Frost Prisms (The Broken Prism Book 5) (34 page)

The Dark Prism stopped in place and whirled around, grabbing Hayden’s arm so tightly that he cried out and sank to his knees in the grass. The madness danced behind his father’s eyes as he asked, in cold fury, “Who told you about the light curtain?”

Struggling against the pain to free his arm, Hayden gasped out, “You did, sir!”

His father didn’t release him, nor did he appear to believe him.

“Do not lie to me, boy.” He moved behind him without loosening his grip on Hayden’s arm, and Hayden didn’t know what was coming until it was too late, and his father had wrenched his arm backwards so hard that he felt his shoulder dislocate and screamed in pain.

“Who have you been communicating with about the defenses around this estate?” he asked again, still in that deadly tone.

“No one!” Hayden lied, blinking through tears of pain, still twisted around awkwardly on his knees in the grass.

“You will tell me all you know before this is over. They always do,” his father informed him with chilling certainty, releasing his injured arm and grabbing the other one in his vice-like grip, bending it slightly backwards at the elbow as a threat of what was to come.

Don’t tell him anything,
Hayden closed his eyes and braced for more pain.
No matter what happens, I won’t give him any information about my friends and allies.

“Who are you and how did you breach the defenses around my estate?” his father continued quietly, transferring some of his weight to the arm holding Hayden’s so that he could feel the pain build in his elbow from being bent backwards.

He’s so far gone that he doesn’t even remember who I am?

“I’m Hayden!” Hayden answered immediately. “I didn’t break into anywhere and I don’t know anything; you brought me here and I wish you’d let me leave.”

A dark shadow blinked between him and the sun, but Hayden’s eyes were still closed in anticipation of pain so he didn’t see what it was until he heard Bonk screech. He opened his eyes and blinked rapidly to clear them of tears since he couldn’t raise his hands to wipe at them, and saw that both Bonk and Cinder had joined them on the lawn.

Cinder perched on his master’s shoulder and began making a strange, guttural noise that must have been some attempt at communication, while Bonk hovered in front of the Dark Prism’s face and began buffeting his wings furiously.

Being whipped in the face by dragon wings was no small thing, and it forced Hayden’s father to release him and step backwards, which was probably Bonk’s plan all along.

Using his good arm to cradle his bad one, Hayden scrambled to his feet and staggered well out of reach, walking backwards to avoid turning his back on an enemy. Cinder was still making those strange noises, and his father had his head inclined to one side as though listening intently, while his gaze remained fixed on Hayden like a predator evaluating his prey before attacking.

Bonk remained in front of the Dark Prism long enough to shriek furiously a few times—Hayden wondered if dragons had their own curse words—and then returned to Hayden, graciously not perching on his dislocated shoulder. He seemed to be motioning Hayden back towards the house, and at this point Hayden was only too willing to comply.

He walked backwards a few more feet and then trusted that Cinder had things under control, turning his back and hurrying to the main entrance as fast as he could without jostling his arm too badly. Bonk flew low circles around him like a small planetoid, acting as his personal defensive barrier.

“Would have been great to see you about two minutes earlier,” Hayden grunted against the pain, entering the foyer and turning towards the servants’ quarters.

Bonk didn’t dignify that with a response, and Hayden eventually said, “Sorry, buddy. I know you got there as soon as you could—my arm just hurts really badly.”

His familiar stopped orbiting and preceded him into the smallest sitting room in the house, where several of the other captives were currently relaxing on stiff, uncomfortable-looking sofas that were nonetheless very expensive. They jumped to their feet at the sight of Hayden barging in with a dragonling.

“Can one of you shove my dislocated arm back into its socket?” he asked without preamble, still cradling it with his other hand.

“What happened?” two of them asked in unison, sounding shocked and curious. Hayden had no patience for it right now.

“What happened is I got my shoulder dislocated and now I’m trying to get it reset,” he retorted snappishly, and a door on the other end of the room opened as Hattie swept in.

“What’s all the noi—sir! What happened to you?” she asked, dropping the basket full of neatly-rolled washcloths she had been holding so that it spilled its contents all over the floor.

Feeling obscurely bad for her because she was going to have to reroll all those washcloths on his behalf, Hayden forced himself back to politeness and said, “Small disagreement with my father. I’m trying to find someone to help me set it properly before I lose the arm.” His fingers had been numb for almost five minutes now.

“Well of course,” Hattie stepped over the fallen basket and approached him, feeling gingerly around his shoulder. “I’m no doctor, but I’ve done some midwifery, and the doctor said I had a good demeanor, so I was starting to apprentice with her. I only did little things, mind, but I think I can fix this.”

Not the ringing endorsement I’d like to hear from someone who is about to try and shove my bones back together…

But it wasn’t like there were a lot of other options, so Hayden nodded and said, “I trust you.”

His faith seemed to galvanize her, because her cheeks flushed and she looked to one of the others and said, “Thom, help me get Mr. Frost settled on the couch where he can be more comfortable. Carlotta, fetch me some of those washcloths from the floor.”

Hayden allowed himself to be steered to the sofa, which was every bit as uncomfortable as he feared, though he kept his opinion to himself because the others were doing their best to be kind to him. Bonk perched on the arm of the sofa beside him and watched Hattie move about, his gaze flickering to Hayden at one point as though to say, “You see what this is, right?”

She doesn’t really like me,
Hayden assured himself, trying to communicate the message to Bonk with a flat-lipped glare.
She’s just pinned her hopes on me getting her out of this alive is all.

He had to tell himself that, because it would make things even harder if he had to start feeling awkward around the one person around here who would actually speak to him somewhat normally.

Hattie’s cheeks were still pink when she said, “Here now, open your mouth so I can put a few of these cloths in for you to bite on.”

Oh right, so I don’t bite my tongue off.
Hayden had been wondering what the washcloths were supposed to accomplish. Even in his mother’s care, they had always been able to afford basic medical supplies, and he had never been subjected to the more archaic healing practices.

Well, this should be a nice educational experience then…

He opened his mouth and tried not to feel like an idiot while she carefully stuffed cloths in there until he feared he would choke on them.

“Alright, now I’m sorry, sir, but this is going to hurt…” Hattie informed him needlessly, motioning for Thom to hold his torso in place while she grabbed his arm with both hands at the place his father had been gripping before, which hurt even worse.

Hayden groaned and bit down on the cloths in his mouth so hard that his ears popped, no wanting to cry in front of the people who were counting on him to be their savior.

It took her two attempts to reset his arm, which Hayden supposed was better than ten, but still felt like one try too many. He could feel the bones grind against each other the first time as Hattie missed the mark, and nearly broke his teeth biting down to keep from screaming. The second time he nearly passed out, the world wavering dangerously in front of him as patches of light exploded in his eyes. He must have swayed to one side, because Bonk was suddenly much closer than he had been before, and he didn’t remember resting his head on the armrest of the sofa.

Sensation immediately began to return to his arm once it was set in place, and Hattie was pulling the cloths from his mouth and using fresh ones with cool water on them to dab at the sweat on his forehead.

“Thanks,” he mumbled, pushing himself upright once more.

“Of course, sir. I’m only sorry I didn’t get it the first time,” Hattie looked furious with herself and Hayden felt compelled to try and cheer her up.

“It’s a lot better than I would have done if the situation was reversed, trust me,” he assured her. “I’m glad you were here to help—” he realized the implication and said, “—well, not that you were taken from your home, of course. Darn it, I’m making a mess of this.”

She was back to blushing, which Hayden pointedly ignored as he watched her and Thom bind his arm in tight linens to keep it near his body while it healed. He could already see bruises forming where his father’s fingers had grabbed him.

Well great, when it comes time to fight, I’ve got one prism, a dragon that can’t use magic, and a useless arm. My odds are just getting better and better…

“I know what you meant, sir, and I appreciate it.”

“I wish you all would just call me Hayden,” he sighed. “It feels very weird being called ‘sir’ by people who are older than me, especially since I didn’t hire you to work for me and we’re all technically captives here.”

“Hayden,” Hattie whispered softly, meeting his eyes.

Oh lords and ladies, I don’t need this right now.

He should find some way to cannily mention Tess and his unwavering devotion to her even though he would likely never see her again, but he didn’t have the energy to tackle that problem right now.

Tomorrow,
he assured himself.
I’ll deal with this tomorrow.

He stood up and looked at Bonk.

“Well, we’d better get going if we want to make it back out there before he’s finished with his summoning.”

“Sir?” Thom asked in surprise, apparently unable to bring himself to address Hayden by name.

“You’re not going back out there with
him,
are you?” Hattie asked in horror. “Not after what he did to you!”

“He snapped before I was able to get him to tell me why he’s summoning all these extra monsters to defend the place,” Hayden explained more calmly than he felt. “I need to know how many he’s got serving him now, and if he’s doing this because he knows something I don’t and is expecting someone to break through his other defenses, or if he’s just being paranoid because it suits him. If I need to be patched up again, I’ll have Bonk bring me back here.”

He gave them a confident smile he wasn’t feeling and added, “Really, I’ll be fine.” Then he hurried off with Bonk before Hattie could make him feel even worse about himself for taking advantage of her kindness.

It was the last thing he wanted to do, but he hadn’t been lying when he said he needed to know why his father was beefing up the defenses around the estate. Asher should have gotten his letter by now, and if he and the others had been able to do what Hayden couldn’t and find a way through the light barrier—the light curtain, as his father called it—then he needed to know as soon as possible to prepare himself.

“What do you think, Bonk? Are they coming to get us?” he asked as they left through the rear entrance, placing them directly into the backyard, where two more of the captive servants were busy tending to the freshly mown grass and trimming the shrubbery.

Bonk made a noncommittal noise like he honestly had no idea. It was disconcerting, remembering that his familiar had no access to his magic, and could no longer sense things like this. Then again, he had somehow managed to call out to Slasher, which should have required a magical connection, so there was something weird about that…

He saw his father rounding the corner towards the opposite side of the house from where he’d last seen him. Hayden walked purposefully after him with Bonk resting on his good shoulder and caught up to him when he stopped to summon the next round of monsters: a pair of cockatrices this time.

His father spared him a careless glance and asked, “What happened to your arm?” without real interest.

He’s already forgotten?
Hayden wondered in amazement, unhappily registering that Cinder was nowhere to be seen.

“Tripped on the stairs coming down this morning,” Hayden lied automatically, not wanting to draw him back into insanity. He gestured to the recently-subdued cockatrices. “I see you’re summoning monsters to boost the defenses around this place. Do you have a reason to believe that someone is going to make it through all the other barriers?”

His father banished the subdued cockatrices and resumed walking.

“I woke up this morning with an unsettling feeling and decided to act on it,” he explained flatly, not looking at Hayden.

“Really?” he asked in surprise. “All this effort just because of a weird feeling?”

His father rounded on him and for a moment Hayden was terrified that he was about to be attacked again, but his father looked perfectly sane and controlled as he said, “I always trust my instincts, even without knowing the reason for them.” Hayden’s heart was still hammering furiously as his father added, “I have never had occasion to regret following my intuition, and nothing but regret from failing to do so.”