Trial by Flame

Chapter 52

Trelisti must've been going soft, because the sight had him running.

He was certain he reopened a wound as he bolted down the hill, tripping over a loose stone and skidding down the rest. The world spun, and he felt a sharpness in his lung the whole way. But he didn't want to lose sight of him.

"Lydiia's light, you look terrible," Tellik said, aghast when Trelisti finally caught up to him. He was with another man in the camp's interior, seemingly headed towards another tent until Trelisti showed up.

"Well it's a good thing," he huffed, clutching his ribs. There was a growing pinch between his lung and his bones. "I can't see myself."

"You dumba—" Tellik started, then shook his head. He uttered something to the man beside him, who gave a slight argument before another response from Tellik shut him up. He guessed it had to do with the wave he gave Trelisti.

"Tija ett. Now you," Tellik continued threateningly, pointing to a stone not far away while the other man walked off. "Sit down. You already managed to loosen your rib again."

"You can tell?" he said, but it was obvious when the words came out as more of a wheeze. "I thought chests aren't your speciality."

"Lungs are challenging. But it's easy to set a bone." He waited for Trelisti to sit before pressing a glowing palm to his chest. The space filled with a strange hum. "You'll probably feel this one. Sorry."

He didn't sound very apologetic as a jerk—the sensation strangely similar to ripping out a tooth—threw off the inside of his chest. It was followed by a slight click, then a bonding warmth, and a feeling somewhere deeper that he could only describe as gummy. It made him want to throw up.

"Now don't do any sudden activities. My healing's only going to last if you don't agitate it, so wait about a day or two," Tellik instructed, pulling his hand away. "You're lucky Orjma fixed most of the serious stuff up."

"I thought I'd be fine. I've barely felt it since I woke up," he replied, a half-truth. Until now, he felt better than he thought he would, but it was still far from a normal level of pain. "I guess I should thank you, shouldn't I?"

"Damn right. Do you even know how worried you had us?" Tellik lectured, a scowl deep in the grooves of his face. "Avalon, especially—I've never seen someone so torn up about a person they just met. You'd better have a good excuse for getting your ass handed to you."

"Hey, give me a little credit. I got most of 'em on my own," Trelisti said defensively. "And I did the hard part with the last one. Which reminds me—what happened to the body? Did they take the chains off it?"

"Chains? Why would they..." Tellik started to ask, then scrunched his brows. "Why'd you need to use those?"

"It was a set of pulse chains. The last guy was an asazai."

"What?"

His response came out as a shout, which he quickly covered with one hand. A few bystanders looked over—most in concern, some in annoyance—which Tellik ignored while trying to return to a flat face. It was still easy to see the alarm stir in his eyes.

"Whatever you do, don't mention anything related to him or his creatures. Especially to Ti'mano or Ruali," Tellik said under his breath, voice deep in warning. "They're the only other two who speak Common. But everybody recognizes his name, and if they think we're associated with him, the first thing they'll do is bring it to my father. We're already on a thin string with him, but that might be the difference between further exile and ordering our deaths."

"Your own father would do that?" Trelisti asked. He could only assume the him Tellik mentioned was Hjerti.

Darkness hollowed his cheeks. "He's waiting for the chance to."