Sun Broken (The Wild Hunt #11) - Yasmine Galenorn Page 0,94

he nodded. “Can you travel to Annwn?”

“Yes, and I promise you by my wings and tail, I will not harm your lady.” Ashera held out her hand and Herne took it.

After a moment, he nodded. “Very well. How will you know where to go?”

“Trust me, I know my way into Annwn. You are headed to your father’s palace?”

Again, Herne nodded. “Yes.”

“We will meet you there. Tarry not. Merlin may have driven Pandora off for now, but she’ll be back. And so will her guards.” Ashera bundled me up in her arms and I was surprised by how the pain seemed to muffle when she touched me.

I started to ask her something, but she shushed me, and I found myself growing drowsy. I rested my head against her shoulder and the next thing I knew, I was falling back into the gentle fog that rolled in off the oceans.

I next awoke in a bed. I was in a room that was unfamiliar, but I knew where I was. I was in Cernunnos’s palace. The feeling was unmistakable. I had a splint on one wrist, over bandages swaddling the burns, and more bandages on the other wrist. My hip ached, but I was able to ease myself up to a sitting position.

An Elfin woman was sitting near my bed, reading a book. She glanced up as I shifted. The Elves never failed to daunt me. They were ancient and reserved, and it was impossible to read what was going on in their heads.

“You’re awake,” she said, moving quickly to my side. “Don’t try to move too much—you have a lot of bruises and they’re covered in salve. You don’t want to wipe it off.”

I cleared my throat. It was sore too, I realized. “My throat?”

“According to Lord Herne, you were screaming when he found you. Your throat will heal. I’ll bring you some lemon and hibiscus tea with honey. Are you hungry?”

I blinked, trying to figure out exactly how I felt. “Yeah, I guess I am.”

“I’ll bring you some toast, as well. And I’ll let Lord Ferosyn know you’re awake.” She bustled out of the room and a moment later, before I’d even had a chance to really look around, Ferosyn came in. Cernunnos’s senior healer, the Elf was far older than just about anybody I knew—including Talia—but he looked young enough to be a Doogie Howser.

“Well, how’s my favorite patient?” he said, giving me a jovial smile. Unlike most of the Elves, Ferosyn had a winning bedside manner. He flipped through my chart. “You have a nasty set of bruises on your hips, you have a sprained knee, which I’ve wrapped up, your arm was dislocated, and I put that back into place but you’re going to be sore for a while. Your wrists have second-degree burns on them, and your right wrist is fractured. All in all, looks like a typical day’s work for you.”

I groaned, leaning my head back against the pillow. “Raven? How’s Raven?” I held my breath, praying she was still alive. I couldn’t face it if she was dead.

“She lives. She’ll heal up, but…” He paused. “Pandora tortured her. I’m pretty sure you know that. She’ll need therapy. I hope she accepts it.”

I closed my eyes, trying to breathe softly. “What did Pandora do to her?”

Ferosyn’s expression darkened. “The Ante-Fae are strong, but Ravven is still young. And she’s more sensitive than others of her kind. Pandora pulled out two of her teeth—molars. Needless to say, without any anesthetic. She also tore off five of Raven’s fingernails. Those will grow back, but the pain must have been horrendous.” He paused, looking queasy.

“What else?” I knew there was more.

“I’m not sure if it was Pandora who did it, or if she had someone else do it, but Raven has bite marks all over her body. Deep, painful, bite wounds. She’s missing a bit of flesh from her left thigh, and another chunk from her stomach. I disinfected the wounds and packed them to encourage drainage. Both of her shoulders had been dislocated, and she has cigarette wounds all over her back. I’ve seen worse, but this was pretty bad. And it was done with thought as to how to make it hurt the most. That seems to be it. I’ve set her shoulders—they’re back into place, but they’ll hurt like hell. And I’ve cleaned all wounds and done my best to see that they don’t leave scars.”

“Not all scars are visible,” I murmured, shutting my eyes, trying