Camber the Heretic Read Free Page A

his head to cease its fitful tossing from side to side, as the drug at last took effect. He moaned several times, obviously still fighting, but it was evident that he was losing the battle. As the earl at last grew quiet, Jesse gave a great sigh of relief and shuddered, hugging his arms across his chest against more than physical chill.
    â€œI told him not to ride that stallion,” he whispered fiercely, almost to himself. “The animal is a killer. Valuable stud or not, he should be destroyed!”
    â€œWhat, exactly, happened, Jesse? Were you there?” Rhys asked, beginning to relax a little. “Do you know whether he was thrown against something, or did he just hit the ground?”
    The young man shivered again, closing his eyes as if that might keep him from remembering. “I was there. I wish I hadn’t been. The stallion threw him into a fence, hard, and then I think he kicked him, though I can’t be sure of that. It all happened so fast.”
    â€œBut he was unconscious for a time?” Rhys urged.
    â€œEither that or just stunned. The master of the horse said he thought it was just a dislocation and the wind knocked out of him, at first. But by the time they got him up here, he was moving the way you saw and raving with the pain. That was last night. Things started flying around the room shortly after that. Our household Healer is away for a few days, so that’s why I sent for you.”
    â€œI see,” Rhys said. “Well, I’m pretty sure he has a fracture and a dislocation. And given his psychic activities, there’s probably more at work than that. Anyway, we’ll see what we can do, now that he’s manageable. You can wait outside, if you’d rather.”
    With a nod, Jesse swallowed and slowly backed toward the door, finally turning to flee with the servants. Rhys suppressed a smile with some effort until the door had closed behind them, then laid an arm across Evaine’s shoulders.
    â€œWell, love, shall we try it again?” he asked lightly.
    Evaine took her place at their patient’s head and laid her hands on his temples, Rhys moving in opposite, at the man’s left. This time Gregory calmed immediately under her touch, slipping swiftly into an easy, profound sleep which was intensified by the sedative they had given him. A peaceful stillness descended on the room, dispelling the previous agitation of the man beneath her hands, as she centered and held their patient’s consciousness for her husband’s touch.
    Rhys could feel the change of atmosphere, Evaine’s readiness. With a sigh of relief, he unlaced Gregory’s tunic and eased it back from the injured left shoulder, gently slipping his hands inside to curve around the broken angle of joint and clavicle. Extending his senses to probe and explore the extent of the injury, he traced the damaged muscles and nerve-ways and mentally felt out the dislocation of the joint, the clean break in the collarbone, physically eased the dislocation back into place before lining up the ends of the snapped bone and beginning the processes which would regenerate it.
    Profoundly centered now, as his Healing talents took over from mere intellectual sensing of the injuries, he closed his eyes and let himself drift into his Healing mode, let the power flow, feeling life-force channel through him as it had so many times before, a part of him marvelling yet at the miracle of Healing which had been given into his use.
    He could feel the bones knitting beneath his fingertips, the swollen and torn muscles shrinking back into place and mending, the bruises fading and healing. He could sense the warmth of increased blood flow through the injured area, carrying away damaged tissue and speeding the growth of new.
    Finally, he opened his eyes and let more usual senses confirm what his soul already knew, pressed sensitive fingers along the line of previous break and dislocation, and knew that this