The Dragon Nimbus Novels: Volume II

raw, became sweeter with cooking. Dried or fresh, the long flat leaves of the seabed plant prevented many ills and gave an interesting, salty flavor to their food. She longed for heartier fare also but dissmissed the notion. Her life was here, on this beach with Televarn.
    “We’ve nothing else to eat, but what the sea gives us, love. The tides have been so high, we can’t go around the headland in search of paths inland,” she reminded him. Not that she wanted to meet his tribe of Rovers camped in the next cove. She could climb the steep cliff near the cave where Amaranth sulked, but she didn’t want to without Televarn. He hadn’t the sense of balance or extra length in his toes and fingers to climb with her.
    “You’ll feel better after we’ve eaten.” She busied herself spitting the gutted fish and wrapping the bulbs in wet leaves before placing them in the coals.
    “As much as I love you, Myrilandel, I’m lonely. Even your cat won’t come out of his cave to break the monotony. I have always been around other people. I need to know my people are safe.” He slammed his fist into a support beam. A shower of aromatic bark drifted into the fire.
    Myri watched the small pieces flare and coil into smoking tendrils. Her mind drifted with the smoke.
    “Are you listening to me, Myrilandel? Why doesn’t your cat like me? He won’t let me touch him. It’s almost as if he’s afraid of me.”
    “Amaranth became tangled in a fishnet and hurt himself just before we met. He doesn’t want anyone touching his back and side until he’s fully healed.” Her three attempts at healing had slid right over Amaranth without penetrating to the core of his pain. He needed a different kind of healing that she couldn’t offer. Otherwise the bruise might take all winter to fade.
    The dangerous fishnet must have come from one of the Rovers. But why had it tangled so insistently?
    Televarn had never mentioned that first meeting. He claimed his memory of it had been knocked out of his brain when he fell from the cliff. He remembered only climbing over the headland into her cove and nothing more until he awoke after the fall. If so, he didn’t know that Amaranth flew.
    “The cat’s healing seems to be taking a very long time.” He looked at the knife slashes in the beam he had just slapped. One for each day they’d been together. Myri’s ten fingers filled a slot three times over plus an additional three. “You may be a witchwoman, but I’d like another healer to look at him. We need to find a better shelter before winter settles in.”
    “Amaranth doesn’t need another healer. All he needs is time and me.” Something close to panic clutched at her throat.
    Trust Televarn. Myri looked sharply to her lover, wondering if he inserted that idea in her head or if her own instincts did.
    “You can’t see that Amaranth needs someone else because you love him so much you won’t let yourself believe he might be damaged. The moon will be dark tonight. Tomorrow’s morning tide should be low enough to get around the headland. We might not have another chance to find another healer for him. To find my family in the next cove. Don’t you see, Myrilandel, we have to go now. We have to take Amaranth to my family.”
    You have to love me, now and forever. Trust me without question, Myrilandel.

Chapter 15
     
    “M aster!” Nimbulan heard the voice in the distance. The directionless, sense-robbing blackness jerked and righted. A feeling of up and down blasted him into the realization that he lay prone upon a hard surface.
    “Master, what happened?” The voice—voices?—echoed around him, still defying specific direction.
    Pain assaulted him next. More an ache than pain. Above him. That must be his back and neck. Longer. His knees and feet where he made contact with . . . with stone.
    “Master, wake up.”
    Rough movement irritated the discomfort in his back. The ache throbbed and spread outward to his arms and hands.
    “Arrrrgh.” Was that his voice?
    “Thank the Stargods he’s alive. Help me turn him over.”
    Several hands lifted and supported him. More than one person. As many as three. A sensation of floating robbed him of his precious sense of up and down.
    “Uughhh.” This time he knew the inarticulate sound came from his own throat. The throbbing in his head increased.
    “Open your eyes, Master. Please.”
    So that was why he couldn’t see. He willed his eyes open a tiny slit. The effort almost sent him