The Fire Lord's Lover Part 22

Then Dominic cursed and slammed down both his arms; a gray shimmer flashed before them, and the red fire snuffed out.

He gave a satisfied toss of his head and turned his mount.

"Where are we going?" asked Ca.s.s, blinking tears from her eyes, the smoke still shrouding the street.

The general frowned at her. "Back to the palace."

"But... but what of the people?"

"I have dispatched men to a.s.sist where they can, to quell any ensuing riots. The healers will see to the injured."

Ca.s.s prayed for patience. She must remember that he'd walled off his heart a long time ago, and even now he'd opened only a part of it to her. And she might be asking more of his power than he possessed. "But the city healers have but a whisper of the blue fire that you can call. Did the summoning of the gray flame exhaust you, then?"

"Of course not."

Ah, how she loved his arrogance. "Then we must do what we can. Even if we save only one life, it is worth the cost."

Without another word, the general turned his mount in the direction of the black wreckage, ordered his men to find and bring the injured to him. He dismounted near the edge of the burned street, sat upon an old planter as if it were a throne. Within moments, his men started bringing him the injured. Ca.s.s stayed by his side, made sure he did indeed have the power to use the blue flame without draining himself completely. He became absorbed in the healing as his soldiers brought one after another person to him.

After barely an hour, Ca.s.s felt near tears. So much suffering... and all of it her fault. She had to do something, anything to atone for what she'd done.

"Dominic," she murmured. "I'm going to help the men find more survivors."

He looked at her with dazed eyes, his face composed despite the suffering he witnessed. Despite the magic he was expending. Ca.s.s held her breath. She had promised to tell him her intentions, but she could not stop from doing what her heart bade her to. She didn't know if he had understood that.

Dominic nodded and turned back to his task, and Ca.s.s could breathe again. Her husband did indeed accept that she wouldn't be a normal wife. He would not deny her freedom in fear for her safety. With the exception of her challenging Mor'ded, he seemed to think she could take care of herself. Or at least, that's what his agreement proved to her.

Lady Ca.s.sandra leaned over and kissed her husband's cheek, much to the astonishment of several of his men, and then leaped onto her stallion's back.

And quickly joined the general's troops in the hunt for more survivors.

The buildings along the fire's path had suffered from the strength of the blaze, parts of them collapsing, especially the older structures. Her stallion picked his way through the rubble, suddenly perking up his ears in the direction of an old workhouse. It took a few moments for Ca.s.s to hear the cries as well.

She dismounted and gingerly made her way through the fallen stone and mortar, entered the collapsed building by ducking under fallen beams. "Where are you?" she shouted.

A faint response came from the left. Ca.s.s crawled through the wreckage, heading toward the sound, hoping that the way ahead wasn't completely blocked. She coughed again and again from the smoke and black dust, and the half-buried people continued to call out hopefully toward that sound.

Ca.s.s was brought up short by a tower of rubble with no way around it. For a moment she could hear nothing but the pounding of her heart. She focused on that rhythm, using it to build a dance. But she hadn't been taught one that could make her scale small mountains.

So she would have to improvise. She took the speed and power of a death dance, the strength of a love dance, and combined them into a new pattern that allowed her to spin and twist her way up the wreckage, through the small crevice that brought her face-to-face with four small children.

Their faces were so layered with soot that the whites of their eyes stood out in startling contrast.

"b.u.g.g.e.r me, it's a lady."

Ca.s.sandra smiled at the boy. "Indeed, but I shall need the help of a man to get us all out. May I depend upon it?"

Green eyes widened, and he quickly nodded.

"What's your name, sir?"

"Henry, at yer service, me lady." He pointed at the ground beside him, explaining why he hadn't already rescued the others by himself. "This one here's too heavy ta carry, and I couldna jest leave her."

She glanced down in surprise at a black, unmoving bundle. Without the whites of her eyes, Ca.s.s hadn't seen her. She picked up the child, who despite her size, didn't weigh as much as she should.

"Now then, Henry. Please take the hands of the other children and lead them after me. It will be easier going down than up, but we must take care not to jostle anything and to go as quickly as we can." She stepped out of the dark crevice, squinting at the comparative brightness of day shrouded by black smoke. "Step where I step, do you understand?"

All the children nodded warily. Ca.s.s descended the mountain of rubble, the dance still thrumming through her blood, and managed only one misstep. The blackened beam gave way beneath her and she slid, holding the girl up as high as she could, praying they wouldn't slide all the way to the bottom. But another beam brought them up short; the pile shivered in response for a moment, then settled again.

"That was a close one, Henry," she called behind her.

"We'll be more careful, me lady."

And indeed, they were. Without further mishap they reached the bottom, snaked their way through the rest of the collapsed building. To Ca.s.sandra's relief, the stallion stood waiting for them, nickering at the sight of her. She had feared he might be stolen while she was inside, but apparently no thief dared to approach the devil of a horse.

The rest of the children followed the horse, giving him a wide berth, while Ca.s.s carried the unconscious girl with her in the saddle. When she returned to where she'd left Dominic, her brown eyes widened with surprise. Tents had been erected in the bare area, pallets beneath them, and now several healers, distinguishable by their blue robes, mingled alongside the general's men.

Ca.s.s awkwardly dismounted, the girl now heavier than she had been at first, and approached the largest tent. Word had spread quickly for a line of people awaited the healing blue fire of her husband's magic.

A stout woman with a blackened ap.r.o.n and a motherly smile herded the rest of the children over to a steaming pot above an open fire, although Henry refused to be ambushed and stuck by Ca.s.sandra's side, his eyes fixed on the girl within her arms.

A healer with a soldier escorting him appeared at her side, lifted the eyelids of the girl. "You should take her to the general's tent." He nodded his head at the line. "This isn't something my powers can heal."

Henry rubbed stubbornly at his eyes.

"She will be fine," Ca.s.s a.s.sured him, glancing down at the boy.

The soldier standing next to the healer gasped. "Lady Ca.s.sandra?"

He looked so astonished that she felt sure she must look a sight. "Yes?"

"Please follow me." The soldier gently but firmly grasped her arm, as if afraid she would disappear, and tugged her toward the large tent. The healer stared after them with an open mouth. The soldier took the girl from her arms and then nodded for her to enter first, and Ca.s.s sighed, knowing she deserved whatever scolding Dominic would give her. But she hadn't realized she'd been gone so long-it felt but a few moments since she'd heard those first cries.

But he gave her only one long look and turned his attention to the soldier. "Put her on the table."

"Aye, sir."

Dominic held his hands over the child while Henry shuffled from one foot to another, his green eyes widening as the general's hands began to glow. Blue fire bathed the girl, and Ca.s.s watched in admiration as the child's eyes blinked slowly open.

Dominic collapsed onto a stool. "Take her back outside to the other healer. She needs a splint on her right leg that time will heal. I must conserve my magic."

"Aye, sir."

"You." And he focused his eyes on Ca.s.s. "Take the boy to get some food. Then return to me. I have need of you here."

He would not berate her, then. Just remind her of her duty to her husband. He looked tired beyond endurance. "Have you eaten?"

He frowned. "I can't remember."

"Faith, it is past noon." She spun around, almost barging into the soldier, who stared at her with widened eyes. "Why are you still standing here? You heard the general. Come along, Henry." And she s.n.a.t.c.hed up the boy's hand, dragging him in her wake.

Whispers followed her as she made her way through the makeshift camp but she paid them nary a mind. Her husband needed her. She took him a bowl of soup and loaf of bread, watched until he'd eaten it all. "Do you feel better?"

"Yes. Send in the next one."

And that was how it went for the rest of the day, Dominic healing with blue fire while Ca.s.s fed him when his strength seemed to falter, until dusk shadowed the corners of their tent.

"Enough," she finally announced, sending the few remaining injured to the other healers. "You cannot do more without risking harm to yourself."

"You are one to talk."

Ca.s.s frowned, hands on hips. "Dominic, you look dreadful."

"Look in a mirror, my dear. I wager I look better than you."

"I took a tumble; that's all."

"Your face is black with soot."

Ca.s.sandra's hands flew up to her cheeks, but since her gloves had already been blackened beyond repair, she could not wipe her face clean. She glanced down at her torn gown and grimaced, knowing the back of her skirts looked far worse from her slide down the rubble. But saving those children had been worth it. It had helped her with the guilt she felt at causing this entire fiasco. If she had just spoken with Dominic first, he wouldn't have challenged his father. And Mor'ded wouldn't have lost his temper and flamed a ribbon of black through London.

"I suppose I do look a sight. But I saved five children, Dominic. Although I should say four, since you are responsible for the recovery of the girl."

He raised one silver brow.

"It is worth a bit of soot, don't you think?"

He moved so quickly with that elven speed and grace of his that Ca.s.sandra barely blinked before she found herself in his arms.

Shadows flickered across his face, highlighting his high cheekbones, his square jaw. "You have taught me to care for others again. That is worth more to me than a bedraggled wife."

Before she could take mock offense at his description of her appearance, he swept his lips down on hers, making her stomach flip, causing her to rise to her toes. Ca.s.s clutched his shoulders and he gathered her closer, his hands exploring every inch of her torn dress.

When he pulled his mouth from hers, some of her soot had transferred onto his pale skin. "It doesn't matter what you're wearing, my dear. You always look beautiful to me."

Heavens, would she ever get used to such romantic remarks from her once rigidly composed husband?

"But I suppose you want to be clean, anyway. It will probably take me all night to scrub the soot off you, so we'd best be on our way."

Ca.s.s felt her cheeks heat, imagining such a thing, but she couldn't stop the eager nod at his words.

Dominic led her from the tent and they both stopped in astonishment as the crowd in the makeshift camp suddenly broke out in cheers. Although her husband didn't betray a hint of it on his handsome face, Ca.s.s knew he must be feeling just as confused as she by the outburst.

But as they walked through the crowd toward their mounts, it became clear.

"Thank you, my lord," said the old man who'd witnessed Dominic's squelching the blaze.

Dominic did not have the chance to object to the honorific when the boy next to him echoed the same words.

The children Ca.s.s had rescued brought her a ragged bouquet of flowers, and although she suspected they'd s.n.a.t.c.hed them from someone's garden, she took them and buried her nose in the blossoms-for the first time that day smelling something other than smoke.

Henry led the children away, but not before he gave Ca.s.s and Dominic a bow worthy of the most elegant courtier.

It took them some few minutes to reach their horses as they made their way through a throng of healed people eager to praise them with kind words, and in Lady Ca.s.sandra's case, reach out just to touch her.

But finally Dominic swung her up in the saddle, his face shadowed with concern, but his lip twitching into an almost smile. "You have made the people love you."

"You are the one who healed them."

He swung onto his horse in one smooth movement. "At your bidding."

"You are not the kind of man to be forced to do anything you don't want to."

A few of his men surrounded them so he did not reply, but as they rode back to the palace, she felt his eyes upon her again and again.

Fifteen.

As it had been that morning, the palace corridors and salons lay quiet and empty, so Lady Ca.s.sandra had no witnesses to her disreputable state. She winced to imagine the scathing gossip she would have supplied for the court.

Especially after Gwendolyn opened their apartment doors and saw her mistress. "My lady!" she gasped. "Ye look... famous!"

"I've always known you were a hoyden at heart," teased Ca.s.s, "despite your flamboyant taste in dress."

Gwen glanced up at the general and lowered her voice. "Ah well, I don't care for them black dresses of yers, so one less is no loss. I heard ye went into the city to help with the fire and I have warm water waiting for ye and-"

"She will not require your a.s.sistance tonight," interrupted Dominic.

"But, sir, it will take a good scrubbing to remove... Oh." Gwen turned a beet red and fled to her room.

"She is more intelligent than her years, Dominic."

He started to undo the b.u.t.tons on the back of her bodice. "I told you it was a bad idea to hire servants."

Ca.s.s led him into the bedroom by the simple expedience of his nimble fingers, because he would not cease in popping out her b.u.t.tons. She closed the door behind them and locked it for good measure.

Her bodice fell to the floor, followed even faster by her skirt, which had been held up only by her girdle, which somehow her husband had managed to remove without her even noticing. Before he could start on the ties of her stays, Ca.s.s stepped over to the bath, which looked half-full. "We cannot submerse ourselves. We have so much soot that we will be sitting in black soup."

"We?"

Ca.s.s lifted her chin. "Despite your elven propensity for avoiding dirt, you're rather smudged yourself."

His eyes glittered and he started to remove his soiled garments. "Then, indeed, we shall wash each other."