Chapter 163: Cover Me

The Barrier cracked. It didn’t break; it cracked. A thin white line ran through the gold in front of Elizabeth’s face, and the tiger saw it, and so did I. He smiled wider and hit it again.

Something pulled inside my chest hard enough that the edges of my vision went dark, and my other knee nearly touched the stone.

"Alash," said Elizabeth.

"I’m fine."

That was becoming a popular lie.

The tiger drew his arm back. I couldn’t take another hit like that one. He knew it, and I knew it, and Daphne knew it.

"Cover me," she said.

I heard her clearly, and I still looked at her. "What?"

She was three steps to my left, her eyes on the tiger and both hands already raised. "Cover me."

There were a great many things I could have said: that I was already covering everyone, that my Barrier was coming apart, that there were three more Tiger warriors in the courtyard and a dozen of Merrow’s guards one bad decision away from joining them. Instead I looked at her hands. They were shaking, slightly. And I understood. She wasn’t asking me to protect her from him. She was asking me to protect her from everyone else, because she was about to stop paying attention to them.

I turned back to the tiger. "Fine."

Daphne’s eyes flicked toward me, and that was all. Trust, apparently, was very efficient.

The tiger struck, and my Barrier broke, and gold scattered between us. Before he could come through it I made another, smaller and closer. The impact hit me at once, a pain straight through my chest, and I stayed on one knee. His claws pressed into the gold.

"Move," he said.

"No."

"You’ll break."

"Probably."

Then the weight hit him. The courtyard stones cracked under both of his feet, and his arm dropped, not because he wanted it to. Daphne closed both hands, and the tiger went down: one knee onto the stone, then the other, with an ugly sound.

Every head in the courtyard turned. The other Tiger warriors stopped. So did Merrow’s men. Daphne stood perfectly still. The traitor’s surprise lasted less than a second, and then he tried to rise, and couldn’t. The stone under him cracked further. His shoulders sank, and his tail hit the ground, and the smile went out of his face.

"Spinster," he said.

Daphne didn’t answer.

One of the warriors started toward her, and I put a Barrier in his path. He changed direction, and I moved it. He struck the gold with his sword, and the pull went through me again, not as hard as the traitor’s blows, but hard enough.

"She’s occupied!" someone shouted.

Yes. That was the point.

The warrior hit the Barrier again, and I kept it between him and Daphne. A second Tiger came at her from the other side, and Renn intercepted him, steel ringing. Sorel took the third. Academy guards were spreading across the courtyard, and Merrow’s men still hadn’t decided whose side they were on. Elizabeth was behind me, and the freed beastkin were behind her. Daphne had stopped looking at any of them. She looked only at the man on his knees.

"Get off him!" one of the warriors shouted.

Daphne’s face was pale. "No."

The traitor got one foot under himself, and for a moment I thought he would stand. Daphne lifted a single finger, and his leg slammed flat again, and the courtyard shook. I had never seen what Daphne’s Gravity looked like when she stopped being careful.

The warrior at my Barrier stopped hitting it and started going around it instead. I shifted the pane, and he went the other way. I shifted it again, and his eyes narrowed.

"You."

"Me."

He lunged sideways, and I put up a second Barrier, which was a mistake, because the first one weakened at once. He saw it. He hit the left pane, and the second warrior broke away from Renn and hit the right one, and both impacts went straight through me. My chest seized, and the courtyard tilted.

[Host.]

’Not now.’

[Your condition is deteriorating.]

’I noticed.’

[Continuing at this rate is inadvisable.]

’Helpful.’

The left Barrier flickered. I forced more mana into it, and the right one steadied, and the left one didn’t.

I could see Daphne’s hands without looking at them directly. They were shaking harder now, and her wrists trembled, and she didn’t lower them.

The traitor looked up at her. "You can’t hold me forever."

"No," said Daphne. "I don’t need forever."

The weight increased, and both of his hands hit the ground, not by choice. A crack ran out through the courtyard beneath him. Merrow backed away. Elizabeth didn’t.

"Your Highness," I said.

"I’m behind you."

"Further."

"I’m already behind you."

"More behind."

That earned me a look. She moved anyway.

The left Barrier shattered, and the warrior came through it. I threw up an arm and a Barrier formed directly in front of me, too slowly. His sword hit it before it had finished, and the pane bent inward, and pain shot through my chest, and I went over backward. The blade stopped a hand’s width from my shoulder. He leaned on it. I pushed back.

Then James hit him from the side. Not with Spatial; just James. The two of them went down together, and James rolled clear, and the tiger didn’t, because one of Renn’s guards drove a spear shaft across his throat and pinned him to the stones.

James looked at me from the ground. "Still alive?"

"Regrettably."

"Good."

He got up too fast, and his face changed, and one hand went to his chest again. I saw it again.

"Later," I said.

He looked at me. "Yes."

Daphne made a small sound, and I turned. Her wrists were trembling now, not slightly; I could see it from several steps away. She blinked once, hard, the way people do when something hurts behind their eyes.

"Daphne."

"No."

That wasn’t an answer to anything I had asked. She knew what I was going to say.

"Your wrists."

"I know."

Still costs most, she had told me, sitting in the sand in Ferran’s yard. I correct it, and correct it again. It adds up. She was still correcting.

The traitor tried to rise again, and Daphne’s jaw tightened, and he stopped.

"How long can you hold him?"

She didn’t answer.

"Daphne."

"Cover me," she said again, no louder than the first time.

I looked around the courtyard. One Tiger warrior pinned under a spear shaft. One fighting Sorel. One trying to get past Renn. Merrow’s guards, still armed. Academy reinforcements coming through the western entrance. The freed beastkin trapped between too many people. Elizabeth still much too close. And Daphne standing in the middle of all of it, her wrists shaking and her face gone grey.

Healing Bond stirred, somewhere near my core. It would reach her from here; Sophie’s hadn’t needed a touch. It would give her more recovery, more time, more corrections after her body had already started telling her to stop. James had taught me what happened when I made that warning easier to ignore. Headmaster Theoran had said no new bonds, and I had agreed, mostly. But that wasn’t why I left the skill where it was. The pain behind her eyes and the shaking in her wrists were the only things still protecting her. I wasn’t going to take them away so she could spend more of herself.

So I did what she had asked. I covered her.

The warrior who had broken away from Renn came for her, and I stepped between them and put up a Barrier, and he struck it, and the gold shook, and my chest hurt, and I stayed on my feet.

The traitor roared. The sound tore across the courtyard, and Daphne didn’t move. His arms shook against the stone. One knee came up, then the other. He was rising. Daphne’s hands curled, and her shoulders had begun to shake as well.

"That’s enough," I said.

"No."

"Daphne."

"Not yet."

The tiger was halfway to his feet now, his face dark with effort, every muscle shaking, the stone breaking apart under his boots. He looked at her, and smiled.

"You don’t have enough."

Daphne went completely still. "You’re right," she said.

His smile widened. Daphne lowered one hand, and my stomach dropped, and then she pointed at the courtyard stone beneath his feet.

"It does."

The stone went down. Not outward; down. The last storerooms ran under that part of the courtyard, and their roof gave way around him. He dropped, and caught between two broken slabs at the waist. Before he could push himself free, Daphne closed her remaining hand, and Gravity came down on him. The sound that left him wasn’t a roar. It was breath being forced out. His arms hit the ground, and then his head, and he stayed there.

Nobody moved. Not Merrow’s men, or the freed beastkin, or for half a second even the other Tigers.

Daphne took one step backward, and her knees buckled. I dropped the Barrier. The warrior in front of me moved, and Renn hit him before he reached us, and I turned and caught Daphne, barely. She was heavier than I expected, or I was weaker than I expected. Probably both.

Her hands closed on my arms, and they were trembling so badly she could barely hold on.

"Daphne."

"I’m fine."

I stared at her. She looked back.

"That sounded better when you said it," she said.

"No, it didn’t."

Her knees tried to fold again, and I held her up. I put ordinary Healing into her hands and wrists, enough for the strained muscles and nothing more, and light spread over her fingers. She flinched.

"Don’t."

"No."

"Alash."

"You aren’t the only one allowed to ignore instructions."

That very nearly made her smile. Then, down in the broken courtyard, the traitor moved. Not much, but enough, and Daphne’s head turned.

"No," I said. "Absolutely not."

"He’ll get up."

"So will you. Later."

Her eyes narrowed. "Cover me."

"I did."

She looked at me.

"You didn’t say for how long," I said.

For one second, despite everything, she looked offended. That was good. It meant she was still Daphne.

Across the courtyard, the traitor pushed one hand against the broken stone. Renn saw it, and so did Sorel. She crossed the distance before he had his second hand under him, and the point of her sword stopped against his throat.

"Don’t."

He froze. Renn looked at the three Tiger warriors still standing, or not standing: one pinned, one disarmed, and the last still holding his sword with three Academy guards around him. The whistles outside were closer now, and more boots were entering the courtyard. Renn’s people, finally.

"Weapons down," said Renn.

Nobody moved. He looked at Merrow’s guards. "That includes you."

One of them looked at Merrow, and Merrow said nothing, and the guard lowered his sword. Another followed, then another, and then the rest. The Tiger warriors took longer. The one surrounded by Academy guards looked at the traitor in the broken courtyard, then at the freed cat beastkin, then at Merrow, and his sword hit the stones. The others followed.

The silence that came wasn’t really silence. People were breathing too hard for that. One of the children was crying. A horse was pulling nervously at a cart harness. Somewhere inside the house, a servant was shouting for water. But nobody was fighting. For the first time since sunset, nobody was fighting.

Elizabeth stepped out from behind me.

"You were supposed to stay further back," I said.

"I did."

"Not far enough."

"We can discuss distances later."

"No."

She looked at Daphne leaning against me, and then at Daphne’s hands, still shaking, and her expression changed.

"What happened?"

"Gravity," said Daphne.

"That isn’t what I meant."

Daphne looked away.

Renn was walking toward us. His eyes went to Daphne first, then to me, then to the faint warm light still moving from my hands into hers. Sorel came with him and looked at Daphne’s fingers, and then at my face.

"How far did she go?" said Sorel.

"Past where she stops," I said.

Daphne didn’t contradict me. Sorel’s mouth tightened, and she didn’t say anything else. She didn’t need to.

Renn turned to the courtyard. "Secure the estate. Nobody leaves. Nobody touches those carts. Two guards with the prisoners. Four on Lord Merrow. Sorel." He looked at the Tigers.

Sorel nodded. "I have them."

Merrow finally spoke. "You cannot hold me in my own house."

Renn looked at him. "Your men attacked Academy students. Armed beastkin hidden in your north wing attacked Academy students. Prisoners were found beneath your house wearing suppression collars, and your carts carry the same mark found with them." His voice didn’t rise at all. "And in front of the First Princess, you told one of those hidden men that he wasn’t supposed to come out."

Nobody said anything. Merrow looked at Elizabeth. She was no longer smiling.

"Your Highness."

"No," said Elizabeth.

One word, and he stopped.

The older cat woman had come closer, with a child holding each of her hands. She looked at Merrow for a long time, and then at the traitor in the broken courtyard. Neither of them looked back at her. Her hands tightened around the children’s.

"Tomorrow," she said quietly.

I heard her, and so did Daphne. Live long enough to hate him tomorrow, I had told her, and she had. Technically tomorrow hadn’t arrived yet. I decided not to correct her.

Daphne’s weight shifted against me. "Alash."

"What?"

"My hands."

I looked down. The trembling had eased. "They’re steadier."

"I know. So let go."

"No."

She stared at me. "I can stand."

I loosened my hold, and her knees gave way at once, and I caught her again. Elizabeth covered her mouth. Daphne’s face went completely blank.

"Nobody saw that."

"Everyone saw that."

"Alash."

"I can lie, if you’d prefer."

She closed her eyes. I kept the Healing moving into her hands, slow and warm, and for once I didn’t mind standing. Much.

[Host.]

’What?’

[Do not activate Healing Bond.]

’I wasn’t going to.’

[I know.]

’Then why are you telling me?’

There was a pause, longer than any I could remember.

[Because Daphne Spinster is already bonded to you.]