Spirits and Crowns (The Shadow Series, Book 1)

Chapter 4 - A Helping Hand

"You sustained a lot of injuries but mostly to your right arm. I wasn't able to save it."

My eyes widened. I could feel it. It was right there. I sat up, my entire body protesting to the motion. It was hard to sit up, and Naaja had to help me. I looked down only to find part of my arm missing. From just below the elbow joint it just... Ended. Bandages covered the stump, but I could still feel my arm there. I could feel my fingers moving.

"You had an infection by the time you made it here. And a very bad fever. We were able to break the fever, and you should be getting better now. The phantom pains that you might be feeling will disappear. But we'll utilise them if you want. We have some of the best roprothesthics engineers here." Naaja patted my left hand and smiled a little.

"I need to know what happened."

Dy took a deep breath and slowly let it out. "The Rebellion attacked the stronghold. They were trying to kill you. I... Saw you and just grabbed you before the dust settled. I got you into my car and drove like demons were after us. I managed to stop the bleeding and stuff but... I'm not a very good doctor."
"How long was I out?"

"Three weeks."

I swallowed hard and nodded. "I need to get back to the stronghold. Immediately. My country needs me-"

"You can't. They believe you're dead. They've placed your brother on the throne. It's believed he was in on the whole coup."

"What?!" I growled, anger rising within me. "My brother would never do something like that! He hates everything that has to do with court. This is ridiculous, and I need to get back to the capital. Where are we even?"

"Home. The Aatskina tribe."

I pulled the covers aside and slowly lowered my feet down on the wooden floor. Dy grabbed my hand and helped me over to the window. She pulled the drapes aside so I could look outside. The capital of Andaheim, funnily enough just called Andahavn, looked nothing like this city. My tutors had told a bit about the city. And sure, they had said, the cities in the mountains were on an industrial rise, but this was past "the rise." This was a fully-fledged modern city. Small trains were rolling in the streets besides cars. Massive chimneys were everywhere, providing a true testament to the huge amount of factories they had here.

"Not what you expected?" Dy asked.

"That would be an understatement," I murmured. I glanced up at her. "I really do need to get back."

"I get that. But right now the people in charge are the people who tried to blow you up. Even if your brother wasn't in on it, there are people from The Rebellion crawling all over the stronghold and Andahavn."

I bit the inside of my cheek. "So what? I hide?"

"For now. You have allies, Alvina." She gave my shoulder a squeeze. "And those assholes have been trying to strong-arm us up here into providing them weapons for a long time now. We don't make weapons."

"You make cars. And robotics," I said, finishing her sentence. At least I remembered that much.

The industry came from the huge amounts of mineral and metal mines located in Aatskina territory.

She nodded. "Yeah. We're pacifists too. It's kind of part of the whole 'being one with the spirits.'" She shrugged a shoulder a little carelessly and helped me back to the bed.

My leg was sore too. It had a bandage around it, but I didn't even wanna know what had happened there. So far, I couldn't even truly comprehend my arm was gone.

I looked down at the stump again. "Annoying we managed to finish the tattoos before, huh?"

Dy snorted. "It's okay."