The Dragon Bares Its Teeth (Spell Weaver Book 8) by Bill Hiatt

Author:Bill Hiatt [Hiatt, Bill]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-10-23T22:00:00+00:00

Aftermath (Tal)

No trace of Dain remained, but Halcón hadn’t retained his focus long enough to complete the process correctly. I tried to hold onto his consciousness, but the shock was so massive he was ripped away from me. It was only my experience that saved me from being drawn down along with him.

Part of me wished I had shared his fate. If not for me, he wouldn’t be in this mess. I should have known better than to push him to attempt something for which he clearly wasn’t ready.

We moved out of his shutting-down mind to regroup. Dain appeared to be having a seizure. The other two brothers looked catatonic. None of them posed an immediate threat.

Elaine sat down next to Halcón and wrapped her arms around him as if he were her son in this world. He was still unconscious and probably would be for some time, but she whispered reassurances to him as if he could hear them.

“You OK?” asked Magnus. He understood better than the others the perils of being inside someone else’s mind, especially in the multilayered way that I’d attempted.

“Better than he is,” I said, tilting my head toward Halcón’s still form.

“I don’t get it,” said Khalid. “He seemed fine until right at the very end.”

I shook my head. “He was being brave, but he barely knew what was happening. We should have rescued him from here and taken our time untangling him from the magic.”

“Don’t blame yourself,” said Merlina. “We didn’t really have time. And the connection between Dain and the medallion, as long as it was active, could have given Dain a way back to Halcón, no matter how far away we took him.”

“It doesn’t look to me like he’s in any shape to track anyone.” I realized my hands were shaking. I held the Lyre of Orpheus in an attempt to camouflage how unsteady I was.

“In the short term, no, the brothers are out of commission,” said Merlina. “But I wasn’t talking about Dain tracking us. Falco’s concealment would still prevent that as long as we kept Halcón from becoming the Red Knight or explicitly included the Red Knight in the concealment, as Falco did earlier. But the shadow of Dain would have remained in Halcón’s mind. At the very least, keeping that shadow out of the way would have been a constant drain on our resources, and it probably would have slowed us down, something we can’t afford at this point.”

“The poison isn’t advancing,” said Umbra, sounding disappointed. “The brothers may be out of commission, but they probably won’t die.”

“Just as I feared,” said Merlina. “They are partly Olympian. They can be injured but not killed. But they may remain much weakened until they can be healed. As far as I can tell, none of them have much healing magic of their own.

“But that doesn’t mean they pose no threat. They have an army, after all—and they have at least one collaborator in the imperial service.”

“What gives you that idea?” I asked.

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