Free Avenge by Viola Grace Page B

dark.
    Waking was an exercise in pain. Her ribs felt like they had been host to a knife, her throat was dry and raw. Lying still, she tried to get a feel for her surroundings, but all she could determine was that she was not in an Alliance facility.
    Footsteps approached and the bed she was lying on tilted at the waist, bringing her to a sitting position.
    Randr was standing next to the bed with his lips pressed together with tension. “You had us worried, Aura.”
    She croaked, “Where am I?”
    “That will wait for later. For now, know that you are simply safe and alive.” He reached to the bedside table and gave her a glass of water with a straw.
    She blinked. It was so prosaic—it could have been a glass from a hospital on earth. With a few slow sips, she managed to make her voice sound normal again. “It’s later. Where am I?”
    He sighed and scooped her out of the bed, sheet and all.
    Randr walked with her to a double door and with the flick of his hand, he opened the doors and stepped onto a balcony that overlooked something that took her breath away.
    Beyond the balcony, a wide panorama of land and mountain ranges extended, but what stunned her more than anything was the stellar expanse that made her feel like she could simply reach out and touch the stars.
    “There is no name for where we are. We are outside time and have no home on any world that has a name.” Randr looked down at her and the curve of his lips was serious.
    “So, I am lost in space?” A giggle started in her mind and spread until she stopped laughing with a gasp.
    “Not lost. We know exactly where you are. We had to remove you from your timeline and I am afraid that I cut it rather close.”
    She blinked. “Removed? From time? Am I still asleep?”
    His lips curved upward in amusement. “No. You are awake and alive. Both were in doubt just a few hours ago.”
    She touched her forehead and reached up to yank on her hair, a method that never failed to wake her from a peculiar dream. “Ow.”
    His mouth twisted in a wider smile. “That was unusual. Is it a species’ tradition?”
    She looked around her again at what appeared to be a chunk of land floating on its own in space. “This is real.”
    Randr turned and walked back inside with her. “It is real. And as soon as you are up for it, you will learn why you are here.”
    There was an undertone of threat to his voice, but she was too tired to take it to heart. She relaxed back into the crisp sheets of the medical bed and he slowly lowered her back to a prone position.
    “Sleep well. You will be feeling much better when you wake.”
    Aura could feel a smile curve her lips as she drifted off. The lightest touch of lips on her forehead sent her into dreams.
    * * * *
    Randr looked down at the small Terran and shook his head. They had used the power of three healers to pull her back from the edge of oblivion and her wound still had not healed properly.
    It was the curse of the Nameless that they died so easily before they underwent transformation, but they had gathered around the newest of their number to bring her into their midst.
    He had almost been too late. Seeing her staggering with the knife piercing her lung and internal organs had almost caused him to lose his concentration. The trip from her space and time to his had taken seconds, but it was seconds that she did not have.
    Randr caught a glimpse of a sleeve near the door and he walked out into the hall.
    “What is it, Tavik?”
    Tavik grimaced. “The council wants to meet the new arrival. When do you think she will be up and about?”
    Randr sighed. “As soon as I accelerate her wound. Give me an hour and remember that she hasn’t seen one of us before. A little concealment will probably go over very well.”
    Tavik blushed and drew up his hood to conceal the eyes that marked all of the Nameless. Dark orbs that held the swirling of stars within them were a little unusual for even the races of the Alliance. No matter what