A Long Road Chapter 11 Ficbit – Whispers

A jolt of pain from Rikard as the rod began to slip-

Cold, like wind whistling over a winter battlefield. Only higher. Sharper. Almost singing.

:Hold on,: chill notes whistled. :We’re coming. I’ll help you save him. But you have to make your body hold on.

:Lean on me. I have all the strength you need….:

Cold, as something listened. Dead fingers clamped on iron, unbreakable, as Rikard’s agony crested and broke, again and again-

A tiny prick; the brush of a moth’s wing in the midst of a windstorm. Yet agony vanished, swallowed up in the black of blissful unconsciousness.

All that was left was unearthly cold, as a dead body held itself firm. Cold, and… humming.

:Easy. I know it’s hard to see, so feel. That brightness, that feels so warm? That’s your cousin. He’s alive. We’re stopping the bleeding- yes. That needle did it. All right, hold tight. My friend’s going to brace your cousin while I cut-:

More chill, gripping iron past dead fingers, closer to Rikard. Only… a livelier chill, somehow. Snowfall over a well-tended garden, protecting plants and roots until the spring. With it came a third set of feelings; hatred of the blood, sadness at death, the fine-honed concentration of a healer doing what he had to so a patient would survive.

A silk-whisper of sound, and iron lurched, suddenly shorter. Another-

:It’s okay. You can rest now. Thank you.:

Bandages, winding around and around to steady iron in place. The darkness of an unconscious man.

-And then the reassuring warmth of his sitting room, as Mical dropped iron with a clatter and a stifled shriek. “What in the Nine Hells was that?”

:Interesting question.: Kantor’s tone was near calm, but Alberich could almost see wild-rolling eyes. :That fading, Georg-:

“That man died!” Mical was shaking, brushing off his hands over and over, as if something horrible clung to them. “He was dead, I know what dying people feel like, and – and something made his body move, he was still inside it when he was dead-!”

“Mical.” Alberich gripped his arm to stop him from digging at his own skin; Crathach moved in to grab his cousin’s shoulders, radiating a Mindhealer’s warmth and safety. “Mical. Past, it is. Calm down, you must, that find the answers we can-”