Kaylin nodded while Hope squawked.
If she couldn’t hear Terrano, she could hear Teela, who was cursing—in Leontine—as she tried to move Kaylin into synch with Terrano. Terrano continued to bleed. Hope’s voice was louder than Teela’s in full Leontine, but Kaylin couldn’t understand his words; they clearly weren’t meant for her.
She couldn’t cover her ear to preserve hearing; Hope was on the same side as the arm Teela had grabbed, and the BarraniHawk wasn’t letting go. Kaylin had had worse injuries in the line of duty, but she knew this was going to bruise. And she knew Teela couldn’t let go until the moment Terrano could be physically touched.
If she’d sometimes envied Terrano his ability to slip between planes as a way out of physical danger, she repented. What she needed to know was why he couldn’t come back.
No. What she needed to know was the extent of Terrano’s injuries. The rest could wait.
Hope squawked loudly. He then bit Kaylin’s ear.
Kaylin would have swatted him away but didn’t want to lose part of her earlobe. She cursed. Teela had brought her closer to Terrano, and she could see what had injured him. Or rather, she could see the Shadow seeping out of his wound, a faint black mist.
Bellusdeo would have reduced themallto ash. Teela might even have let her.
“Don’t let go! I’ve healed Shadow damage before,” she snapped at the Barrani Hawk as she felt Teela’s grip loosen slightly. “I had to do this in the West March when the Consort was under attack! Don’t step back—give me enough time, and I can fix it!”
Teela’s brief hesitation vanished. “Remind me,” she said through gritted teeth, “to strangle Mandoran when next we meet.”
“Worry about who or what attacked Terrano. Worry about the Barrani who attacked Nightshade. Figure out if they’re the same people.”
She continued to attempt to grab Terrano’s hand. She lost count of the number of times she’d tried when she finally managed totouchhim. His skin was hot, almost feverish, and the wound he had taken finally came into sharp relief. She hadn’t been able to touch Nightshade, and the unspoken fearthat Terrano would likewise be proof against the Marks-driven healing was put to rest.
“Do you have her?” Teela demanded of the pale, injured Terrano.
Terrano nodded, as if he didn’t trust himself to say more.
“Good. I have to go.” She released Kaylin’s arm.
Kaylin caught both of Terrano’s hands in a tight grip, entwining her fingers with his strongly enough that both of their knuckles were white.
This is not a place you should be, her familiar said. She could understand him, here.
“If you can find a way to drag Terrano back to where I should be, I’m all ears.”
You know the answer.
She cursed him, choosing the more easily pronounced Aerian phrasing. “Terrano, can you hear me?”
He nodded. He was sweating, which was common given intense pain—but the sweat itself was disturbing. Kaylin couldn’t tell if this was a function of the plane on which they were both standing, or of Terrano himself. She glanced beyond Terrano; there was no one immediately chasing the Barrani.
She then turned all her attention to Terrano.
He was too hot. She wasn’t often allowed to touch Barrani with an intent to heal, but she knew feverish skin on contact.
“Hope—bite me hard if something attacks us.”
Something is already making that attempt. You should not be here. You do not have time.
“I can’t leave him here. We’ll lose him.” She closed her eyes. She had always closed her eyes when trying to heal severe injuries, and she’d learned to leave minor cuts and scrapes alone. The Marks flared to life on her arm—gold, not the more subtle blue they sometimes adopted. They remained where they lay, but she’d always been able to see them clearly when her eyes were closed.
Their light covered her arms and edged toward the tops of her hands. As it did, it expanded to enwrap Terrano’s hands in the same bright glow before inching its way up his arms, his shoulders. She didn’t always see the light of the Marks when they touched others, but was well aware that the rules in the plane on which she stood might be different. No, they definitely were, nomightabout it.
Terrano’s body wasn’t the normal Barrani body, from her brief experience with those. But it felt cohesivelylikeTerrano to her touch, to her Marks. The fear of Shadow and its contamination diminished. When she had dealt with Shadow-spawned injuries before, she could feel the way they warped and shifted the physical flesh itself in an attempt to remake the person to whom that flesh belonged.
She didn’t sense that here—but she could see the fine, fine mist of Shadow rising from Terrano’s injury. She couldn’t feel any of it in his body.
Hope bit her, but not hard enough to draw blood or cause pain; he was disagreeing in the most convenient way possible.