“If a woman wanted to pay her own way, how would she earn the money?”
“I know what you’re really asking,” Mathius said. “But you see, none of the normal things would suit you now that you have tasted power. The only thing for you is magic. If you learn some useful spells, people would pay for what you can do or make for them. Digging a well is a good example. That would earn you five silvers. As it is, you could be a healer. A good healer is always in demand.”
“I know one other thing you must be good at—a lord’s whore!” a man shouted at the top of his lungs.
Brian and Udall jumped to their feet and kicked their chairs away to draw steel. Julia hadn’t noticed the man approach as she listened to Mathius. There was a mad scramble, as the inn patrons cleared a space.
“Stop!” Julia shouted.
“But Lady—your honour!” Brian said spluttering in outrage.
“I said stop, Brian. You as well Udall. Put up your swords and step aside please.”
They looked rebellious, but Julia glared at them and they reluctantly sheathed their blades. This was just what she needed to show them she could look after herself. She didn’t need bodyguards.
“Do you have something to say to me?” Julia said to the disreputable looking man who had insulted her.
“I think you heard me the first time you whore! You let the traitor into the fortress after m’lord Athlone accepted you as a guest!”
“Ah…” Julia said seeing clearly what had happened. “You are one of the traitor’s men then. I should have known scum like you wouldn’t just disappear. How can you walk among these people without shame?”
Julia turned to the spectators and told them the news. “Athlone was a traitor. He was working with the sorcerers to bring an army through the northern border. This town would have been the first of many to fall. It still might. Lord Jihan and his men will soon be fighting for your freedom, and they are outnumbered. Men like this man would see you enslaved.”
The patrons shouted their hate and moved toward the ex-guardsmen en masse, but he surprised Julia by standing his ground and drawing his sword. The next few seconds went by in a blur. With sword raised, he charged her—
Craaaack!
—and met his death at Julia’s hand.
The man came to rest against the door with a hole the size of Julia’s fist burned through his chest. The sudden silence was deafening. The inn patrons looked at her and flinched back at the cold expression on her face.
“Death to Deva’s enemies,” Julia said coldly. She turned to her companions and raised an eyebrow. Both the guardsmen seemed pleased and even Mathius nodded.
The innkeeper had the body removed then offered to show them to their rooms. Julia quickly agreed, and followed the others as they made their way upstairs. The whispers started behind her as she climbed.
“Did you see that?”
“…Deva’s enemies—”
“Wouldn’t cross her—”
Julia smiled grimly. People were people anywhere she had found. As on Earth, force was the only thing some people respected. It always came down to who was strongest in the end.
The next few days went by in much the same way. Julia would wake at sun rise. After washing and dressing, she ate breakfast with the others in the common room. She always had the same thing, two eggs and toast, and a cup of goat’s milk. The milk took a little getting used to, but she had decided Mathius was right about the amount of wine she was drinking lately. She decided to drink water or milk with one cup of wine at dinner from now on.
The rest of the day she spent exploring the town and getting to know the people. Brian and Udall would not let her go alone of course, but word of her first night’s encounter must have preceded her because she met with no further trouble.
She hadn’t brought any clothes with her from the fortress, so with a red-faced Mathius helping her choose what was, and what was not, appropriate, she bought some underclothes and various essentials from the local shops. Mathius told the grinning guardsmen who watched from the door to shut up or he would fry them.
Julia’s routine changed though, when on the fifth day after her arrival, a woman interrupted her breakfast.
“Are you the lady healer?”
“I am she. My name is Julia.”
“Thank the God I found you! My boy, he’s awful sick. Will you help? I can pay you a copper or two, and more when I get it.”
“Don’t worry about the money. Just take me to him quickly,” Julia said and dashed out behind the woman. She didn’t need to look to know her friends were following.
They soon left familiar streets and Julia began to wonder if she was wise to come. The streets were dirty and smelly, and there was garbage and worse things in the gutters that ran along the edges of the road. It was not the smell that made her edgy though. It was the stares she received. On each corner, rough men stood and watched her as she passed. She stood out as an outsider, but worse than that, her dress and the guardsmen marked her as highborn. If it hadn’t been for the woman who led them, Julia felt sure she would have been mugged or worse. Julia belatedly realised that Mathius was linked to his magic so she did likewise—just in case.
“Here lady,” the woman said pointing to a ramshackle house.
Julia stepped into a gloomy room warily. It was the only one in the house. There were curtains to divide the sleeping area from of the rest of room, but they weren’t being used. On a low bed in one corner was a sick child about six years old. He was flushed and crying out in pain.
One moment Julia was at the door the next on her knees trying to comfort him. “There, there. Auntie Julia will fix you up, don’t you worry.”
“Nonsense. He’s dying.”
Julia looked up in outrage. “Oh? You must be the so-called healer that failed to cure him. What in your learned opinion is wrong with this child?”
“Why... it’s plain to see.” The healer stepped forward and gently pulled the covers down. “Touch him gently just there.”
Julia frowned. There was something about that point on the body... Then she remembered. In her first aid classes the instructor had said appendicitis could be diagnosed with reasonable accuracy by lightly pressing that part of the abdomen. Would magic cure something like this? Julia bit her lip—she didn’t know. She felt the area and the boy screamed. There was no doubt. It might even have ruptured into peritonitis. He needed surgery, but that was unknown here except for an occasional amputation.
Julia took a deep breath and started to heal him, there was no choice but to try. She raised her golden ward first. She never took chances anymore. She built a net around the evil looking green and purple mass that pulsated in the boy’s aura. She quickly destroyed the red streaks that permeated him, until only the source lay trapped in her net. Fresh red streams tried to spread outward only to be stopped as they encountered her barrier. Squeezing the net smaller and smaller, she destroyed the nasty thing.
When it was done, Julia dropped her ward and returned to the real world. She didn’t know how long she had worked, but her legs had gone to sleep and her neck ached something awful.
“Help me up Mathius.”
Mathius lifted her to her feet easily, and steadied her until the feeling came back to her legs.
“I don’t believe it,” the healer said in shock. “What you have done is... I humbly beg your forgiveness lady. May I send for you in future need?”
“There’s nothing to forgive. I wasn’t sure it would work either. If you need me, I’m staying at the Ram’s Horn.”
The healer nodded her thanks and left after saying a few to the boy’s mother.
“Thank you. Here is everything, but it’s worth it,” the boy’s mother said holding out a dirty hand with four coins in it.
Julia looked at the woman’s four coppers and couldn’t think what to do. She put out a hand toward Mathius. Shaking his head, he handed the pouch over. She pulled ten silver pence out of the pouch and added them to the four c
oppers in the woman’s hand.
The woman looked at the money in bewilderment. “I don’t understand, lady.”
“You need coins more than I,” Julia said and left the woman staring at more money than she had ever seen at one time. Once outside, Julia handed the money pouch back to Mathius, and they walked back to the inn.
Over the following days, Julia kept herself busy healing the sick, or walking around learning what she could about the Devan way of life. She no longer needed guardsmen to walk any street safely, but Brian and Udall had their orders and took them seriously. They wouldn’t hear of her walking the streets alone. When Julia was called to heal someone with the means to pay, she charged five silver pence, but when she went into the poorer quarters, she gave her money away. As long as she could pay for the rooms and food, she was happy to save lives instead of take them. According to Mathius, she was breaking even so far, and that satisfied her.
Julia caught Brian talking to a guardsman from Malcor and although she knew he was reporting to Keverin and Jihan, she made no comment. It was inevitable they would keep an eye on their only powerful mage. She was well aware of the Hasian threat approaching from the north. A couple of times she had thought to go and look for the enemy instead of trying and failing to see them in the mirror, but she had come to her senses in time. Lucius had insisted her failure with scrying was not due to his teaching or her lack of practise, but was instead due to her emotional state. She had protested, but he said women were always emotional and her failure was to be expected. Julia had wanted to singe his ears for that, but it would only make his point for him. What was worse, she saw the awareness of that in the grin he turned her way. In the end, she had laughed it off, but that didn’t help her continued failure. She spent a candlemark at the end of each day trying to solve the problem, but so far she had failed to see anyone other than her friends and Keverin.
Days came and went. She became known throughout the town as a fine healer and a fool with her money. People knew her by sight now, and when she wandered the streets, this woman or that man would often greet her.
She was content.
Julia made her way upstairs to her room. The boys said they would stay a while to listen to the minstrel, but she thought they just wanted to chat with the serving girls. The boys had become fond of two girls in particular. Both seemed very young to her, but women were routinely married here at seventeen. She knew both Brian and Mathius had found a bed other than their own more than once. Udall had smiled tolerantly at the two younger men and said he was too old for such games and followed her up. It made no difference to Julia who they slept with, and besides she was starting to sound like an old prude. She was only nineteen herself.
Julia sat on her bed looking into her mirror and watched the swirling grey subside. The image she called forth was rock steady, and seemed real rather than a picture made of light. She absently wondered what else she could make with light, but the thought soon faded as she saw what she was looking for.
Where was he riding to so late?
Julia watched Keverin riding hard toward something she could not see. He looked both grim and determined about something, and with a chill she realised he was in full armour.
He’s coming here! She thought excitedly, and then scowled at her reaction. “I don’t care if he’s coming... I don’t!”
A part of her, a small part, wanted to avoid the confrontation, but she knew she couldn’t, especially not with the Hasians coming. She quickly packed her few belongings, and left the room. Two doors down she knocked and entered Udall’s room.
“We are going back to Malcor. Your lord is on the way here. I think the enemy must be close.”
Udall nodded and didn’t ask questions. “I’ll tell the others.”
“Good, meet me in the stables.”
Udall excused himself and headed for the common room. Julia walked slowly to give the boys time to pack. She managed to saddle her horse on her own and was congratulating herself when the others arrived. Before long, all four were riding out of town toward the fortress.
The moon provided the only light, but it was nearly full and was enough to see Keverin galloping towards her near the midway point. Julia pointed him out to the others, and reined to a stop. The others stopped with her and waited for Keverin’s news.
Keverin brought Cavell to a gentle stop. “Well met. The Hasians are no more than two days away.”
Julia’s friends greeted their lord warmly, but she just watched him in silence. Now they were together again she found her anger returning. Rather than start an argument she swung wide around him and continued riding on toward the fortress. She heard the others talking quietly as they moved to follow, but she couldn’t hear the words clearly. She didn’t need to hear them to know that Keverin was asking for a report.
I’ll give him a report!
How about a report on the arrogance of Athione’s lord, how about that? Or a report about the poverty of Deva’s people? She had learned a lot about Deva since leaving the fortress, and one thing was clear. While the lords and merchants lived in splendour, Deva’s common folk lived in poverty. More than once she had been asked to heal someone only to find the symptoms due to malnutrition. She had temporarily strengthened them with magic and given them food and money to buy more.
Julia had asked questions. Why were the people were so poor? The answers were always the same. No trade meant no money, and no money meant no food. King Pergann had let the kingdom fall into ruin. The traders had stopped coming years ago. The economy, such as any country had here, had collapsed. Only the lords lived as they always had, mainly due to the fealty of the farm folk on their lands. Devan metal goods had been sought after at one time, but the trade had declined through over taxing. Eventually it had ceased altogether when the master crafters relocated to Japura where their skill was greatly prized. The master crafters and master miners left en masse when the king doubled the price of iron ore from the mines, which were crown property.
The Athinian and Elvissan Mountains were rich in various metals, but the mines were no longer producing as they once had. What goods Chulym produced were limited to poor quality farm tools, and cutlery for the common folk. Chulym at one time had rivalled the capital in importance, but the day of the master sword smiths was long gone. Julia was not an economist, but even she could see Deva needed trade to get back on its feet. How to make the traders come back was the question. What do traders want? Money of course, and they get that by buying cheap and selling dear. What does Deva have a lot of, which traders might find worth buying?
Keverin riding up to her side interrupted her thoughts. “We need to talk Julia.”
“Do we, lord Keverin?”
“You used to call me Kev.”
Julia snorted. “That was before.” She watched his face darken with satisfaction.
“Curse it Julia! I could have destroyed that God cursed book if I had wanted to keep you here! You wouldn’t have known a thing about it, but I didn’t. Instead I kept it for you and hoped you wouldn’t use it.”
“Hoped I wouldn’t? You knew I wouldn’t. I didn’t know about it! Oh yes, you needed me to save Athione so you didn’t tell me, and then there was Malcor so you didn’t tell me then either. When would you have told me—after I saved the whole bloody kingdom?”
“If only you could,” Keverin sighed. “Darius was my best—my only friend and he died because I showed him that cursed book. I don’t want you to follow him. Not just because Deva needs you, but because I love you.”
“I’m not sure it matters anymore, Lord Keverin. I just can’t trust you. I’ll help you fight the invaders, but don’t look for more from me.”
“How can I make you believe me?” Keverin said in frustration.
“I don’t know,” Julia whispered.
When Julia reached the fortress, she left her horse in Brian’s care and made her way to her old room. The door was new, but when she opened it, she found Jihan sitting in Keverin’s chai
r waiting for her.
“I’m glad you’re back Julia. I’ve missed you.”
“I’ve missed you too. You’ve changed,” Julia said. He had grown into his position. “You cut your hair.”
Jihan smiled ruefully. “Clan braids seemed inappropriate for a lord protecting the border against Clan raids.”
Julia smiled and nodded. She supposed he was right, but she had liked the style. The beads woven in looked otherworldly, and she liked that. Jihan was a handsome man. A single ponytail at the back like the one Marcus wore didn’t detract from that. Jihan was still pretty.
“I saw your preparations. How far away are they?”
“The scouts came in just before midday. The Hasians are no more than two days out at the speed they’re moving.”
Julia dropped her cloak across the back of her chair and sat down. Jihan looked worried, but that was no surprise. “Are we going out to meet them, or waiting for them to come to us?”
“That’s what I want to talk about. Keverin recommended staying behind the walls, but I think that’s a bad idea.”
“It is,” Julia said in amazement.
Why would Keverin say something stupid like that? Malcor would be defenceless against a legion with sorcerers supporting. She would do her best to help, but her ward wouldn’t protect both gates and four walls. She still couldn’t build a ward like Renard used at Athione even with Mathius trying to teach her every day. She didn’t expect matters to change before the Hasians arrived.
“I know why I think so, but why do you?” Jihan said.
“At Athione we had five mages warding one gate and a small stretch of wall. Now all you have is Mathius and me. I couldn’t ward your gate to save my life, but even if I could, the legion will surround Malcor and attack from all sides.”
Jihan was nodding. “Keverin agrees with us on all that, but he feels you would be safer fighting from inside the walls, rather than taking the fight to them.”
That explained why Keverin wanted to fight defensively. She probably would be safer inside the walls, but what about everyone else? The sorcerers would bombard Malcor as they had Athione, but this time they would attack until nothing was left. They knew all about her now. They wouldn’t take the chance of her getting away. She was sure of it.
Devan Chronicles Series: Books 1-3 Page 40