Lupi 04 - Night Season

another chunk of jerky at him. “Why are you grinning like that? What kind of an idiot grins when he finds out he was in a coma?”
    â€œYou were worried about me.”
    She rolled her eyes.
    Steve, lacking all social sense as he did, continued cheerfully, “Everyone thought you were done for, especially when the healer woman refused do her woo-woo stuff. Cynna was frothing at the mouth, but the woman thought she’d get trapped in the coma with you. Say, is it true you people can empty out so much of your magic you up and die?”
    â€œTheoretically,” Cullen answered absently, biting off a mouthful of salty meat. How had he emptied himself so badly? He’d been using the diamond, not his own resources. Of course, it took some energy to draw from the diamond, but not much. But he had just finished wrestling with a ley line…
    â€œWell, that’s what they believe here. The Ekiba all thought you’d die soon. Tash thought you had a chance, being lupus, but the rest of ’em didn’t believe it. Didn’t believe you were lupus, I mean.” He snorted. “They wouldn’t listen to us. We’re ignorant savages, werewolves aren’t real, and we should quit lying. Gan set ’em straight.”
    Cullen finished chewing and swallowed. “Gan did?”
    â€œThey think she can’t lie, so when Cynna got her to tell them about lupi, they believed her. What’s this deal about you having been in hell?”
    He waved that off. “Later. I may have looked like I was in a coma, but the healer couldn’t tell for sure because of my shields, so—”
    â€œCullen,” Cynna said quietly, “your shields were down.”
    That, he decided, was pretty damned scary. His shields would go down only if there was nothing left for them to draw on. Cullen had been taught that if a practitioner drained himself completely, he either burned out his Gift or died. “There goes that theory,” he murmured.
    â€œWhat?’
    â€œNever mind. So Gan persuaded the healer I was lupus. I suppose the idea is that, being of the Blood, I’d gradually rebuild my magic.”
    â€œThey argued about that, too,” Steve said. “Can’t agree on much, this bunch. You put an end to the argument by waking up.”
    â€œNo, the healer woke me.” His memory of that waking was as gauzy as a dream, but he remembered that much. He’d thought it was Nettie calling him back.
    â€œYou woke up on your own the first time,” Steve said. “We heard you mutter something—”
    â€œYou told us to go away,” Wen put in abruptly.
    Cynna grinned. “That’s when I figured you’d be okay. Only you went right back to sleep, and Kryl said your shields were up again, so she had to wake you the old-fashioned way—by shaking you. She made you drink something nasty-looking and did some sort of energy sharing, then you went back to sleep. You didn’t wake up again until now.”
    That still didn’t seem right, but his memory was so fuzzy he decided not to argue about it. “Is there any more jerky? Water, too, or something else to drink.”
    â€œYou’ve had two pieces and a loaf of bread.”
    â€œHealing takes fuel.”
    â€œIf you can wait a short time, we’ll be at the river,” Wen said. “You have a wolf’s needs?”
    â€œSomewhat.” If he didn’t eat when he should, he got cranky. Real cranky. The need wasn’t as strong now that he had a clan again, but it didn’t pay to let a wolf get too hungry. “How soon, and what happens at the river?”
    â€œWe get shipped off to the City,” Cynna said. “That’s what they call it, just the City. That’s where out-realm traders come.”
    â€œHostages and kidnap victims, too, I guess.”
    â€œUm, well, Bilbo explained—”
    â€œBilbo?”
    â€œThe gnome. I got tired of always saying ‘the gnome’ or ‘the councilor,’ so I’ve been calling him Bilbo. It pisses him off.”
    â€œTo the gnomes,” Wen said gravely, “names are of great importance. Birth-names are secret. Use-names are chosen carefully and divulged only within the family. Nicknames, as you call them, are bestowed on children by adults. By nicknaming the councilor, Cynna accords him the status of child.”
    Cullen had the feeling Wen didn’t mind one bit if they