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Kyrie's muscles were so tight when Lin put her hand on her arm that she didn't even flinch and hardly seemed even to notice the touch; but after a moment she breathed out a soft, "No ..."

Ahkshi was so focused on the patient that he hadn't noticed his wife's reaction. "Kyrie, I need you here," he said urgently, his eyes on his work.

Instead of moving forward to help, Kyrie took a half-step backwards. "No," she said, a bit louder this time. "No ... don't touch him ... let him die ..."

At her words, everyone else in the room turned to look at her, startled and shocked. Earendil, Daeron and Wren simply couldn't believe that Kyrie could have done such an about-face in a matter of seconds, though it was clear to all of them that she must recognize this man.

Ahkshi didn't seem to understand much better, and he stepped towards his wife. "Kyrie, I can't do that," he said calmly. "We need to help him."

His contradiction brought the colour back to Kyrie's face, and a fire filled her eyes. "No," she said, furious now. "No! Let him die!"

Suddenly the tattoo that wound around her torso began to twist and ripple, and she put her hands to her belly as if trying to keep Uruloki from emerging.

Ahkshi's brow furrowed anxiously, and he put his arms around his wife and held her close.

"Lin is right," he murmured. "I can't let him die. I'm a physician, and I have sworn an oath to help all who come to me, no matter who they are."

Kyrie didn't react to her husband's embrace, but rather seemed to shrink away from him. "I haven't," she said coldly. "The last time I left him it was with my arrows in his skull and his child in my womb. I will kill him again."

She tried to push her husband aside, but even in her fury she couldn't bring herself to use force against him. Ahkshi, for his part, simply refused to let her go, holding her stubbornly until, only a moment later, Kyrie burst into tears and clung to him tightly.

Kyrie was holding onto her husband as if for dear life. "I can," she sobbed. "Without a shadow of conscience, I can."

"But I can't," Ahkshi said again firmly. He looked around at the others. "Can someone take her to wait with Iorlas?" he requested quietly. "I will need more help in here, but ..."

Kyrie wouldn't be any help. He didn't have to say it. It was abundantly clear.

"I'll take her," Daeron offered quietly.

It took some effort, but Ahkshi managed to pry Kyrie off of him and Daeron ushered her out of the room. Ahkshi watched them both go, and then he turned back to the others. "Come on," he said grimly, pushing back his sleeves. "We've lost precious time."

It turned out that the man was pretty badly mauled by something razor sharp, and for a while the main focus of Wren, Lin and Earendil was simply to help staunch the bleeding while Ahkshi sewed up the man's insides; then he had to stitch the man's skin together. While he worked on that, he asked Earendil to collect the man's weapons and hide them away in one of the other rooms, Wren to collect the bloody clothes and linens, and Lin to go check on Kyrie.

When Lin arrived in the other room, Daeron and Iorlas were chatting with Dannon and Daelle, with Amir sitting in the middle of all of them, and Kyrie was sitting in a chair away from them all, staring at nothing. She had a hatchling-sized Uruloki in her arms, and she was hugging him like a child would a teddy bear, but aside from that she didn't seem to be registering much of anything.

Daeron glanced up when he saw Lin enter the room, and he rose to join her.

"She hasn't said a word since I brought her here," he told Lin quietly. "I don't know what that man did to her, but whatever it was, it must have been bad."

Daeron sat on the other side of Kyrie, wishing he knew what he could do to offer her some support. Unfortunately, without details, he really couldn't say much.

"That man should not be allowed to live," Kyrie whispered suddenly, though her gaze didn't change. "And if he must, he should not be allowed near any people."

Daeron sighed softly. "But Lin was right when she said he might not even remember his past life," he pointed out quietly. "He may no longer be the person he was. And if he isn't, and you do something to him, then you are the only one guilty of a crime."

Kyrie's jaw clenched. "You can't say that. You don't know what he is."

"And neither do you," Daeron replied softly. "You only really know what he was. And you destroyed that person. No one knows what he is now."

Kyrie swallowed hard. "It doesn't matter, he doesn't need them, not really," she said quietly.

Daeron put one hand on Kyrie's shoulder and gave it a light squeeze. "Don't judge him until he's awake, at least," he murmured. "Give him a chance."

"If you want, Kyrie," Uruloki spoke up suddenly, looking up at his mistress, "I will watch over him. I am the only one that he truly cannot hurt."

At last, Kyrie's eyes focused, and she looked at the small dragon in her arms. She looked torn, and she was: torn between keeping Uruloki with her, the one who had for so long been her best protector and guardian, and having him guard over the mysterious traveler who had appeared so suddenly on her doorstep.