Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 84237 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 421(@200wpm)___ 337(@250wpm)___ 281(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84237 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 421(@200wpm)___ 337(@250wpm)___ 281(@300wpm)
“What has happened?”
There was no gentle way. “The Jaeggi in Germany have basically been wiped out.”
Lester’s head jerked back in surprise. “Was?!”
Sam winced. “Yeah.”
Everyone else spoke at once, demanding an explanation, and Lester switched immediately to German to fill them in. Sam waited this out, watching their expressions. They looked floored, certainly, but strangely not angry. More flabbergasted. Then again, they probably didn’t have any close ties to those Jaeggi anymore. They’d never even met them.
The woman that had sat with Lester fired off a question and Lester turned, translating it. “Why were they killed?”
“Honestly, they did something really stupid.” Sam winced and paused, wishing he didn’t have the responsibility of dropping this bomb on their heads. So far, they all seemed nice, and no one wanted to hear about the idiotic things their distant relatives had done. “They started kidnapping mages, and some of those mages were dragons’ mates. They picked a fight with the Burkhard Clan. Needless to say, they didn’t survive the outcome.”
Lester shook his head sadly. “Those fools. Siphoning off magic to use is a Band-Aid fix. It won’t help us in the long run. We told them that in our last correspondence. If they’d just helped us here, given us more resources and manpower, it would have been a better outcome.”
Right, so these guys clearly weren’t in alignment with the old family. Sam relaxed utterly. He had a feeling he wasn’t surrounded by enemies, but future friends. He just had to convince them of this.
“Not everyone was killed,” Sam added quickly, waving both of his hands at Lester. “Some defected, and they were taken in by the Sodalicium and Burkhard Clan. Or so I’m told. They’re working on fixing their cores there.”
“Oh?” Lester perked up again. “This is good news. Perhaps if we take what we have discovered here and join it with their knowledge, we might see real progress.”
“We can try reasoning with the dragons. They might be more willing to talk to Jaeggi like you, who are simply trying to heal yourselves. Um, speaking of, do you mind if I take a peek at what you’re reading?”
Lester quirked an eyebrow at him. “You speak Tupi?”
“I do. Fluent in it. Specifically, the dialect they once spoke here.”
Excited, Lester pulled him around the table and sat him in the chair he’d vacated. Sam dropped into it, picking up at the top of the page and reading it through. The writing was a bit faded with time, some of the characters were hard to make out, but he was able to do it well enough.
Aloud, he translated, “Record of patient Elissa, from Tanton Clan. Wounds from a magical spell that backfired, with significant damage to the core. Patient is eleven years old, burns cover one-third of her body. Applied salves this morning to stabilize her condition. I’m of the opinion we should heal her physically first before attempting any work upon her core.” Sam’s voice caught in his throat and he had to clear it twice before he was able to continue. This was it. This was proof. “My fellow healer wishes to do both in…er…he uses a word here that could mean sex or could mean in unison. I’m going with unison, considering the context.”
Sam sat back in his chair and shoved both of his hands up under his glasses to rub at his bleary, tear-filled eyes. He’d found it—proof that the Sousa knew how to fix the broken core of a mage. His throat was tight and raw with the sob of relief he was trying so damn hard to hold in. Years of searching, digging, hoping, running into dead ends and disbelievers, but it was all on the cusp of paying off at last.
They still had so much work to do, journals to translate and other artefacts to review, but there was a solid chance now that he could be whole at last. That he could perform magic like all the other mages. That he could be a mate worthy of a dragon, bonding them together for centuries.
And not just him, but all the Jaeggi who had damaged cores could have theirs fixed as well. The last of the curse created by Kaiser Jaeggi could finally fade into nothingness and the old wounds would be healed.
Lester clapped him hard on the shoulder, beaming from ear to ear. “You really can read it! Hold on, let me explain to the others.”
He did so and Sam could see the minute they fully realized what was going on. More than a few looked at Sam as if he’d suddenly sprouted wings and a halo. Which was flattering, all told. Also, worrisome. Had they been trying to tackle this research without even knowing the language first?
Granted, the breakthroughs on Tupi had been more recent—more in Sam’s generation. Remote as they were, as cut off from civilization and recent historical discoveries, maybe it was understandable.