He hoped that would be enough to chase back the energy storm threatening to cripple Nic during the battle he most needed to help fight.
At last, when they could no longer see Dari, Nic came back to himself enough to withdraw from Aron. He pulled his red graal energy fully into his own body, and let out a deep sigh full of regret.
Aron moved his foot from his stirrup, helped Nic gain purchase, then pulled him onto Tek’s back behind him.
“Thank you,” Nic said as he settled at Aron’s back and wrapped his arms tight around Aron’s waist. “For your help, and for not fighting me on Dari’s behalf.”
“I’m not sure you’re welcome,” Aron grumbled as he urged Tek into position behind Stormbreaker and Snakekiller. “Even if we live through this battle, Dari will probably kill both of us. And I don’t think she’ll be nice enough to use some painless poison.”
CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR
NIC
Nic’s joints cracked with each running step Tek took.
On either side of them, bull talons bellowed as they trampled grass and saplings on their breakneck journey down the main byway. Dust clogged the air, and the stink of talon oil made it all but impossible to draw a full breath.
Nic kept his eyes squeezed shut and his face pressed into Aron’s back so he wouldn’t scream from the bone-wrecking pain. Sweat coated his shoulders and neck, and he shivered despite the absence of cold in the air.
They had been running for hours, but it felt like days, and he didn’t know if he could stand it another moment. He had more of Snakekiller’s elixir, but he didn’t dare drink it for fear of dulling his senses and losing his ability to understand and decide between the visions hammering at his consciousness. Whenever he began to drift into the void of blackness he had so often known following his fits, a bit of Aron’s energy would flow into him, shoring him up enough for another few miles.
Nic tried to breathe, but he couldn’t fill his lungs without a new, stabbing agony. He settled for quick, short gasps, like a beast giving birth.
What do you see now? Aron asked through the link they shared, shielded from eavesdropping on the other side of the Veil by Nic’s abundant graal. Dari had taught him the skill, but at some point in their lessons, he had simply absorbed all she knew of mind-talents, and how to use them. Learning in such a fashion was a feature of his legacy, according to her.
Nic wished he could touch Dari in similar fashion, speak to her as easily as he spoke to Aron, but he wouldn’t allow himself that bit of comfort at her expense. She was fierce and strong, but now that Nic sensed two lives instead of one whenever they were joined on the other side of the Veil, he felt driven to protect his unborn child as well.
I see us dying, Nic answered Aron honestly. Quickly, almost as soon as we enter the battle.
Aron’s frustration flowed through their link.
What if we attack from another angle, another position? Aron’s mind shifted through various points on the approach to the valley. He knew the lay of the land much better than Nic, but in Nic’s advanced state of awareness, using his graal so freely, he absorbed Aron’s mental maps as quickly as he absorbed Dari’s knowledge of mind-talents. He ground his teeth and screamed behind his mental barriers, overcome by details and images and the sawing of his misshapen bones against his flesh.
Then the information sorted itself into a complete picture, and he could answer Aron’s question. No approach offers us a better fate, and most would cost Dari, Kate, Lord Ross, and Lord Cobb their lives.
Damnation, Nic! What good is your future-seeing graal if it can’t find an answer for us?
Aron’s surge of emotion rocked Nic backward. He clung to Aron’s waist to keep his seat, and the roar in his mind almost blocked Aron’s apology. Tree branches smacked Nic in his shoulder, and pebbles churned from the road by the thundering line of clawfeet stung his ankles and legs.
Find an answer. Nic gripped Aron’s robes and bit his lip until he tasted blood. That is the answer, isn’t it?
Nic closed out Aron’s confused response, and focused on the images streaming through his thoughts and senses. Leaving only a portion of his attention on staying in Tek’s saddle behind Aron, he let his consciousness flow through the Veil. It took little effort to rise