Page 37 of Unexpected Magic

Even as he said it, Jasper realized it was true.

“Marcus,” said Findlater to his steward, who stood—as always—at the duke’s shoulder, “organize a bedchamber for our dragon lord in the same wing as Lady Cordelia and Lady Margate. My dear, thisisLady Margate.” He beamed at Delia and waved at the lady in question. “Lady Margate has kindly agreed to stay as your chaperone until we can arrange your wedding.”

Oh, horse dung. Why did Jasper’s uncle have to put his large ducal boot into that particular mess?

As Jasper could have predicted, Delia bristled. But she must have been sicker than Jasper realized, for she shook her head as if in exasperation and then turned to Lady Margate. “Thank you for coming to look after me, my lady. Will you please show me to my bed?”

Jasper took a closer “look” at her with his magical senses and realized that the cloud of her catalystic power looked sparse and tattered, as if something had torn it. “Delia, your cloud!”

She turned to look at him, swaying on her feet. He sensed her consciousness leave her and was just in time to catch her as she fell.

“Get a healer,” he snapped to the crowd in general, and then to Lady Margate, “Show me my lady’s bedchamber.” Her affronted glare got through the panic over Delia’s condition and he added, “Please.”

The prince said, “Do as the dragon lord asks,” and matched Jasper’s steps as he followed Lady Margate toward Findlater’s mansion. It was only a three or four minute walk, but it seemed endless. Then there were stairs to climb and a long passage before at last he could set her on a bed, take her limp hand, and stare into her pale face.

Her pulse was strong, and she was breathing easily, but in the shadowed light of the bedchamber, the damage to the cloud wasmore obvious—not just the torn edges, but both smell and taste now had a bitter tang.

“Young man,” said Lady Margate, “out you go. You should not be in the room of an unmarried lady.”

Jasper didn’t bother to look at the annoying female. “No,” he said. “I stay.”

“Here is the healer,” said the prince, and Jasper turned his head to note that it was the queen’s personal physician.

“Lady Bright,” said the prince. “Lady Cordelia fainted.”

“Your highness, your grace, my lords and ladies,” said the healer. “Let me examine her, please.” She approached the space Jasper was already occupying, and he moved out of the way, but still hovered close, his hand now resting on Delia’s shoulder.

“Hmm,” said the healer, using her fingers to feel the pulse under Delia’s jaw, and then lifting her eyelids to peer into her eyes. Delia stirred, but did not wake.

“Is it possible that she is with child?” Lady Margate asked.

“Lady Cordelia is still a maiden,” Jasper declared, indignantly.

“She is not with child,” Lady Bright confirmed. “She appears to be exhausted. And wounded in some way. To find where, I must examine her more closely, which I cannot do with you gentlemen in the room.”

“It is her cloud,” Jasper said. “I think it must have been when I translocated us. It tore her cloud.”

“What nonsense is this?” Lady Margate scoffed, but the healer studied Jasper’s face for a moment and said, “You will need to explain. What cloud?”

How could he describe it so that others would understand? “Her catalystic gift spins itself into the land and air around her,” he said. “I sense it as a cloud. I should have realized that translocating would tear the connection.”

The crowd who had followed them into the bedchamber murmured, but Jasper didn’t listen to them. He was absorbed in watching the healer, who stepped back to stare in Delia’s direction, her eyes unfocused. “Ah, yes,” she said, after nearly a minute. “I see. Lord Baradine is correct.”

For a split second, Jasper could not remember who Lord Baradine was.It is me. I am Lord Baradine. “What do we do?” he asked.

“Yes,” said Lady Margate, who was apparently unable to stand by without attempting to take control of the situation. “Can you heal the poor girl? She has a wedding to attend!”

The healer frowned. “Lady Cordelia will heal with plenty of sleep, good food, and time. To speed that up would take magical energy of the right type.” She stretched her mouth in a grimace and clicked her tongue. “If I had not been using my gift to help the king, mine might do. But as it is…” She spread her hands in a helpless gesture.

“What about mine?” Jasper asks. “I have plenty of energy. How can I give it to her?”

The answer, apparently, was that he couldn’t, as it required a healer gift. Jasper tentatively mentioned his healing of Delia’s broken bone, and Lady Bright amended her comment. “Atrainedhealer gift,” she said.

“Is there any way I could pass energy to you, Lady Bright?” Jasper asked.

Now that he looked at the healer, he could see how tired she was—puffy circles under sunken eyes, her body drooping with fatigue.

Lady Bright’s eyes lit up and she said, “That might work. There are stories of powerful mages providing energy to healers, and purportedly, no mage is more powerful than a dragon lord. Let us try it, Lord Baradine.”