Page 84 of The Fury She Holds
On the ride back, the aftermath of using her fury and her injuries proved to be too much. She struggled to stay conscious fearing she would fall off the mare, and by their pace, the ride back would take a full day. She used the strap from the satchel to secure herself to Pepper’s saddle, and soon lost track of reality as she gave into the darkness.
“Blazing hells! Tal! What happened?!”
Someone yelled at her, but the pounding in her head, the pain in her shoulder, arm, and leg, and the sheer exhaustion pulling at her body won her attention.
“Tal! Wake up! Can you hear me?!”
“Madge,” she groaned. Her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth. She needed water.
“You need an elixir. Where aren’t you hurt? Can I carry you?”
Tal let out a pained grunt, and the voice took it as an invitation because suddenly arms pulled her out of the saddle that she had somehow managed to stay seated in. She yelped at the fierce ache in her shoulder.
“Sorry, sorry! Hells, woman, what happened to you? If I had known when you left this morning that you would come back like this, I would have stopped you.”
“This morning?” Her head fell back, and she grimaced. She’d hoped that she would have slept off the time it took for the ale to leave her system. She still had half a day to wait before she could take an elixir to heal her wounds. She groaned again.
“I’m taking you into the palace. We’ll get you an elixir.”
His words and voice finally registered. Faron. Of course it was him. Here he stood, as if he had been waiting for her to come back. “No.” She shook her head. “I need Madge.” Even talking hurt. She wanted to go back to the dark oblivion, but the pain awakened her senses with each breath.
“Don’t be stubborn. You’ve been bleeding for what looks like hours.” When Tal shook her head again, the voice stopped then sighed. “Dammit, Tal. You and that godsdamned ale. I’ll flay Ed and Jens, so help me.”
Had she any energy, Tal would have felt remorse for her part in their coming punishment. Her head pounded within the fog that tried to pull her back into nothingness.
Getting her in a saddle was even more painful the second time. When he climbed up behind her and pulled her into him, Tal inwardly cursed her body for curling into his embrace.
Faron took off at a gallop, apologizing the whole way every time she grunted through the pain. She wanted to let her anger surface. She wanted to call him a liar, and a bastard, and so many other things, but she was too damn tired to do any of that. Instead, she remembered what she felt those weeks that he came to the tunnels, and his hold around her middle offered a small comfort.
Once again, they arrived at Madge’s in the middle of the night. This time, Faron didn’t bother waiting outside. He brought the horse to the back, pulled Tal down, and kicked the door in with her in his arms. If she wasn’t trying to stay mad at him, she might have made some suggestive comment.
“Madge!” Faron yelled as he gently deposited Tal on the front table. “Madge, down here! Quick!”
“There’s no need to tell me where you are, you dewberry. There’s only two rooms in this whole house.” The elderly woman walked down the stairs and scowled at her intruders.
“She’s hurt, and she’s had ale. An elixir won’t work.” He stumbled over his own words, his tone frantic.
Tal eyed the noble—king—and thought he might be overreacting. His hands ran through his hair, gripped his neck, then returned to his dark waves. His eyes roamed over her body, his movements growing more agitated by the second. He shifted his weight from foot to foot.
“You and your cursed elixirs. You barge intomyhouse at all hours of the night, worked up like the woman’s dying, and you insult me by suggesting you would prefer elixirs?” the healer chastised. “Go and secure your horse before I tell you both to go rot in the river.” She shooed Faron out the door and turned to Tal. “Now you know why I don’t get my herbs myself.” She tsked.
“You could have warned me there was a wolf’s den on that mountain,” Tal griped from the table.
Madge lit a candle by the cupboard, then turned back to where Tal lay. “Would you have listened? You’re as stubborn as that boy out there. Ain’t no way anything I say would give you pause. Did you get the herbs at least?”
“In the satchel,” Tal said through clenched teeth. Talking through the pain felt nearly impossible but so did doing much of anything.
The old woman rummaged through the satchel at Tal’s side. She pulled out a bloodied axe and fixed a stern eye on Tal, then deposited it on the chair by Tal’s leg. “I’ll bet you went alone, didn’t you?” When Tal didn’t answer, she shook her head. “You’ve got a fearsome man out there who cares about you, and you are too stubborn to let him help you.”
Tal sighed. She didn’t come here to be lectured, but she also didn’t have the energy to argue. “He’s the king, you know.”
“Aye, and what of it?”
She turned her head to the woman. “You knew?”
Madge put her hands on her hips and cocked her head. “You didn’t?” She tsked again. “Girl, how do you not know who your own king is?”
“Seriously, Madge? The guy never shows his face at the docks; nobody from the palace does. How would I know who he is?”
