Warsworn

by Elizabeth Vaughan

  I had to chuckle, even as Isdra rolled her eyes. She rose, with a last look at the babe, and headed for the door. But Epor did not move. I looked at him, curious.

  He sighed, and lowered his voice. “Lara, I would ask for your token.”

  Startled, I fumbled in my pocket and pulled out a stone. He took it gravely. “I would speak a truth, Lara.”

  “I will hear your truth, Epor. And answer it.”

  He shook his head. “No answer is needed. This is a truth of our ways, that I would tell you, and have you consider, yes?”

  I nodded.

  He focused on me, holding my gaze with his. “Bonding is not an easy thing, Lara. It takes a lot of work for a couple to maintain a bond.” I nodded again, and he continued. “One of the things you cannot do is lie to your bondmate.”

  I flushed, embarrassed, and looked away. I opened my mouth to retort, but Epor touched my knee and silenced me with his words. “I do not know your ways in this, for I have learned that those of Xy bond early, and for life. Maybe this is the way of your people. But Keir is of the Plains, and for us, the bond must come first, the bondmate being due your first thoughts, eh?”

  I nodded, still looking down at my hands.

  “So.” Epor reached over and tucked the stone back into my hands. “I ask that you think on my truths, Lara.” He stood and stretched as I fidgeted with the stone. “Now I will go and watch Isdra’s back, yes?”

  I nodded again. He put his mask in place, gathered up his weapons and left without another word. I waited until he left to wipe my eyes. I’d been right to stay silent. If I’d told Keir about the forty days he’d never have allowed me to enter this village, never have stopped on his way to the Plains. I plucked at a rough spot on my tunic and tried not to hear the tiny voice in the back of my head, the one that was pointing out that I’d never given Keir a chance.

  Once I’d checked everyone and set up my pallet, I realized we’d need more water. With empty bucket in hand, I eased the door open and slipped into the main room.

  Shrines to the Goddess are designed with small, high windows to allow her light to shine within. The moon was not full, but the soft beams of light filled the room with a silver glow.

  The doors out to the square were open. I stepped out into the doorway, and stopped.

  The same silver light made the square glow, casting faint shadows. Epor was seated on the well, his club in one hand. The light made his hair seem an even brighter gold. He’d lowered his mask again, I could see the gleam of his smile.

  Isdra was naked, a slim silver figure in the light. Her braid shone in the moonlight. She was using one of the buckets to splash water over herself. I couldn’t make out what they were saying, but Epor’s eyes held a light that needed no explanation.

  Captured by the sight, I watched as Epor stood, caught Isdra with his free arm and pulled her close. She moved eagerly, plastering her wet body against his and pulling his head down to hers. Their kiss was long and deep and—

  I stepped back and hid behind the door, embarrassed. A longing blazed within me, for Keir’s strong body, for the taste of his lips in my mouth. I bit my lip. And took a step further away from the sight, for I wished so very much that it was Keir and I by the well, in the moonlight.

  Yet, here I was alone and by my own choosing. Events demanded that I do this and I had made the right choice. These people were ill, and needed my help. It had been the right thing to do, of that I was certain.

  The emblem of the Goddess gleamed on the far wall, the Lady’s calm face serene in the light. I sent a silent prayer to her, for the lives of my patients and the people of this village. Legend has it that the Goddess, the Lady of the Moon, is wed to the God, the Lord of the Sun. Their relationship is a fierce one, filled with storms and rumbles.

  He’d been so angry. So furious with me. But I’d done the right thing after all. There was illness here, deadly illness and it could not be ignored. We’d help those we could, bury those we couldn’t, get the information we needed, stay isolated for the required period and then be on our way. All would be as it was before. Keir would forgive my actions. Wouldn’t he?

  I gnawed at my lip, suddenly filled with doubt. What had seemed like such a small thing before now seemed—

  A sound came from the other room, and I hurried back to my patients.

  “Those barbarians will kill us in our sleep.”

  “No, they won’t.” I was trying to sooth the old woman as I wiped her face. She’d woken, drenched in sweat, the heat and stink radiating off her body in waves. I’d added rose oil to the water, and it seemed to help with the smell. Her weak eyes were wide with fear, and she clutched at me with what strength she had left as I bathed her face and chest. “Can you tell me what happened here?”

  She squinted up at me, confused. “Who are you?”

  I decided to keep my explanations simple for now. “Lara, Master Healer, trained by Eln of Water’s Fall.”

  Isdra entered, hair damp, but fully dressed, carrying more water. The old woman tensed, sucking in a breath. “That’s a Firelander!”

  “It is, but she will not harm you. She is my friend.” I tried to block her vision with my body. “Who are you? What happened here?”

  “Rahel, Healer, trained by Thrace of Lake’s End.” Rahel answered me almost absently as she tried to see what Isdra was doing.

  “What happened here, Rahel?” I repeated.

  Her eyes moved back to lock on my face. “It’s changed, the Sweat. Too fast, too fast!”

  “Tell me.”

  “Three days ago, two strangers were found on the main road, ill and feverish.”

  Three days? These people had all sickened and died in the last three days? My throat went dry.

  Rahel grasped at my arms, her gaze fixed on my face. “We had no warning, no time to act. There’s those that left for the city two days past, but all we could do was close the gates and pray to the Goddess. My fault, all my fault that they died . . .” Her voice rose in a shriek, waking the baby who started to cry. Isdra moved to pick her up, and soothe her.

  The babe’s cry seemed to clear some of Rahel’s confusion. “Whose baby is that?”

  “We don’t know. We found her next to her dead mother.”

  “How old?”

  I rinsed my cloth out in the cool water. “Some six months is my guess.”

  Rahel lay back against the pillows and stared unseeing at the ceiling. She drew in a long shuddering breath. “Meara’s get, then. So Meara’s dead.” Her eyes filled with tears. “I birthed her with these two hands. My babies, all my babies. I tried so hard.” Her voice trailed off in sobs.

  I wiped her face with soft strokes. “Tell me about the illness, Rahel. I must know.”

  “First the sweat, where water pours from the body in rivers. Then the madness, a delirium like I have never seen. The soul raves and rants with unseeing eyes and horrible anger.” She closed her eyes, and took a deep breath, as if reciting a lesson she’d forced herself to memorize. “Then a sleep so deep that they respond to nothing, not pain nor noise. Deep, deep, past any hope or will to live. They are just . . .” She opened her eyes, and clutched at my arm. “They all died. I tried everything I knew, but they all—”

  “Hush now, all will be well.” I assured her. “A good broth, a strong dose of fever’s foe and you will be—”

  “Fool girl,” she snapped. “Trained of Eln? Have you not heard what I said? Tried them all, there’s no remedy, no cure, they just fall over. There’s only cold, cold death.” She cried out, sobbing as through her heart would break. “I failed them all. My babies . . .” Her fingers pulled weakly at the blankets.

  “Fever’s foe—”

  “Tried it.”

  “Dittany.”

  “Tried that.”

  “Watermint.”

  “Tried that, too.” Anger flashed over her face, but she was too weak to hold the glare. “Fool girl, tried them all, but there’s no remedy, no cure. There’s only
cold and the grave.” She put a hand to her forehead. “It’s come for me, death has, and it’s welcome. All my babes, and their babes . . .” She started to wail, sobbing out her despair.

  Isdra was trying to feed the babe, and comfort it at the same time. Epor stuck his head in. “What’s amiss?”

  “The woman woke, and her cries have frightened the babe. She thinks you are going to eat her.”

  Rahel stopped crying and stared at Epor, wide-eyed.

  Epor smiled at her, showing his teeth. “I wouldn’t. Too scrawny.”

  I smiled at the jest, and Rahel demanded to know what he said. She looked at me with suspicion, but seemed to relax a little, especially when Epor leaned against the doorpost, watching Isdra make a bed by the fire for herself, with the babe nestled down beside her. In the quiet, Rahel closed her eyes, and whispered something. I leaned closer. “What did you say?”

  She opened her eyes. “Bind me.”

  “I don’t think—”

  “Bind me, girl.”

  “Rahel, you’re no threat.”

  “The fever has me. Bind me now.”

  “What does she say?” Epor asked.

  I explained and he nodded. “Even a weakling with a knife is dangerous. Take no chance, Warprize.”

  Rahel seemed to sense his attitude. “He knows. Healers know the way of pain. Those that heal can hurt in need. Tie me, I say.”

  I rolled my eyes, and in the end I secured her wrists to the frame, but only after I had her drink some broth. She lapsed into an uneasy sleep. Epor went outside to stand watch, Isdra rolled into her blankets and I settled in for a long night.

  By dawn, Rahel could not be roused. She lay silent, still, and unresponsive.

  I was exhausted, and filled with chagrin at my folly. I should have listened to her, forced her to tell me everything while she was conscious and talking. I should have heeded her warnings, but I had not believed that a disease could kill so very swiftly.

  I knelt by Epor, sleeping in the blankets that Isdra had vacated. They’d traded off during the night. A touch of my hand on his shoulder, and his eyes were open. He sat up when he got a good look at my face. “Warprize?”

  “We need to go to the healer’s home, Epor. I need to see what she was trying to do before you brought her here.”

  Epor glanced at the beds. “The man?”

  “Dead.” I refused to look at the body. I’d covered his face, and my failure, with a blanket.

  Epor stood, gathering his weapons. His eyes flicked to the corner where the babe rested. “She’s well, at least?” he asked gruffly.

  “So far.”

  Epor led the way, and I followed him out into the main room. Isdra was just inside the door, seated on one of the benches, positioned so that she could see out into the square. She made no comment as we approached, just lifted an eyebrow.

  “A scouting run.” Epor spoke softly, tightening his mask. “Anything?”

  “All’s quiet.” Isdra stood. “The others?”

  “The babe is well. The woman still lives. The man is dead.” I didn’t really want to discuss the details. Thankfully, Isdra was content with my response.

  “We’ll finish the search when we return.” Epor looked out over the square, and the light that was growing steadily. “No sign of the crazed one?”

  “None.”

  “Heat some kavage for us, eh? We won’t be long.”

  Isdra gave him a smile, and a nod. “I’ll see to the babe.”

  Epor stepped to the doors, and I moved to stand next to him. The light was growing brighter, but the walls and the house made deep shadows around the edge. Epor put his hand on my shoulder. “You will stay with me, and do as I say. If I say run, you will come back here, yes?”

  “I will.”

  He moved then, at a fairly rapid pace, around the square, staying in the shadows as much as he could. He’d stop every few paces, listening. I’d stop too, but my heart was beating so fast that I would not have heard an army approaching. It was scaring me, that he thought this was necessary.

  The healer’s clinic was off the square, in a small alleyway. Epor went in first, urging me to stay pressed against the wall next to the door. It was a small area, just the two rooms and a loft above, much like the house we’d gone in the day before. Epor returned quickly, and gestured me into the back room. “This is it, Warprize. The room above has only beds with the dead in them.”

  It was her stillroom, filled with familiar scents and the cloying odor of death. The room was in disarray, as if it had been used in haste. There were pots of fever’s foe over by the fire, still in the cauldrons. I found half-ground dittany and watermint on the tables. She’d tried them, as she had said.

  Epor stood at the door, shifting his gaze from me to the other room and the outer door. He was making no secret of his impatience, but I wasn’t to be rushed.

  The old schools of healing taught that you kept your best recipes and discoveries to yourself, calling them the secrets of the trade. Eln took a different approach, teaching that all knowledge must be shared to make us all better healers. If Rahel was of the old school, she’d have hidden her notes and recipes somewhere. I only hoped that Rahel had not guarded her secrets too well.

  It took a bit of poking around, but I found rolls of notes in a canister on a high shelf. I put that in my satchel, along with the notes. With any luck, she’d taken some notes about the process of this plague.

  Epor coughed. “Warprize . . .”

  “One last thing,” I moved to his side. “I want to see the bodies upstairs.”

  “Quickly.”

  I moved up the stairs as quickly as I could. It was warmer here and the smell was that much stronger. I was grateful for the ginger cloth over my nose and throat, but even that couldn’t cover the smell. I stepped to the nearest bed and pulled back the blanket. There were no visible wounds on the body. He lay on his back, as if asleep. The cups and jars on the table between the bed held fever’s foe and dittany. I looked at the other man, and had to pause, thinking for some reason that I had seen him before. I studied the face, but death had left his mark and I wasn’t sure if—

  “Warprize.”

  I replaced the blankets and moved to leave when a pile of clothing caught my attention. Quickly I held up the top garment, then shuffled through the rest of the pile. These were priestly garments, worn by the priests of the Sun God. What were they doing here?

  “Warprize.”

  This time, Epor was at the bottom of the stairs, and not to be denied. I turned to go and took a step, when a noise came from behind me.

  From under one of the beds.

  I froze, holding my breath. At the bottom of the steps, Epor frowned at me. “Lara, we need to—”

  “I think—” I turned to look, but I was too slow. The man sprang from under the bed, barreled into me, throwing me to the side. As I fell to the floor, he leaped down on Epor with a snarl.

  “Epor!” I called out as I staggered to my feet. There were sounds of a furious struggle below, with grunts and howls from the sick man. I clattered down the stairs, to see them rolling together on the floor. “Epor, don’t hurt him!”

  Epor gave me an exasperated look, even as he tried to pin the man down. The man put up a furious struggle, using fists and teeth to win free of Epor. Epor had him pinned when the man craned his neck and bit Epor on the arm.

  Epor spat a curse. The man escaped, scrambled to his feet, and ran into the still room, with Epor right behind. I winced at the sounds of breaking crockery.

  By the time I got to the door, Epor had the man on the ground, and pinned. “Get some rope.”

  “Rope?” I looked about wildly.

  The man heaved under Epor, trying to break free. Epor panted with the effort to keep the man down. “Get something!”

  I reached for a pile of cloth, and handed him some bandages. Epor muttered something under his breath, flipped the man over, and hit him in the jaw. The man collapsed, moaning.

/>   “Epor.”

  “Sorry.” His eyes crinkled in a smile that proved he wasn’t. “He may be sick, Lara, but he’s strong. As well for me that he’s no warrior, eh?” Teeth flashing, Epor heaved the man over his shoulder. “Let’s get him bound to the bed before he wakes.”

  As we crossed the square, a warble rose from outside the walls. Even I knew that Joden was asking our status. Epor tilted his head, and warbled what I assumed were reassurances. He looked at me with a question in his eyes, and I knew I had to make a decision. “Tell them to send the message that it is the Sweat.”

  Even as he raised his voice, I prayed that I was doing the right thing.

  It was no problem to secure him, the man was still unconscious from Epor’s blow. The bite had just broken the skin on Epor’s arm, but I insisted that I clean and bandage the wound. Isdra made a few pointed comments about the difference between helping and hurting my patient. Epor protested his innocence, asking if anyone was concerned about his welfare. They bickered a bit as they carried out the body of the archer.

  The new patient was still sweating heavily, rank with the stench. For the first time, I was considering drugging a patient into cooperating with me. If the lotus kept him asleep, perhaps I could get water into him to replace the fluid he’d lost. Re-balance the elements in his body, as Keir had told me once. I flushed at the memory. But to give lotus to someone could also cause the deep sleep I was trying to avoid.

  Deep in those thoughts, I checked on Rahel. She was still unresponsive, but I managed to get her to swallow some broth. Not much, but it was something. With that faint hope, I turned back to the man. Maybe a very small dose would aid him.

  Epor and Isdra returned. They obviously washed before coming in. Isdra shook her head. “He’s still out?”

  “Yes.” They started to settle by the fire, and I frowned. “Aren’t you going to finish the search?”

  “I don’t want to leave you alone with that one.” Epor responded.

  “From what Epor says he could awaken and break his bonds.” Isdra replied. “Best we stay here.”