“But I feel like I’m missing all the action,” Bardamen complained to Laethan, who was checking on his patients in the healing house. “Obviously, I know all the reasons I had to stay, but in some ways, don’t you wish you could have joined the expedition? I’ve never been to the other side of the mountains. I wonder if the women look different over there. I need to find a wife, and there are no single women of appropriate age anywhere near Stone Clan. At least, there are none I haven’t already met and rejected. I’ve been thinking ever since Raelene told us she married someone from Forest Clan. Perhaps I might marry a woman from Forest Clan as well. Or even perhaps one from Air Clan.”
“Hmmm,” Laethan muttered, holding a healing draught to a patient’s lips and gently lowering his head back to the bed. He moved to the next bed, examining the patient’s wrists and testing for fever with the back of his hand.
Bardamen followed him and sat on the edge of the patient’s bed, by his feet. “And they’ll probably encounter all manner of attacks along the way. I would wager it won’t be long before Vindrake gets word we are searching for Alora. And when he does, he’ll be searching for her as well, even if he doesn’t know why we’re attempting to locate her. He’ll most certainly attempt to find her first, simply because he’ll recognize her importance. And I would wager he puzzles out her identity when he sees her, since she looks exactly like Wendelle.”
“Hmmm,” Laethan muttered, moving to the next bed, where a young child of six lay sleeping.
This time Bardamen sat on the empty bed next to the child. “Don’t you agree?” he asked.
“Hmmm?” muttered Laethan.
“Laethan! Are you listening to me?” asked Bardamen.
Laethan’s patience, which had been wearing thin, snapped to pieces.
“Actually, no. I’m not listening. I have work to do. Too much work. And yes, I would have enjoyed taking part in that expedition, because I think I might have gotten more rest than I will here. But if you’re bored and you’d like to help instead of complaining about...”
Two sopping-wet bodies appeared on the bed, knocking Bardamen off.
“Brightness! Who pushed me onto the floor?”
Laethan stood in shock, staring at the soggy forms, before he came out of his stupor. “Kaevin!” he cried, jumping to the bedside. “Kaevin. It’s Kaevin. Help me! Tamber—go and fetch Raelene! Bardamen—help me lift him off the girl.”
Bardamen’s eyes were wide as he sat on the floor. “Is that... is that Alora? Are they alive?”
“I don’t know. Their bodies are cold and their clothes are wet. We’ve got to warm them.” Laethan and three of his helpers quickly pulled the frigid, sodden clothes off and wrapped them in warm blankets, each on their own bed.
Bardamen drew power from the stone floor and warmed the air inside the blankets. Soon Kaevin began to stir, his head tossing from side to side as he mumbled something. His eyes popped open, and locked with Laethan’s.
“Where is she? Where’s Alora?”
“She’s right over there. She’s warming up.”
“No! She needs me.”
“She simply needs to warm up. She’ll be fine.”
“No, my head is splitting open. She needs me.” He fought to get his feet out of the blankets and sit up.
“You need to lie down and rest,” said Laethan. “We’ll take care of her.”
“Ahhh! I can feel it! She’s not breathing! She swallowed water! We’re dying!”
“Kaevin! Calm down!”
Kaevin flung off the blankets and stumbled to her bed, pushing away the apprentice at her side. Taking her face between his hands he bent down to breathe air into her lungs. Once. Twice. Again. Suddenly, a great gush of water flew from her mouth, and she coughed and sputtered and gasped for air.
She opened her eyes and saw Kaevin bending over her, his tears dripping down to splash onto her face. Then she grabbed his face and pulled him down to kiss him, her own tears joining his. “I love you, too!”
*****
“So, Laethan informs me you refuse to lie on separate beds. Is this true?” asked Raelene. Kaevin and Alora lay side by side on the narrow bed, albeit under separate blankets, with their hands firmly clasped between them. Alora had been speechless since being introduced to the woman she now knew was her grandmother. She stared at her, blinking at tears, trying to make sense out of the myriad emotions flooding her brain. The one that overwhelmed all the others, even more than the shock and fear of their near-death experience, or the joy of meeting her actual grandmother... the emotion that made her want to jump out of the bed and dance around the room came from the fact Kaevin had told her he loved her. Even with watery eyes, she couldn’t seem to dispense with the silly smile on her face.
“We’re soulmates,” said Kaevin. “I told Laethan—”
“Kaevin, you can’t be soulmates. I know it sounds wonderful and romantic. But you are too young to be soulmates.”
“But we are soulmates,” Alora finally spoke out. “That’s why Kaevin got so sick and almost died before I brought him to me. And I was sick, too.”