7Rodu felt for a pulse and found it was faint. He ripped away the tattered remains of the boy’s shirt to search for injuries.
Sugar skidded to a stop and knelt down beside the boy too. She started searching his body as well. “Is he alive?”
Rodu nodded. “He breathes still, but that doesn’t mean he’s okay. From what Nyomi understands of the records, the merging process sometimes kills the host. Upon death, the blade allegedly goes back into hibernation.”
“Something is wrong. His trident only has two prongs,” Sugar said, pointing to his chest. “Mine has three.”
“As does mine,” Rodu observed. “That may be the problem.”
“What can we do?”
“I don’t know.”
Rodu positioned the youth so they both could look him over. They found a warped mass of gold protruding from the boy’s chest and his fin
