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magical
trauma caused weakness and bleeding but nothing more painful than a prolonged wine
headache. Only a severe case would cause unconsciousness.
    It isn’t magical trauma alone that ails her, then. Could she have
foolishly seared her own mind away?
    He laid a tentative hand across her dampened forehead, closed his eyes in
concentration, and sent out a mind-probe to read her.
    Pain!
    Aidric recoiled and nearly lost the probe when his mind touched the
pain. He drew a sharp breath in and cursed. It was the same—the same pain he
had felt when her screams had filled his mind. Even though her screams had
ceased, her mind was still experiencing that terrible agony. Had she not fallen
unconscious, she would have been writhing in agony and probably half mad.
    She was unconsciously reading the minds of every soul within the
borders of Lamia. The volume those millions of voices created within her mind
had never been meant for mortal ears to hear. Magical trauma and shock would be
the least of her problems if she didn’t receive the care of a healer, and soon,
not if she ever hoped to awaken from her unnatural sleep.
    Through his probe, Aidric could also see the raw, untamed magic of that
miniature Mage-field that now surrounded them flowing wildly through every
particle of her body, causing every nerve ending to be alive with pain. He
withdrew his mind-probe with a shudder, unable to imagine the pain she was
enduring, but one thing was perfectly clear. She was untrained.
    Though Aidric was a powerful mage, luckily for her, he was also a
powerful healer. The young woman needed treatment immediately from both types
of practitioners, or else the magical energies would consume her.
    Gently caressing her troubled face, he eased her pain by placing his
own magical shields around her mind, blocking the stream of voices from
entering it and also blocking her ability to use her mage powers. He could
sense the wild energy pushing against the shields, but he was confident that
they would hold until he found the time to strengthen them.
    Her face immediately relaxed from her grimace once he had relieved the
cause of the chaos within her. She sighed weakly in her unnatural sleep,
shifting her head restlessly to the side before she fell silent once again.
With the grimace gone, she looked even more beautiful to his eyes than before.
    Satisfied that she was no longer in excruciating pain, Aidric shrugged
off his cloak and draped it around her body. Then he gathered her into his arms
and rose swiftly from the ground. She felt as if she weighed nothing in his
arms. She didn’t even stir.
    Turning towards the direction where he had left Shadow tethered, Aidric
pondered over whether or not he should use the portal spell to transport them
to his quarters at the palace at once or to ride. The portal spell required a
tremendous amount of channeled power and concentration that usually left him
feeling battered and weary for several sand-marks unless accompanied by another
mage who added their own channels and strength to the spell.
    He needed to begin healing the magical shock she was suffering as soon
as possible, but he knew that he would be too drained to tend to her if he
performed the portal spell. He could always ask the king’s personal healer to
tend to her, but the thought of letting another touch her made him feel
surprisingly uneasy.
    No, it’s better for me to heal her since I already know her mind so
well , he reasoned. Besides, the fewer people that know of her, the
better.
    He glanced down at the sleeping girl in his arms and said to her,
“You’re safe now, milady, and when you wake, I’ll discover if the old Golden
Mage prophecy has any truth to it.”
    With those final words, he set out into the forest again, retracing his
steps back to the Lake of Tears path, resigning himself to an agonizingly long
ride back to the palace.

CHAPTER FOUR
     
     
    The palace grounds swarmed with the usual assortment of servants, mages
of every