Caillen rubbed Darling’s shoulder above where Hauk had touched him. “We searched everywhere for you, for months and months. I give those bastards credit, they were slippery. But for Maris, I’m not sure we’d have ever found you.”

Another thing he owed Mari.

“He’s up?” Syn asked as he entered the room. Unlike Caillen, Syn’s footsteps were as silent as Hauk’s and Nykyrian’s, something extremely impressive given their heights and Hauk’s mountainous build.

Darling felt Caillen and Hauk step back as Maris released his hand so that Syn could examine him.

“If you can hear me and understand what I’m saying, Darling, tap my hand one time with your thumb.” Syn slid his hand under Darling’s.

Darling tapped him once.

“Good, man. Now if you want me to update you on your condition, tap again.”

Darling did, even though he could tell by the catch in Syn’s voice, and the fact that he couldn’t move at all or see anything, that it was bad.

Real bad.

“All right. I had to do surgery on your mouth and esophagus. And you’re still on a ventilator, which is one of several reasons why you can’t speak. Everything has been repaired, but it’ll need a few more weeks before you can use your voice again. Whatever you do, don’t try to speak until I give you clearance for it.”

Darling tapped Syn’s hand to let him know that he understood. The last thing he wanted to do was prolong his healing.

Syn kept speaking. “I have your eyes bandaged because you had severe hyphemas and orbital blowout fractures.”

Like he knew what those were. Damn, Syn. I’m not a doctor. And while blind, he couldn’t look up a definition.

“They’re from…” Syn paused for a second and when he spoke again, there was no missing the bitter rage in his voice. “Being kicked and punched repeatedly in the face and head. Because of that, I had to reconstruct your nose, both cheekbones, and part of your jaw. We also implanted teeth that had been knocked out or damaged beyond repair. You’ll have lifelong problems with your sinuses because of the reconstruction, and you’ll be susceptible to nosebleeds and infections, but we’ll deal with those when they happen.”

Darling flinched as those words reminded him of the blows he’d taken from his former allies, and the blood that had poured out of his nose, mouth, and eyes from their attacks.

He couldn’t even think about the rest of the damage they’d done. Not without wanting to scream.

“Both eyes are healing fine and I should be able to take the bandage off your right eye tomorrow. The left one will take a little longer to heal. I’m not sure how badly your vision will be compromised from the injuries, but with any luck, you won’t be blind. You should have most of your vision in both eyes.”

Most? Darling clenched his teeth in anger.

“Hopefully all of it. We won’t know for sure though until about a week after both bandages are off. I called in an old friend of mine who’s a specialist to do the last surgery on your eyes, and he said you had a better than a forty percent chance of a full recovery.”