Page 52 of The Broken Elf King
“Sorry, lord!” the captain yelled as he was only a mere fifty feet away. Any closer and he’d get stuck in the sand.
Raife reached up and just waved him off, annoyed. We all turned sideways then to try and peer around the stuck sailing vessel so we didn’t miss the race, when something moved in my peripheral vision. I spun to follow what had caught my attention in the direction of the nearly moored boat, and the next second the beach was filled with screams.
Five archers had popped up from the boat and loosed arrows. The projectiles whizzed past me and I flinched at the wet sound of them sinking into flesh.
Cahal threw himself over Raife, knocking him to the ground, and by instinct I tackled Naia as we all went down in a pile. More arrows sank into the sand beside me, and Naia let out a blood-curdling scream.
Suddenly the tent that had been set up to shade us from the sun was upended and thrown over us by Raife’s Bow Men on duty—tipped on its side to shield us from the archer assassins.
“Kill them!” Raife screamed beside me, and the Bow Men took off running.
What the Hades was happening? It was all too fast for my mind to process.
Naia whimpered beneath me, and now that the tent was covering us I peeled myself off of Naia and looked down at her. I’d fallen on her sideways at a weird angle and wasn’t able to fully cover her. There, at the innermost part of her thigh, was lodged an arrow.
“Are you okay?” Raife suddenly swam into view and reached for me. There was blood on his fingers, and I scanned his body wide-eyed, feeling myself go into shock at the gruesome scene.
“You’re hit.” I looked down at his stomach and he followed my gaze. I saw it the moment the fear flashed across his face.
“I’m fine,” he lied. “Areyouokay, Lani?”
“Naia!” Cahal screamed for his wife, scrambling from where he’d been at the king’s side to where his wife now lay.
I nodded to Raife, staring at the arrow sticking out of his gut. He needed healing, but as I was painfully aware, no one could heal the king except those waters at the healing cave several hours away.
Raife kneeled beside Naia, and Cahal seemed to look at his king for the first time.
“My lord, you need a healer!” The Bow Man looked torn between his wife and his duty to the crown.
“I’m fine,” Raife growled, and grabbed the hem of Naia’s dress. “I’m going to pull this up and inspect the wound, okay?” he asked her.
She nodded, tears streaming down her face.
When he pulled her dress up, we all winced. The arrow was so deeply embedded it looked to be pointing out the back side of her thigh.
Raife looked at Cahal. “Give her something to bite down on.”
Naia’s eyes went wide as her husband pulled off his leather belt and shoved it into his wife’s mouth. “You’re okay, my love. Just think of the garden. Your lavender is blooming,” he cooed into her ear.
“Screw my garden, Cahal—ahhhhhh!” she screamed through the leather as the king snapped the arrow in half and then reached behind her leg to pull it out the back end. Once the arrow tip was out, Raife brought it up to his nose and smelled it.
“No detectable poison,” he said with relief.
Blood bubbled out of the hole in her leg and the king placed his hands on her thigh. Purple arcs of light spilled out of his fingers and wrapped around her leg. The whimper died in her throat instantly and she sighed in relief.
When Raife pulled his hands back, there was no longer a bleeding gaping hole but a light pink, puckered scar.
“Thank you, my lord,” Cahal breathed, resting his head against his wife’s neck.
Raife said nothing, hovering over Naia.
“Raife?” I pulled on his shoulder a little so that I could look at his face, and my heart stopped when I saw his purple lips.
“Poison,” he said.
The arrowwaspoisoned. And now not only had he taken in her poison, healed her wound, but the arrow inside of him was as well. A double shot of that nasty odorless stuff the queen tried to kill us with before.
“No.” Cahal moved to catch the king just as Raife fell backwards.
