EPIC: Fourteen Books of Fantasy (53 page)

I raised my head and smiled. ‘Yes. That’s true.’

‘And you don’t have to go there, do you? I mean, if you’re leasing it out. Why can’t you hire other people to go there to mend the shack and feed the animals?’

He was right. I wouldn’t have to set foot there except when we were keeping the horses out at the property. Even then, I didn’t have to go into my uncle’s house. I could stay outside. But we were getting bogged down in details, and those bothered me less than thinking that I was the owner of a property that belong to the man who had betrayed my trust and made me fearful of every adult I met.

‘I… um… I think it might be… um… good for you to go into his house. What he did to you and your mother was bad. Maybe by facing it, you can make peace with it.’

If it had been anyone else, I would have stormed out of the room and wallowed in self-pity. But Frooby had a way with me. His idea was still terrible, though. Every time anything reminded me of Garrad
,
of that day in the tub, my mind seemed to spin out of control. It was bad enough living in the house where my uncle’s murder had taken place. We ate in that house. Laughed in that house. It was a constant disgrace to Father’s memory for me to be happy in the home where he had saved me. I hated the world. I hated myself.

‘I need to go,’ I said and stood. ‘Butter. Up.’ He leaned against my leg, letting me know he was there. I wound his rope around my right hand.

‘I know you, Adenine. You’re in no condition to go anywhere. Besides, how will you get home? I’m still wondering how you made it here in the first place.’

‘A lady helped me.’

‘And how do you propose to get home again?’

‘Butter knows the way. We’ll work it out together.’ I liked that Frooby cared about me, but I hated it when people hinted that I might need help because I had a weakness. It made things harder, yes, but not impossible.

Feeling self-righteous, I stormed towards the door and flung it open. I wanted to scream at the brightness of the sun. It found its way through my blindfold, and the red of my eyelids glowed extra bright. I wanted to see another colour other than red—blue, green, yellow, or purple.

‘Adenine,’ Frooby said in a way that beckoned me not to leave.

But I’d overreacted, and I wasn’t going to admit to it. On the way home, whenever my walking stick found a large stone, I kicked at it, hard. The pain felt good, but it didn’t relieve my frustration. So I tried running as fast as I could. I tugged on Butter’s leash, and he ran alongside of me. He seemed to be enjoying it, and I was too. I tried not to worry about what was before me. I was tired of caring about walking into trees or catching my feet in holes or ditches. I was tired of planning. Tired of being good. And most of all, I was tired of caring about what people thought of me.

When I got closer to town, the town crier gave the morning news.

‘Hear ye! Hear ye! A healer from Meligna passes through. She stops tonight. Sixty large gold for a healing.’

Sixty.
Last time, it had been eighty. I knew Mother had that exact amount stored in her treasure chest. Frooby needed a healing more than we needed the money, and if Mother kept the hill shack, our future was secure. I would buy Frooby a healing. The idea excited me, so I decided to go back to Frooby’s house and tell him. I turned and started running.

A woman yelled, ‘Seize her!’

Hands grasped at my body. They seemed to come from every direction. They dragged me into the nearby brush.

‘Take off her blindfold,’ the woman said. I recognized that voice! Healer Euka.

‘Let me go!’ I screamed, and heard Butter growling beside me.

Then, one of the men shouted. Butter growled and snarled. There was a yelp and thud. Butter went quiet.

‘Damn dog,’ a man said.

‘Butter!’ I angled my head, trying to hear him panting or making any noise at all.

The man laughed. ‘He’s not moving.’

‘Don’t be a brute,’ Healer Euka said.

He grumbled, ‘At least be a dear and heal me.’

‘Your skin is not broken. You’ll get no healing from me. Now be quiet, or I’ll send you home without pay.’

‘What do you want?’ I asked.

‘My apologies, Adenine, we just want a moment with you. We don’t mean you any harm. I just want to check something very important.’

If she had good intentions, she would not have hired men to grab me. They were Ruxdorian men too. They had the same accent as Klawdia.

Two hands grabbed at my blindfold and yanked it off. The red colour of my eyelids became brighter.

‘No!’ I tried to cover my eyes with my hands. One of the men twisted my arm, and the pain was excruciating.

Healer Euka sighed. ‘Just as I expected.’ And then she took off my bonnet and removed the wrap from my hair. She sniffed at it. ‘Ugh, yes, that’s the smell all right.’

I had no idea what she was talking about. ‘My arm, it hurts.’

‘Loosen your grip, men. Can’t you see she’s not a threat?’

My arm throbbed. I knew there’d be bruises, even though I wouldn’t be able to see them.

‘Child, have you ever been taught about my city? The healer’s city?’

‘Meligna?’ I asked cautiously.

‘Yes. People only dream about living in
my
city. People whisper of its beauty, of its prosperity. It is a wonderful place with clean lanes and roads, plentiful clothing and food, good education, and nobody is ever sick because healing is free.’

‘So why doesn’t everyone go to live there then?’ I asked, trying to pull free of my captors. Two were holding me, but they hadn’t said anything yet. The man who had hurt Butter stood by Euka from what I could tell.

‘An intelligent question. You have brains to match your eyes. The answer is simply that we healers only let in certain people. In exchange for a complete healing, people come to live there and work for us. They are given food, housing, and schooling, but they cannot leave. It is a commitment. What would you give to have your eyesight back?’

‘You can’t heal me! I’m a girl!’

The man holding me snickered at my outburst.

‘Oh, but I can. And you will see why when I tell you that—’

A whistling noise interrupted our exchange. I heard a gasp, then a thump. After a second whistling noise, I was pulled to the ground. I felt a lifeless body beside me, and I wondered if the man was dead.

‘Who’s there?’ Healer Euka yelled. ‘Show yourself.’

I heard the thump of footsteps running across brittle branches.

‘Come back, traitor,’ Healer Euka yelled.

Another whistling noise came, sounding as if a tiny bird had flown past my ear at a fast speed. I heard another thump and assumed a second man had collapsed. I crawled to where I’d heard Butter fall. I almost cried with joy when I found him breathing. When I stroked his body, he whined with pain.

I nuzzled my face into his fur and spoke to him gently. ‘It’ll be all right.’ He moved his head to lick my fingers, and I stroked his face.

‘Be gone, healer whore,’ Klawdia said, ‘or the next arrow will be through your throat. I’d like to see you heal that.’

‘Klawdia, help!’ I cried. ‘Butter. He’s hurt.’

The sound of leather creaked beside me, and a hand touched mine as it brushed over Butter’s head.

‘The dog attacked us first,’ Healer Euka said. ‘So you are the one who warned me to stay away, Klawdia. I know you, and that is all the confirmation I need. The Queens will want to hear about this. Especially Queen Toxiv.’ Healer Euka laughed.

I heard the sound of a sword being drawn, then Healer Euka gulped.

‘If you come near her again, I
will
kill you,’ Klawdia threatened.

‘You won’t hurt me. You’ve already put the alliance between King Erageo and the Queens at risk with trying to keep me away. This girl will be mine.’

‘Go,’ Klawdia said.

Healer Euka stepped lightly away.

‘He has a cracked rib,’ Klawdia said refocusing on Butter. ‘I should force that whore to copulate with… never mind.’

‘What do we do?’

‘Get him to my house. I can treat this.’

Klawdia lifted Butter and carried him, but he whined with her every step. The sound cut through me as I followed. Goosebumps erupted on my arms, and I rubbed them. Without his rope in my hand, without his tail wagging against my leg, I felt bare, as if someone had removed one of my limbs.

When we got inside Klawdia’s house, she lay Butter on a bear skin rug, which I only discovered when my arm was scratched by long teeth protruding from the head of a dead bear.

‘I will be back. Keep him still.’

I put one hand on his hip and the other on his shoulder, and continued to whisper soothing things to him. I told him about rabbits and squirrels and how we would go exploring by the river as soon as he was better. He was getting so big, and I used my hands to take in every angle and curve of him.

Klawdia returned. ‘Here’s something for his pain.’ Liquid swished inside a glass bottle. ‘I have blanket for him, too. We must wrap him up tight and prevent movement.’

I nodded and tried to keep him calm as Klawdia went about securing him.

‘You’ve grown,’ she said. ‘Tall too. You’ve been looking after yourself like I instructed. Good girl.’

Butter whined.

My heart lurched at the sound of his pain. ‘What are you doing to him?’

‘It will last only a moment. Soon, Butter will feel better. I promise.’

I wished I could see him. I wished I could look into his eyes. After a while he seemed to calm, and we moved the rug underneath a window where the afternoon sunlight warmed the flooring.

‘You are not harmed?’ Klawdia asked.

I searched for any points of pain or discomfort in my body. ‘I’m well.’

‘What did the healer say to you?’

‘Not much. Butter attacked one of the men. I don’t know. It’s like Healer Euka wanted me to go to Meligna with her. She said I could get a healing from her.’

‘I see.’

‘Did you kill those men? You’ll be hanged like my father was,’ I said, worried for Klawdia’s life.

‘Not killed. Poisoned, but it’s temporary. They’re all from Ruxdor. They’re all wearing hooded robes to hide their red hair. They are the healer’s heavies.’

‘Heavies?’

‘Paid criminals. In this case, Ruxdorian warriors fallen away from our tradition.’

‘How did you know I was in trouble?’

‘Adenine,’ she said sadly. Then, she stood and walked over to her oven fire. Liquid glugged, and she scraped the bottom of a pot against hot coals. The leftover water on the outside of the pan sizzled from the heat, and Klawdia resumed her seat. ‘I have friends in Meligna. They helped keep Healer Euka away for as long as they could. When they said that she was coming back here to retrieve a blind girl, I left Ruxdor to follow her.’ Klawdia yawned.

I wondered how long she had been without sleep. ‘Shouldn’t I pay you or something? You saved my life.’

Klawdia laughed, a hearty sound from deep in her belly. ‘Nonsense. I am impressed at how you and Butter tried to fight all those men.’

‘You told me to survive. And I did.’

‘I could not ask for a better pupil then.’

‘So does that mean…’ I cleared my throat. ‘So does that mean I’m your pupil now?’

Klawdia chuckled. ‘We must speak with your mother. We don’t want to get on her bad side, do we? I hear you and Capacia have inherited some new land.’

I sighed. I didn’t really want to talk about it. ‘You know what Healer Euka wants with me, don’t you? No more secrets, tell me.’

She took a deep breath. ‘We should involve your mother in this. There’s so much, and I’m troubled that your reaction might be bad. I do not even know where to start.’

‘From the beginning,’ I said.

Chapter XX

‘F
IRST
, I
MUST
ASK
YOU
a question. Has your female blood begun?’

I nodded.

‘You dropped these in the struggle.’ Klawdia placed my bonnet and hair wrap on my lap. ‘Do you know that the colour of your hair is changing?

‘No. It has always been a dark brown. What is it changing to?’

‘It’s becoming lighter.’

‘Mother said my hair is flaking.’

‘No. She’s dying it black to hide its new colour.’

My thoughts went back to when I was sick. It seemed that ever since my affliction had been cured, things were beginning to change. Was it normal for hair to change colour?

‘No one can explain the method of it, but all girls like you have hair that changes colour. But before we talk about that, the things I know about you are part of a larger story.’ Klawdia’s clothing creaked and rustled as she shifted in her seat. ‘Remember many months ago I told you that my father is the chieftain of Ruxdor?’

‘Yes. He rules Vilseek.’

‘Correct. My father is like the icy landscapes of my country—cold and hard. I’ve also mentioned my son, Nallael. He’s why I left home. He’s why
you
are alive.’

What did Nallael have to do with me? I didn’t know anything about him. Also, it did not seem right that Klawdia, serious in her thoughts and cautious in her movements, would even have a son. Was it normal for a mother to wear armour and weapons? Jemely had said that people from Ruxdor were always prepared for battle, but I never imagined that by ‘people’ she had meant women as well.

‘Where is Nallael now?’ I asked.

‘Meligna City. He serves Queen Toxiv in the Meligna palace.’

‘Healer Euka talked about her before. Is she your enemy?’

‘Yes. I tried to kill her. She keeps Nallael close now to curtail any further attempts I might make on her life.’

‘What did she do to make you want to kill her?’

‘I had no choice. She threatened Nallael’s life...’ She trailed off then continued in a quieter voice, ‘She forced me to do horrible things.’

Horrible things. I knew all about those. Klawdia’s words scared me, and I was reluctant to ask her further questions. The Queens couldn’t be that bad. Could they? They’d been healers in Senya once, revered and loved until the Wicked King changed the laws. It had to be a misunderstanding. The Queens weren’t evil, just upset, and maybe one day King Erageo could be allies with them. Curiosity overtook my fear, so I ventured another question. ‘What did Queen Toxiv make you—’