Vesk's chest rose again, shallow but steady.
"He's still breathing," Corwin said, relief Clear in his voice. "Barely, but he's breathing."
Mira crawled over despite her own exhaustion, examining the wound with practiced hands. "The bleeding's slowing. That's good. It means the cut wasn't as deep as it looked."
"He needs proper care," Bellan said, still supporting Doran's weakened frame. "We all do, honestly, but he can't wait."
Gad looked around the basin, the wound in the earth now dim, its pale light reduced to a faint, steady glow that felt more like a resting heartbeat than the pulsing power it had carried moments before.
The cold had fully receded, the frost already beginning to melt under a sun that had somehow broken through the gray clouds overhead.
"It's actually over," Cor
