Rori lay broken on the ground.

  The pain he’d begun feeling when he was on the boat with Meredith was a fraction of a fraction of the pain he felt now. In some back corner of his mind, he was aware that he had broken every bone in his body. But that back corner was inconsequential because every other part of his mind was consumed by the pain.

  It encompassed everything.

  He could not see. He could not hear. His senses were absent. But his brain did not even register this. His brain was completely overwhelmed with dealing with the pain.

  Kedra reappeared in the main room where Dade was standing talking with Sean.

  “All of the other soldiers and clerics are back to their respective places,” she said. “What news?”

  “None,” said Dade as Trill turned and left the room. “But we’re still looking. They will find something.”

  “How can you be so sure?”

  “Because I am. Because I know my men.”

  “Is there a chance Rori went out through the passage the phren came in?”

  “We thought of that, but it seems unlikely. He would have had to fight past a lot of phren just to get back to the baths. They would have seen him and then there would have been no need for them to keep fighting here,” Dade said. “How are you doing on spells?”

  “In general, I’m fine. As for teleportation specifically, I’ve got enough to get us out of here and that’s about it.”

  “What about the message spell?”

  “As I’ve told you countless times before, it’s called ‘sending’. I have a few more.”

  “Perhaps you should cast it again. If we need to, we can stay for as long as it takes for you to refresh. I doubt the phren will return that quickly. We can also block their entrance if needed.”

  “And they could unblock it just as easily.”

  “We’ll worry about that when the time comes. Cast the spell.”

  To say the pain was less would imply that things were better.

  And in a technical sense that was true, but practically it was nonsense.

  Rori was slightly aware of more than just the pain.

  His vision had partially returned. More likely it was that his brain had managed to start noticing things again.

  His vision, such as it was, did not tell him much. There were a lot of blotchy shades of light and dark. None of it was clear. None of it identifiable.

  His hearing was no better off. He had become aware of a high-pitched whine at some point. It was so loud that on another occasion it would have been ear splitting. Now it was a pale second to the rest of the pain.

  The sense that seemed to be working overtime was his sense of touch. Every inch of his body was awake and demanding his brain’s attention. And every part of him was reporting the same thing. Pain.

  He could not move. Not that he wanted to, because to even try to move increased the pain a thousand-fold. He’d tried once and had blacked out again for a time. Now he was concentrating on not moving.

  He wished he listened to Meredith and had just been content to drift.

  “He replied!” said Kedra looking up from where she sat on the couch.

  “What did he say? Where is he?” asked Dade.

  “Okay, maybe replied is too strong a word. He basically just moaned. But the spell got through.”

  “Did it sound like he was drugged? In pain?”

  “It sounded like a moan.”

  “How many more times can you cast that?”

  “Twice.”

  “We’ll try again in a moment. Let’s find the others.”

  Time passed.

  It could have been days. It could have been years.

  The pain had not lessened, but it had changed. Instead of being just one giant amorphous pain that consumed everything, it had started taking more distinct shapes.

  He felt more like a body.

  He was aware of his legs and arms.

  He was aware of his back.

  He was also aware that something was being driven into his back. He remembered that Meredith had called it a sword hilt.

  He still didn’t dare move his head, but his vision had clarified quite a bit, and he’d landed in such a way that he could shift his eyes to the left and see back up the mountain. Even moving his eyes like this caused intense pain, but perhaps the pain was a little less this time than it had been the last.

  From where he lay, he could not see either of the two balconies. They were thousands of feet above him.

  What he could see was the random detritus that had been thrown down here over the years. Not all of it was identifiable and none of it was in focus. But it seemed that Nolan was right, whenever somebody new had moved into the complex they had just thrown whatever they didn’t want over the edge. And now he lay amongst it, smashed to pieces like so much other trash.

  To take his mind off of the pain he tried to identify some of it. In his limited field of vision, he could see the remains of an old table, something he was guessing was a rusted and bent sword, countless bits of brown and tan that he thought might be broken plates and crockery and laying amidst it all the bottom half of a statue. The top half of the statue was not visible but at least some part of it was underneath him. In particular the part that had a sword. A sword whose hilt was digging into his back.

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  He’d become aware that he was breathing in quick little pants. To try to take a bigger breath was an exercise in agony. Though it had been a while since he’d last tried.

  He tried a slightly less shallow breath.

  It hurt, but again not nearly so much as it had before.

  The noise in his ears had settled down to a loud ringing. Behind that he could hear other things. One of which at times sounded like something going ‘chee’.

  Though he couldn’t see it, he could now also feel something else. Something good. He could feel Meredith’s medallion where it sat under his clothes. It was warm against his chest. He thanked the goddess once again for its regenerative properties.

  “Rori is simply not here,” said Sean. “We’ve been over every square inch of this place five times.”

  “Then where is he?” asked Ian.

  “Are we sure the phren didn’t take him?”

  “I’m sure,” said Nolan.

  “Based on what?” asked Sean.

  “The facts. The phren fought until the end. They were still looking for their objective, which was Rori.”

  “I too am sure,” said Trill. “Though my belief is more divine in nature.”

  “Please don’t tell me you spent five hundred gold,” said Ian in exasperation, but he quickly followed that with, “Actually in this case, I don’t mind.”

  “Nothing so drastic was needed. The phren did not succeed in kidnapping or killing Rori.”

  “I don’t suppose it matters now,” said Wergen joining the group in the hallway where they had gathered, “but I’m also sure that the phren did not take him. Rori’s tracks are everywhere, which makes sense since he lived here for so long. Unfortunately, the bulk of the fighting took place in the same areas as the last place he was seen.”

  “That only stands to reason,” said Sean.

  “Yes, yes. Piecing together the tracks of his that are left with what Honoria and Ian told us happened, I can follow him away from the kitchen and to the training room door. But the tracks do not appear to go inside that room.”

  “So, he turned back to the kitchen?” asked Ian.

  “The training room was full of phren sorcerers,” said Nolan. I wouldn’t have gone in there if I was alone and in the dark.”

  “He didn’t go back to the kitchen. His tracks do not reappear there. He must have went into one of the rooms off of that hallway. Only that was the site of the final bit of combat and most of that hall and the nearby rooms are covered in blood. I’m going to have to search room by room. Anyone willing to help would be appreciated.”

  “Lead on,” said Nolan.

  “I will help as well,” said Trill.

  Rori tried to keep his mind diverted from the pain.

  He tried to think about Meredith, about his friends, about the clan, about the detail on the half statue in front of him. Even though the pain had lessened considerably, it was still hard to stay mentally focused on anything.

  The pain was diminishing. It was slow going, but it was going away.

  The problem was that as his body healed, he had started to regain the ability to move it. And to even twitch a muscle was to cause the pain to explode back to excruciating levels.

  Which shouldn’t have been a problem, but the desire to move was incredibly strong. To test and see if things still worked as they used to. To see if he could move any given muscle. In addition to that, as his bones slowly knit back together, they naturally caused his limbs to shift as they straightened. This caused further slides and movement, which again amplified the pain.

  The slight shifts and movements had revealed that he was lying in a considerable amount of blood. It was obviously his blood, but that didn’t make it any less disgusting. Particularly the puddle of it his head was laying in.

  Still, if he could just lie here long enough, he should eventually be able to get up and walk away. It would just take patience and time.

  There was a fluttering sound, and a bird landed on the bottom half of the statue in front of him. It was a yellow bird with dark grey wings and a black beak. It was larger than a songbird, but still smaller than a bird of prey. The bird cocked its head to one side and made a ‘chee’ sound.

  While it didn’t look like this bird was likely to be interested in eating human flesh, it occurred to Rori that there were plenty of other things that roamed the mountains that would consider him an excellent meal. Things that probably could smell the puddle of blood he was laying in. Maybe he didn’t actually have the time to be patient and wait.

  He mentally gritted his teeth and attempted to shift his arm. Pain wracked through his body, and he let out a low moan.

  The bird half spread its wings preparing to fly but then settled back down when it became clear just how little of a threat Rori was. It cocked its head to the other side and repeated its ‘chee’ sound.

  The entire experience had been miserable and not one Rori looked forward to repeating, but he had shifted his arm an inch or so and the moan was the first sound he been able to make at all. It wasn’t total success, but it was something.

  “Wergen! I need you,” Trill shouted down the hall.

  Wergen’s head popped out of the room he was in. “Did you find something?”

  Nolan stepped out of his room as well.

  “I’m not sure. My tracking skills are nowhere near on par with yours, but I do believe so.”

  Wergen and Nolan moved down the hall into the room.

  “This is Kedra and Dade’s room,” said Wergen.

  “Yes, over here by the balcony doors,” said Trill.

  Wergen moved over to the doors and began examining the area. In short order he moved out onto the patio.

  “He was here,” said Wergen. “Only his tracks just end over here by the railing.”

  “Was there a fight?” asked Dade, coming into the doorway with Kedra beside him.

  “No,” answered Wergen. There are phren tracks but they never come close to this side of the patio. Also, there is no sign of combat. I would guess the phren came out to do a cursory search, but Rori was already gone.”

  “Chee,” said the bird.

  “Ugh,” answered Rori. It wasn’t much, but it was better than the moan.

  “Chee,” replied the bird as it pecked at something on the side of the broken statue.

  Somewhere far behind Rori there was a sort of a yelping howl. Having grown up travelling the countryside Rori was instantly familiar with the sound. It was a coyote.

  “Chee,” said the bird again.

  “I know,” whispered Rori. Which set off a brief coughing fit. The whisper and the cough were both progress, but they were painful all the same.

  The sound of the coyote repeated, only this time it was closer.

  “Chee.”

  Rori braced himself for the pain and tried to shift his left arm. He slid it along the ground and over to his face. At the end of its journey, it bumped into his nose. He was rewarded with more pain.

  “This isn’t going quick enough,” he whispered to the bird. This set off more coughing.

  “Chee,” the bird replied.

  “Rori, where are you? We cannot find you. Do the phren have you? Are you drugged? Are you hurt?” It was Kedra’s voice in his mind. She was contacting him with the sending spell.

  “He replied! Better this time but still mostly nonsense. I think he’s down below,” Kedra said. “I think he fell.”

  “He fell down there?” said Baxter looking over the edge. “He must not have fallen too far. Nobody could survive a fall to the bottom.”

  “Don’t be so sure,” said Nolan. “Trill get down there now!”

  “Is there a hurry?” asked Sean. “I’m guessing his amulet is healing him, isn’t it?”

  “If we know he’s down there, maybe the phren do as well.”

  Before Nolan had finished speaking the Druid had already run to the edge of the patio and leapt over the rail. Only Baxter, who was close enough to the edge, saw Trill’s transformation.

  The coyotes were closer.

  Much closer.

  The Chee bird hadn’t flown away, but it had moved up onto the top of a large rock. Rori could just see it if he shifted his head to the side.

  “Chee.”

  In a moment he would try and shift his back. If he could get the pommel of the stone sword out of his back, it would be worth the pain moving would likely cause.

  He heard a rattle behind him that could only be the sound of several coyotes moving through the loose stones. They were being cautious. They thought they had time. Hopefully they were wrong.

  Overhead another larger bird swooped down to the ground between Rori and the rock the Chee bird was sitting on. It raised its wings in what looked as if it was supposed to be a threatening gesture to the coyotes behind him.

  “No need to fight over me. There’s plenty to go around,” he said in a raspy voice.

  The bird shifted and morphed into a dire bear standing on its hind legs, arms raised over its head. Rori never imagined he’d have been so glad to see a dire bear this close up.

  The bear roared and advanced on the coyotes behind him. He could hear the scrambling sound of the coyotes fleeing the area as fast as they could.

  And then Kedra was standing there as well with Nolan and Dade by her side.

  As the relief washed over Rori, silent but painless tears fell.