“Pyter said she wasn’t the same as you,” Alice whispered and with a shaking hand she reached out, touched dark coarse fur that felt oh so familiar. Running her fingers through she swallowed against a hard lump and felt her heart race as memories came flooding back. Once again she was a young child, with the wolf in her arms as it sought to ease her pain.
“She is not healer. She is very different to us.” As Alice looked at Elize in confusion the older Walker woman shrugged. “The oak and the elder are both trees, but they are both different as well are they not?”
“Gods,” she whispered as the arm once again shook. The strange transformation reversed, as quickly as it had come and Sasha’s eyes flicked open. The green irises were gone, transformed into something yellow and bestially wild as they found Alice before they closed once more. She watched, looking for any more transformations as the young girl’s naked chest rose, fell, and then lay still.
“No,” she whispered as the chest stubbornly refused to rise. “NO!” she shouted before moving as lessons flooded her head. “Sasha, don’t do this.” Taking her by the shoulders she pressed her head against the still chest of her patient, ignoring the stare of Elize and the Walkers that had been summoned by her shout. Instead, she listened for one second, then another, and then a third and she heard nothing but silence.
Laying one hand upon the young woman’s chest she raised her other into the air and then, with silent prayer she brought her fist down. It smacked into her hand on the young woman’s chest, made Sasha jerk as the power of her blow resonated through the woman’s silent body and Alice listened for a heartbeat once more.
“Damn you Sasha come back!” she warned and raised her hand once more. Striking again she felt for a breath and then hit her a third time.
“Let her go healer. You did your best.” Pyter’s voice was gentle and she turned to see his face wet with tears. “This wound was just to grave.”
She looked back to the young woman who lay silent and still. Her long dark hair, matted as it was spread around her head like a halo, the silver streak a river of moonlight bleeding into the ground. She was my friend when I had no one. Closing her eyes she saw her childlike self, saw the wolf in her arms disappear and felt the hole that she had felt since her mother’s death widen.
“No.” She looked wildly around the assembled Walkers, “I promised her I wouldn’t give in.” Bending over the silent woman she bent her head, whispered into her ear, “Come back to me Sasha. I need my friend back.” and then raising her fist she struck Sasha a thunderous blow against her heart.
Sasha jerked, once, and then with a rattling cough her muscles forced air into her lungs. Struggling against poison and illness she began to breathe once more and Alice fell backward, all strength leaving her body. Giggling she felt the pressure and stress build up until it could not be contained anymore. Falling onto her back she laughed, wild and loud.
“Healer!” Pyter’s voice broke her fit and she looked up, fighting for control of herself. “Remember yourself.” Nodding Alice sat up and covered her friend’s naked body up, stroking the long dark hair away from her eyes once more. “I told you I wouldn’t give up. I promised you. So fight for me Sasha and come back to us.”
Panting for breath Alice sat back, exhaustion filling her but she still caught Pyter with a tired gaze. “A part of her changed in front of me. I have seen it, I understand it in here,” she placed her hand on her heart. “And I don’t care that she is different so you will damn well tell me what I need to know to heal her or I am leaving right now.” Then she looked back to her friend. “Because I will not stay and watch her die again.”
Chapter 13
“The poison that inflicts her is spreading fast. It covers her entire arm and as strong as she is, her body won’t cope. At the rate the poison moves I think it will hit her heart in a day or so. So I need to know everything and I mean everything right now.”
Alice sat with Pyter and Markus and felt her blood pounding in her head. Trying to keep her voice as calm as possible she looked at them both. “You said you don’t get sick with poison or illness and my father said you had your own way of healing. Is that because of the change? Does it protect you somehow?”
“Yes,” Pyter nodded solemnly, “When we change, we heal, but Sasha is not like us. She has some protection, but she had become sick before.”
“You said that before. How is she different? Surely if she changes she shares your gift so what are you not telling me?” She faced a wall of silence and threw up her hands. “Damn it Pyter your daughter is going to die! Is this secret really worth keeping faced with that? Why does she think no one likes her? Why is she called a curse?”
“Who calls her a curse?” The eyes that caught hers were suddenly piercing, pinning her to the spot. “Who dares do this to my daughter?”
“I have heard it at the gathering.” Markus’s soft voice spoke up. “I have gone to the other families patriarchs, spoken to them and called for understanding but still,” he shrugged, “As much as we are we are still human.”
“You should have told me.” Pyter’s voice was low and Alice felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise as anger filled the air between the two men. “She is my daughter.”
“Then tell the healer what she needs to know. Tell her about Sasha’s mother. She could cure her you know this Pyter.” The look the headman sent her appointed protector was venomous but Markus bore it steadily.
“Well, where is she?” Alice tried to break through to the patriarch. “She cannot be here so is she with another family? Can we send for her?” Still, the two men faced each other and she got in between them. “What is it Pyter?” He turned and she reached out to him. “God’s damn it, talk to me, you stubborn old man!”
He turned then, his anger tight on his face and rage in his eyes. He raised his hand to slap her and she watched as his nails turned sharp and wicked. “Pyter, we do not hurt family. You taught me that when you accepted me here.” Markus’s voice suddenly filled the air. “She is the only one who can help. You know it as well as I. Do not let your pride and anger cloud your judgment here.”
Breathing heavily the headman dropped his arm and Alice reached for him. “Please, tell me. I don’t want her to die and I know neither do you.” Alice placed her hand on his arm, spoke gently. “Please,” she begged once more. “I am not family and if you want me to leave afterward then so be it but at least let me try.”
He nodded and sat by the fire, suddenly looking old. “Markus, bring the wine. This is not a tale I can tell lightly.”
He blinked and she saw for the first time age approach his face as if some hidden strength within him had broken. “To understand the tale of Sasha’s birth, you have to know the tale of how we came to be.” Markus came back with a cup and passed it to Pyter who took it gratefully and drank it down with large swallowing gulps.
“It is taught, within our families, that after the night of falling stars when the first race was destroyed and all became broken our people were visited by green Lady Sova. She had seen that traces of the first race remained, magic that they had created lay unbroken and she foresaw a need for a way to keep them away from those that would use them for ill. So she came to us and bargained.” He paused to take another goblet of wine and drinking it down he stared into the fire as Alice waited for his tale.
“She promised us power, the power to live free and wild in nature itself free from poison and disease and strong enough to deal with any threat. In return we would be her guardians, living only in those wild places of her natural realm. There we would destroy any dark and evil thing if we could, or keep it safe so that it could not be found by those who would misuse it if we could not. We would make sure evil still slept and we agreed for we only thought of the power she would give us, not the terrible burden it would create.”
“To make sure that we kept faith with her, the goddess placed upon us a geas, to follow the rules of the bargain and happily we agreed. So we began
to travel the world, searching out those places the first races magic still existed and destroying or hiding it as we could. But within a year we knew the bargain for what it truly was.” He shook his head, “Have you seen any children here healer?”
Ice ran through her veins then as a terrible sadness welled within his eyes. “But Sasha,” she began and then whispered, “That is why she is different?”
“We did not know the magic she gave us would make us barren. The Walkers would have no children and have no natural heirs to carry on our legacy. Instead, we were forced to adopt those from outside our people and teach them our laws before giving them the gift, and the curse, we bore.” He took another gulp of wine, “Do you understand healer. To become one of us, you have to give up all choice or chance of having children. That is our curse.”
“But you found a way to break it right? Sasha is your child, her eyes; her coloring is yours in every way but one.” She tried to catch his eye, “Pyter, Sasha is your daughter.”
He nodded. “For ten years I was content with my lot. I had accepted my fate and accepted I would never have a child. I saw things others never would, felt the wind in my hair and fur saw the forest through the eyes of wolf and man and understood the importance of what we did. Yet as I grew older I found something missing. I saw that same thing within the eyes of many of my family and I could no longer accept the bargain. The price was too high to pay and so I started looking for a way to break the curse.”
“Understand healer, I visited holy men and herbalists of skill. Where ever we traveled I asked and always the answer was the same. The curse was too deeply embedded, too powerful to break. Yet still, I quested.”
“In my quest, I turned away from holy men and the natural healing and turned towards magic. I reasoned that if magic gave us this curse, then only magic could take it away. So one night, sneaking away from my family and telling no one I left my duty and my life to travel into the heart of nature seeking one who might give us what we seek, a reason to continue this duty out of love rather than blind obedience.”
“There, in the middle of a great forest, I found a sorceress of power and cunning. She had spent her life studying the natural world and I thought that maybe, she could reverse what had been done to us. She was impossibly beautiful and I ached to see her but I went to my knees and begged for her aid. I promised her my life if she would just break this curse for my family.”
“Wait,” Alice blinked, “My father said something similar. You’re talking about the witch of the hollows. You’re talking about his forest, this place.” Her brow furrowed, “But how can that be? She is a tale that has been told for generations. She cannot be that old surely?”
“She has made her own bargain with the forest itself. As long as she stays within its confines, she will not die,” Markus’s voice made her jump so intent on Pyter was she. “There is a power in this wood we have never seen, never met and yet appears to those it deems most needy. Yet for all our need, it has never appeared to us.”
“You’re talking about the green lady?” Alice sat back and whispered, “Are all the fairy tales we are told true then?” a cup was passed to her and she took it, drinking from it without looking. Sweet liquid filled her mouth and she felt a fiery burn as it slid down her throat but it meant nothing as her mind worked. “Is nothing as I was taught it should be?”
“She agreed to help,” Pyter continued his tale, “She asked for nothing in return but that I stay with her for a month. I agreed and under the forest moon we married and we consummated that marriage. After a month she told me to leave and I came back home to my family. I told them only that I had gone to calm the beast in my heart and being the patriarch they left me alone. ” She watched as his head turned to stare at Sasha, nearly catatonic form. “Nine months later, the sorceress appeared and handed me her without a word and then left.”
“I woke everyone up and the whole family was proud, in love with the little bundle I held for our family had the first baby child to be born to us since the goddess bargain. She was a blessing to us, a sign that the curse could be stopped, that we could have children. We now knew we had to use magic to do this and for a while, everything was good for our family had hope.”
“Yet, as she grew we began to see signs that Sasha was not like us. She did not have our gift the same way we did. We can change at any time but Sasha, when angry or upset cannot control it. Her animal side is wilder than ours. We have the sight and get flashes of intuition, visions of the future. She does not. We heal any damage when we change and so does she, but she also suffers illness and poison where we do not. She is perfect, but not like us. The sorceress in trying to break the curse corrupted our gift and made the child an outcast from the people that had sought her for so long. Yet she is ours and we love her still.”
“Why do you hate her so?” Alice cocked her head questioningly, “The sorceress gave you what you wanted. No child is exactly like her parents. Maybe this is natural for the gift. Since you never had children you do not know.”
“I hate her because, in all our time in this forest, she has not been to see Sasha once.” Pyter shook his head and spat on the ground. “What mother does not wish to see her child and what child does not pine for her mother?”
Alice shook her head. “You are wrong. Sasha has seen her mother. During her fever, she said as much. I think the sorceress has seen Sasha many times when no one could see.” She stared at Pyter “If there is any chance she cares about Sasha I am taking it. So how do I get to her?”
Chapter 14
“No.” Pyter stood and shook his head. “I cannot allow you to go. I gave you my leave to stay here because I hold your father in high esteem. I will not let you endanger yourself by doing this.” Alice opened her mouth to speak but he pierced her with his gaze. “The forest knows us, the forest listens to us. You are safe within it. This woman though, this sorceress, she is of the forest and yet not. She does not listen to us.”
“Pyter,” She reached out to him. “When I was attacked by a badger Sasha was there. When I was scared after seeing my mother sick she was there. When I said goodbye to my mother for the final time she was there. Now she needs me to be there for her. I have to try with or without your blessing.”
“I will take her.” Markus came to stand beside her. “I can guide her as easily as anyone else and if this the only chance Sasha has then we must take it.”
“You will not,” Pyter turned to him and his eyes were hard. “You will both stay here. I will go. I am known to this woman and she may talk to me where she will not talk to anyone else.”
“That will not be enough.” Alice shook her head. “What is the remedy is a plant you do not know? What if it needs a special way of being prepared? No, I need to be there in case there are instructions you do not understand.”
He opened his mouth to say something but she held up her hand to forestall him. “It is not a reflection on you Pyter. You are a good patriarch. I can see it in the way your family respects you. But you do not have the years of teaching I have. You do not have the experience with plants that I have. You were taught to be a leader and you are a good one. I was taught to be a healer. That is just how it is and we do not have time to argue.”
“She speaks the truth Pyter,” Markus said quietly. “You will need her there to give Sasha the best chance of survival.” Then he gripped the old patriarch’s arm. “She is your daughter before she is the hope to our people Pyter. Guide the healer to the sorceress. Trust her in this.”
He took a deep breath and Alice could see the vein on the side of his neck jumping. He is as scared as I am of losing her she thought as he stared at Sasha. “Is this a vision?” he asked simply and Markus nodded slowly. “Very well, keep our family safe until we return,” Then he turned to Alice and whispered, “Get ready, we leave in moments and may the gods have mercy on me if this goes wrong.”
Alice ran to her bedroll and found Mashka there, with a pair of leather boots and a leather jerk
in the same as they wore. “You will need these if you are to go to the sorceress. You will have a better set when I have finished. For now, these will serve.”
“How do you know what we are to do?” Alice took them gratefully and began to dress for a hike.
“One day I will tell you the story of how I came to the family but for now understand Pyter is a good leader but he is still a man. Sasha is our sister despite our differences; we talk about things that she cannot talk to him about.” She shrugged delicately, ”I originally come from a town, I have seen healers and I know you are skilled. If you cannot heal this, then there is only one person who can.”
Alice watched as Mashka reached over, gripped her arm and smiled. “You brought her back once. Save our sister now.” Then she sat back on her haunches and stared down at Sasha. “I will look after her until you get back.”
These people are so strange. Could the change possibly bond them that close? “If it can be done, I will,” she offered and pulling the clothes on she took one final look down at the unconscious young woman who lay so very still. Falling to her knees she lowered her head, brushing Sasha’s heated wet forehead with her long blond hair and whispered, “I know you can hear me, Sasha. I’m going to your mother to get you help. All you have to do is hang on for one more day. You were strong enough to calm a frightened child when we were younger. Now be strong enough to give me one more day I beg you.”
“Ready.” Pyter stood behind her and getting to her feet she reached behind her head and knotted her long blond hair into a ponytail so it would not impede her. Nodding resolutely she said boldly “Let’s go.”
Wolf Heart: Moon Born book 1 Page 8