by Lisa Daniels
“Oh gods.” Zandra moaned and covered her face with sandy hands. The sand pressed into her eyes, causing her to start tearing up.
Anani pulled her hands away from her face and brushed off her face. “What do you think you are doing? There is plenty of time to repent your sins later. Right now, we need to get you better so you can fulfill your part of the agreement.”
Zandra looked at him through her tears. He sighed and ran a firm hand over her eyes, the sand and tears blowing away with his hand.
At a loss for what to say, the witch tried to find her last memory.
The shifter leaned over her. “You don’t remember the last few days, do you?”
Zandra looked at him and tried to think of what he could mean. The only memories swirling in her head were of a slow painful death and a pool of endless regrets.
“Look at me.” The voice was firm, but not unkind. When she still couldn’t get her mind around what was happening, Anani tilted her head up so that she looked into his eyes. “Zandra, look at me.”
As she stared into his eyes, images from the last few days began to swirl in her head. The buggane attack on the beach and her near flawless victory. The terrifying flight. The feel of Anani’s arms as he–
“Oh gods!” She pulled back, her mind firmly back in the present. “I am so sorry. I–”
Anani shook his head and pulled her against him. “No more of that. We have an agreement, and you are not going to be able to hold up your end if you fall into begging for forgiveness. Relax and heal.”
A small sob caught in her throat, but she nodded her head. “Of course. Just a little more sleep and I will be fine.”
He let go of her and pulled back so that he could look into her eyes. “Is sleep really what you need right now? Every time you are asleep, you wake more delirious. I think we need to find someone who can help you. And I’m not sure just what to do until we can find someone.”
Zandra shook her head. “I’m fine. It was just… the buggane poison working its way out of my system. Just nonsense.” She had no idea what she had said or done in her delirious state, but from the look on Anani’s face, it must have been pretty bad.
“You aren’t as tough as you think.”
“I’m not as weak as most people think.”
“I don’t know anyone who thinks you are weak,” he held up a lock of her hair, “but you are starting to fade, and I don’t know what is going on.”
Zandra’s eyes tried to focus on what he was showing her. In front of her was glossy black hair that looked a lot like hers, but it was obviously streaked with white. She had always been careful to conserve her energy and magic so that her life would be extended. In nearly 100 years, she had never had a single white hair. Just from what Anani was holding it looked like at least a quarter of it had changed colors.
“That’s not mine.” She gave a nervous laugh. “Are you trying to fool me?” Zandra tried to smile at him as if she were on to his joke.
Anani pushed her hair behind her ear. “Do you remember why we came to Naucratis?”
Zandra frowned. “We are in Naucratis? Why would I want to travel to–” Her eyes widened as a few more memories seeped into her mind. Despite what she had been through, she knew better than to say where she was really going – her instincts to try to shield Anani were ingrained, even as the loss of Akeno rushed into the front of her mind. “I need to….” She scrunched up her face trying to remember what motive she had given.
Anani lifted her up. “Zandra, I don’t know what you have done over the last few years, but it is clear that you have been trying to atone, and it is destroying you.”
“No, no, I'm fine.” She tried to push against him, but the hands that she saw did not look like her own. Pulling them against her chest, she tried to hide them before Anani could see.
The shifter looked around. “I have no idea where to go.”
“There is a Medics Association outpost in Naucratis.”
He looked down at her. “They are not going to be able to help you.”
“No, but I can help them.”
Anani looked at her sideways before nodding. Without a word, he carried her back into the city.
Chapter 6
A Stern Lecture and a Chance of Perspective
“I can walk, you know.”
Anani didn’t even look at her in response. Zandra tried again, “If you keep carrying me, I might start to think that you are reconsidering how you feel about me.”
“If I don’t carry you, there is a good chance that you will end up going back on another promise to me, and I don’t think that should be an option. Do you?” His eyes were stern as he looked down at her.
Zandra looked away, shame replacing her pathetic attempt at banter. She used to be so good at this stuff, but ever since Melzi, the witch seemed to have forgotten how to be charming, or even sarcastic.
“I’m sorry, Anani. I’ve managed to become a burden when you need me.”
“It’s alright for the moment. Just recover your strength so that you can make it through this. I need to fall apart for a little bit, and that really isn’t possible if you are wilting before my eyes.”
Zandra frowned at the description, not liking the way he made it sound like she had suddenly aged. Then she remembered her hands and her hair. Shit, shit, shit. The memories of the last two years had crashed in over her, and after that display on the beach, her time was a lot shorter.
She gave a firm push against his chest. “Put me down. I need to take care of something, and they aren’t going to want anyone to hear what I have to say outside of the association.”
The look he gave her was one of extreme entertainment. “While I am very pleased to see you are somewhat recovered from the events of the last 24 hours, your body is in no condition to do what you seem to think it can.”
“Put me down.” Her voice rose as she pushed harder, and that was when she noticed how old it sounded. Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit! Trying to calm herself, she relaxed in his arms. “Alright, you win for the moment, but please, when we get there, I will need to talk to them alone.”
“Did you become a medic in the last 20 years?” He gave her a wry look as his pace quickened.
“No, I’ve mostly been myself since the last time I saw you.”
His sparkling eyes ran over her face as he calculated his own response. “And what about the last 5 years? Just how many of those did you act like yourself?”
“More than half of them.”
“You mean the first half of them because the last half you were too busy trying to deal with something well beyond your ken.”
“You sound like an old man when you talk like that.”
“I am an old man.”
“No, you are a young man, as anyone who can see you can tell.”
“More than 700 years, I am well past middle age.”
Zandra sighed, “And yet you have the youthful look that no human can achieve. Oh, how lucky you are not to be cursed with any human blood so that you will look like yourself forever. Every time I see you, I could swear you are bending time so that you are aging backwards.”
“If I could bend time, I can think of a lot of better things to do with it.”
“As can I.” Her words were so low that they were almost inaudible.
“Okay, here we are. Are you sure you can make it on your own?”
“Of course, I can. Do I look like an invalid to you?”
Anani looked down on her with something like pity before trying to smile at her. “If you need anything, just say my name. I will be right here for you, even if the medics decide to turn their backs on you.”
“You are a king among peasants, Anani.” She smiled at him, but her face felt weird as she did so. Had it always been so heavy?
He moved up the small steps to the front of the Medics Association outpost and gently put her down. “Remember. I will be right here.”
She gave a little laugh, and headed to the door. Her joi
nts and body felt so much heavier than she remembered, almost as if the buggane attack had poisoned more than her blood. Trying to shake it off, she opened the door. Her eyes automatically ignored her hands as she entered the facility.
“Hello?” Her voice wavered a little, and she frowned. Clearing her throat, she said a little more forcefully, “Hello? Is anyone here?”
A young man entered the area from a room on the side. “May I help you?”
Zandra could tell from the look in his eye that he expected her to request something for herself. Annoyed, she began to fumble in her bag.
He stepped up to her, placing one hand on her elbow and another on her shoulder. “Why don’t you sit down? If you need a tonic for your joints or something for one of your grandchildren, I’m sure we can get you sorted out quickly.”
“Grandchildren!” Zandra shook him off of her. “Do I look like a grandmother to you?”
The look on the young man’s face showed that he did, in fact, think that she looked like a grandmother, but there was cleverness in his eyes that showed he knew what the right answer was. With a beaming smile, he apologized, “I am so sorry, of course you look more like a mother than a grandmother, but usually mothers aren’t able to come on their own. Not without their children.”
“Don’t patronize me. I already know what you were thinking.” Her mind had brushed up against his, and she had seen the way he thought of her, and her stomach had turned at the words that had floated through his head. “I’m not here for myself. I’m here for your damn Association. Here.” She pulled the letter from Ailey out of her bag and shoved it into his hands. “One of your medics figured out what was wrong and has written it up for the Association to disseminate as needed.”
The young man began to open the envelope. The hand that she had tried so hard to ignore immediately stretched out and covered his. “I don’t think so, boy. You certainly don’t qualify.” She pulled it back. “Go get one of your superiors. I need to talk to someone, and I’ll be damned if it is going to be a conversation with a kid who thinks he knows what the world is about.”
The young man frowned at her. “There is no one else here, ma’am.”
“Then I will wait.”
He shook his head, “I mean that I am the only one at this post, ma’am. As one of the heads in my year, I was given my own outpost because of my ability to–”
“So help me, if you don’t go get the woman sitting upstairs right now, I will start screaming.” A small fire flashed in her eyes at the last words.
The young man jumped at the words and strange look in her eyes. Fearing that perhaps they were being attacked, he ran up to the medic who had arrived there the night before. As he dashed up the stairs, he wondered how the visitor had known when he had completely forgotten about her.
The medic who was there was only a few years older than he was, but she had an air of authority that he could only feign at achieving. Having never really spent time in the field, the young man had no idea how to achieve the same air of authority. Whenever one of his superiors tried to explain it, the young man had ended up tuning it out. The reason the Association had chosen people like him for the post that he held was not because they were particularly skilled, but because they could feign authority when it was needed. A good medic would get into the weeds trying to talk with people about their problem when what was needed was to send communication. A great medic would actually go solve the problem, leaving the outpost unmanned.
The senior medic listened to him over her bowl of soup, only half paying attention to what he said, until he mentioned Melzi. “Good lord, boy. You should have started with that.” She rose in one smooth motion and strode out the door. Taking the stairs two at a time, she quickly found the woman who had injured the pride of the messenger.
“I hear you have word of Melzi.”
Zandra nodded. “If you wouldn’t mind, I would prefer to talk somewhere private.” Her eyes darted around the place and to the open door. The Medics Association never closed the front door to an outpost, and that meant anyone could listen. This was meant as a way of encouraging people to speak up, but it also made it difficult to discuss the deeper, more troubling problems.
The senior medic nodded, then turned to head up the stairs. With her foot on the bottom stair, she turned and looked at Zandra. “Will you be alright with the stairs?”
“Would you be alright with my foot up your ass?”
The senior medic looked shocked for a minute, then laughed and began her ascent. The young man looked shocked as Zandra strode past him, standing at her full height, which was almost the same as his. Though it was difficult, she managed to make it up the stairs without too much cursing under her breath.
“I am Dakota,” the senior medic stretched out her hand.
“Zandra.” She shook the younger woman’s hand. “We don’t need any more pleasantries. Here.” She handed the letter over and waited for the woman to finish reading it.
About halfway through, the medic sat down and covered her mouth with her hand. “How did she figure this out?”
“She drank high concentrations of the black sludge along the walls, confirming her hypothesis. I helped her where I could, but I’m afraid my skills are not those of a medic.”
Dakota looked down at the letter, then up at the woman. “She describes a witch who helped her, and said that the witch would be delivering the letter. I am to compensate her accordingly.”
Offended, Zandra scowled, “Do I look like I need any compensation?”
The younger woman leaned back. “You don’t look quite the way she described you.”
“Yeah, well, time hasn’t been kind to me. Some day you will wake up and look in the mirror and be rather mortified, too. When that happens, I hope some younger person is there to rub it in your face.” Zandra pursed her lips at the words coming out of her mouth. She was usually so friendly and outgoing, keeping those thoughts internalized. What the hell was happening to her?
The woman raised an eyebrow, but stopped pressing the issue. Instead, she looked over the letter again. “Is there anything else you can tell me about this?”
Zandra looked to the door, then moved over to the table. “This is not the first time that a city has been under this plague, as I am quite certain you know. Though the cities and towns have long been deserted, following Ailey’s recommendations, the areas can be cleansed and balance restored.”
“Such as?”
Zandra gave her a look of annoyance. “I feel certain everyone has heard of Banton and Lekkining.”
The woman looked surprised. “They have been abandoned for decades. Do you really think this is what caused the problems?”
“I saw both Ailey’s and Ester’s notes. They both suspected Sluagh contamination, but there was no justification for going there to test the cities since they were deserted. Melzi was the first chance either of them had, and if you are smart, I think you will make sure the Association starts to find a way to fix things before they get worse.”
“What do you mean?” The woman leaned forward and folded her hands on the table in front of her.
“In the last millennia, there have been maybe 25 cities entirely wiped out by plague. Two were in the last hundred years. And if Ailey hadn’t finally figured it out, there would have been a third. At what point do you think that it is a coincidence that such a large percentage of cities have been so badly contaminated within such a short period of time? There is something worse going on, and it seems to me like the Medics Association is in the best position to actually do something to stop the next outbreak.”
The woman leaned back, her head nodding in agreement. “I’m not sure what has happened to you. Ailey said that you were a pleasure to have around, very enthusiastic and with seemingly unending energy.”
“This is the result of removing the pain of the dying for two years. Take a good look, and the next time you encounter a witch or wizard, you will remember to treat them better.”
“Why would anyone treat a–”
“Because everyone does. You are a full-blooded human, so you know exactly what I am talking about. The only reason you are talking to me now is because Ailey told you about me. You were hoping that I would be the same smiley personality that she described, but now you are reconsidering, even as I talk about the truth, just how to get rid of me before I hex you.” Zandra held a finger up and the woman flinched a little. “That is called dumb ignorance. Do you have any idea how many witches and wizards you have met over the years?” She didn’t give the woman time to respond. “Of course not, because we know that we have to hide who we are to pass through society. We are dangerous and terrifying. No person in their right mind would willingly befriend a witch or wizard. And then you learn that so-and-so is one, and you know that person is the exception. Well, sweetie, that is about as accurate as saying all humans are saints or morons. Although most of us humanoids would agree that you do tend to morons. Ester was the first human in over 45 years to challenge my ideas about humans, and Ailey was the first I’ve ever met who shattered them. For the last few days, I felt a great sense of respect for medics. Don’t taint it by acting like a normal human.” She rose to her feet. “A week ago, I was holding back two years’ worth of pain that I accumulated by taking it away from the dying. Because I did that, I will now live only slightly longer than a wealthy human. You guys give your lives in the name of saving others, but you get accolades and praise from all sides. You are immune from the follies of most humanoids because your skills are considered too valuable. When we come along, we can’t even let people know what we are for fear that we will be harmed for being born with magic. Yet we still help. We still bleed. And we still die. The thanks we get is mild mistrust at best, and outright hostility at worst. Is it any wonder why witches and wizards have become so hostile in return?”
The medic rose. “How dare you come in here and lecture me about what it is your kind–”