For a moment Josiah thought the larger of the two women was going to push past him, but she deflated and turned aside, muttering under her breath, and stalked out of the building. The other woman followed. Josiah held his breath lest the shouting resume outside, but all remained quiet. He sighed and turned thankfully to the next person in line, an older man who winked at Josiah. “Don’t mind those two. They’ve been at odds for twenty years, and likely will be twenty years from now. You watch, come Firstday they’ll have forgotten this argument and have two new ones for the wizard to judge.”
Josiah laughed and sent him back to have the bunion on his foot looked at.
Patients continued to arrive throughout the day. Some had traveled for hours from outlying holdings. Josiah and Elkan stopped for an hour at noon, shared the midday meal with Galia, and continued seeing patients all afternoon. By the time the sun slanted through the western windows, the waiting area was nearly empty.
The last case of the day was a frail old woman whose granddaughter brought her in and described her gradual decline into senility. Elkan nodded gravely, closed his eyes as he assessed his remaining energy, looked at Sar a moment, and agreed to do what they could that day. For a long time he sat, leaning against Sar, left arm around the donkey’s neck, right hand hovering over the old woman’s head where she sat in a chair facing away from him. Josiah began to notice signs that the wizard and familiar were pushing themselves too far. Sweat darkened Sar’s flanks, and Elkan breathed heavily.
“Excuse me.” The soft voice called his attention back to his duty.
The woman with the baby stood before him. Josiah frowned at her. She really shouldn’t have waited until so late in the day if she needed help. And if she wanted to tell Elkan about whatever had happened with the bandits, it could wait until he wasn’t so tired. “I’m sorry, but Wizard Elkan won’t be able to see anyone else this afternoon.”
“I don’t need healing. I have a request to make.”
Josiah scowled. When Elkan finished with this patient, he’d need rest and food, not more bother. “Elkan is only healing today. You can tell me your request, and I’ll pass it along.”
“No. I’ll wait until I can speak directly with the wizard.” The woman sat down in the waiting area, pulled the baby out of his carrying cloth, and bounced him on her knee. The baby smiled and cooed at her, and she responded, all her attention on the child, shutting Josiah out completely.
Taken aback, Josiah gaped for a moment. Trying to reestablish at least a little authority, he asked, “May I ask your name, please?”
“Meira Smithkin Miner,” she answered, not taking her eyes from the baby. Josiah wrote the name down. He busied himself checking over the accounts, making sure they were complete and correcting the few mistakes he found.
He had just drawn a neat line through “Coper,” and was writing “Cooper” in its place when he heard Elkan stirring. He looked back. Elkan removed his arm from around Sar, pulled a folded cloth from his pocket, and wiped his brow. He looked worn, but pleased. He smiled at the anxiously waiting granddaughter, and scooted his chair around to face the old woman. “Master Orna? How do you feel?”
She blinked at him, dark eyes sharp in her seamed face. “Who are you?” She looked around, frowning. “I don’t remember coming here.”
“I’m Elkan Farmerkin Wizard, Master Orna. Your granddaughter brought you for healing.”
Orna glared at the young woman. “Sarea, whatever gave you the notion I needed healing? There’s nothing wrong with me that being twenty years younger wouldn’t cure. Help me up, child. I need to go home and put the evening meal on before it gets any later.”
Sarea threw her arms around Orna, weeping. She turned shining eyes to Elkan. “That’s the first time she’s recognized me since the first snowfall last autumn. She’s been calling me Malka—that’s my mother, her daughter.”
“Nonsense, child, why would I do that? You look nothing like your mother. She’s twice as broad as you these days, for one thing. You just take me home.” The old woman blinked, frowning. “I don’t quite remember what I planned to cook…”
“Mother will be so happy.” Sarea clasped Elkan’s hand. “I can’t thank you enough. You don’t know what this will mean to our family.”
“My joy is in the service,” Elkan answered her, the truth of the formal words confirmed by his warm grin. He drew Sarea aside and lowered his voice. “I’m afraid she’ll probably decline again. We can reverse the progress of the disease, but not eliminate it completely. Another wizard will pass through in a few months. Be sure to bring her for another treatment, even if she still seems fine.” He turned back to the old woman. “Come, Master Orna. Sarea can take you home now.” He extended a hand to help her to her feet and escorted the two women to the door.
He watched them go, leaning against the doorframe until they were well down the road. He turned back to Josiah. Spotting the waiting Meira, he frowned. “I’m not able to help anyone else right now, Josiah.” His shoulders sagged. “Unless it’s urgent. I suppose it must be, or you would have sent her off.”
“No, she said she—” Josiah began.
The woman interrupted him. “I just need a few minutes of your time, Master Elkan.”
“I have a year’s worth of work left before I earn that title.” Elkan rubbed his forehead. “Just call me Elkan. What do you want?”
Meira dropped her eyes to her child, fussing with the carrying cloth. “I need to travel home to Shalinthan. My husband and I came here last summer.” Her eyes met Elkan’s, hard and bleak. “He was killed by bandits along the way. Folk from this village rescued me from the same fate. They’ve been kind and welcoming, especially when I bore little Ravid two months ago. But it’s time to leave. I’m fully recovered from the birth, and the weather’s mild. My only concern is that we might run into the bandits again. When I heard that a wizard would be going that way, I knew that would be the best protection possible. Will you escort us?”
Elkan studied her. “Are you sure you’re up to the journey? Your child’s so young; it might be better to wait until next year.”
She shook her head. “Better now, while he’s light and easy to carry. And I don’t want to wait so long. My work is there.” She brushed back a tendril of hair from her eyes. “I’m a journeyman miner, as was my husband Ravid. For our masterwork, we explored the mountains, searching out new ore deposits. We found several very promising sites; I have the reports prepared and ready to turn in to my master. We’d planned to winter in Darilla, then journey back this summer.” She grinned ruefully. “Little Ravid wasn’t in our plans, but when I discovered I was pregnant, it was too late to turn back. It was an easy pregnancy, so we continued. Everything would have worked out fine, if not for…” She trailed off into silence, closing her eyes and turning her head aside.
Elkan sat down in the chair next to hers. “Tell me more about these bandits. The Guildmaster is worried about the reports she’s been getting. She asked me to investigate them. How many were there?”
“At least fifty that I saw. It was about a day’s journey south of here. We found a few gold flakes in a stream, so we traced it back, trying to find the source. We came around a bend and blundered into their camp. They were surprised, but just as we realized they must be the bandits people had been telling us about, a bunch of them surrounded us. Two of them started arguing. One wanted to keep us prisoner and demand a ransom. But their leader said we’d seen their faces, so they could never let us go. We’d be able to lead the wizards right to them.”
Elkan clenched his fists. “That’s just what I want you to do. Can you find the place?”
“I think so.” Meira drew a deep breath. “Ravid understood before I did that they meant to kill us both. He leaned over and whispered to me, ‘Run. Save our baby.’” She pulled her son tight. “Then he yelled and rushed at them, swinging his pick. I would have joined him, but there were so many of them. It was hopeless. So I did what he wanted. I slipped away wh
ile they were distracted and fled through the woods. They followed me, but I managed to stay ahead of them. When they got close and I knew they were going to catch me, I started shouting for help. I never expected anyone to hear, but a hunting party from Darilla happened to be nearby. They rushed in as the bandits reached me. They shot several of them, but the rest got away.”
The baby squirmed and whimpered. Meira shifted him to her shoulder and patted his back. “We followed them back to the camp, but by the time we got there all the bandits had fled. We found—” Her voice broke. “They left Ravid where he fell.”
Elkan laid a hand on her arm. “I’m so sorry.”
She looked away. “They brought him back here. He’s buried in the village cemetery.”
“I’ll speak over his grave tomorrow after the service, if you’d like.”
“Yes, please.” Meira squared her shoulders and turned to face him again. “So. Will you let us accompany you to Shalinthan?”
“I’m not really supposed to…” Elkan hesitated. “But you will be far safer with the Mother’s power to protect you than if you went with traders or travelers.”
“That’s why I’m asking.”
Elkan studied Meira for a long moment, then looked at Sar. The donkey’s ears swiveled forward and back. He snorted and looked away. Elkan reached out to stroke Ravid’s wispy hair. “Very well.”
“Thank you.” Meira rose and moved toward the door. “I’ll prepare for the journey. When do you plan to leave?”
Elkan got up and followed her. “We’ll be here at least through Firstday, possibly Secondday also, depending on how much there is for us to do here. We’ll leave at dawn Secondday or Thirdday.”
“I’ll be ready.” She clasped his hand and left.
Elkan came over to Josiah’s table, opened the record book, and leafed through the pages. “I hadn’t planned on acquiring more traveling companions, but it makes sense for Meira to come with us. She said the bandits’s camp was south of here; she can show me where it was so we can observe them through a window. I don’t like the thought of her going through the mountains with a two-month-old and only a few traders or hunters for companions. There are all sorts of dangers they might run into besides the bandits.”
He didn’t have to persuade Josiah. Meira seemed quite nice, and Josiah liked babies. “Sounds good.”
Elkan closed the book and nodded. “Everything looks to be in order here. I’ll be able to fill in my notes without any trouble. And you handled the patients very smoothly. Good work.”
Josiah glowed at the praise. “Thanks.”
“We need to set up for the Restday service tomorrow before we leave. Sar, you go outside and graze. Josiah, help me move the tables out of the way and put the chairs in a circle.”
Josiah was starving, but he knew it would be useless to complain. Elkan was probably even hungrier. He rushed to get the work done as quickly as possible. Elkan worked beside him, just as quickly but with more care. Josiah would have liked to talk about the day’s patients, but the wizard was quiet, lost in his own thoughts.
Finally, as Elkan set the last chair in place and Josiah headed eagerly for the door, the wizard spoke. “Josiah, I doubt this will ever be an issue, because we’re going to be staying on well-traveled paths. But just in case… If we ever run into the bandits, I want you to do just what Meira did. Run. Leave Sar and I to deal with them.”
“Yes, sir.” With the Mother’s power the wizard and familiar would be far better equipped to defend themselves than Meira’s husband had been. “I will.”
“Don’t forget.” Elkan studied Josiah, frowning. Josiah nodded earnestly, trying to convey the sincerity of his promise. Back at home he’d entertained fantasies of fighting the bandits at the wizard’s side and heroically defeating them. But he’d seen and heard enough about their ruthless brutality since to realize how foolish he’d been. Now he just hoped Elkan would be able to gather all the information he needed by looking through windows and speaking to their victims, and that they’d make it all the way through the mountains without encountering the bandits face to face.
Elkan sighed, nodded, and followed Josiah out the door.
Seven
The next morning Josiah reluctantly followed Elkan into the Mother’s Hall. He’d been dreading the coming hour all week. He knew it wouldn’t be any easier for him to sit still and silent this week than last, and remembering his embarrassment and Elkan’s disappointment still made his face burn. He took his seat in the circle of chairs and resigned himself to interminable boredom.
The villagers entered in family groups and took their places. Josiah recognized most of those who’d come for healing the day before. Master Orna shuffled in on the arms of Sarea and a very plump middle aged woman. The old man with bunions walked limp-free, saluting Elkan cheerfully. One of the quarreling women entered and took a seat far across the room; the other came in not long after and sat by the door.
Ledah and the rest of the apprentices Josiah had met at the party entered together, chatting and giggling and pushing at each other. Spotting Josiah, they gathered around him.
“Josiah, once the service is over and you’ve eaten, can you come with us?” Ledah asked. “A bunch of us are going up to the waterfall this afternoon.” The others chimed in with enthusiastic seconds to her invitation.
Josiah looked inquiringly at Elkan. He shrugged. “I don’t see why not.”
Turning back to Ledah, Josiah nodded. “Sure. Sounds like fun.” He grinned. At least he’d have something to look forward to through the long dull morning.
Ledah grinned back. “Wonderful. We’ll come by Master Galia’s and pick you up.” She and the others took seats a third of the way around the circle. They bent their heads together, whispering and giggling, as the last few stragglers made their way into the building. Josiah thought about asking if he could join them, but before he could, Elkan rose to speak the formal words to begin the service, and silence descended.
It wasn’t as bad as Josiah feared. Almost everyone who’d visited them the day before offered thanks to the Mother for their healing. Josiah felt a warm glow of satisfaction that he’d played a part, however small, in helping them. After that, he was entertained as each of the quarreling women offered in turn a long, ostentatious prayer asking that Elkan be granted wisdom in judgment.
As the prayers of gratitude tapered off and Josiah resigned himself to boredom, a young couple rose and moved into the center of the circle. The woman was dressed with even more care than was usual for Restday service, with a fine lace shawl draped around her shoulders and flowers twined into her hair. The man’s short dark hair was slicked back neatly. The two held hands and smiled at the onlookers in nervous delight. Josiah found himself grinning in return.
The woman spoke. “Yevon and I wish to be wed. We come before you to ask that you witness our vows to each other.”
Beside her, an older woman rose. “As Temina’s mother, I agree to sponsor this marriage.”
She sat, and beside the young man an older man rose. “As Yevon’s father, I also agree to sponsor this marriage.”
A murmur of approval ran through the room as he seated himself. Master Galia, a few seats down from Josiah, rose. “As Elder of this community I ask: does anyone have any objection to this marriage?”
Beside Temina, an older man rose. “As Temina’s father, I ask: what provisions have been made for the couple’s life together?”
Yevon nodded. Apparently the question was expected. “I’m a journeyman farmer. I have six acres which I’ve kept in production for the past three years. They’ll provide food for us and goods for trade. I have money enough set aside to pay for the supplies and help I’ll need to build us a house.”
Temina twined her hand in Yevon’s. “I’m a journeyman weaver. My mother is my master; I share her loom. I have twelve bolts of cloth set by, which I plan to sell to finance construction of my own loom. My mother and father have invited us to live in their house unti
l our own is completed.”
Nods greeted the couple’s words; apparently those were good answers. Beside Yevon a woman rose. “As Yevon’s mother, I ask: what provision is made for any children who might bless this union?”
Again the question seemed to be expected. “I’ll welcome any children the Mother may choose to give me,” Temina vowed.
“I’ll provide and care for any children born to Temina, until they’re old enough to apprentice to their own trade,” Yevon promised.
The couple looked around, to see if any more questions were forthcoming. A young woman about Temina’s age rose. “As Temina’s friend, I ask: Temina, are you sure? This seems very sudden. I mean, you’ve only been seeing Yevon for a few months. I care about you, Temina, and I wouldn’t want to see you rush into this without thinking.”
Temina smiled at her friend. “I’m sure, Shobi. We’ve been talking about it for several weeks, now, and when the wizard arrived… What better time could there be? I know I want to build my life with Yevon.”
Shobi smiled in relief. “As long as you’ve thought about what you’re doing… I have no objection.” She sat.
A man rose. “As a carpenter, I offer to help build your new home at a reduced price, as a wedding gift.”
He sat, and a woman rose. “As a tailor, I offer to purchase your cloth at a premium price, as a wedding gift.”
One after another, people rose. “As Yevon’s friend, I offer my labor in the construction of your new home.”
“As Temina’s sister, I offer my assistance in caring for any of your future children.”
“As Temina and Yevon’s friend, I offer to bring you a meal in your new home.”
“As Yevon’s aunt, I offer a goose feather mattress for your bed.”
The Fuller's Apprentice (The Chronicles of Tevenar Book 1) Page 9