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nodded and raised his hands, lifting the sleepers-patterns from the army. The soldiers rose to their feet bewildered with shaking heads. The General stood stunned, duped, and grew angry. He turned and marched into his tent, barking orders at the soldiers rising.
    “How did you do that?” Lael whispered.
    “I—” Gabriel began but dissolved into fits of coughing. He brought his fist away slick with blood.
    “Did they get you?” Mikelle gasped.
    He shook his head and wiped blood from his lips. Moving his hand in a circular motion, he signaled for them to join up, and he shifted them west to the Anatoly army camp. It took him several minutes to explain the orders to escort the Shalabane from Anatoly, and the entire camp cheered.
    He was dazed as he walked back to his Council giving instruction. “Let’s make this fast,” he said and laid the shift.
    “Take us to the infirmary,” Lewis said quietly. “You are whiter than a specter.”
    The shift took about a minute, and in that minute Gabriel’s legs lost all strength. By the time they arrived in the castle, his breathing came in ragged gasps, and he could feel blood bubbling in his throat. His mouth was coated with it, but he could not bear to swallow.
    He cut the shift in the infirmary and closed his eyes. Dagan caught him as he went limp. Lewis gave calm orders to lay him down and get supplies.
    “Stars, he’s so pale,” Mikelle whispered as they set him on a cold steel table.
    “Can you tell me what hurts, Head Mage?” Lewis asked quietly.
    Gabriel put a hand on his stomach and drew it to his chest. Opening his mouth to reply, he coughed. Someone put a cloth over his mouth, and two people rolled him to his side as blood came up.
    “Can he delve himself?” Mikelle asked.
    “No,” Lewis replied. “Oh my blessed stars. What happened to you?”
    The coughing subsided, and they rolled him to his back. “Bad shift,” he whispered. “What’s wrong with me?”
    “You are…broken inside. Severed.”
    “Where?”
    Lewis delved in various places across his stomach. “Lungs, liver…few places in the gut.”
    “Just heal me and be done with it.”
    “I cannot. You are already healed.”
    Gabriel opened his pained eyes for explanation.
    “You were severed and put back together without injury…mostly. There are a few places I can adjust,” he said and set healing patterns deep into Gabriel’s gut. The pain slowly abated. “Someone cut your chest as well. I can mend that. Ah, yes, you bled internally a bit, leaked acid here and there. You will be in discomfort until your body can flush it out.”
    “Why are his lungs bleeding?” Mikelle asked.
    “It feels as though the bottom tips of the lungs were severed, moved about an inch, and then healed, but since the vessels and alveoli did not line up perfectly, he is slowly bleeding.”
    “Can you cauterize it?” Gabriel whispered.
    “I could not handle something like that, no.”
    “Someone take my cloak off.”
    He closed his eyes as his cloak unbuckled and slipped off him. Pain flitted through his chest as he breathed, but it slowly abated as Lewis worked.
    “Go,” Gabriel whispered to his Council. “And speak of this to no one. I can’t have word getting to the Arch Mages.”
    “Of course, Head Mage,” Dagan replied and left with Lael, but Mikelle stayed behind to hold his hand.
    “How bad is it?” she asked Lewis.
    Lewis sighed and was silent for a while. “You will need to find someone stronger to heal you, or your battle with the Arch Mages will be very short.”

 
     
    Chapter 3
    Nolen could still feel the searing hot pain of fire on his palms though they had been mostly healed. Evony had also touched a boil-ward to him. His hands broke out in welts only giving the illusion of injury. But they still hurt.
    It had been his idea, and one that Ryker approved of, but one that could be incredibly dangerous. The plan was to steal into Kilkiny Palace under the guise of a burned servant.