His eyes opened slightly. «Leave… me.»

She reared back. Did he think her such a coward that she would save her own life at the expense of his? “I can’t leave you to die, Rain. I won’t.”

«I distract… you flee.»

“That’s not an option. The Fey and the tairen need you.” She stroked his face and stared urgently into his pain-dulled eyes. “I need you.”

«You can survive… my death.» Bloody bubbles foamed at his nostrils. His lungs were filling. He was dying already, and they both knew it. «Run. Mages… cannot take you… »

He meant it. She could feel his sincerity. He wanted her to leave him here to die. He thought she actually could.

“Don’t be a ninnywit. I could never—ever—leave you, not for any reason.” She smoothed a hand down the soft, thick fur of his massive tairen jaw. “Whatever choices we make, we make together. Whatever fate, we face it together.” She blinked back tears and infused her voice with what she hoped was convincing sternness. “So, unless you want us both to be guests of the High Mage before nightfall, we need to get out of here. Now, can you Change?” The Eld would be here soon, and all chance for escape would be lost.

«Nei. Too much sel’dor.» A cough shook his tairen’s body. His eyes closed, and for a moment she feared he was slipping away from her.

“Then I’ll have to remove as much as possible so you can.”

Several of the bolt shafts and arrows had sheared off during his crash, but quite a few still remained. They stuck out from his flesh like obscene quills. The bowcannon missiles ranged in size from spears the diameter of her arm to the two thick bolts as wide as tree trunks that protruded from his chest and rear leg.

She stood up and took hold of one of the thinner spear shafts lodged in a foreleg.

«Must push… not pull… spears barbed.»

“I know.” She’d removed enough sel’dor arrows from wounded warriors to know what to expect. Of course, none of those warriors had been Rain.

She closed her eyes and drew a deep breath. Steady, Ellysetta. You can do this. You must do this. She took hold of the spear shaft, planted her feet, pushed with all her might.

The spear moved, slowly sliding deeper into Rain’s flesh with a squishing sound that made her stomach lurch. She tried to weave away what pain she could, but there was so much sel’dor in his body and hers that the attempt only injured them both. “Sieks’ta, shei’tan. Sieks’ta. Forgive me, I’m so sorry.”

The spearhead gave a muffled screech as it scraped against bone. The sound jolted every nerve in her body, and Rain’s pain roared through her. Nausea rose sharply, dousing her with sudden clammy weakness. She spun away and lost her breakfast in the dirt.

When she lifted her head a flash of movement caught her eye. The Eld had discovered the swath of broken and shattered trees in Rain’s crash path. Black-armored Elden soldiers were pouring from the woods two miles away.

«Shei’tani… leave me…run.»

“Don’t be a dimskull.” Ellysetta dragged her arm across the back of her mouth. Grimly, she grasped the spear shaft again, marshaled her strength, and shoved. The barbed spearhead broke past the bone and pierced the remaining layers of muscle and skin.

Ellysetta opened her eyes, then swallowed thickly. The spearhead now jutted out from the front of his leg, just above his wing, a viciously sharp, ugly, black thing that bristled with broken barbs and glistened with Rain’s blood. She’d never seen anything so nakedly evil. Rage flared inside her. She grabbed the bloody spearhead and yanked it free.

Rain coughed again, and the sound snapped her back into action. She hurried to the spear in his leg and had to climb up on top of him to inspect the wound. This bolt was not so deeply embedded as the one in his chest. She could see the misshapen bulge of it, just below the surface of his skin.

«Rain, I think I can just cut this one out.»

«Do it.»

She yanked one of the black Fey’cha from the sheaths at her waist, then stared at it in surprise. What a fool she was not to have thought of this from the first. She dragged the sharp edge of Bel’s bloodsworn Fey’cha across her thumb. Blood welled from the cut, and she smeared it across the shining edge of Bel’s steel.

«Ellysetta?» Instantly Bel’s voice sounded in her mind, faint but clear.

«Bel! We need help. We’re in Eld. Rain’s been shot by bowcannon—he’s badly wounded.»

«We’re coming. Be strong, kem’falla, and do whatever you must to stay alive.»

“Bel and the lu’tan are coming, Rain.” But there was no way he or any of the Fey would reach them in time. She glanced over her shoulder. The Eld soldiers were closing the gap quickly.

Rain gave a weak cough, and Ellysetta’s attention snapped back to him. They were running out of time. “Hold on, Rain,” she said. “This is going to hurt.”

She positioned the knife at the entrance wound and dragged it towards her in one swift motion. His flesh parted, and without the thickness of Rain’s tairen hide to keep the weapon embedded in his leg, the heavy weight of the spear shaft pulled the buried head free. The spear fell into the dirt, leaving behind a gaping wound.

She quickly attacked the remaining spearheads, pushing one through the tissue of his leg and cutting out the others, until only the massive bolt buried in his chest, near his right foreleg, remained. “I can’t get this last one, Rain. It’s too large and buried too deep. I can’t push it free.”