Read Online Prelude to Fire: Parts 1 and 2 by D. K. Holmberg - Free Book Online Page A

were nearly at their end.
    Then they crossed the walls of the city, still moving too quickly.
    Lacertin didn’t dare ease off on the shaping. If he did, he wasn’t sure where they would land. He wouldn’t risk dropping Veran and grasped him as tightly as he could. The university appeared, and the shaper circle at the center.
    Then his strength failed completely.
    They dropped. The ground came up at them too quickly for him to stop. Lacertin tensed, knowing it would do nothing to help him survive the fall, but unable to think of anything more.
    He struck the stone of the shapers circle with a jarring crack. Veran was torn from his grip, flung across the university yard, and sent sprawling. Lacertin fell and hit his head, and his consciousness faded.

Chapter 8
    L acertin awoke in on a hard cot in an unfamiliar room. Everything ached. A steady light glowed near the corner. A shapers lantern, he guessed. The air smelled sickly, like that of rot or vomit. Likely the later, he guessed, especially given the way his head pounded and the inside of his mouth tasted.
    But he was alive.
    In some respects, that surprised him, especially considering how fast they had been moving before crashing. The shaping had picked up speed after Veran’s shaping had failed, almost as if somehow they had been cancelling each other out.
    He tried to sit, but his back wouldn’t cooperate. His arms felt shaky when he tried to move, and his legs trembled.
    “You’re awake.”
    A face loomed out of the shadows, and it took him a moment to recognize who it belonged to before his eyes managed to focus on the sharp jaw and the short black hair framing her face. “Jayna?” he asked. He barely had seen her since she’d disappeared on him in the library.
    “Who else would sit with you and attempt to heal you?”
    Lacertin tried to laugh, but his chest hurt too much. He brought a hand up to his chest and realized that his shirt had been cut away and thick bandages wrapped around him. “What happened?”
    Jayna pulled a chair up and leaned into him. She smelled of clean soap and her breath was minty. A comforting warmth radiated from her. “I could ask you the same thing. You land in a heap at the center of the university, somehow carrying Master Veran, and collapse. Master Wallyn says that you’re both lucky to be alive.”
    Wallyn had found them. That was good. The man was a skilled water shaper, one of the best. “And Veran?”
    Jayna tried to mask the troubled expression that crossed her face by turning away, but she didn’t manage to do so completely. Lacertin reached for her, and turned her to face him.
    “What of Veran?” he asked. “You already said that he’s alive.”
    Jayna nodded. “Alive, but not well. Whatever attacked you—”
    “Hounds,” Lacertin whispered.
    Jayna’s eyes widened. “Well, the hounds cut him pretty deeply. I’ve never seen wounds like that. They were partially mended, but that only served to trap the toxins within. We had to open them again to drain. Veran… well, he didn’t tolerate it very well.”
    Lacertin pulled his hand back and crossed his arms over his chest. “It was my fault. I tried healing him rather than bringing him back to the university. I didn’t think I’d be able to make it here in time if I did nothing.”
    And he almost hadn’t. He was lucky that they’d arrived with enough time for Wallyn to attempt any sort of shaping. But if Wallyn healed them, why did Lacertin still feel like a rotting lizard?
    The answer came through his foggy mind: Because Wallyn hadn’t worked on him. Veran had needed him more.
    Yet he was bandaged. Someone had taken the time to heal him, even if it hadn’t been Wallyn. He considered Jayna a moment. “You healed me?” he asked.
    She reached over and touched the bandages around his chest, her hands working with a practiced control. “I did what I could.”
    “You’re still in training.”
    She flushed slightly. “You know?”
    Lacertin laughed. It