Page 81 of Storm to Victory
No sooner had Fieran’s hand touched Dacha’s shoulder than Dacha lashed out with both a fist and his magic.
Fieran toppled backward, barely resisting the instinct to block with his own magic. He deflected Dacha’s arm with his own raised one, Dacha’s magic passing harmlessly over his head.
Dacha started, then lurched upright. Fieran had only one glimpse of Dacha’s wide, panicked eyes before he rolled to his feet, placing his back to Fieran. Dacha braced a hand on the truck’s hood, gasping and trembling.
“Dacha?” Fieran remained where he was, not daring to move. He didn’t want to startle Dacha any more than he already had.
Dacha shook his head. He heaved a deeper breath, his shoulders rising and falling. When he spoke, he still didn’t look at Fieran. “Get some sleep. I will take over watch.”
“I’ve only been on watch an hour.” Fieran wasn’t sure why he was protesting.
“Fieran.” Dacha’s tone was sharp, sharper than he usually used when speaking to Fieran or his siblings. “Just…go.”
Fieran swallowed and eased to his feet. “All right. I’ll get some sleep. Tell Aaruk to wake me for the last watch then.”
If Dacha even turned the watch over to Aaruk. The way Dacha was looking now, he might just do something crazy, like stay up all night.
Fieran would just have to drive tomorrow if it looked like Dacha hadn’t gotten enough sleep.
Settling down on his bedroll spread out on the hay, Fieran tried to get comfortable. The gash across his abdomen hurt. His magic in his chest faintly ached.
But worse was the gnawing worry in the pit of his stomach. Would Dacha be all right? Or would this trip across Mongavaria break him?
The senseof magic bursting to life yanked Fieran from sleep. He bolted upright, the movement twisting his wound and making him groan and press a hand to it.
Dacha was pacing back and forth in the narrow space between the truck and the barn wall, magic wreathing his hands and arms.
“What’s wrong?” Fieran had to clamp down on his own magic before it leapt to his fingertips. “Have we been discovered?”
Dacha shook his head as he spun on a heel and marched away from Fieran. As he did, he pressed one of his hands to his chest, almost as if his heart hurt. At the door of the barn, he whirled again and paced closer to Fieran before he finally spoke. “There is trouble back home. In Aldon. Ellie and Tryndar are in danger.”
“What?” Fieran scrambled to his feet, his own magic rising so close to the surface that pain twinged through his chest before he could fully tamp it down.
Dacha stalked away again, his magic still crackling around him. He muttered something under his breath, likely words meant for Mama through the heart bond rather than for Fieran.
Fieran braced himself against the truck’s hood. His siblings were in danger, and there was nothing either he or Dacha could do about it all the way over here. “Can you tell what’s going on? Does Mama—”
“I do not know!” Dacha snapped the words as he dug his fingers into his shirt over his heart, the other hand burying in the short strands of his hair. When he repeated the words, they were more a whimper than the bite of before. “I do not know.”
Aaruk’s snores ended in a snort a moment before he poked his head between the seats, peering blearily at them. “What’s going on?”
There was no point in trying to sleep more tonight. Fieran pushed away from the truck and knelt to hastily roll up his blankets. “We’re going to get moving.”
“All right…” Aaruk glanced between him and Dacha, a furrow still between his brows.
Fieran finished packing up his bedroll and moved on to Dacha’s. Once done, he tossed both into the back of the truck. “I’ll drive. Aaruk, take the passenger seat.”
With a glance at Dacha, Aaruk climbed between the seats. Once Dacha had clambered into the back, Fieran settled into the driver’s seat. After turning on the engine, he worked the clutch and gears to slowly back the vehicle from the barn.
Dacha sat on the pallet, shoulders and head hunched. Tendrils of magic still wrapped around him but he had regained some control. At least this truck wouldn’t be lit up like a beacon of blue fire in the night.
After they reached the road and set out once again, the acetylene headlamps providing some illumination, Aaruk leaned closer to Fieran. “What’s going on?”
“Have you heard of the elven elishina? Heart bond?” Fieran glanced at Aaruk before turning his gaze back to the road. The back of his neck prickled with the sense of his dacha’s magic.
Aaruk nodded, his eyes widening. “I have heard of it. It’s considered a deep mystery of magic even to us who know magic more intimately than most.”
“My parents have a very strong elishina. And right now, my dacha is sensing some kind of trouble from my mama.” Fieran swallowed and flexed his fingers on the wooden steering wheel. “My youngest siblings are in trouble. They are too young to have come into their magic yet.”
