Destiny (The Chosen One Trilogy:Book Three) (27 page)

“All I need to do is give them
enough to save them.”

“Ten is a lot, Shlova.”

“What do you suggest I do? Let
them die?”

“No, of course not.” He was
quiet as we approached the first man. I knelt beside him and
brushed the dark brown hair out of his face.

“Oh, god, it’s Collin.” My chest
tightened at the sight of our friend lying on the ground near
death.

“Harold was busy with three of
the humans when about five of them went after Gina. Collin tried to
stop them.”

I looked up at the speaker.
“Marie.” I nodded to the Maj healer. She had turned of age and been
assigned to Collin’s pack a few days before we had left Howel. She
had her long auburn hair tied in a ponytail to keep it out of the
way. Her dark brown eyes showed the stress and fatigue she was
feeling.

Harold came to join us.

I lifted the blanket that
covered Collin and took a deep breath. Jasper knelt beside me and
put a hand on my shoulder. Not only was Collin black and blue from
the hits he had taken, he had also been slit open from one hip to
the other. Someone had wrapped him in bandages to keep everything
inside. The bandage was soaked in blood as was the blanket he was
lying on. I put my hand gently on his chest and he groaned.

“Hey, Collin, it’s Hayden. I’m
going to fix you up. Just hang in there a few more minutes.”

Jasper looked at me. “Take from
me.”

“What?”

“You heard me. Look at him,
Shlova. If the other nine are just as bad as he is it will take you
weeks to recover. Take the energy from me and give it to him.”

“Jasper, you know I can’t do it.
I’ve tried.”

“So try harder. I know you can
do it. Find a way.” His sky blue eyes gazed into mine. He was
right, of course. If I gave energy to all ten of these beings I’d
be near death myself, not to mention useless to heal any of the
other wounded.

I took a deep breath. “Alright.
I’ll try.” I frowned, trying to think of the best way to do
this.

“Wait.” Harold knelt beside us.
“Use me. This happened while he was trying to save Gina. I owe him
this much at least. Where do you want me?”

“Umm, why don’t you lie down,
that way if you start to feel weak you won’t fall.” I repositioned
myself so that I was kneeling between them at their hips and facing
their heads. “Harold, I’ve never been able to do this. I’m not sure
I can control it if I manage to figure it out. If at any point you
want me to stop, say so. Jasper, Danny? If I say ‘enough’ you knock
me away from them, understood?”

“Just remember to stay calm,
Hayden.”

I looked up, smiled at Fillian
who had come over to see what was happening and nodded. “Uncle
Brinnan, Luke and Matthew, can you hold down Collin?” I looked
around the courtyard. “Alex! Come over here!”

He made his way over to us.
“What’s up?”

“Can you help Kacey hold down
Harold? I’m not sure what he’ll be feeling.” By this time a whole
crowd was gathering. Geez, no pressure, Hayden, I thought to
myself. I bit my lip in concentration. “Here goes nothing.”

I pulled the darkest green wave
from the air in front of me and spread it between the two of them,
placing a hand on each of their chests. Harold had so much energy
it seemed to jump out at me. Collin, on the other hand, barely had
a faint glow to him. I focused on Harold, trying to pull his energy
into me so that I could transfer it to Collin.

“I can’t get it to leave
Harold.” I looked up at Fillian questioningly. My aunt and teacher
frowned. As far as she knew, there were only two other healers in
Quelondain that could use the medium green wave without being
sucked dry and none that could use the darkest, yet she was
positive I should be able to do it. Her eyes widened.

“What if you can’t pull it into
you, but you could transfer it directly from one to the other.”

“So if they were touching?”

“Sure, let’s try that. We
haven’t tried it that way yet. We’ve always assumed you had to pull
it into yourself first.” She knelt, took Harold’s unresisting hand
and placed it on Collin’s shoulder.

I pulled the wave again and
repeated the process. This time, instead of trying to pull the
energy out of Harold, I pushed. It was barely a nudge but he
frowned. I watched as his energy slowly trickled into Collin.

All of the healers gathered
around smiled as they witnessed what I was seeing. The only sound
in the courtyard was the blowing of the breeze through the tarps.
It seemed as though even the wounded and dying were holding their
breath.

I pushed a little harder, trying
to judge just how much I should be taking out of Harold.

“How are you doing, Harold?”

He grunted. “Keep going.” His
voice was slightly strained.

I watched as his energy changed
colors as it entered Collin’s body, which was different than when I
would give my own energy to a being.

Harold gave a strangled moan and
twitched. I pulled the wave away while Fillian took his hand off of
Collin’s shoulder. He was breathing hard and shaking. Alex and
Kacey got off of him.

“I’m fine. Give him more.”

I shook my head and kissed his
forehead. “He got plenty. How are you feeling?”

“Cold.” He sat up with a groan
and grabbed his head. He kept his eyes closed. Marie appeared
holding a blanket which he wrapped around himself.

I felt Collin jerk beside me as
Marie and Danny started to heal him with his borrowed energy. When
they were done, all three of them were breathing hard. Collin sat
up and looked around. He swallowed hard at the sight of Harold.

“By the moons, Harold, I’m so
sorry.”

Our tall friend shook his head
and cracked open one eye to look to the other. “What in the world
for, Collin?”

“I couldn’t stop them.” He
closed his eyes and I could tell by the devastated look on his face
that he was reliving the last few moments of the fight that had
almost killed him. “I should have gone for the blond instead of the
black haired one. I should have known I was having too easy a time
getting closer to her. He was just standing there. I should have
known it was a trap. If I had gone the other way she’d be here
now.” He growled. “You’d have thought I had turned of age and just
joined my first pack instead of having been the captain of my own
for the past ten years.”

Harold reached over and pulled
Collin into a hug. “Collin, man, you almost died trying to save
her. I’ll forever be grateful for your efforts. By the moons, I
know you tried. She’s alright.” He swallowed hard. “Well, she’s
alive. Right now, that’s all that matters. She just needs to stay
alive until we get there.” His voice cracked.

I put my hand on his shoulder
and pushed him gently back to the ground. I pulled the second green
wave, spread it over him and pushed a bit of my own energy into
him. He took a deep breath and his shivering stopped.

“We’ll get her out,” promised
Collin. Harold’s grey eyes met his hazel ones and the two of them
nodded.

I moved on to the rest of the
Majs that needed extra energy. I had so many volunteer donors that
the only energy I needed to give out was the little bit of it I
would give to the beings I had taken from.

“Hayden?”

I looked up from pushing energy
into a Wedelven man I didn’t know. “Emelly.” I gave the man a pat
on the shoulder, stood and stretched. I wiped the blood on my hands
off onto my pant legs and brushed some of the hair out of my face
with the back of my arm.

“Do you have any grebb berries
left in your pack? I’m all out.” Grebb berries made a sticky
waterproof mush that was great for putting on cuts.

I bent over to grab my pack
which caused the stray hairs that had fallen out of my pony tail to
fall into my face once again. I looked at my hands, shrugged, and
redid my hair. I was pretty sure I had touched my face without
thinking about it anyway. I handed her my jar of grebb berries.

She smiled. “Thanks.” It was
already past supper time and the stress and work of the day was
taking its toll on all of the healers present. Emelly’s face was
streaked with dirt and blood and her clothes were just as dirty.
Her green eyes showed the fatigue she was feeling. She turned and
headed back to the patient she was working on. Matthew stopped her
halfway there. He hugged her to his chest before kissing her
forehead and saying something that I couldn’t hear. Whatever it was
made her beam up at him and she returned to work with a bit more
vigour than just moments prior.

“Who’s next?” I looked up at
Jasper who had been finding my patients for me. I had just finished
with the worst off but not dying group and was going to start on
the severely injured but conscious group.

He looked at me and I knew he
was assessing just how tired I was getting. His face and clothes
were streaked with blood and dirt from holding the wounded down
while I healed them.

“Hayden!” Danny yelled my name
from across the courtyard. I ran and reached him just as he laid
Marie on the ground.

“What happened?”

“We were walking over to have a
go at our next guy. She just stopped and collapsed.” We knelt over
her and I pulled a safe wave.

“Shit. She didn’t tell you she
was getting low? There’s nothing left.” I pulled the next wave and
pushed a bit of my energy into her to jump start her healing.

“Kacey!” Jasper called out to
him and he made his way over to us.

“Where do you want her?” he
asked.

“Bring her to the far corner.
I’ll start making beds for the healers that need them.” Tara
covered Marie with a blanket once he had picked her up.

Damian came to stand with us.
“I’m on my way to check on Rainen. If she’s feeling better she
could come give a hand with the energy situation. Even if all she
can do is multiply the healers’ energy for now then at least you
six won’t start dropping like flies trying to give aid to these
people.” He gave my arm a squeeze and left.

I blinked my eyes and ran the
back of my arm over my face to wipe the sweat away. Jasper pulled
me to his chest.

“How are you doing?”

I took a deep breath. “I’m not
going to lie; I’m tired. We’re all tired, Hun, even you.” I looked
up at him and smiled. “Amazing, isn’t it?”

“What’s that?”

“This. This absolutely horrible
situation; it’s mind boggling.”

“How so?”

“Well, you have to admit that
never in you weirdest dreams would you ever have thought that one
day there would be a courtyard full of Wedelves, Majs, humans and
Namaels working together to heal fifty plus injured Majs.”

He yawned. “True enough.” He
kissed my forehead softly.

“Alright. Back to work.” I moved
away from him reluctantly. “Danny, you first.”

Danny looked up from the wolf he
was working on. “What?”

“You heard me. I’ll be damned if
we need any more healers dropping from exhaustion. Come here so I
can check you.”

He finished what he was doing,
gave the now black haired man a pat on the shoulder, and came to
stand by me. A quick check up with my wave showed that though he
was starting to run a bit low in energy, he was still strong enough
to continue. Fillian happened to be walking by and I stopped her,
repeating the procedure. She was running at about three quarters of
her energy levels.

Twauny, a young Wedelven healer
that had been training under Fillian the past few years was
next.

“No, really, I’m fine,
Hayden.”

“It will just take a minute for
me to check. You won’t be of any use to anyone if you collapse like
Marie did.”

Twauny frowned and let me pull
the wave over her.

My eyes widened. “How are you
even standing?” Her levels were not quite as low as Marie’s but
close. “You don’t have to leave if you don’t want to, but you need
to go lay down.”

She looked at Fillian as if
hoping our teacher would override my ruling.

“You heard her, dear. Get some
rest. I’m sure we’ll still need your help when you wake up.”

Twauny glared at me as she
marched toward one of the empty blankets on the ground. I noticed
that she was asleep in a matter of seconds once she’d lain
down.

“Cassandra?”

One of the injured Majs groaned
as he rolled onto his side and ran a hand through his dark brown
hair. “If she’s the pretty black haired one then she’s over here.
She just passed out.”

“Shit.” We jogged over to him. I
noticed he had a nasty cut along his bicep and another across his
thigh. By the way he moved I was sure he had a few broken ribs. I
knelt beside him, a bit alarmed at the shocked look in his dark
green eyes. “Are you ok? I mean, besides the obvious?”

“I, umm…” He shook his head as
if to clear it. “Hang on.” He reached over, brushed Cassandra’s
curly hair out of her face then lay back down.

I ran a green wave over her and
frowned. “She’s fine. I mean, she’s low, but nothing serious. She’s
got more energy in her than Danny does.”

“Whose pack does she run with?”
asked the injured man.

“Mine,” I answered. “Why?”

He mumbled something, rolled
toward her again, and gave her shoulder a shake. “Cassandra? Wake
up.”

“I don’t suppose you’d like to
explain what happened?” I asked.

He glanced back at me then
turned back to Cassandra. “She didn’t pass out because she’s low on
energy. She blacked out because she saw me.” He frowned. “You have
dogs that run with you, right?”

I nodded and it started to
become clear. “You guys are fated, aren’t you?”

“We are.”

“If I tell you she shifts into a
panther will you pass out too?” I saw him lose a bit of color. He
took a deep breath, blew it out of his nose, and leaned forward to
kiss Cassandra softly on the cheek. Her eyes fluttered open.