“You have nothing to apologize for. The Elvasi do, and we’ll wring it out from their cold dead bodies,” Nevyn whispered, deathly serious. “Now, Varon and I need to talk to Alchan. Privately.”
“About?” Alchan perked back up.
“That whole ‘extinction of the Andinna’ thing. Varon and I had an idea, but I want it to stay between the three of us for a moment until we’ve discussed it.” Nevyn stood back up and pointed at Mave. “You need to go see your mother. She needs you, and you need her. Now. And when they’re done with you, tomorrow, you’ll go see a healer about that wing. It’s not fit to fly, but it can be if it’s rebroken and taken care of.”
“I can’t yet,” she said, trying to keep her face blank.
“You can and you will,” Nevyn snapped. “I don’t understand—”
“I won’t go see them until I let them know his death was worth it,” Mave growled. “And if we’re going to lose this war, then his death wasn’t worth it. Do you understand that?”
Nevyn shoved his hands into his pockets, frowning. Varon touched his shoulder and nodded.
“Fine,” the warrior grumbled. “Go see the healer and get that wing looked at. Today. The sooner it’s handled, the sooner you can get back into the sky. That must be killing you.”
She hadn’t given it much thought. Her broken wing was a natural consequence of her failure.
“I’ll deal with it,” she promised, standing. “Have a good meeting.”
She left them, walking to the healer’s hut in the village. There were always at least two healers on duty in a rotating shift. Sometimes, they worked multiple days in a row, especially when healers went on campaign. It was worse now because only one of the healers with Seanev had come back.
Walking in, she heard the soft gasps and surprise she sent through the room of sick and injured.
“Greetings, Champion,” a healer greeted with a smile. “We’ve been briefed on your injuries and asked to expect you.”
“Ah, of course,” she muttered, trying not to be annoyed. Either Alchan did it or one of her husbands. “Where would you like me?”
“Come. We have a backroom for procedures like this.” He very gently touched Mave’s elbow before grabbing it as if testing the waters. Mave allowed it, knowing healers would be a little handsy. They had to be for their job, and she came to them. It wasn’t as if they were showing up in her house to treat her.
He locked them in after calling the second healer to follow them. With three of them in the room, Mave felt it was too small, but there was enough space for all of them. She was just nervous.
“Have a seat, and we’ll evaluate the break,” the first healer said, patting a padded wooden table. She did as he asked, then tried to open the wing for him to see.
His hands were soft and gentle when they touched the break. Mave had some phantom pain, but because the bone healed, she didn’t know why it was still hurting.
“Do you know why it would hurt?” she asked. “It healed…almost in the right spot.”
“It healed like a ball,” the healer explained, making a fist. “And that’s putting tension on everything around it. When we rebreak it, we need to get rid of as much of the inconsistencies as we can. The closer we can get it to its proper size and shape, the better it will heal.”
“You will always feel some pain in the area,” the second healer said, his voice male and much deeper than the first. It didn’t have gentleness. It held truth. “The cold will bother it. The heat will bother it. Flying too much or too far will bother it. It won’t fail on you, but it’ll become an old injury, you’ve heard many warriors talk about. The sort of thing that bothers you at home but doesn’t really hinder your life.”
“You can do this?” the first healer asked. “You’ve done more of them than I have, so…”
“Yeah, just knock her out when she’s ready, and I’ll do the big work.”
Mave took a deep breath. “I’m ready.”
“Whoa,” the bigger male said with a chuckle. “We need to go over aftercare and need at least two Andinna willing to carry you home since you won’t be waking up until tomorrow. I noticed you came in alone, so I sent two guards to your home to see if any of your husbands are home.”