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  Was the Dardaptoan Healer that much aware of his feelings? Comfortable enough to show such weakness in front of anyone who watched?

  He was Dardaptoan, and he was Warrior for all that he was Healer, wasn’t he?

  Yet he openly wept as he watched the beautiful spirit that was his sister.

  Koios did not understand.

  Until he looked back at his female. Saw the connection between her and the man she healed. Dell, one he had trusted some eight hundred years.

  His friend.

  In that instant Koios got it. He understood.

  And he went down on one knee. Those around him immediately mimicked the move.

  There was something there, between the girl healer and the stranger. Between them and the Warrior they tended.

  The trees stopped rustling, the birds and beasts of this new world were silent, even the waters of the river nearby did not intrude.

  How could they? What was happening was the rebirth of a lost life.

  There was true power in that. Healing, giving, birth, and pain. Loss and sacrifice, because it was evident that the pain the dead had felt was now shared between the two who would seek to reverse it.

  Was she even aware of what was happening around her?

  He did not think she was.

  Was she even aware of how her pain showed upon her face and body?

  His heart hurt for her, and if he could he would take every moment of pain from her.

  But he did not step over to her, because he knew in that instant that it was not his place or his right to interfere with her ever again.

  If she was with him from this moment on it would be because she wished it. Because she chose to let him be a part of her life, her world, and her future.

  He could do no other but offer her that respect.

  She was his gamata.

  And he was beginning to love her.

  Chapter 33

  BRONWEN had never felt such a rush of emotion as she did when she healed in the presence of the Great One. Had she ever doubted who he was that doubt was gone now.

  He was Dekimos. The part of her soul that had originated with him knew and recognized him. But if he was alive how did she receive his soul as her gift?

  That question rested at front of her mind while they finished with the two warriors. Finally she pulled away from Dell.

  From Dekimos.

  Her sight immediately clouded over. Though not quite as darkly as before.

  “That is something you will be facing forever. But when you heal, you will use more and more of my soul,” Dekimos said. “You will see when you need to.”

  “How is this so?” She beckoned to the healers she could still faintly see. Thadd was one of them. “Please see them inside. I have many questions for Dekimos that must be answered soon.”

  Her brother shocked the crud out of her when he bowed.

  Thadd bowed to her.

  “Of course, my dear sister. Queen of the Great Healers City.” He smiled at her, and she could just barely make out the expression.

  She would treasure this rare look at the brother she loved so much.

  She hugged him. “Thank you, Thadd. For loving me and being here when I need you so much. I love you.”

  His arms wrapped around her. “I love you, kid. And I have from the moment you were born. So has Theo. Don’t ever doubt or forget that. We love you. I think someone else does, too. Your Rajni awaits, as well.”

  He pointed toward the one male she’d avoided looking at.

  Koios was still on one knee near her. “Get up, Koios. I don’t want you, or anyone doing that to me, for the goddess’s sake.”

  “Do not deny us the reverence and respect we owe you. It is our gift to give.”

  But he stood.

  He held a hand out to her. “We will speak of important things between us in the privacy of our home. Soon. Now, I have sent your Eralyna for Eaudne.”

  She had forgotten that Dekimos was Eaudne’s son. How could she have forgotten her friend so quickly? Remorse—and worry—filled her. “Someone needs to prepare her. I am not sure the shock is something she needs now.”

  “He is her son. You are here if she has need of a healer.” Koios leaned down and kissed her forehead, like he had done before. “I am glad I returned to you this day.”

  She’d forgotten him, too, hadn’t she? “You are injured! Koios...Let me...”

  “After we see to Eaudne. I too have questions for this Dekimos.”

  “Like?”

  “Why has he returned now? It is almost too much of a strange thing.”

  “Who hurt you?”

  “I believe I had an altercation with the dark sorcerer, gamata. But he is one we will speak of shortly.”

  She heard a wail and knew it was Eaudne. “Go to her, Koios. I can’t get to her fast enough. Go and help her.”

  ***

  Koios did as she asked. How could he not? He understood the worry she felt. She and Eaudne had bonded, grown close over the last week. And empathetic Bronwen would feel the other woman’s suffering.

  Eaudne was wailing even louder. He turned toward the stairs in time to see her moving down them as fast as she could. He half feared she would fall, but she did not.

  It took him a moment to understand what she said. She was yelling that he had to be an imposter. That her son was dead.

  Bronwen stepped into her path. Eaudne almost fell over her. But Bronwen held firm, and wrapped her arms around the other woman.

  Dekimos had stood when the first wail sounded.

  His expression showed nothing. He stepped toward the females.

  Eaudne pulled away from Bronwen. She turned so that her body was between Dekimos and Bronwen. Protecting the one she knew carried her child’s soul?

  Dekimos bowed to her. “Mother, I believed you dead all these years.”

  “You look as my son.”

  “Because I am he.”

  “How is that? I felt the death of each of my children’s souls. All save four. Yours was one I lost. I mourned you every day.”

  “I have my mother’s gift of healing.” He did not move to touch her.

  “In Dekimos it was the strongest. Far stronger than mine own.” Eaudne studied the male. Koios studied the both of them. Dekimos was a large male, equally as large as Koios was himself. And the male was far darker than his golden haired mother.

  In fact, Dekimos most greatly resembled that Laquazzean bastard Black, once Koios got a good look at him.

  The coloring, the carriage. The eyes.

  Even the attitude was similar to Black.

  Black, the reborn soul of Eaudne’s eldest son.

  Interesting. Did anyone else see it?

  “That still does not explain how it is you stand before me. Unless you are imposter. Unless you are he who did this?” She held up her scarred arm. “Tell me...”

  “My soul was gone. That I cannot deny. But some small part grew in the soil around where I died. In the gardens that Koera favored so. Beneath her favored plant. Remember it mother, remember what it was called?”

  “The endla plant.” Eaudne whispered. “It only grew there in that one place. The place your sister created it. Tell me, what color was it?”

  “It was the color of the rarest sunset on the longest day of the year. When the day met night. I have never seen that color duplicated anywhere else.” His words were low, there in the middle of the lobby. Koios waved a hand at his guards. The signal to have the lobby emptied. These people did not need their reunion so visible.

  The room cleared quickly, leaving just Eaudne, Dekimos, and him and Bronwen. Koios stepped up and pulled his gamata back.

  “Yes, it was. It was her favorite color and her favorite plant.”

  “A part of my soul was lodged there when I fought the dark sorcerer and lost. Directly in the roots of the flower that housed my sister’s spirit. That part of me grew. And grew some more. Until my body reformed.” He held out his hand and Eaudne took
it. “Until I was remade, just as I was when last you saw me.”

  “So it is possible that more of my children still live?”

  Dekimos hesitated. “This I do not know. How many of them live?”

  “Jushua and Kennera. I have found them both. And I have found the souls of three more—Keryana in our young Bronwen here, Leonle in the heart of a woman named Havalana, and Kilan in a Laquazzean male named Nalik Black. There is a reason you are all being returned to me. And I fear...I fear that reason to the bottom of what remains of my own soul.”

  “So six of twenty-two.”

  “Five more than I ever thought possible.” Eaudne broke down then, and Koios watched as she threw herself into her son’s arms. “And I fear it is because you six will be fated to fall before the sorcerer yet again. And I cannot protect you.”

  “Perhaps, Mother, we are here now to protect you from him. Perhaps we are here...to stop him.”

  Chapter 34

  She allowed Koios to hold her hand while they walked from the Healer Hall to their suite about a quarter of a mile away. Neither of them said anything.

  Finally, after he closed the sliding door did she ask the question that was weighing on her. “Do you believe him? That he’s her son?”

  “Do you? There is something other worldly about that male. And he saved my life.”

  She hadn’t known that, but his words reminded her. “You need to take off your vestis.”

  “Had I known you would be getting me naked, we would not have tarried so long in the Healer’s Hall.”

  “You know what I mean, Koios. You need healed.”

  “And you are too weak to do it. You brought two men back from death. Now it is time for you to rest.”

  “That man healed Dell and Phan. I just helped. I still have enough strength to heal you. What happened to you?”

  “I believe I had an encounter with a portion of the dark sorcerer’s soul. And just a portion was enough to knock me on my ass. Dekimos was there and drove him away. But not before Dell and Phan fell. The sorcerer and I battled with blade and staff. I struck him as much as he struck me.”

  She could hear the pride in his words, and she shook her head at him. Every male she knew would have had the same pride. “Koios...sit.”

  She tried to guide him to the chair she knew was nearby. Finally he humored her.

  She sent out a bit of her gift, and it entered her Rajni’s body. Bronwen studied each mark within him. There were scrapes and scratches, bruises and minor burns. Those she’d leave for later. Right now she was more concerned with the stab wound on his side and with a deeper laceration around her left bicep.

  It took her several minutes to repair the damage. When she was finished, she was exhausted. “I think you are well now.”

  She leaned back on her heals, then yelped when hard hands went around her waist and she found herself clutched against his naked chest.

  His medallion tangled in her hair and she moved it.

  But she didn’t pull away from him. He could have died that day. He could have been one of those bodies on the stretchers, dragged back from a fight with the dark sorcerer. And she would have seen him, thanks to Dekimos. Her last sight of him would have been his charred and dead body.

  She started shaking, and couldn’t stop.

  Her arms clung to him and after half a moment his tightened around her. His fingers tangled in her hair and he tilted her head back.

  This time there was real heat in the kiss he gave her. Finally he pulled away. “Bronwen, I am whole. There is nothing to fear now.”

  “I am not afraid.” And she wasn’t. But she also wasn’t talking about what had happened to him today. “I am just glad you are alive. Glad you are here with me.”

  “Here? As in within this city, or here as in with you?”

  “Both.” It was time she was honest with herself. With him. “What is going to happen between us? I know nothing of what should happen between mates.”

  His hands slipped down her back, and into the band of her pardus. Hard fingers wrapped around her rear. “I know what it is that I want. I am feeling the need for my gamata, and feeling it strongly.”

  Her embarrassment must have shown. “I don’t—I’ve never—”

  “Never?”

  ***

  Koios had not expected that. And it had his ardor lessening somewhat. She was not ready for an intimate time with him, for all that he was.

  And hadn’t he made a vow that he would put her needs above his own? “Then we shall take our time, and when you are ready, we will act upon our bond.”

  “I don’t know what is going to happen between us.”

  “We are bonded. Neither of us can deny that now. And as the days pass our bond will grow stronger. It is the way of gamata, and I suspect the way of your Rajnis. And Bronwen...I know you lied when I asked it of you. I am the Rajni your goddess chose for you, am I not?”

  She did not deny it this time, and he took heart in that.

  “You will have my eternal devotion, and yes...my love. I am a Beskre warrior. We do not often allow ourselves to express such emotion.”

  “I need it, though. I will not deny that you are my rajni. But there have been some Dardaptoans who have successfully ended RAjni bonds.”

  “But do you still wish that?”

  She was silent for a long while. What would he do if she said that it was what she wanted? Would he be able to set her aside if it was what she needed to be happy?

  He closed his own eyes, knowing what he would need to do.

  Koios would do it, if it made her happy. Because he wanted her happiness far more than his own.

  It would hurt his very soul to be parted from her, but he would do it.

  Because he loved her. “I love you, Bronwen Sebastos. And I will until the day my soul ceases to be. But if you wish it, we will part now. And I will remove myself to another chamber. And I shall not harass you again.”

  She was silent for the longest time, and then she shocked him by smiling.

  His Bronwen had the most beautiful smile he had ever seen.

  “No. Stay. Stay with me. Maybe…maybe we can learn to do this Rajni or gamata—whatever you want to call it—thing together.”

  Epilogue

  The next three days were almost a dream for Bronwen. It wasn’t quite what she’d imagined it would be like when finding her Rajni—she definitely hadn’t pictured herself ruling a foreign world at his side—but it was still more than she had hoped for over the last fifteen months.

  His overbearing protectiveness was a bit much. He put Theo and Thadd to absolute shame in that regards.

  But he was there whenever she—or Eaudne—needed him. Something about the older woman seemed to draw Koios, as much as it drew Bronwen. She didn’t know what it meant for them, but she didn’t see anything bad with it.

  Eaudne was constantly at Dekimos’ side, and Bronwen understood it. How could she not? She’d felt only a portion of the love Eaudne had for her children, and she was just one reborn. Dekimos was the real deal.

  Three days after his arrival, the Healer’s Hall was running more smoothly than ever. But Dek—as Eaudne called him—refused to take an active part in the running of it. He said he would help Bronwen with it, but that it was her destiny to run it, not his.

  He’d worked with her for a few hours each day, and she could feel the melding of her healing gift with her new strengths as a Laquazzeana.

  She was quickly developing more confidence in his presence than she had in years under others’ tutelage. But how could she not?

  He was the Greatest Healer of all ages.

  And he guided her, and the healers that she led.

  His presence gave her hope.

  But she knew it worried Koios.

  They’d spent most of the time they had alone over the last three days talking. Of anything and everything.

  Something that he freely admitted he should have done with her fifteen months ago.


  She had finally let go of the bitterness and anger that had plagued her, and was starting to trust him.

  To let him hold her and kiss her. And touch her. She was starting to love the feel of his hands and mouth on her. She was confident that they would be going further than just kissing sometime soon.

  Real soon.

  Her body was starting to hunger for his.

  And not for blood. She’d not had that urge for fifteen months and had often wondered about it. Eaudne claimed it was because she was no longer Dardaptoan.

  Bronwen had originally thought it was due to her feelings of melancholy over the loss of her sight. And the separation from her Rajni. But now she knew...

  “You are in a fine mood this day, little Bronwen Lothicanos.” Phaenna had arrived out of nowhere the day before, whistling, and claiming she knew something that no one else did. She and Eaudne had been constant at Bronwen’s side when Koios was not. They were definitely different from one another, and they were starting to drive Bronwen a bit crazy.

  She had a lot of planning to do for later that night. She and Koios...he had been busy exploring the area surrounding the city, looking for suitable places to locate the new farms he was planning. He seemed to think they would be in Dekimos City for several years—unless it was destroyed by the wars. And he was planning to make it a beautiful and strong city.

  She admired his determination, and his natural ability to rule.

  She often felt so out of place, even with the healers helping her. But they all seemed to take for granted that she was the one in charge.

  And people still referred to her as queen; she didn’t know why she’d expected that to change after everyone settled in to the city, but she had.

  That had been a foolish thought, and she was aware of it.

  Bronwen was doing her best, and that was all she could say.

  “I feel great today.”

  “You and that yummy warrior king finally figure out what two healthy specimens should be doing in the middle of the night?”