Mate Healer (4 page)

"I'm going to escort his holiness inside then I'll take you to the medic hall," Shean said before shutting the door.

So much for his plan to see more of Dragait before starting work. Of course, what he did get to see so far surpassed any tourist sites or local watering holes. Nevair was a work of art all by himself.

It took all of three seconds before he became bored. Tapping at his communicator Lian zeroed into the emergency station. Every planet had a medic announcement line where they transmitted information for medics to be aware of. It only took Lian a few seconds to discover a problem already.

Chapter Two

"Emergency at the dragon grounds, trainer down. Healers respond to emergency at the dragon grounds."
The dispatcher's voice sounded panicked as he repeated the call over and over.

Damn. Not even planetside an hour and already there was an emergency. Lian held back the urge to help.

No.

There were other healers, he didn't need to assist. Butting in his first day on the planet wouldn't win him any friendship points with the other medics. After all they did fine without him for years. No reason to think he needed to rush in now.

Except no one replied. Not one medic responded to the call. Lian waited for a comment, a return response but nothing. As he stared at his communicator the emergency call sounded again.

Crap!

He heard Shean enter the driver's side door. Lian knocked on the divider.

Shean lowered the screen. "To the medic center, sir?"

"I need to get to the dragon grounds. They said a trainer is down but no one's responding."

Shean cursed. "The dragon grounds are in a different kingdom than the medics so the head healer, Mevan Bourne, always claims they can't help out even though there's a treaty between them. A medic was killed there last year and he uses that as an excuse not to send any help.

"Damn politics." More than one planet let its people suffer while their rulers bickered. "Can you get me there?"

His throat went dry at the thought of some poor kid torn apart by a dragon and the healers sitting back and doing nothing.

What kind of idiot came to work on a dragon planet if he didn't like dragons? "Take me to the dragon fields."

"Are you sure?" Shean's expression implied Lian had more than one screw loose.

"Yes." His stomach swirled with nerves but he couldn't let anyone die due to inactivity. He'd taken an oath to take care of people to the best of his ability. He wouldn't back down now.

"As you wish, sir." Shean gave Lian an approving smile before firing up the thrusters and taking off.

Lian grabbed the door handle as the vehicle whipped around and headed for the opposite direction. He hoped he didn't get Shean in trouble.

* * * *

A dragon scream pierced the air as the hoverlimo pulled up to a barren stretch of land. The sign post read
Dragon Training Grounds
but it looked more like a fenced off piece of desert.

The back door popped open.

"This way." Shean grabbed Lian's wrist and pulled him out of the vehicle.

He barely grabbed his bag in time before he found himself dragged toward the sound of dragons.

Dozens of the reptiles squatted on ground as far as Lian could see. Entranced, Lian stared at the variety of colors. Gold, silver and all the shades of the rainbows decorated the landscape like jewels in the raw. Something inside Lian shifted at the beauty of the beasts.

He might be studying dragonkin, but he'd never seen any of the animals in person. He wondered how many were dragons and how many were dragonkin.

"Good luck, call me when you need a ride," Shean shoved a card into Lian's hand before running back across the sands. Apparently the driver didn't want to stick around either.

Lian probably would've continued to stand there and watch the dragons if another blood-curdling scream didn't carry across the sands.

Medic instincts took over. Lian shook himself from his strange spell. Following the sounds of the yelling, Lian ran like lightning toward the noise, skidding to a halt when he stumbled across the source of the sound. A man writhed on the ground. Hovering over him loomed an enormous beast.

"Damn, he's fucking huge," Lian whispered.

The dragon's deep red scales shone malevolently in the bright sunlight, it, hissed and snapped at the screaming victim.

Surrounding man and monster were a group of soldiers wearing black armor along with faceplates to protect against fire, and carrying long swords. It was clear from their positioning that they were trying to get the dragon to move away so they could rescue the man on the ground. The dragon whipped its serpentine neck back and forth, growling its discontent. Small wisps of smoke wafted from its nose. Lian had no doubts flames would soon be swept across the group.

Anger surged through Lian, burning away any fear he might have of the enormous creature.

"Step back. Get the fuck away," Lian screamed, waving his hands.

The dragon looked away from the injured man, its yellow eyes latching onto Lian. Something pressed against his mind and he heard the beast speaking in his head.

The human stabbed me.
Words whispered, dragging out like a sibilant hiss.

"Well you beat the crap out of him. Consider yourself even." Lian yelled back. He didn't know how to talk mentally to the creature so he didn't even try.

He must pay.
With a wave of his tail, the dragon smacked half of the ring of knights away. It gave a toothy grin as the men tumbled like toys.

"He's paid enough," Lian replied evenly.

The dragon swung closer, its head lowering to examine Lian.

As the beast approached, Lian spotted a sword embedded in its scaly flesh. "Hold still and I'll remove the sword and heal your wound." Surely that would put the dragon in a better mood.

You may help me,
it whispered graciously.

"Gee thanks," Lian muttered.

He didn't bother trying to talk to the dragon again as he concentrated on pulling the sword out with the least amount of damage.

Ouch.

The large animal jerked almost knocking Lian over. Catching himself, Lian placed a hand on the dragon's hide and focused, pushing healing power into the enormous creature. Small white flames flickered beneath Lian's palms as the gash sealed flawlessly in seconds. The dragon hissed for a moment before filling the air with a rich, rumbling purr. With a deep breath, Lian pulled back his powers and sighed as the energy sank into his body.

Friend.

A forked tongue slid across Lian's cheek in a sandpapery kiss. Lian laughed, more than a little relieved his magic hadn't harmed the creature. He'd never healed a dragon before.

The dragon slid away before taking flight. No one moved to intercept the beast and Lian hoped it wouldn't cause any more havoc.

Lian walked to the man on the ground. Sweat plastered the man's red hair to his face and his labored breathing didn't reassure Lian. Crouching down, Lian pulled away his patient's shirt to check out the injury.

"I've never seen anyone heal like that before," the injured man said, gasping between words.

Lian shrugged, not bothering to look up from his examination. "I'm a touch healer. Would you like for me to heal you?" The wound, wide and bloody, should be sealed immediately before the man lost too much blood.

"Yes please. He took a good chunk out of me," the soldier replied.

"Yep, he definitely didn't like being stabbed." Lian didn't know why they were poking at the dragon with swords and at that moment he didn't particularly care either. "Stay still," he ordered.

The soldier froze, instinctively obeying the tone of command.

Lian placed his hands on the wounds. "Take a long, slow breath."

The soldier breathed in. Sparks flew from Lian's hands. The flames grew white, then red, than green. Even with extensive testing Lian had never figured out why his healing fires sometimes changed colors and other times stayed the same.

Closing his eyes, Lian mentally knitted the man's skin together and sealed his wounds. Once he knew all the gaps were gone he began the process of returning his magic back under his skin. Lian always thought of his ability like a beast he loosed and had to slowly pull back into his control.

When he'd removed all the excess energy from the soldier, Lian lifted his hands. Gasps sounded around him. Lian opened his eyes to find he'd collected an audience.

"You should be fine now." Lian looked up from his work to see his patient watching him with wide eyes.

A slow smile spread across the man's face. "I don't think I have ever felt this well in my entire life. I'm Jevies." The soldier stood up and shook Lian's hand. "Thank you."

"I've never seen the likes of you, healer." A deep voice spoke over his shoulder.

Lian turned to face a dark-haired man who, though shorter than the redhead, was much larger than Lian.

"I'm Maurek, the dragon master. This was Jevies first training and things got a little out of control."

Manners instilled in him since birth, had him offering his hand. "Dr Lian Blythorpe, at your service. What exactly were you training him to do?"

"To tame and eventually ride a dragon," Maurek said.

Lian laughed. "That dragon doesn't want to be ridden. I barely could get him to resist the urge to attack."

Maurek tilted his head. "I heard you talking to him. Did he talk back?"

"Mentally. I'm sure as the trainer you're used to that."

Maurek patted his shoulder with one meaty hand. "I hate to tell you this, Doc, but most people can't understand dragons. You've got to have some dragon shifter blood in you."

Lian laughed. "No. I've studied them a lot, but I don't have any dragon blood in me."

Maurek's look turned speculative as he examined Lian. "It's said among dragonkin that those who can talk to dragons are doubly blessed by the goddess. Are you here for the mate hunt? I'd be happy to put in a good word for your application."

Lian shook his head. "No. I've come to help do some research on the dragonkin, with a particular focus on the fertility issues." He didn't mention he wasn't exactly welcome. The memo he'd received from the medic center sounded as if they would barely tolerate him for the sake of the requesting royalty. Bourne sounded, from all accounts, like an insufferable ass.

"What do I owe you for the healing?" Jevies asked, pulling Lian's attention back to him.

"Whatever it is I will pay," Maurek announced. "My man, my responsibility."

"No paying." Lian held up his hands palms out.

He had more money than the average planet. His parents had left him well off when they died.

"It's part of my job. Consider this a courtesy visit. I'm not even officially on the job, yet. I just heard about the problem on the scanner and thought I could help. But if you could keep this mostly to yourself I'd appreciate it. I kind of want to keep a low profile." From what Shean told him Bourne wouldn't appreciate Lian helping out the dragon master whether for the dragons or the men.

"I'd love to show you around town later. It's the least I can do," Jevies said with a flirtatious smile.

Lian had seen this before. Men often fell for their doctors after a healing.

"Thank you. I'll keep your offer in mind," he agreed without committing himself.

He didn't need some baby knight crushing on him. Lian's mind went back to a particularly sexy dark-haired man who kissed like a sex god and wondered what Nevair did alone at night in his bed. Damn, if he didn't want to be there to see it.

"May I take a moment of your time, healer?" Maurek asked.

"Certainly. They aren't expecting me at the medic center for a few more hours." He'd caught an earlier flight than planned.

Curious as to what a dragon trainer would want with him, Lian followed the man across a long expanse of sands to a small stucco building. As the cool air hit him, Lian let out a relieved sigh.

"Sorry, I'm not used to the heat yet."

Maurek gave him an understanding smile. "Some people never get used to it."

"I hope I'm not one of them." He'd hate to let the heat get to him for the entire three months he planned to be there.

Questions fled when Maurek opened the door and took Lian inside the small building. In the far corner, Lian spotted a man lying on a cot. Wrapped in bandages blotched with red, the injured figure didn't move. Lian could smell the taint of infection from where he stood.

"By the goddess!" he rounded on Maurek. "Why didn't you take him to a healer?"

The dragon trainer snorted. "And put him in the hands of those butchers. They can't be trusted to heal the dragonkin. Bourne fears dragons and doesn't want to deal with our kind since the dragons killed the last healer."

Lian scowled. "You're the second person to say that. Why would a man who hates dragons work on a dragon planet? Not only that, but why would the king tolerate it?"

Maurek shrugged. "How can you understand the royalty? I've heard Bourne has important political ties and his majesty cannot yank Bourne from his position without serious repercussions."

Lian sneered. "I don't care about the problems of kings. People need care, not political rhetoric." Lian would go against a planetful of rulers, if it would save one life. He silently wondered if the kings' persistence in contacting his bosses had more to do with replacing their current head healer than anything else.

Kneeling by the cot, Lian used his inner sight to assess the wounds. Infection raged through the man's veins and from the smell had set in a while ago.

"Hi there, I'm Dr Blythorpe." Lian smiled at the suffering man, pushing a bit of pain relief magic into the damaged body.

He'd have to heal him in stages so Lian's power didn't run out. After healing both the dragon and Jevies, Lian's energy levels had dimmed a little.

"His name is Canin," Maurek offered when the injured man didn't speak.

"Hi, Canin. I'm a touch healer. It might hurt a bit but I'm going to make your wounds disappear. Nod if you agree to allow my healing." Lian hated to heal someone without his or her approval but in this case he'd make an exception.

The man wouldn't survive without immediate intervention.

The nod when it came, slow yet steady, spurred Lian into action. Placing his hands lightly on Canin's stomach Lian closed his eyes. He always found it easier if he could block out the world and focus on the one he needed to heal. With his magic, Lian visualized Canin and sank his healing powers into the other man. The smell of rot faded away, replaced by the scent of fresh blood. The wounds needed to be free of infection before healing could begin. He didn't want to trap diseased flesh inside healthy tissue, it could cause complications.