The Forbidden Compass Trilogy: Book One- Caged
Chapter 7

Fenn

Fenn mends Irelle’s ankle, the shards of bone and torn flesh coming back together at his touch. Too bad my power doesn’t work on clothes. Her leggings are shredded and stained an ugly brown with blood, her sandals and feet splattered red-brown. He has made Omega as comfortable as possible, mending his shoulder wounds, which had been bandaged horribly, like that of a seven-year-old. Now he lies on the floor of the rocking cage, unconscious, his large, black wings fully grown. As his wings had grown, they had split open his shoulder wounds, or maybe dragons just have a harder time growing wings than fairies, whose wings are softer and have feathers. Fenn doesn’t have much experience with wings, seeing as elves hardly ever have anything to do with fairies and dragons except war.

Mahna sits in a corner, hugging her knees to her chest, rocking back and forth, her eyes blank and unseeing. He finishes Irelle’s ankle, and moves on to the many small cuts peppering her skin, made by the shards of ice. He and Omega had also been cut by the blast, and he doesn’t doubt Mahna has too. The ice had melted, but the cuts did not disappear so quickly. He watches Irelle’s breathing as he works; it is labored, but less so than before. Her braid had come out in the fight. A kinked halo of blonde hair surrounds her head, giving her a less fierce appearance. It makes her look younger, or maybe sleep releases the tension in her face. Her eyes are closed, hiding the sparking blue underneath. She seems too small, too frail, too young, too angelic, to be the fierce, dangerous girl he has come to know.

The Hunters had tried to take Omega’s sword, but the steel had burned any who touched it. They had finally given up and left it alone; it wasn’t going to be much use in this cage anyway. Despite this, Fenn likes having the reassurance of knowing one of them has a weapon, even if that someone happened to have helped imprison them in the first place. And don’t forget that you tried to kill him, and he can wield fire.

Fenn finishes with Irelle and moves on to Mahna. He tries to touch her, but she shrinks away, watching him with wide doe eyes. She whispers repeatedly, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

He tries to coax her out of the shell she has built around herself. “Mahna, it’s me, Fenn. I want to help you.” She seems not to hear him. He tries sensing what is wrong, but she has no physical wounds except for a few cuts from the ice. He can tell her mind is mentally damaged. Something had happened in her past that had been wearing down the barriers of her mind and all it took was one stressful situation for her to crack. He imagines a crack on her mind, everything that made her Mahna leaking out and imagines healing it, like he would an open wound. He can’t help feeling surprised when her eyes lose their dimness. He had actually healed something that he had been told was impossible to heal, and not for the first time.

She looks at him. “What happened?” She asks, her voice full of confusion.

“We’re back in the cage. Everybody’s just fine.” He explains gently.

Her eyes take in the unmoving shapes of Irelle and Omega. “Are they dead?” Her voice is on the verge of panic.

He keeps his voice gentle. “No, they’re just sleeping. I have to check on Omega. Can you watch Irelle for me? Tell me if anything changes.” He figures she needs something to do and reassurance that Irelle is really fine.

He stands up, turning to Omega, who has started moaning. “Thank you.” The words are so quiet and gentle he’s not sure he heard them.

He turns back, momentarily stunned by her beauty, her face innocent and angelic in the morning light. Her deep brown eyes are large, giving her the appearance of a graceful doe ready to leap at the first sign of danger.

He swallows down anything he is thinking and simply says, “You’re welcome.” He turns back to his patient, hearing her move by Irelle. He has the feeling Irelle is in very capable, very beautiful hands.