looked to them. “We will free you of those binds.”
“And how will you do that?”
“In this way,” Ardyl said, standing with fingers clasped behind her back. Slowly, bending and twisting, she worked her wrists under her ass, then down her legs and to the front.
Nemek cackled. “Do you see how old I am, warrior? Never could I do that.”
“Then wear your young face,” Aerax suggested.
And truly young and beautiful they were, with shining silvery hair, unlined skin, and a faintly disdainful twist to their smile. “I still cannot.”
“We’ll help you,” Lizzan said, and Aerax reluctantly released her. “If you will allow . . . ?”
Lizzan went to their front while Aerax moved behind, and Nemek’s hair shimmered like the stars when they shook their head. “The itch-slayer will be safe, for she wears my bind. But if you touch me, only pain you will feel.”
“I know,” Aerax said quietly. “So let us be quick.”
Gently he lifted Nemek’s slight form and a hot rash ravaged his skin, sinking deep and shaking his muscles with fevered fatigue. Agony spread through his gut as Lizzan carefully helped work their wrists under their hips. A cough racked his chest, phlegmy blood coating his tongue, and barely could he stand as Lizzan finally helped them bend to draw their wrists past their feet.
The moment Nemek’s feet returned to the ground, Aerax fell wheezing, dying. Then the healer’s withered hands touched his face and all the pain eased, the diseases vanishing.
“So much better this is,” Nemek told him, though their wrists were still bound.
“Use your teeth,” Kelir said from the ground, where he still held an unmoving Seri in his lap.
When Nemek tilted their head, Ardyl demonstrated by pretending to tug at the knot at her own wrists.
Hope filled their eyes and they clamped their teeth on the rope, tugging and tugging until the bind fell away. Then they sank to the ground beside Aerax, quietly sobbing.
Lizzan came down at his other side, and Caeb pressed forward, licking Nemek’s cheek.
“Oh, beautiful one,” they said quietly, trailing their fingers down his burned face, thick fur sprouting in their wake, before plucking the fallen silver braid from the sand and turning to Aerax. “You are no Varrin. All that he would imprison, you would free—and so no fear do I have to give this. Just as the itch-slayer wears my healing bind, so you would, too. In that way, you might always travel together.”
Always. Emotion filling his chest, Aerax asked, “Will you tear it in half, so one might be Caeb’s?”
Deftly their fingers pulled the strands apart. “At first touch it might seem to burn your skin, but that is only lingering heat from Enam’s eye. No harm does it do.” They gave both braids to Aerax, who felt the burn across his palm. “The silver makes a better necklace than belt—and when you are done traveling in this world, pray for me to come, and I will untie the knots you make. And now I also must be traveling on . . . though first I might wander through this camp.”
Stopping first to drift their fingers over Seri’s cheek. Aerax looked to Lizzan, who crawled into his lap to straddle his hips in the sweet, intimate way they’d always had.
Her palms framed his face as her gaze searched his. “Are you well?”
Throat thick, he nodded. Not full well. Never could he be again after seeing her in the water, staring sightlessly up at him. But in all other ways . . . “You are with me,” he said softly. “So I am blessed beyond all other men.”
Sweetly she kissed him, then laid her head against his shoulder. “And where will our path take us next?”
“Likely it will still be the path that Vela put us on,” he told her quietly, as his hand stroked down her back. “For I still must become what I truly am. For although I am always fully yours, a new purpose I should have.”
“And what is that?”
Aerax gave a heavy sigh. “To learn magic from Preter.”
She drew back to look at him in full surprise. “Truly?”
“Truly. It is needed against the Destroyer.”
“So it is.” A full smile curved her lips. “You will be a fine sorcerer.”
He groaned. “So many lessons I will have to take.”
She laughed against his mouth. “Take them through a hole in a wall. You always liked those lessons full well.”
So he had. And she had, too. With a grunt, he lifted her.