“You’d better not die quickly,” he said, forcing his hands not to swipe at his cheeks. “I expect to hear stories about the crazy old man who challenged a magically powerful Dark Lord and his armies with a single sword.”
The corner of Eledis’ mouth quirked up a fraction of an inch.
“I’ll make it happen.”
Raimie marched back to the house even though he wanted to run back for one more hug. He leaned against the doorframe, determined to watch Eledis hike away until the old man disappeared from sight.
Eledis was speaking to Raimie’s father, and Aramar did not look happy about it. His hands were curled into fists by his side, and he’d ducked his chin to his chest. Eledis finished speaking and opened his arms. The old man said one more sentence, and Aramar’s head jerked up. He reluctantly uncurled his fingers, stepped forward, and embraced the old man.
After an acceptable amount of time, Aramar released Eledis and strode away. It looked like the old man might be chuckling. All of his packs loaded onto his back, Eledis headed down the road to the nearest town.
Raimie watched his grandfather disappear around the first bend in the road. Once the old man was gone, he released the breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. It was time for a new normal to begin.
Chapter Four
You weren’t to blame for any of the terrible events that led to our current conflict. In fact, if anyone should take the blame, it’s me.
Kheled was in the middle of distilling a third hemlock antidote variation when his daily council summons sauntered into the clinic. Before he could speak, Kheled held up one finger, bidding the messenger to wait.
They’d sent an older man to retrieve him this time which was fortunate. The elder ranks of the Zrelnach had mellowed with age, enough to realize that no matter how much they might despise Kheled for his past, the pariah was leaps and bounds above the healing capabilities of his compatriots. They were patient enough to tolerate his eccentricities.
The Zrelnach took a seat, probably aware from past experience that there was no way to tell how long he’d have to wait. Kheled inwardly smiled, happy not to be rushed for once. He quickly reached the point where the distillation could continue unsupervised for a few hours and turned his attention to the seated warrior.
“Thank you for waiting, master,” he bowed at the waist. “How may I assist the Council today?”
“You really think they’d tell me?” the Zrelnach laughed at the absurd thought. “They give me orders. I’m told to fetch, and I fetch.”
“Fair enough,” Kheled acquiesced. “Shall we depart to attend to the Council then? Best not to keep them waiting.”
The Zrelnach burst out laughing as Kheled had hoped he would, and he stood to take the lead. The healer hummed as he trailed behind the older man, happy to have the excuse to be out of his clinic.
It was only when they passed a fire team of warriors blocking access to the hallway they’d turned down that his skin prickled with unease. At least a dozen more Zrelnach stood guard in the corridor, one every few yards. He’d never seen so many seasoned soldiers fidgeting from frazzled nerves.
When they arrived at their destination, Kheled refused to budge another step.
“Are they going to kill me if I go in there?” he asked seriously.
The older man seemed genuinely surprised which boded well for the healer.
“Why would you ask that?”
“Did you not see how many of your comrades we passed? The Council must want to keep whatever happened here from spreading. Maybe they’ve finally found the perfect excuse to get rid of their biggest source of embarrassment.”
“What do you think they are? Humans?” the Zrelnach asked, offended.
The older man’s naïve belief in his leaders was a breath of fresh air to the healer. To be fair, he hadn’t been party to some of the Council’s more reprehensible decisions as Kheled had, but even still, the warrior’s sincere trust in the Council’s virtue spoke to this ruling body’s general care for the welfare of their people.
“I apologize, master. I don’t know what I was thinking,” Kheled shook his head at his own stupidity. “Sometimes I take caution too far.”
The warrior mumbled what sounded like an insult before stomping away, leaving Kheled outside one of the small caves that dotted the outskirts of the city. The healer shook off his apprehension and ducked inside, eager to discover what problem the Council had provided for him to fix.
Inside, two warriors and one civilian had been propped, groaning, against a stone wall. From a quick initial examination, their injuries appeared minor; some bumps and bruises and a few broken bones. The unfortunate civilian had somehow dislocated both shoulder joints and was quietly sobbing at the far end of the line.
In a rare turn of events, all four council members occupied the same room. Kheled could see the top of another person’s head beyond the Council’s cluster thanks to his cursed height. The body shield appeared to be working on the rest of the room’s occupants, however, based off of the curious glances directed that way. The council member’s hushed and furious whispering drifted over to him, but of course, it was too soft to make out anything distinguishable.
He began treatment, quickly moving down the line of patients and occasionally requesting supplies from the excess of Zrelnach guarding the room. As he’d suspected the injuries were nothing of interest, and he struggled to mask the intense boredom he felt stitching cuts, applying salves, and setting bones. He was kneeling to prepare to reset the civilian’s shoulders when the Council’s whispering devolved into a brief shouting match.
“No, that will never happen!” Yrit, the eldest on the Council, forcefully bellowed over the other voices.
The person hidden in the center replied in a conciliatory tone.
“I don’t care!” Yrit angrily responded. “Your foretold child isn’t here to prove…”
Shafoth, the Councilman in charge of feeding the city, shushed Yrit, glancing significantly about the room. The argument descended back into whispers.
Kheled would have to take action if he’d any hope of discovering what had happened. He leaned closer to his patient.
“Who hurt you?” he quietly asked the sweating man. “Was there a fight?”
His patient groaned and laid his cheek against the wall. The healer would get nothing from that quarter. He gripped the man’s bicep and placed a hand at the base of the neck, fixing his attention on the Council once he was certain of his hand placement.
“I’m sorry,” he murmured, giving the man enough time to whip his head around with concern before shoving hard.
The upper arm snapped into its proper place in the joint, and as expected, the man screamed bloody murder. All of the council members jumped at the loud, unexpected noise, shifting just enough for Kheled to sneak a glance at the elderly human hidden behind them.
Shock numbed him more than he’d thought possible. He’d known change was coming, but he hadn’t expected it to come from that quarter, although he really should’ve The last time he’d seen the old man was nine years ago when they’d dragged the family’s youngest, cursing and screaming, past the barracks. He’d thought the city had seen the last of them when months and then years passed without another visit. Today’s disturbance made perfect sense now. Eledis’ return would be like an explosion unleashing its devastation in the middle of the city.
“Apologies,” he heard himself say through the thick fuzz covering his ears. “I’m not accustomed to treating civilians. Soldiers tend to have a different reaction to pain.”
Given a reasonable explanation, the city’s governing body resumed bickering. In his haste to return home, Kheled almost forgot to fix his patient’s other shoulder. In the end, he required the assistance of two Zrelnach holding the man down before he could finish his work.
He floated back to the clinic in a daze. He’d known the violence would resume when his constant companion had appeared the week before, but until this
moment, he hadn’t accepted it. He’d thought he was ready, but now that the time was upon him…
His train of thought broke upon entering his clinic. Kheled crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow.
“What happened, Dath?”
The trainee’s face was black and blue, and several eggs were swelling all over his head. He held his arm at an awkward angle across his body.
“Were you helping the Council?” he asked, keeping his lips tightly closed besides the single question.
“Of course. If there’s ever an emergency, I’m there to fix it,” Kheled replied with a sardonic smile. “Did the human do this?”
The trainee puffed up with indignation, about to make an angry retort.
“He took out two fully initiated Zrelnach,” Kheled said before Dath could speak. “There’s no shame if you took a beating.”
Dath stood ramrod straight for the amount of time it took him to consider Kheled’s words before he stiffly nodded.
“Can you fix me?” he asked.
“Easily,” Kheled answered, unfolding his arms and rifling through his cloak’s pockets. “I have a salve to calm the bumps and bruises. I need that particular concoction so much that I keep a few on hand constantly. Your arm will have to be set and splinted which means you’ll lose a few weeks of training.”
Dath groaned and collapsed on a cot.
“I’d completely forgotten about that,” he said grimly. “What am I going to tell them? I can’t say an old man kicked my ass.”
“Aha!” Kheled exclaimed, thrusting the quested after salve into the air.
He handed it over to the glum trainee.
“Apply a thin layer to the affected areas twice a day until the bruising and swelling have dissipated.”
Kheled gently took hold of the trainee’s arm to see where the break had occurred. Once he was sure of his course of action, he ambled to his cot in the corner to retrieve splints and bandages in which to wrap the arm. He dropped the supplies beside Dath. Taking a seat on the cot, he beckoned for the injured limb.
This time, he offered his patient a block to bite on before quickly and efficiently setting the bone. It was only after Kheled had begun immobilizing the arm that Dath attempted conversation again.
“How goes your experiment?” he asked, nodding without looking toward the abundance of lab equipment strewn across the floor next to Kheled’s cot.
The healer quickly glanced at the bubbling liquid, ensuring that it didn’t require his attention.
“It’s progressing well, thank you. I believe I might have an antidote this time. Thank you again for procuring a sample of her blood for me.”
“If you devise a cure, it’ll have been worth it,” Dath said distantly. “Getting what you needed, I mean. Not Lyli’s passing.”
“You’ll never stop missing her.”
“I know.”
He finished binding Dath’s arm, respectful of the young man’s need for silence. Before the trainee departed, however, Kheled answered his earlier question.
“Two things before you go, trainee.”
Dath paused at the clinic’s entrance.
“First of all, watch your language. You curse around your instructors, and you’ll have to run laps. Second of all, tell them you insulted me. They’ll know what that means and will respect you for it.”
Dath narrowed his eyes.
“Why? What does it mean?”
“That you asked to spar with me,” Kheled replied with a cheeky grin, “and I kicked your ass.”
* * *
A week later, a surge in visitors inundated his clinic, all requiring medical assistance. For four days straight, Kheled treated a non-stop flood of bruises, abrasions, cuts, and other minor wounds donning the bodies of an inordinate number of grumpy Zrelnach. For the first time in years, he wiped out his supply of soothing herbs and salves.
On the fifth day, the surge slowed to a trickle upon a momentous announcement from the Council. As usual, Kheled was the last to hear about it.
While he’d been in a haze of boredom and business, he’d missed the gossip about an encampment of humans trickling into the forest surrounding the city and getting larger every day. Unsurprisingly, a few of the more hot-headed citizens had attacked the strangers and received a whipping for their troubles. After that first attack by the ignorant, general populace, the Zrelnach’s pride had forced a response. It was a miracle that Kheled hadn’t been required to clean up the aftermath of a bloodbath.
Today, the Council had released a statement concerning the encroaching humans. They revealed that the strangers had been given permission to camp nearby and any further violence perpetrated by any citizen of the city would be met with proper punishment. Kheled was interested to see what that would entail because he’d no doubt that even with the proclamation, there would be those whose sole purpose in life was to break rules and cause trouble.
The next day, he found out. Two trainees attacked a human on his way to the encampment, leaving him near dead.
The instigators were stripped of their rank before being banished without any chance to appeal the decision. After that, an uncertain peace prevailed between the two factions.
The human had been the first interesting case Kheled had seen in years. After an entire day ministering to the injured party, he wasn’t certain if the man would live or die. When he’d been brought in, the healer had treated every broken bone, scrape, and bruise to no avail as the man refused to regain consciousness.
After his attackers admitted to aiming kicks specifically at his head, Kheled knew that all he could do was wait, and after twenty-four hours, he’d exhausted every excuse he could come up with to keep the human in his care. A council aid would soon come by to transport the injured man to his own people.
“No, trainee, I will not fight you,” he told Dath while he stared down at the unconscious figure below him.
“Please, Kheled,” the young man pleaded. “You can take the splints off and give me some tips.”
“You need at least one more week in those splints before I consider removing them,” Kheled said, shaking his head at his unreasonable frustration with his patient for being uncooperative.
“Come on!” Dath exclaimed. “You can’t have told me your magnificent secret without expecting me to challenge you.”
Kheled tsked and turned to the trainee.
“It was never a secret. All of Allanovian knows my past, but fine. We’ll spar once you’re fully healed.”
“Yes!”
Dath jumped up and down in a tiny circle.
“Thank you, Healer!” he exclaimed, beaming a radiant smile. “I owe you! Well, I already owed you for other favors, but I’m really in your debt now.”
The youth’s enthusiasm was almost enough to stir a similar emotion in the healer’s heart, but it was dampened by the knowledge that he’d probably disappear before it came time to fulfill his promise.
“You don’t owe me anything,” he said, allowing his attention to slide back to the human puzzle he couldn’t solve. “I’ve only done my job.”
“That doesn’t matter,” Dath folded his arms behind his back and shifted from foot to foot. “If a Zrelnach, Alouin forbid, is injured in my place, he’s doing his job, but I still owe a favor. I thought you’d like having someone in your debt.”
That was enough. Kheled rounded on the innocently friendly young soldier in training, a mask of rage painted across his face.
“Why are you still here?” he asked, his voice projecting dangerously to fill every corner of the clinic. “I’ve told you. I am not your friend. I’ve extracted everything that I require from you and promised payment in kind. Your continued presence disturbs me. Leave.”
The shocked and betrayed expression on Dath’s face was so familiar, and yet every time Kheled caused it, he couldn’t decide if he wanted to laugh hysterically at the predictability of social interactions or weep at the necessity of the cruelty.
From behind the two me
n, a cough shoved its way into the midst of the charged clash between them.
“Apologies,” the interruption said in the smooth way that only a politician can master. “I hate to intrude on this fascinating exchange, but I’ve a job to do.”
Behind the aide, two burly men rested one hand each on the handles of a small, narrow, hand-driven cart. Their body language radiated boredom and indifference.
“Don’t worry,” Dath assured the aide brusquely. “You haven’t interrupted anything of importance.”
He stormed past her and her helpers and disappeared down the hallway. The woman glanced inquisitively at Kheled, clearly burning with the desire to ask what had happened.
“I assume you’re here for my patient,” he prompted her, deliberately ignoring the inquiry.
“Indeed.”
She waved her two assistants inside.
“Sure, my clinic is your clinic.”
The men ignored Kheled’s halfhearted protest and dragged the cart to the patient’s bedside. One of them snorted with disgust.
“You have to feel a little sorry for them,” the other assistant said. “They leave their home, wives, and children behind to join a quest to destroy evil, and a fire decimates what they’ve abandoned.”
Kheled’s head whipped around from suspiciously watching the aide. He took no joy in having a government official in his home, and the Council knew it. That was why they typically sent Zrelnach soldiers to fetch him. His concern over the Council’s unexpected break from the norm was erased, however, by the mention of fire.
“You shouldn’t sympathize with them. The majority of them are joining for glory and riches, not to assist with a noble cause.”
They crouched, lifted Kheled’s patient, and shuffled across the short distance needed to carefully lower him into the cart.
The Undying Champions (The Eternal War Book 1) Page 6