Chapter Text
Burning.
The world was a confusion of darkness and heat, wrapping around and pulling him under. His chest pulsed with pain, fire spreading through his veins with every beat. His breath tasted of blood and smoke, rattling in his lungs, shaking his burning body.
“Hold on, little brother. You’ll be all right.”
Diamant. Had he dragged his brother to hell, too? Just as Pyrite had dragged him?
“I’m sorry.”
It wasn’t enough. It would never be enough. He should have been stronger, faster, smarter. Better. He should have been…
“You didn’t do anything wrong. You hear me, Alcryst?”
It was his fault. They would both burn because of him.
“I’m sorry.”
…
Diamant cradled his brother close, trying to murmur reassurances between his brother’s fevered apologies. The vulnerary had healed the worst of the damage but it hadn’t been enough to fully close the knife wound, and even now he could feel the growing slickness of blood beneath his hands.
And it was starting to rain.
He hunched over, wrapping his cloak around Alcryst as much as he could. His horse had slowed to a walk, and he was loathe to push the beast any harder in this weather after the long ride over the last day. They would need to reach shelter before the day got much worse, but for now he let the horse take his ease while he tried to shelter his brother from the elements and listen for his companions’ return.
It wasn’t long before he heard two sets of hoofbeats, and turned to see Amber and Jasper riding down the trail toward him.
“How is he?” Amber blurted out as soon as they’d reached Diamant.
He shook his head. Alcryst was alive but burning with fever from either infection or poison, and they didn’t have the means to treat such a wound out here. “Are they dead?”
“All but two,” Jasper answered. “Mica and Beryl stayed behind to take care of the bodies and bring the survivors back to the castle to answer to the king.”
“Good.” Their father would want answers…and to punish the ones who’d hurt his son. “I need to bandage his wounds,” he added, almost to himself, as he looked back down at his brother’s pale visage.
Amber nudged his horse closer and tugged a small pack out of one of his saddlebags. “I might have a clean shirt that would fit him?”
His retainer was closest to his brother in size so it wouldn’t be a bad fit, but Diamant shook his head. “We need to find shelter first. He’d just be soaked through in half an hour.” He dug through the pack that Amber handed him, drawing out several rolls of clean bandages and a little pot of ointment.
While Amber helped steady him, Diamant smeared a little of the ointment on the wounds on Alcryst’s chest and back. The ointment would help slow the bleeding, and he wrapped his brother’s torso in several layers of bandage to keep the wounds closed and clean from further infection.
Alcryst seemed barely conscious the entire time. He’d put up a feeble fight, but the fever burning through his body had left him weak and listless. He slumped against Diamant’s chest when they were finished, wrapped in Amber’s cloak, and shivered against the rain even as his body radiated heat.
“We might find help at the crossroads,” Jasper offered, when they were ready to set off again. “There might be an inn.”
“Or at least a dry place to spend the night,” Diamant agreed. They couldn’t risk the hunting trails with Alcryst in this shape. They had to get him out of the rain to properly tend to his wounds. He kicked his horse forward, curled over his brother as best he could to shelter him from the rain. The fever began to spiked and left him restless, crying out for Diamant and their father, each cry like a arrow to Diamant’s heart.
They’d almost reached the crossroads when Jasper raised an arm, hand clenched in a fist. “Riders ahead,” he hissed back.
Diamant’s heart pounded. They were in no shape to fight, and their horses were too exhausted to flee. “Who is it?”
The scout was squinting into the downpour. “They have a wagon. Merchants, maybe?”
“It’s the king!” Amber shouted. “I can see his banner. He’s here!” he stood up in his stirrups to wave one arm over his head, nearly spooking his horse in the process.
Diamant felt his shoulders slump with relief. “Are you sure?”
“It’s him,” Jasper agreed. “Thank the dragon.”
He nodded, though his companions couldn’t see him. He’d left a note for his father explaining where they were going and what their reasoning was, and the older man must have felt compelled to follow as soon as he’d found it. They couldn’t have left more than a few hours after Diamant and his party, to have reached the crossroads so quickly.
They waited for the king’s party to reach them. It didn’t take long before Diamant could see his father in the lead, spurring his horse faster to reach his sons.
“Did you find him?” Morion called as soon as he drew close. Diamant nodded, and his father fairly leapt off his horse and strode forward, arms outstretched. “Let me see him.”
Diamant complied, slowly lowering Alcryst into their father’s arms. The king made a soft, dismayed sound when he saw the state of his younger son and cradled him against his chest, tugging off one glove with his teeth to press the backs of his bare fingers against Alcryst’s cheek.
“He’s burning up,” Morion commented.
“We think poison, or possibly infection,” Diamant replied. Exhaustion was setting in, now that his father was here to take control. “We lacked the means to treat it.”
“I brought a physician,” Morion replied. His voice was distant as he took in the injuries inflicted on his son’s body, including the blood-stained bandage wrapped around his chest. “And the ones who did this?”
Diamant leaned back and let Jasper report to the king. He slowly dismounted his horse, thankful enough to pass the beast over to the servant that had hurried to his side. He would normally care for his own mount, but today he relinquished that responsibility for the sake of his brother’s care.
His father had brought a covered wagon, which the king made his way towards with Alcryst in his arms. It would still be damp, but the waterproofed canvas would keep the rain off of them, at least. By the time Diamant climbed in, the physician was already there to fuss over Alcryst’s body. He knew every bruise and scrape was being catalogued in his father’s mind for retribution to be carried out against his tormentors.
“Poison, yes,” the physician said, examining the stab wound in Alcryst’s back. “The poison still eats at him now. Had you not treated him quickly, he might not have survived.”
“Can you heal him?” Morion demanded.
The physician tapped his lips with one hand. “We need to treat the poison first. Perhaps we should send a rider to the crossroads; if there is a merchant at the inn they may have something.”
When Morion turned away to give the order to one of his soldiers, Diamant tiredly climbed into the wagon to sit with Alcryst. He tugged his baby brother’s head and shoulders into his lap, resting one calloused palm on his forehead. The fever still burned, but Alcryst had finally succumbed to exhaustion. He lay far too still beneath Diamant’s hand. Were it not for the fitful rise and fall of his chest, he might have appeared dead.
Morion leaned in the back of the wagon, his countenance saddened as he watched his sons. “Do you remember what I told you when he was born?”
Diamant nodded. “You said mother had nearly given her life so that Alcryst could be born,” he replied softly. “That he was her treasure.”
The king hummed in agreement. “He has her blood in his veins. He’ll survive this.”
Diamant couldn’t quite stop the soft, sad smile that spread across his face. He had been a child at the time, but as the years went on he'd gradually learned more about the years between his birth and Alcryst's. The infants who died in her womb. The two small graves in the royal tomb, of the siblings who didn't survive to take their first breath. Alcryst's birth had been difficult, and the mother had faced years of illness after. Through her long recovery, through the fears that she would succumb to to the trauma of such a difficult birth, King Morion had chosen to cling to his sons rather than push them away. While other men might have grown hard or even blamed Alcryst for his mother's brush with death, and subsequent inability to bear any more children, their father had treasured his sons even more.
The thud of hoofbeats heralded the soldier’s return, and Morion withdrew from the wagon to speak with him.
Diamant bent low over his brother, sweeping his dark hair back with a tender gesture. “Did you hear him?” he whispered. “Her blood is in your veins. You’re going to be all right.”
…
Awareness came back slowly, in bursts of confusion and light. Someone forced him to drink a foul-tasting concoction. Cold hands prodded at the wound in his back and the bruises on his side. He was propped up against a broad, familiar chest while another potion was poured down his throat.
Deep inside his body, his wounds itched as they stitched themselves back together. There was the familiar tingle and thunderstorm smell of magic and the ache in his bruised limbs began to ease.
“We’ll have to stop there,” an unfamiliar voice said. “His body can’t handle too much magical healing.”
“He’ll be all right?” This voice was familiar and rumbling right under his ear. Diamant.
“Time will tell, but I believe so. Help him drink water to replenish his blood, and see that he doesn’t excite himself.”
“Thank you, doctor.”
More was coming back now. He remembered the ride and the awful hike up to Thunderstone Pass. The ambush. Pyrite’s betrayal. Memories swirled in his head, and he didn’t notice he’d slipped back into dreams until he was jolting awake.
They were moving now. The wagon creaked around him, and Diamant’s voice murmured in conversation with someone else.
“Are you awake?”
He tried. Forcing open aching eyelids to look up at his brother’s strong face.
There was dampness on Alcryst’s cheeks. That was odd. Why was he crying?
Diamant gently wiped the tears away. “You’ll feel better soon,” he whispered. “We’ll be home tomorrow.”
He blinked, and the light had changed. The wagon wasn’t moving anymore. Diamant was gone, but he was curled up next to his father, who held him close in his sleep. Alcryst nestled closer, resting his forehead against his father’s shoulder, as a feeling of safety washed over him. No one could hurt him now, not with his father and brother here. He closed his eyes for just a moment….
“…been away from the palace for four days,” Diamant was saying.
“Would you expect less from him?” That had to be Amber, Diamant’s retainer.
Diamant chuckled. His hand brushed Alcryst’s forehead, a gesture that felt familiar even if he didn’t understand why. “Of course not. I would have done the same.”
He struggled to open his eyes, and was rewarded this time when his gaze finally focused on Diamant’s face. He blinked, and Diamant was still there.
“Are you with us this time?” Diamant asked kindly.
Alcryst swallowed. “D..Di…?”
“That’s all right,” his brother said, sweeping dark hair away from Alcryst’s eyes. “You were poisoned, and it’s taking some time to treat but you’ll be all right soon.”
He nodded. That sounded right, from the snatches of memory that were coming back to him. He’d been taken, forced to march on the road to Elusia, stabbed with a poisoned blade on the cusp of his rescue. A deep shudder ran through his body at the memory, and his hand crept up to his chest to check for the wound from the protruding blade.
Diamant noticed and placed a hand over Alcryst’s on his chest. “Your wounds have closed. The physician says you need another day or two of rest, and then you may begin returning to your regular duties. Slowly.”
Gods, he was tired. He’d barely woken up, but his body was already dragging him back down to unconsciousness. Diamant must have noticed, for his brother gave him a soft smile and rested a hand on his forehead. “Go back to sleep. We’ll be home soon.”
Alcryst wanted to reply, but sleep was already dragging him down. Sleep this time, not unconsciousness. The healing rest of his injured body called to him, and Alcryst found himself powerless to resist.
And so, safe in his brother’s arms with home just a few hours away, Alcryst slept.