I go to them, they feel untold pain."
"What would you have Syndil do?" Barack asked.
Gregori shook his head. Savannah perched on the arm of his chair and slipped her arm around him, her fingers sliding into his hair to soothe him. "Just tell them, Gregori. Let them decide."
"I have never seen anything like what is happening. Razvan's body was hacked up, literally. He had his arm chopped off and in pieces. He had six spear holes, three fatal. His wounds were horrendous. Slices all the way to the bone, in many cases cutting through the bone. The blood loss was unbelievable. Instead of attending his wounds, he aided her in the battle."
Barack sat up straight. "And he survives?"
"So far-yes. I don't know how. She also had many wounds, and yet she managed to merge with him in some way; I do not know how. They are separate bodies, but their hearts beat as one, their minds are one. Even that is not the issue. If I have access to his arm, the rest of his body is encased completely in mineral, as if he is part of the earth itself. When I share their bodies, I hear the earth whispering. I can hear the rhythm of its heartbeat, but I can't understand what she is saying to them. Could this be? Could Mother Earth be healing them? Not just rejuvenating them?"
Syndil was silent, turning his words over and over in her mind. Barack said nothing, waiting for his lifemate to give her advice. It was her realm of expertise and he was inordinately proud of her. He never ceased to be shocked that his quiet little Syndil was consulted by every Carpathian, and the prince and Gregori often asked her counsel.
"I believe so, yes. We have a connection to the earth, to the very Universe. It's the reason we're able to shift and call down the lightning. It's why our bodies rejuvenate in the soil. If this couple has a deeper connection in some way, if Mother Earth claims one or both as her children, their bodies might be slightly different from ours."
Gregori's frown deepened. "We're all the earth's children."
Syndil shook her head. "Not in the same way. The earth is alive. There is a heartbeat, a rhythm, a pulse. She whispers and shouts and screams. She welcomes us home each dawn as her children, but if she accepts one of us as her own, as her biological child-I know no other way to explain it-she might send them everything she has, the very richest soil she can call, every healing element. Who knows what she is capable of doing for one she considers part of her."
The lines on his face remained as he sat back. "Why would she single out one Carpathian?"
Syndil, calm and serene, smiled at him, warmed him, enveloped him with her utter lack of vanity. "I would imagine the circumstances had to be extraordinary."
Savannah leaned closer. "Can you help her? Can you feed the soil where they are recovering, help to keep it rich to speed their recovery?"
Gregori brought her fingertips to his mouth. He hadn't wanted to ask Syndil. Anyone approaching that expanse of soil would be able to feel the agony radiating from the couple, and to ask a woman to share that experience was nearly more than he was capable of doing, yet if she didn't help, it could well take years to heal such mortal wounds.
"Before you answer, Syndil"-now he looked to her lifemate, husband to husband, willing him to understand-"there are things you should know. The pain they suffer is unlike anything I have ever experienced in centuries of battles and healing. If you are empathic, you can't go there without being affected. Even if you don't touch them, just entering the area is an uncomfortable experience. I have no words to describe the suffering."
"And yet they live," Barack said.
"A seemingly impossible feat," Gregori said. "Yet they continue." His gaze moved broodingly over Syndil. "I do not ask this of you lightly. I would not want you trying to connect with them or helping me to heal them because to share their bodies right now is an agonizing task."
Even when he slept the sleep of Carpathians, that first moment of awakening was torture, pain flooding his body, wrenching at every organ and tearing great holes in his body, as if he shared some part of Ivory and Razvan deep beneath the ground. He knew it was a waking nightmare, but still,