Elemental Hunger

Chapter Twenty-Four

The next morning, I woke to the sound of bathwater running and Cat's beautiful voice humming as she infused the liquid with one of her relaxation concoctions. I stayed in bed while she washed, and then asked her to prepare a bath for me too.

We didn't speak, but we didn't need to. Our friendship now mirrored what we'd had in Crylon, and I clung to the normalcy of it. I pondered Adam's condition and if Hanai had been able to heal him completely.

"I'm going to find Isaiah," Cat said. "Come join us for lunch."

"Okay." I finished getting ready, layering my Council robe over my regular clothes, and went to inquire about Adam.

It seemed that Davison had the entire city at his command, which I suppose he did. Sentries stood guard at every stairwell. The delicious smell of breakfast wafted down from the floor above. He must have cooks on staff. I spotted Elementals coming and going, and I knew they were making preparations for the attack as well as attending to the business of running their cities. In the infirmary, doctors and nurses cared for more people than just Adam.

Everyone seemed calm and friendly. I was living on the nineteenth floor, and everything I needed was contained on this floor and the one above it. For now, it was enough. In fact, it provided me the protection and safety I needed.

I didn't know how long we could stay in Gregorio. Davison said he had legions of sentries already camped outside Tarpulin. I assumed that as soon as our chartering was complete, I'd be leaving to lure the Supremist out of Tarpulin.

I found Adam in much the same condition as the afternoon before, except the tattoo had disappeared from his skin. Quilts covered him from neck to feet, and I stroked his hair off his forehead while I looked down at his sleeping face.

"He should wake up soon," a nurse said, checking Adam's pulse on his wrist. "The worst of it has passed."

"What happened to him?" I murmured, not really expecting an answer.

"I think he's the only one who knows," the nurse said. "But your friend did heal several injuries." The nurse consulted a folder. "Four broken ribs, kidney bruising, and six fractured phalange bones."

"Phalange?"

"His fingers."

I swallowed back the horrifying images of the force required to break a rib or a finger. "Thank you." I wasn't sure if I meant the nurse or Hanai.

The nurse left, but I stayed beside Adam until my stomach cramped with hunger.

I followed my nose to the dining hall on the twentieth floor. Right next to Davison's conference room, it was packed with Elementals. Most of them sat in twos or threes, heads bent together in quiet conversation. The food steamed in pots along the wall to my left, and my mouth watered at the sight of dark breads and sugary pastries. I spied Hanai sitting alone at a table near the window, and after I loaded a bowl with stew and balanced several slices of rye bread on my plate, I joined him.

"What'd you get?" he asked, eyeing a second plate I'd piled with fig tarts.

"Soup," I said. "I'm freezing." A glance out the window confirmed that winter would be staying a while. Snow had started falling, and I thought it strange to have such weather this far south and so late in the spring.

"How's Adam?" Hanai asked.

"The same," I said. "The nurse said you healed his major problems and he should wake up soon."

Hanai nodded, and we made room for Cat and Isaiah as they joined us for lunch. As I talked with and listened to my friends, I couldn't help but notice the hole that existed without Adam.