Healers Desmond and Rayvenwood: You are hereby summoned to the Bridhe of the Isles Abbey to face a review by the Council of Healers. The charges against you are: abandoning your assigned post and neglecting your duties contributing to significant loss of life.
Until the review, you are prohibited from treating patients on all Five Isles. Healers Kone and Schonberg will take over patient treatment in Mistfell.
Yours, etc. Healer Roderick Aldworth, Council of Healers
Jules let out a string of curses.
“Why did you leave Whitestrand?” Healer Schonberg asked.
Natalie pinched the bridge of her nose. “Whitestrand was already dead. This disease”—she gestured to the room—“had already killed the people it was going to kill. Someone escaped quarantine and came here. We couldn’t save Whitestrand, but we could save Mistfell. Or at least try.”
Jules ran his hand through his hair and dropped it to his side. “We sent them a letter to the Abbey explaining our decision, but it would seem it didn’t go over well with the Council. I’m shocked.”
“You’d best get going, then. The sooner you can sort it out with the Council, the better.” Kone said. Jules snorted at that, but nonetheless, they imparted all they’d learned about the disease to Kone and Schonberg, including what they’d learned about transmission of the disease. Natalie reluctantly turned over her stores of tanyaroot and dullanbark and told the Healers where they could find more.
“Good luck,” Natalie said to the new Healers, and they turned and left their patients.
Jules kicked a rock in the street. “I know I said I was sick of treating this disease but this is bloody ridiculous.”
A burning, raw anger boiled up in Natalie. Healer Aldworth’s words from before they’d left the Abbey rang in her mind. “Do not let us down this time.” But then he had sent them to a city that was too late to save. She and Jules had done the only logical thing when someone had broken quarantine, which had been to move on to the town they could save. And by the looks of it, at least as of this morning, Mistfell was faring better than Whitestrand. Maybe they hadn’t obeyed the letter of their orders but they’d done what Healers should do—try to save innocent people from disease.
And apparently, that was a terrible sin according to the great Healer Aldworth.
Who had seriously hurt her friend Jules. Ugh, I can’t believe he was my mentor that whole year and I never realized what a horse’s ass he is.
Natalie let out a string of curses. “The review I can understand, but not being able to Heal at all? What is Aldworth playing at?” Natalie said.
“Oh, Aldworth is always playing at something.” The look in his eyes was almost feral.
Natalie shuddered. Of course Aldworth wanted them back at the Abbey. He’d kidnapped Jules before, and now Jules had disobeyed orders. But what then? What would happen when they returned?
“Well,” she bumped Jules with her shoulder. “Aldworth’s message didn’t say when we had to return. I say we take our bloody time about it.”
He grinned at her and then stopped short.
“What is it?” Natalie asked.
“The Leaking Dragon,” Jules said.
“What about it?”
“We’re standing right in front of it. Let’s see if we can get a look around where Morley stayed.” Jules grinned at her. “We haven’t had time to investigate food, water, and animal methods of transmission. We’ve got plenty of time on our hands now.”
Natalie grinned. “Good point. Plus, Mother and Da used to eat here a few times a week. If The Leaking Dragon is the original point of infection for Mistfell, they could’ve gotten the disease here.
Oswald sat morosely behind his empty bar and brightened when they walked in. “Can I get you something to drink or eat? Business has been slow since the illness came.”
“I’m sorry, Oswald,” Natalie said. “We just need your help. The brewer from Whitestrand, Morley, what room did he stay in while he was here? We’d like to take a look around. And can you show us where he kept his cart and horses?”
“His cart and horses?” Jules eyed her with curiosity.
Natalie shrugged. “It’s where he would’ve kept his own food and water. We should take a look.”
Jules raised his eyebrows and nodded.
They searched the room first and didn’t find much except for a large quantity of dust that made Natalie sneeze.
Oswald took them to the barn next. “His horses stayed in those stalls there. And his cart was on the outside of the barn on the other side of the wall from his horses.”
Oswald left them to their own devices. They wandered through the dark, musty barn. Natalie looked up at a faint skittering sound; likely mice or rats in the hayloft, she thought. Hopefully, Oswald had barn cats.
All the hay and dust had Natalie sneezing again, so they walked outside to the alley where Morley had parked his cart. The alley’s surface was gravel, pockmarked with holes filled with a rancid, brownish-yellow liquid best left unidentified. Bits of hay leaked out of large holes from the barn’s hayloft. They walked to the end of the alley, searching for clues. Natalie almost fell into one of the brownish puddles when a cat scampered out of the barn right in front of her.
“Ugh.” Holding her nose and regaining her balance, Natalie asked: “Do you think there’s anything transmittable in stale horse urine?”
Jules wrinkled his nose. “Not that I’ve ever heard of. Unfortunately, I don’t see any answers here.”
Heads together at the kitchen table, Natalie and Jules pored over Natalie’s worn Healing diary. Having given up temporarily on finding the source of the epidemic in Mistfell, they decided to try some research. Natalie expertly navigated to the pages with the entries on epidemics.
She tapped her finger on one page. “Here’s the one I told you about on the way to Whitestrand, the one with the well.” She thumbed through to another section. “Here’s another one, the one my grandparents always told stories about. But it doesn’t really have a lot in common with our epidemic.” When Jules finished reading, she flipped the pages again. “Here’s another one. I haven’t read this one in a while. Let’s see.”
Natalie skimmed the left side of the book, then the right. Her eyes caught sight of a doodle she’d drawn in the margins; a heart with ND + JR written inside. Hell in a kettle, Goddess’s bloomers, and damn it all to hell. She casually covered the initials with her hand, shifted in her seat, and returned her eyes to the content of the page as if her life depended on it.
“Are you done reading?”
“Not yet,” Jules muttered.
Natalie’s foot twitched back and forth.
“Can you move your hand, please? I can’t read what’s underneath.”
Natalie shifted her hand a smidge to the right.
Jules raised his eyebrows. “Thank you.”
Natalie nibbled her pinky nail.
“Natalie?”
“Done reading?”
Jules smirked. “What’s under your hand?”
Natalie looked at him with her best innocent expression. “Nothing. Why?”
“Nat. I was a teacher for quite some time. I know when someone is hiding something.”
“Look do you want to read about epidemics or not?”
“Fine, turn the page.”
Natalie turned the page, tension draining out of her stomach when Jules’s hand shot out and grabbed hers and flattened the page once more. Fire suffused her cheeks as he saw her drawing and comprehended its meaning.
Saying nothing, Jules turned the page, his face carefully expressionless. An awkward silence descended; Natalie tried not to crawl out of her skin. She lowered her eyes and kept reading, but the words jumbled together.
She’d been betrayed by her own hand from long ago; Jules now knew her feelings for certain. This would change things between them forever. And right now, she had the feeling it wouldn’t be for the better.
“So that’s it?” her mother asked, helping Natalie hang her laundry on the line. “No more Healing until you see the Council?”
“Yes,” Natalie said.
“Well, I’m sure this Healer Aldworth will decide in your favor. What else could you have done? I would have died had you not arrived when you did.”
“Mmm,” was all Natalie said.
She and Jules put off leaving by cleaning all their possessions. The farmyard fluttered with bits of laundry, and even now Jules was off in a nearby stream bathing. Natalie ducked behind a hanging shirt to hide her blush as she thought about the cool water sliding over his warm skin. She dully reminded herself there was no point in thinking such thoughts. He’d barely spoken two words to her since they’d sat to read her diary together.
Aaron came back just then with a brace of rabbits. He’d become quite adept at making spring snare traps after she and Jules had shown him the technique. Natalie wanted to make sure her family wouldn’t starve after they left. It would be several more days until they got a response from Solerin Isle, and Mother and Aaron needed to be able to obtain food independently until they had more help for the farm. Luckily, her Mother had always been a proficient vegetable gardener. The vegetable garden only needed some extra tending after a few days of neglect. Natalie also showed her family safe plants to gather and eat in the wild. Natalie swelled with pride as the shelves of the family larder filled to bursting.
Dinner that night was a somber affair. Natalie and Jules had put it off long enough; they must leave the next morning. The food was sawdust in her mouth and sat like rocks in her stomach. She hated leaving her family. The hole in her heart left by her father’s death stuck out like a large thread that had been pulled out of a tapestry. She wanted to stay with her mother and Aaron and help her hometown through the epidemic. But the Abbey had called, and she must obey—especially if she wanted to Heal again.
Natalie sighed. She missed being a plain, simple Healer. She fiercely missed Jake and her sanctuary of the greenhouse where everything felt normal—where people weren’t dying by the hundreds. And even though she’d only been one for a few weeks, she wanted to be a teacher again. She wanted to see her students’ eyes lighting up with the knowledge she imparted; it was something she hadn’t known she’d needed in her life.
At the end of dinner, she kissed her family goodnight, and against her own good judgment, followed Jules out to the tent. She lay next to him. She inhaled, smelling the clean scent of his clothes and the faint scent of forest and horses. Her heart pounded and she was all too aware of how close he lay. She inhaled to start explaining what he’d seen in her diary. If he could just understand, if she could just ask him how he felt …
But Jules’s dark head turned away from her and he went to sleep without a word.
Natalie blinked at the tent ceiling. They kept dancing toward each other and then spinning away. Why does he hug me, flirt with me and confide in me, only to push me out when we get too close? The awful weight of rejection sat heavily on her, and it was quite a while before sleep found Natalie, her pillow damp with tears.
Chapter 18
R
N
atalie told herself she wouldn’t cry when she said goodbye to her family, but her tears fell on her mother’s shoulder nonetheless as they hugged the next morning.
“I’ll miss you. Take care of yourself and keep getting better.” She wanted to apologize about Da but the words gummed up in her throat.
She hugged Aaron. “Take care of Mother for me, okay?”
“Take me with you, please, Nat. I can build things and hunt.”
“I know you can. You’re amazing. But Mother needs you and I would feel so much better knowing you’re here taking care of the farm and her.”
Frowning, Aaron turned to Jules. Jules cocked his head thoughtfully. “One day, perhaps, it will be time for you to leave the farm and further your talents. But I believe your mother needs your talents the most right now.”
Aaron looked slightly mollified as he shook Jules’s hand.
They mounted the horses and departed, meandering along the road to the Abbey. It was a relief to not be in a rush, attending to patients nonstop. For the first time in years, Natalie got a chance to truly admire the verdant summer landscape of Ismereld. What was summer like on the other four Isles? She’d never left Ismereld, but she always imagined Solerin, with its Attuned skilled at tending plants and crops, covered in fields of flowers, vegetables and grains.
It was harder to guess with an Isle like Citherin. What was life even like on an Isle full of jewelers, potters, sculptors, artists and writers? Maybe, one day, she’d have the chance to visit. Methyseld must be a crazy place to live, with its dancers, singers, musicians and actors. Methyseld’s Attuned often traveled in troupes to the other Isles, putting on amazing shows. Natalie cherished the memories of the few shows she’d seen growing up.
“Jules, have you ever been to any of the other Isles?” she asked, breaking the silence for the first time in hours. Relief washed over her when he answered.
“Obfuselt, mostly. Though that’s the hardest Isle to visit. They guard their talents with a vengeance, as well they should. Amongst their Attuned are excellent builders and craftspeople, yes, but there are also exceptional shipwrights, weaponsmiths, hunters, and spies. They are easily taken advantage of by those in power. Other than that, I’ve been to Solerin once.” He was silent for a moment, then added, “When I was working with Anli and Onlo, we mainly traveled between Lorelan and Obfuselt.”
Natalie gathered her courage and extended the conversation. Come out of your shell, my turtle. “You said you met Onlo and Anli during the war. How did you meet? That is … if you don’t mind telling the story.”
“No, it’s all right. I was on Lorelan, traveling with Aldworth. This was before I knew what he was trying to accomplish there. He kept handing me ancient manuscripts and asking me to read them out loud. Most of it was in a language I didn’t know, so he had to teach me how to say the words. Reciting them always gave me terrible headaches. He never would give me an answer when I asked what we were doing. After a while, I realized the situation was dangerous, and I decided to run away.” Jules laughed.
Natalie smiled. “What?”
“A Roseharbor-raised man, educated at the Abbey, and I ran off into the forests of Lorelan. How well do you think that went for me?” Jules smiled ruefully over at her.
“Oh, dear.”
“Yes, well, so it would have been if it hadn’t been for Anli. She wasn’t kidding; she saved my life. She and Onlo took me in with a group of soldiers from Obfuselt. It was they who taught me to hunt and survive. Before I lost my hand, I was rather good with a bow and arrow. I really miss archery sometimes.”
Natalie smiled over at him. “I’m glad they found you.”
Jules nodded. “Me, too. I only wish I’d paid attention more and not let my overconfidence in my skills get the better of me. If I had done so, Aldworth might not have recaptured me and I might still have my hand. Anli still blames herself, but it was really my fault.”
Natalie took a deep breath. She still had trouble wrapping her mind around her mentor’s treachery, but she felt the need to speak up. “The only one to blame for your capture is Aldworth himself. It’s not your fault, or Anli’s.”
“But—”
“Jules, if I got robbed on the street in Mistfell, would that be my fault or the thief’s fault?”
Jules’s mouth formed a thin line. “It’s not the same.”
“Isn’t it?”
Jules ground his teeth. “No.”
“Why not?”
Jules grimaced. “Because I volunteered to go with him. Aldworth approached me one day and told me he was assembling an elite squad of Healers to travel to Lorelan and Heal Isle troops there. Although we’d be without the power of Ismereld’s megalith, our troops needed the skills of the Abbey’s top Healers. Since I was one o
f the best, he needed me. And the gang of men he sent to capture me told me they’d captured Aldworth, too. It was all lies. Oh, he knew exactly how to reel me in.” Jules shook his head, his shoulders hunched.
Natalie’s heart broke to see the burden of guilt weighing so heavily on Jules. “Jules, I would’ve believed him, too. I didn’t even believe you the first time you told me he was plotting against Ismereld. He was my mentor from my apprenticeship, and there was absolutely no indication he was a traitor. My dear partner, I hate to break this to you, but you are human, not all-knowing. And what happened to you is not your fault.”
Natalie wasn’t sure, but she swore one corner of Jules’s mouth turned up. They spent the rest of the day ambling along the road, stopping to rest or eat whenever they desired. Natalie gathered herbs when she spotted them. Her satchel, which had been rather empty lately, brimmed with herbs again. They stopped when the sun hung low in the sky next to a lovely pond. Their bellies full from dinner and the cooking fire settling low, they lay on blankets outside the tent and stared at the stars.
Natalie sighed as the cool night air brushed her skin. “I wish I could still help Mistfell. And I know what awaits us at the Abbey won’t be pleasant. And I miss my Da something awful. But at the same time, I feel like everything is right with the world. Just in this moment.”
When Jules didn’t respond, she turned to face him. He stared back at her with an unfathomable expression on his face.
A streak of light darted in the corner of Natalie’s eye. “Was that—it is! Look, there’s another! A shooting star.” Natalie jumped up, scanning the sky for more. Soon, the sky was peppered with streaks of light and she began jumping up and down. “A meteor shower. By the Five, how amazing,” she gasped and twirled in a circle, unable to tear her eyes away from the sky.
Jules stood and moved close to her, staring at the meteors with an expression of wonder on his face. Natalie couldn’t help herself; she clasped his hand. “Isn’t it stunning?”
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