Read Online Air Awakens Book One by Elise Kova - Free Book Online Page A

and your hips were fractured along with one of your legs.” Vhalla laughed into his chest with an insane rasp.
    “You will be fine,” he assured her gently. Now he was the insane one. “But since we are healing almost exclusively with non-magical clerical potions and salves, it’ll take some time.” The Western woman had shifted Vhalla’s pillows so she could sit in a more upright position and the man gently returned her to them, taking a green bottle. “This one is next; it shouldn’t hurt.”
    True to his word the chalky liquid went through her cracked lips and caused no immediate discernible change in her overall state.
    “Water,” she rasped softly and he nodded. He poured a small cup from a clay pitcher on the bedside table. The minister brought this to her lips also and held it there so she could take a few long gulps.
    “This is not how I wanted to meet you next. Believe me, Vhalla,” he started, placing the cup back and taking a third strangely shaped vial from the silent woman. “I wanted to give you time to come to terms with what is happening. I have seen people run if forced, and I thought you would benefit from distance. When I found out the prince had taken an interest in you, I felt I had little to worry about.”
    Vhalla rasped in bitter laughter. She had begun to think that perhaps magic would not be so frightening after all his notes. It was ironic that the man holding her shattered form was the man she should have trusted all along.
    “Prince Aldrik didn’t know how to tend to your current... condition ,” Minister Victor bit out the last word before pausing. “So he brought you to me three days ago.”
    Vhalla coughed on the last sip of liquid in the vial that was pressed to her mouth. “Three...days?” she managed, rather proud that two words could pass her lips.
    Victor nodded. “I wasn’t sure if you were going to make it. The second morning we forced you to sleep as you were thrashing and screaming too much to keep you awake,” Victor recounted dutifully. Vhalla’s mind was overloaded and the horrors hardly registered anymore. “But putting you to sleep disrupted the healing of your magical Channels when you kept reliving your awakening.”
    “Awakening?” she asked.
    “Awakening is when a sorcerer’s powers first Manifest in full.” He studied Vhalla for a moment before adding somewhat apologetically, “It’s normally a bit gentler.”
    Larel came in with yet a fourth vial, and Vhalla shook her head. She didn’t think her shrunken stomach and battered body could handle anymore. After delivering the potion, the woman retrieved the bucket and mop, vanishing into the outer rooms.
    “This is the last one for now,” the minister promised, so Vhalla relented. The world seemed to slowly stabilize, though Vhalla still felt like she would rather be asleep than awake. “Good,” he encouraged as she finished the last drop. “Now please, try to keep those down; no sudden movements.”
    Vhalla gave a small nod. “May I sleep now?” she asked weakly.
    He shook his head, which earned him a whimper. “Almost,” Victor assured her. “I have one more thing to try. I hope that it will make you feel better.”
    She was helpless to object with anything more than a shake of her head so she relented without fuss. If these people had planned on killing her, they wouldn’t be exhausting themselves to keep her alive.
    Victor left the room for a moment. He returned with a wooden case that he held with great care. Sitting, he placed it in his lap and popped open the latch. Within it were many stones of different shapes and colors. Vhalla wondered if it was simply the strangeness to her vision or if the stones actually shined and glittered unnaturally, as though a cosmos of stars swirled within. After a moment’s consideration he pulled one of the shining rocks and placed it on her forehead. She was too tired to feel silly and, out of necessity, already trusted him completely. He took a