Shadow of a Shade

Chapter Twenty

Nyriem twisted midair and dove after her. Addiane tried to stretch up to him in any way, feeling a scream rip itself out of her throat.

A red blur flashed between her and Nyriem, then Murtagh had an iron grip on her wrist. Addiane screamed again as she felt something in her shoulder crack.

Thorn righted himself and Murtagh dragged her into the seat behind him. "Hold on tight!" He shouted over his shoulder.

Addiane got her good arm around his waist. Her shoulder was on fire, and moving it made the pain so much worse.

The three dragons wheeled around the village to an open field closer to Roran's house.

As soon as they landed, Nyriem was bounding over, apologizing profusely. Thorn snapped at him, shoving him away a little to give the two Riders room.

Murtagh helped Addiane down onto the grass and laid a hand on her shoulder. She yelped in pain and swatted his hand away. "Don't touch it!"

"You have to let me heal it, Addiane."

"No, you're going to touch it! Back off, it hurts-"

Murtagh rolled his eyes. "Well yes, it hurts, it's broken. Body parts tend to hurt when they're broken. Hold still."

Addiane hissed in pain as he laid a hand on her shoulder, but Murtagh began to mutter the spell before she could yank herself away and then the magic held them together.

"See? Now it doesn't hurt anymore."

She huffed in annoyance and rubbed her shoulder.

Eragon was already leaping down from Saphira's back as she landed, the other dragons finally giving her room.

"What were you thinking? Riding bareback is extremely dangerous, Addiane, even if you're just flying regularly, you know that!"

"I just wanted to have some fun! You two would have been done by the time I got him saddled." Addiane shrugged.

"You can't just shrug something like that off." Eragon said sternly, crossing his arms. "You nearly died."

"I mean, we don't know that."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Murtagh frowned.

"Well..." Addiane rubbed her shoulder absentmindedly. "What if the Shade energy had kicked in? It seems to do so when I'm in dangerous situations-"

"You can't count on that."

"I know I can't control it but-"

"That's not what I meant." Eragon shook his head. "You don't know how your powers react to actual injuries. So far they've only kicked in to keep you from getting injured, but there's no way to prevent an impact from that height."

"I... I hadn't thought about that." She said after a moment.

"We'd gathered that." Murtagh offered a little smile. "Saddle up next time."

Addiane nodded, looking down. She couldn't trust her powers until she had full control over them, and she had no clue if she had the immortality that Shades did.

Will and Gilan came running up, cloaks streaming behind them. Eragon glanced at them and smiled a little, then muttered something in the Ancient Language about them looking like butterflies. Addiane muffled a giggle.

"Are you alright?"

"Fine, now. I did something to my shoulder, but Murtagh fixed it." She shrugged.

"That was amazing!" Will exclaimed. "I've never seen anything like that, it was so beautiful!"

All three dragons puffed up importantly and Addiane chuckled.