Her Warriors by Bianca D'Arc Read Free Book Online Page B

great act of kindness, but he
didn’t think it was that big a deal. He just nodded when her eyes
welled with unshed tears and her mouth formed words of the thanks
that she wasn’t able to speak.
    But he understood. In Beau’s mind, Tom was
important to Jacki, and Jacki was important to Beau, so it was only
natural that he would help Tom. Even if Jacki didn’t make Beau purr
in human form, he would have hung around for Tom’s sake. The selkie
male was brave and had proven himself an able warrior. He was well
worth helping for his own sake.
    “This is bad,” the small woman announced,
then stood back, looking at the three others gathered around the
bedside. “But I think we can save him. If we all work together. You
two are tigers, right?”
    Beau nodded, a little surprised by the
woman’s perception. Geir had come up beside Beau, and they both
stood at the foot of the bed.
    “She is the High Priestess, Bettina,” Geir
said softly, filling Beau in as the woman turned back to Tom,
clucking and feeling his forehead and wrists.
    Beau paused to nod his thanks at Geir. The
High Priestess was rumored to be a powerful creature indeed. Beau
had never seen her before, but he looked at the small woman with
new respect. She was the chosen of the Goddess. If she couldn’t
save Tom, nobody could.
    “Four elements, I think. I will stand for
air, Jacki for water, of course.” The High Priestess seemed to be
thinking out loud. “Master Geir will be earth, and you, young man…”
she looked right at Beau with those piercing blue eyes of hers,
“…from all accounts, you have a volatile temper. In this case,
that’s a good thing. You will stand for fire.” She looked around
the room and then set her gaze on Geir. “Can this bed be moved out
from the wall? It would be best if we could surround him.”
    Geir bent to grab the frame and Beau moved
to help on the other side. As gently as possible, they slid the
bed, Tom and all, out from the wall, positioning it in the center
of the room as the High Priestess watched. She nodded in
satisfaction when they had maneuvered the bed into the right
place.
    “Thank you,” Bettina said briskly. “We’ll do
this first spell fast, to stabilize him and stop the decay. It will
probably knock you all out for a few hours. You can rest tonight
and then tomorrow we’ll do something a lot more formal to start
reversing this.”
    “What is it?” Jacki asked, fear clear in her
tone.
    “It’s a kind of magical poisoning. I will
teach you the signs to look for during your training, but your
brother cannot wait right now, so let’s do this quickly, to stop
the drain on what remains of his power, then you and I can talk
about what is to be done tomorrow. It would probably be best if you
led the greater work, since you are his kin, but we can talk more
later. For now, we’re going to do a simple, but powerful,
protective spell. We’ll call on the four elements, combining our
energies and binding Tom to us, here in this realm. It should block
whatever is draining him and buy us time to figure out exactly how
to stop it and reverse the process, if possible.”
    “If possible?” Jacki’s voice rose in
alarm.
    Bettina smiled gently. “It might be possible
to return what he lost, in which case he will recover quickly. It
might not, in which case, his recovery will take longer as his
personal power is restored bit by bit in the natural course of
healing.”
    “Or he might not recover at all,” Jacki said
in a bleak tone and Bettina went to her, putting one arm around her
shoulders.
    “No, my dear. Don’t think that way. We will fix this. We will save your brother. How could
we fail with you and me, and two strapping young tigers to bind Tom
here?”
    Geir, the old fashioned bastard, dropped to
one knee, his head bowed. “I pledge all my strength to you, High
Priestess, and to you, Jacki.” Geir looked up then, catching
Jacki’s gaze, and it looked like she brightened. He had given