Episode 175 What Did You Say?
What Did You Say?
Tharios watches as Rafelis gently examines the young girl’s arm. Her mother stands on the other side of the bed, attempting to keep her elfling calm.
“It’s a simple fracture,” Rafelis says. “A clean break. We’ll have you fixed up in no time.”
Tharios lowers himself to the girl’s eye level. “My sister broke her arm when she was just a little older than you are.”
“Princess Elowyn?” Tears stain the girl’s face, but her wailing has tapered off. Rafelis must have managed her pain well. He usually does.
“Yes, Princess Elowyn. And do you know who healed her? Second Rafelis. He’s great at mending broken bones. I doubt you’ll even feel it.”
“Really?” A hiccup fills her.
“Really. Would you like to hear about the day Princess Elowyn fell off Windhaven’s roof?”
The girl’s eyes grow large. “She was on the roof?”
“She was. And it was a very dangerous thing for her to be doing. She doesn’t climb on roofs anymore.
But that day, she heard a mewling coming from the roof over her bedroom window, and she decided to investigate.
A mother cat had climbed up there and made a cozy bed amid the branches to birth her kittens. ”
“Kittens? Did the princess rescue them?”
“She did. One at a time, she placed them in the pocket of her tunic and climbed down. There were four of them. And when she climbed back up to make sure she hadn’t missed any, she lost her footing and fell.”
“Was she all right?”
“She was. She got lucky because Second Rafelis had business at Windhaven, and just as he was about to enter the door, he heard her cry out.”
“And he saved her?”
“He did,” Tharios says with a smile. “He fixed her right up. She was sore for a day or two, but then she was back to her adventures. So you can trust Second Rafelis to make it better, all right?”
The girl nods solemnly, and her mother offers Tharios a grateful smile.
“Do you know what the best part is?” Rafelis asks as he straightens. “I’m all done.”
“But I didn’t even feel it.” The girl looks down at her arm as Tharios quickly checks the break and repair as he’s required to do for any healer’s assistant he works with as the healer of record.
Rafelis always gets it right, though, and this time is no exception.
“Give it a few days, and you won’t even be able to tell it was broken.
” Tharios turns to the girl’s mother and hands her a small vial.
“She may have some pain tonight, so I want you to put this into a cup of chamomile tea for her before bed and make sure she takes it easy tomorrow so the bone can finish mending.”
“Thank you, my prince.”
“And as for you,” Rafelis says to their patient as he smiles down at her, “your plant magic isn’t strong enough yet to trust to lift you that high off the ground, so no more flying until your full magic manifests in another five years or so. Understood?”
She nods sheepishly. “I was pretending to be Queen Nestraya.”
“Do you wish to know a secret?” Tharios whispers. “Queen Nestraya broke her own arm falling from a tree at your age. Broken arms seem to run in my family. So give it time, and you’ll get there when you’re older with your full magic, all right?”
She nods, and her mother thanks them again before leading her daughter from the room.
Once they’re gone, Viala rejoins Tharios. “She looks happier than she did when she arrived. Are you ready for some lunch, my love?”
Lunch? Tharios looks at the clock. How did it grow so late? He always loses track of the time when he’s seeing patients.
He feels good, though. Viala was right about coming here this morning.
“We still need to find out whether anyone knows who might have healed Fenoral,” Rafelis says.
Tharios nods. “We should speak to Healer Cadowyn. I need to file my notes from the last two patients, anyway. Then we can see about lunch while we decide what to do next.”
“I was the ranking healer on duty that night, my prince,” Healer Cadowyn says as he gazes out of his office window overlooking Darlei and the Waters of Pendarra below. Then he turns. “But as you know, I was sent for by Third Taliel to see to Princess Elowyn upon her return to Windhaven.”
“What other healers were on duty that night?” Tharios asks.
“Only Healer Sorisa. But I do not believe—”
“No.” Tharios shakes his head. “She wouldn’t have aided Fenoral beyond healing him.”
Sorisa lost her binding partner in the Battle of the Wildthorne Woods. He was Father’s first and only elite warrior to pass from the light, sacrificing himself to defend his wounded king.
And Sorisa gathered herself after her time of grieving and used part of the lifelong stipend Father gave her to become the first fully trained low-born healer in Darlei.
She wouldn’t aid a high-born rebel beyond healing him. Not willingly and not without reporting his presence to Windhaven.
“We don’t even know if Fenoral sought treatment here or elsewhere,” Rafelis says. “And if the fracture was simple, any warrior-class healer or healer’s assistant could have managed the magic required.”
Tharios turns to Viala. “Do you have any knowledge of how bad the break was?”
Viala shudders. “I felt his bone crunch through my magic. As if a carriage wheel had rolled over a dried twig.”
“That sounds beyond my training to heal,” Rafelis says.
“Indeed.” Healer Cadowyn moves toward his desk and writes something on a sheet of paper. Then he hands it to Tharios. It’s a list of names.
“Every fully trained healer living near Darlei that I’m aware of,” Healer Cadowyn says.
Tharios is familiar with the majority of the elves on the list. Most are high borns, though a few low-born life wielders followed in Sorisa’s footsteps.
“We’ll have to talk to everyone,” Rafelis says with a sigh as they exit Healer Cadowyn’s office.
“First, we should eat,” Viala says, and Tharios nods as he and Rafelis pore over the list of names.
“These three are on duty today,” Tharios says. “Perhaps we should speak to them before we leave.”
Viala gives them both a nudge toward the stairs. “Food first. We can come back this afternoon.”
“At least let us talk to this one,” Tharios says as he studies the unfamiliar name. “Healer Cadowyn noted that he only works at the healing center in the mornings.”
“I don’t recognize that name,” Rafelis says.
Tharios looks up from the paper so he doesn’t trip down the stairs.
“Fine,” Viala says. “One elf. Then you must eat. Both of you.”
“You sound like Grandmera,” Tharios mutters as he looks around for some sign of a healer he’s never met.
“May I help you, my prince?” a young healer’s assistant asks as she wanders past.
“Yes, we’re looking for this healer.” He points to the rune, and she nods.
“Healer Valethan. Last I saw, he was preparing to depart. His office is back that way. If you hurry, you may catch him.”
“Thank you.” Tharios strides toward the offices near the back of the healing center that are usually reserved for lower-ranking healers and those new to the Healer’s Circle.
Tharios would have taken an office there with the others, but Mother insisted it would be safer for him to have an office on the second floor.
It was her only stipulation before agreeing to let him take up duties as a healer at the healing center.
The lower offices are too easily approached through the back door.
Healer Cadowyn was ready to agree to just about anything to get Tharios as a healer.
His office sits empty now. He had Rafelis collect all his things years ago. It’s a wonder Healer Cadowyn hasn’t offered it to anyone else.
He’s probably still hoping Tharios will come back eventually.
“Let’s see,” Rafelis says as he searches for a door placard bearing Valethan’s name. “Valethan...does that say Fressenia? Valethan Fressenia?”
“What?” Tharios moves closer to the door Rafelis is studying. “It does, indeed.”
“What’s the significance of that?” Viala asks from behind them.
“Fenoral’s mother is a Fressenia,” Rafelis mutters. “How much do you want to bet we found our healer?”
Tharios lifts his hand to knock, but no one responds.
“Did we miss him?” Tharios asks.
“Well, his office is empty,” Rafelis says. “A Fressenia would be easy to sense behind this door.”
“So, how do we find him?”
Without warning, Tharios’s heart pounds, and that yanking he feels whenever Viala is in danger fills him.
On instinct, he spins and dives toward her as she collapses. “Viala!”
She doesn’t respond.
Rafelis rushes toward them as Tharios reaches for her flame. It burns steadily, and relief fills him. She’s alive.
He does a cursory examination with his magic, but nothing seems obviously wrong.
“I’ll have to examine her more thoroughly,” Tharios says. “I don’t know why she fainted.”
“I do.” Rafelis sprints toward the open door nearby and curses as he drops to the ground beside the guard they stationed there. “He’s unconscious, too, but seems otherwise fine. A magic-induced sleep?”
Bile rises in Tharios’s throat as he continues running his magic over Viala’s heart and her head, but Rafelis is right.
She’s asleep. A magic-induced sleep that she won’t wake from for half an hour or more, judging by how limp she feels in his arms. And he can’t wake her.
The magic of the oathbinding won’t let him since letting her wake on her own is safer.
Rafelis curses again. “Our fugitive is already halfway across the river. He must be a water wielder.” Rafelis glances back at Tharios, who looks on helplessly.
“I’m sorry. I can’t help. I can’t leave her. The magic won’t let me.”
Which must be precisely what Valethan planned. The quickest way to immobilize Tharios is to take out Viala.
“I’ll track him until you can send reinforcements,” Rafelis says as he hurries off.
Reinforcements. Yes. He’ll send for reinforcements.
“I need help! Someone!” Tharios yells his words on the wind so they carry toward the rest of the healing center. Soon, Healer Sorisa comes running down the corridor with a few assistants in her wake.
“My prince!” She drops to the floor beside Viala.
“It’s a magic-induced sleep,” Tharios says. “A gift from Valethan Fressenia before he fled. One of my guards was rendered unconscious as well. I need to get word to Windhaven that we have a fugitive heading west across the river with Second Rafelis tracking him.”
“Of course, my prince.” Healer Sorisa lobs off instructions to the healer’s assistants who ran to help.
“And alert the guards outside the front entrance,” Tharios calls after the elf who takes off to relay Tharios’s message to Windhaven. The others carry his unconscious guard to an empty examination room.
“I agree with your assessment,” Healer Sorisa says as she rests a hand on Viala’s forehead.
“Let’s get her to a private room, where she’ll be more comfortable while she sleeps this off.
” Sorisa lowers her voice. “And unless you wish to do so yourself, I’d like to examine her more closely as a precautionary measure to ensure the elfling is unharmed.
I have no cause for concern, as you well know, so I don’t wish for you to worry. ”
Tharios stares at Healer Sorisa as her words fill his head. “What did you say?”