panicking, Daine hastily shape-shifted to the same form and launched into flight as the man who had been gripping her arms allowed smooth feathers to slip through his startled grasp. As Daine flew steadily upward, circling slightly, obviously intent on helping Numair, the third raider carefully aimed a good, strong bow at Daine-as-a-goose and loosed a barbed arrow. Daine saw it coming straight at her, a moment too late to dodge entirely, yet in enough time to swerve slightly to the right, so the arrow was coming at the place where her wing joined the rest of her goose's body.
When it hit, Daine cried out in shock and pain. The goose call rang out over the marsh. Numair screamed something, but Daine couldn't concentrate on his words. Pain radiated from the place where the arrow had hit her body, and it still stuck defiantly from her shoulder. Daine fell, not even attempting to slow herself, and hit the ground with a sickening thud and the crack of broken bones. The pain was now so intense Daine lost her grip on goose shape and became human again. She retched, barely able to even turn her head to avoid suffocating on her own vomit. She feebly curled up in a ball, and shivered, naked.
Numair had seen Daine transform out of the corner of his eye, and smiled grimly, assuming her to be out of harm's way. He continued his battle with the bandits, taking down two more. Then he happened to look up just as the arrow truck his student.
"NOOO!" he screamed, watching, horrified, as Daine plummeted to the ground. Forcing himself to tear his attention away, Numair turned to the eight remaining bandits circling him. He barked a short, harsh, guttural word, a word of power, and as one, the bandits fell, disintegrating as they hit the ground. For barely a second, Numair stood, stunned at what he had just done, and then he raced off the road to the place he had seen Daine fall.
Daine was just on the edge of consciousness by this time, but she could still sense Numair's approach. Placing a hand on the arrow she forced herself to pull it out. She gasped as her vision darkened for a moment, but she would not allow herself the relief of unconsciousness, not yet.
Numair was just coming up on Daine when she pulled out the arrow. He realized a moment too late what she was doing, and by the time he had called out a feeble "Don't!" Daine had already jerked the offending projectile from her body. Blood began spurting from her body at an alarming rate; Daine was already lying in a dark pool of it. Numair rushed to her side, wrapping her gently in his cloak and pulling her into his lap. As he cradled the head of his student against his chest, Daine managed to open her eyes and give a weak smile.
"Numair," she whispered and clutched at his shirt.
"Shh," he calmed her. "It'll be all right." Hesitantly, he pushed the cloak back from her left shoulder to survey the damage.
He grimaced as soon as it was uncovered. A deep puncture with ragged edges went from just under Daine's left collarbone, nicking the bone itself, in a diagonal direction through her shoulder, slicing through muscle and vein. A quick glance at the arrow confirmed it had been barbed. As he turned back to his student, Numair had a horrible thought and quickly reached back and picked up the arrow. Feeding a bit of his Gift into the tip (which, Numair was sickened to note, was covered in Daine's blood) Numair sighed in relief to find the tip was not poisoned, but on closer inspection, he discovered it certainly had been coated in something. To the mage's horror, he found it had been rubbed with filth, to promote infection.
Steadying himself, Numair pressed one of his large hands firmly to the bloody wound. Daine gave a small whimper, try as she might to be silent. It nearly broke Numair's heart.
"Hush, magelet," he soothed. Daine grimaced in pain and bit her lip, hard. The copper tang of blood filled her mouth, and instead of distracting her, sickened her to the point her she feared she might be sick again. She released her lip and allowed the blood to trickle down her face.
Numair wiped the blood from his student's face, noticing she had nearly bit through her lip altogether. Numair softly chanted a spell designed to slow the flow of blood from the deep puncture in Daine's shoulder, and he could feel it working under his hand immediately.
Standing, with Daine in his arms, Numair slowly made his way to where the horses were waiting, Spots having come back once the bandits were gone. Both whickered in dismay upon seeing Daine, and Cloud promptly went to fetch the saddlebags from where they had fallen. Bringing them to Numair, the pony nudged the stork-man, as she called him; he was staring at Daine wide-eyed and paying no attention to his surroundings.
When Cloud nudged him, Numair snapped to attention. Pulling out the small first aid kit they carried with them on journeys of this nature, he efficiently bandaged the wound, trying to be as gentle as possible. It hurt Daine immensely, but she tried not to let her teacher know that. Still, by the time the wound had been cleaned and bandaged as best as could be managed without a healer, neither Daine nor Numair could ignore the beads of sweat on Daine's forehead and upper lip, or her ashen complexion. Numair delicately hugged his student before carefully lifting her and placing her on Spots, where he then mounted behind her. Numair knew that Cloud would follow them.
Now that he was mounted, Numair realized he had no idea where to go. His first impulse was to use a teleportation spell to take Daine back to Corus. Two problems presented themselves, however. First of all, the best healers had been dispatched to the coast or border to help with the raids and Scanran attacks; only very young, old, or mediocre healers had been left behind. Numair didn't have an exact location to aim for (along the border or coast), so that was out of the question. Secondly, Numair had exhausted his magical reserves using a word of power. He cursed his rash acting, but he could hardly change it now. Should he attempt it, he would surely be forced to draw upon his life force, thus killing himself and with him Daine. In any case, he would be forced to aim for Corus, which would only gain him access to an average healer, and the same end could be satisfied through more simple means.
Once Numair realized getting Daine to Alanna, Duke Baird, or some other talented healer was out of the question, his second thought was to use a shorter teleportation to return to the village they had left two days ago, a moderately sized place that boasted its own healer. Numair would be able to get Daine some sort of help while he gathered enough magic to take them to Corus, where he could then ask the king for directions to wherever Alanna or Duke Baird happened to be. However, he realized that while he might be able to transport himself and Daine, he could never manage the horses, and Daine would likely never forgive him if something happened to them, particularly Cloud.
Numair had to admit that his only real choice was to use a spell to speed the horses along and ride hard for Ravenswood, hoping his magic wouldn't give out along the way. He doubted a village as small as this one would have more than a hedgewitch, which rather worried him; if an experienced healer didn't burn the infection from Daine's body soon, it would get a foothold on her immune system, and the situation would become much more dire.
Finally, Numair shaped a black ball of his Gift in his hands, threw it at the horses' feet with a firm "So mote it be!", and nudged Spots into a canter faster than any animal could have managed unaided. Cloud followed at the same shattering speed. Numair turned his gelding's head up the road towards Ravenswood. His final decision was to get to Ravenswood as quickly as possible, allow the local hedgewitch to keep Daine stable for a few hours, and gather power enough to teleport back to Corus. Numair felt slightly guilty at using such a spell lightly; teleportation was similar to the words of powers: an equally powerful, and often catastrophic, event would have to take place elsewhere in the world, and, unlike words of power, it was impossible to tell exactly what sort of reaction would result.
As Numair pondered this, Daine was just concentrating on sitting in the saddle. She leaned heavily on Numair, not even able to properly support her head, instead allowing it to flop back on Numair's chest. She felt a sudden jolt as Spots took off, and a moment later felt Numair's arm around her waist, preventing her from falling and hence doing further damage to herself.
"Hold on, magelet," Numair murmured in her ear, but to Daine it seemed too great a task to answer him. Daine gathered her breath and her strength for a moment, before whispering to Numair,
"I'm trying." At first, Daine didn't think he had heard, but when Numair slightly increased the pressure of the arm holding her, she knew he had. Daine sighed and gave in to the beckoning call of the darkness that had been threatening her since the arrow struck.
Numair felt Daine go limp and knew she had lost consciousness. He was worried by her words; they almost seemed like a reassurance from a deathbed. Unconsciously, Numair held his student even closer. Please Gods, he thought. Keep her safe.
