Frayed Ties (Ties, Book 1) | ✓

Chapter 15

Delton greeted them at the doorway of the main cabin and immediately started fussing over them as they filed inside. He paused briefly on Simon, but after discovering the blood on his jacket wasn't his own he quickly shifted his concern to Lucas.

"I can clean that," Danya told Simon, holding out his hand for his jacket. He needed something to focus on, some way to be useful. He was having a hard time getting his head around what they'd just done. Everything felt so surreal.

Delton interrupted as Simon was handing the jacket over. "Actually, Danya, didn't you say you had some talent with healing? This young man looks like he could use it."

"Oh." Danya stopped, looked at the jacket in his hands, then back to Delton. "I'm not very good at it."

Lucas lifted his arm to show Danya a particularly nasty scrape on his elbow. "Even if you could just take the sting out of some of these, I'd probably sleep a lot better tonight."

"Well... I'll try." Danya held the jacket out to Simon. "I guess I'll clean it up later."

"I'll do it!" Ranor said as he snatched the jacket away.

"No, I should!" Kin insisted, butting in and trying to grab the jacket from Ranor. "I'm a Companion."

Ranor scoffed. "No you're not. You're a child. I bet you haven't even done your training yet."

"I've done my prelem—preliminary training."

"I bet you don't even know what preliminary means."

"Do you?"

Simon took his shirt off and tossed it to Ranor. "There's blood on that too. Now you both have something to do."

Simon's tone hadn't been scolding, but both boys immediately straightened up and stopped bickering. Good. As much as Danya knew he shouldn't expect them to act like slaves now, he couldn't help but regard their behaviour derisively. They had surely both had some training and knew better.

But that wasn't his problem. Healing Lucas was his problem.

Now that all the excitement was over, Lucas looked exhausted. They piled some of the bedding together and Lucas laid down on the floor while Danya got to work.

It was slow. Repair work — and that was essentially what this was — always was. Flesh was a strange medium to work with. Unlike fabric, it wanted to heal itself and knew how, but it was far more complex. It had blood and tiny capillaries, and skin, and muscle and fat in deeper wounds. It was more than just a single thing and it all had to come back together in the correct way. Danya wouldn't have had the first clue where to even start if not for the subtle pull of the body's own healing processes. He pushed energy into that, aiding it rather than taking over entirely.

Danya wasn't sure how long he'd been at it by the time Ranor slunk back over, Simon's shirt clutched in his hands.

"I'm sorry for my behaviour," Ranor said as he handed the now clean shirt back to Simon. "It's immature to squabble with children."

Simon gave his shirt a quick glance over and then pulled it back on. "You've been through a lot. It's understandable."

Ranor fidgeted. He obviously felt uncomfortable standing above Simon, looking down at him. "I've always sort of had problems. With arguing with people too much. Before I was sent away, I used to work in a motel and I got in trouble all the time."

"Is that why they sold you?"

"Oh, no. That was because I had sex with the owner's daughter."

"Oh."