Free Heart of the Exiled by Pati Nagle

closed her eyes and allowed the khi to flow through her. It rose warm and tingling in her arm and on her scalp and grew hot in the palms of her hands.
    Eliani? What are you doing?
    I am not sure
.
    The ribbons—
    I know. Wait
.
    For some moments the sensation continued, then it gradually faded. When it was gone, Eliani opened her eyes and drew a deep breath, releasing the guardian, who looked dumbfounded.
    “Thank you, my lady.” The guardian’s voice was a whisper. She gazed at Eliani in awe.
    “It was the ribbon.”
    The guardian’s eyes—dark Greenglen eyes—glanced at Eliani’s handfasting ribbon, then strayed to her wounded comrade. “Perhaps—?”
    Eliani swallowed, then nodded. She did not fully understand what had happened, but if blessings were coming through her to others in need, she could scarcely refuse.
    “Sirinan.” The guardian touched her friend, who opened his eyes.
    Love? What was that?
    A healing, I think. I will explain later. You will probably feel it again in a moment
.
    The female guard was murmuring to the other, Sirinan. He looked doubtfully at her, then somewhat anxiously at Eliani. She could see the pain etched in lines of tension on his face, no longer sharp but still present.
    Eliani moved to sit beside him, careful not to jostle his injured arm. His dark eyes followed her. She looked at his bandaged shoulder, then realized she was gnawing the back of her thumb. She folded her hands and met his gaze.
    “Do you want me to try?”
    After an instant’s hesitation, he nodded. Eliani gently took his hand and slowly reached toward his shoulder. Heat leapt into her palm even before she touched it. She did so lightly, scarcely feeling the cloth of the bandage against her skin.
    Sirinan made a small, startled sound, then sighed deeply and closed his eyes. Eliani did likewise and again felt powerful khi flowing through her.
    Her breathing slowed, and that of the wounded guardian matched it. She had little sense of time passing, though she thought the heat remained in her hands longer this time before fading. She could feel it flowing between her palms, through the guardian’s arm and his wound. At last it ebbed, and she drew back, opening her eyes to find Sirinan gazing at her in amazement. She sat back on her heels.
    “It was the ribbon. Not me.”
    Sirinan looked at his comrade. “You had better get a ribbon like that one, Kiravhi.”
    Both guardians laughed, and Eliani joined them. Turning her head, she saw all the others around the fire circle watching intently. At once she felt uncomfortable, and to hide it she looked away, back at Sirinan.
    “Can you eat a little, do you think?”
    He nodded. Kiravhi stood up, leaning her good hand against a tree for balance. “I will fetch your pack.”
    Eliani would have followed, but Sirinan touched her arm. “I do not know how to thank you, my lady.”
    “Recover your strength; that is how you can best thank me.” She squeezed his wrist and gave him a smile that she hoped was less awkward than it felt, then got to her feet.
    “The others are returning!”
    Glad of the distraction, Eliani hastened to the river to meet Vanorin and the others. She was relieved to be away from the fire circle and those dark, intense Greenglen eyes. Her people now, she reminded herself, feeling a stray pang of homesickness. It was not that they were Greenglens—she liked Greenglens perfectly well,one in particular—but that they stared so. Even Luruthin had looked astonished at the healing. Well, so was she astonished.
    Spirits guide me, she thought. Even resting in camp, I am moving too fast.

 
    Rephanin stood before his circle of mages, nervous for the first time in centuries. More cloaks yet to be blessed waited in chests by the door. He had already set the circle for the evening, and there was no need for him to delay their work with further discussion, except that he had agreed to do so.
    His gaze flicked to Heléri, who was sitting at one end of the