Page 19 of Rogue Familiar

“You weren’t,” Nic put in, “but you’re getting there. She’s a very quick study.”

Asa nodded, expression remote. “Difficult to say then, why this episode affected you so dramatically, but you’re fine now. You may sit up.” Though she didn’t need it, Asa helped her into a sitting position, his long, elegant hands both caring and impersonal. “She’s in perfect health,” he told Gabriel. “In truth, she’d already begun to recover before I performed any healing. I suspect that she would have fully recovered on her own in short order, without assistance.”

“Healing herself?” Gabriel asked with a frown, Nic’s face the reverse, eyes widening and expression brightening with intrigued excitement.

“Yes.” Asa patted Selly on the shoulder. “The bond is still there. It’s attenuated, and whatever Jadren did to himself this time, it appears to have taken him well out of the realm of the living, if not exactly into full death, but I suspect our unlikely immortal will return. I can sense him clawing back along the thread between you. Soon you will, too.”

Selly nodded, swallowing back tears, the relief at hearing that news overcoming her flinch at hearing Asa refer to Jadren as immortal. It really hadn’t been a very well-kept secret, at least, not within this group.

“Interestingly, you appear to be using Jadren’s magic to heal yourself unconsciously,” Asa offered in a thoughtful tone, projected for Gabriel to overhear.

“Should she be able to do that?” Gabriel asked sharply.

“Especially at this distance,” Nic noted with interest.

“Wizard Jadren’s inherent ability to heal is unprecedented, so far as I know. It’s almost like a familiar’s passive field in that he doesn’t seem to consciously control it.”

They all looked at Selly, but she had nothing to offer. She certainly wouldn’t say more about what Jadren had specifically made her promise not to tell.

Gabriel read it in her and sighed. “Are you determined to keep this bond and go after Jadren?”

Flushed with relief and desperate hope that Gabriel was even asking, Selly nodded, trying to look calm and rational. “I believe I must.”

“She’s in good health, you promise?” Gabriel asked Asa, and Selly heard the unspoken question that included mental and emotional health.

“As previously stated,” Asa returned mildly.

“You could still have Alise sever the bond and have done with him,” Gabriel said to Selly, searching her face, sounding almost beseeching.

“I don’t want that,” Selly replied softly, but firmly, holding Gabriel’s gaze, letting him see how she felt. “It might not make sense to you, but this is important to me. I can’t turn my back on him.”

Gabriel sighed, glanced at Nic, and shook his head. “Too much alike, you and I, Seliah,” he said. “Neither of us able to just let go as we should.”

“Hey,” Nic protested. “Chasing me down made good economic sense. Or,” she amended, “it will eventually.” She grimaced, softening when Gabriel put an arm around her and snugged her close against him.

“That was entirely why I did it, my practical wife,” he murmured in a tone that said anything but.

“I know.” She laid a hand against his cheek. “I love you, too.”

Selly’s reunion with Jadren wouldn’t be anything so heart-warming. No doubt it would involve him hurling insults at her in further attempts to drive her away. Oddly enough, the prospect filled her with anticipation.

~6~

“All right, Seliah,” Han said, laying out an array of weapons on the rough table outside the stables. The handsome blond familiar with a dancer’s body and startling teal eyes gave her a very serious look. “You don’t have to take all of these, but they’re all potentially useful, all refined from moon magic, so lethal to any hunters you may encounter.”

Selly nodded, surveying what Han had brought her. He was more than a pretty face. Another late bloomer, Han had only recently manifested as a familiar. While biding his time at Convocation Academy, hoping to become the newest of the mighty house of Hanneil wizards, Han—having completed all the coursework available to an uncategorized student—had devoted himself to weapons training. He’d become so proficient that Gabriel had appointed him trainer in weapons work for all the House Phel denizens. Magic-workers tended to rely on their magic for self-defense, but Gabriel, also a late-bloomer, had grown up using the manual chop-chop method as Nic sardonically called it. He’d decreed everyone should learn to use physical weapons as well as magical ones.

Selly had not been exempted and had spent the time in the last few days when Nic hadn’t been draining and training her, practicing with Han. Anything to reassure Gabriel that he could let her go with a clear conscience. Though they still weren’t telling their parents.

“You’re obviously already good with the bow,” Han continued, “so I’ve rounded up as many silver-tipped arrows as I could.” He gestured to several quivers of arrows, then selected one and handed it to her. “These bolts are shorter and lighter than what you’ve been using, with the idea in mind that you won’t need accuracy over distance. These aren’t for hunting, but for killing magically animated creatures like the hunters, and for fighting off people. It’s a trade-off, but smaller means you can carry more.”

“I already have too much stuff,” Selly agreed on a sigh and an irritated glance at the stable. As with everything at the resurrected manse, the stables had become bigger and more complicated. She couldn’t simply grab a horse and scavenge tack. No, a horse had to be “readied” for her. Which apparently took forever. She’d like to get a better sense of which horse she’d be taking so she could make decisions about what to take or leave.

Gabriel had been adding more and more supplies that she’d absolutely need, according to him, as if he hadn’t ridden across Convocation territory—and beyond, into mundane lands—with far less. Selly didn’t weigh much, but one horse could only carry so much stuff besides her and she’d put her foot down on bringing an additional pack horse along. She might need to move fast. In fact, she’d rather have gone on foot, to be even more flexible, staying off the roads, moving through the wilds of the marshes as she’d learned to do while trying to run away from her madness, but that idea had been firmly vetoed by not only Gabriel, but Nic as well. They felt she’d be too slow and vulnerable on foot and she’d finally conceded the point, if only because she wanted to get to Jadren as fast as possible. She shifted impatiently from foot to foot.

“Important stuff.” Han smiled with good humor, then pointed to a series of blades. “You’ve proven good with the smaller daggers, but you need a longer blade, too. With your long arms and legs, you’ve got good reach for close-in, hand-to-hand fighting, but no sense getting closer than you need to, especially if you encounter someone with an even greater reach. Also, it’s good to have a few back-up blades. I suggest these five, plus your favorite that you’re already wearing.”

“Five?” she repeated, hesitating.

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