“He’s probably hungry,” Tessia said. “And from the smell I’d say he needed a change a long time ago.”
Avaria sighed. “Yes. He can’t stay with us. I’d have Sennia take him back to Calia if I could spare her, but I can’t.”
“Can any of the other servants take him?” Tessia asked.
A look of distaste crossed Avaria’s face. “Sennia suggested we give him to the unmentioned ones.”
“Unmentioned ” ones? Tessia frowned, then smothered a laugh. “The women following the army? I suppose one might take him... for the right price.” She looked at the boy and considered. “Try the servants first. We may find survivors willing to take care of him, too.” The baby’s wails grew suddenly louder. “But he won’t last if you don’t get him fed.”
Avaria nodded. “Thank you.” She looked at Sennia. “Could you ask...?”
The servant smiled, turned her horse and started riding back down the line. Avaria looked ahead and her expression changed from concern and annoyance to one of horror.
“What...?”
Following Avaria’s gaze, Tessia looked past the magicians and felt her stomach sink. Corpses littered the road. Not one or two, but dozens, perhaps even hundreds. As the army drew close she saw that the victims were men and women of all ages. Children, too. She heard exclamations and curses from all around.
“They must have been on their way south,” Jayan said quietly. “Doing what they’d been told – to evacuate. Only they ended up in the path of the Sachakans.”
Dakon made a low noise. “Look.” He pointed at broken furniture at the side of the road. “They probably took these people’s carts and threw out what they didn’t have a use for.”
Avaria hissed quietly. “They’re having no trouble replenishing the powers they’re using to burn and wreck our villages and towns.”
“No,” Dakon agreed, his gaze dark with worry.
Suddenly a head appeared above the low stone wall on one side of the road. Then a small girl climbed over and ran to the head of the army. Werrin reined in his horse, and everyone began to stop.
“Help! Can anybody help? Father is hurt.” The girl pointed towards the wall.
Werrin spoke to one of the servants travelling with the army’s leaders. The man hurried down the line, his gaze pausing on Tessia, then sliding away. Tessia felt a small pang of hurt. For months she had been the one people turned to for healing. Now that there were guild-trained healers in the army, she had returned to being merely an apprentice.
But he did consider me, she thought. It’s not been forgotten, or remained unnoticed, that I do have some skill.
Werrin nudged his horse into a walk again, and the rest began to follow. Jayan turned to look at her.
“Let’s wait and see what happens.”
Surprised and pleased, she followed as he drew his mount aside so the army could pass. Dakon glanced back once and nodded to indicate his approval. She felt a fond gratitude. He did not need her to ask his permission. He understood, even supported, her healing.
I am so lucky to have him as my master, she thought.
The wait for the healers seemed long, and she realised why when, long after the last magician had passed, the two men peeled away from the column.
They couldn’t be bothered breaking from the line and riding ahead, she realised with disgust. The girl pointed over the wall, and the men dismounted with unconcealed annoyance. A servant stopped to hold the horses’ heads. Tessia and Jayan swung to the ground and gave the servant their reins as well. Tessia unhooked her father’s bag, and they followed the girl and the healers across the field.
It was not hard to find her father. A great swathe of blackened vegetation led to him, and past. His clothes were also black. He lay in a furrow, face down, unconscious but still breathing.
The two healers bent to examine the man, then shook their heads.
“He is too badly burned,” one told the girl, gently but firmly. “He will not live through the night.”
Tears filled her eyes. “Can’t you stop him hurting?” she asked in a small voice.
The healer shook his head. “Bathe him with cool water. If you have any strong drink, give him that.”
As the healers walked past Tessia and Jayan, the one who hadn’t spoken to the girl looked at Tessia. “Don’t waste your cures,” he told her.
Jayan cursed quietly under his breath as the pair strode away. He looked at Tessia. “Do you want to have a closer look?”
“Of course.”
Moving to the man’s side, Tessia knelt on the ground. She realised with a shock that there wasn’t blackened cloth on the man’s back. It was his skin.
“When the strangers came we ran,” the girl said.
The man’s breath was coming in short gasps. The healers were right. He can’t survive this.
“When the fire came he fell on top of me,” the girl said. “I didn’t get burned.”
Despite her misgivings, Tessia tucked her hands under his head, touching the unburned skin of the man’s forehead, and closed her eyes. As she had all the times in the past, she focused on the pulses and rhythms of the body beneath her hands. She gently sent her mind out of herself and into his. But this time there were no broken bones or torn flesh to manipulate. The damage was more subtle. Her father had taught her how a heart reacted to a severe burn, and about other changes in the body. She sought a sense of these changes.
Suddenly she could feel his pain.
It was terrible. She recoiled. Opened her eyes. Realised she had cried out.
“What is it?” Jayan said, alarm in his voice.
“You’d better start mixing up the pain blocker now,” she told him, then forced herself to close her eyes and send her mind forth again.
I’ve never sensed anything like that before! Knowing that if she hesitated, she’d lose the courage to face that pain again, she delved back into her awareness of the man’s body. Eagerness and reluctance warred within her, and it took a long, long moment before she felt the pain sweep over her again. This time she forced herself to stay and endure it. To examine and gently probe.
Within moments she’d worked out where to apply magic to block the pain. But she hesitated.
Should I? Father always said pain was the body’s way of making a person sit still and heal. This man is still going to die, but how shocking would it be for his daughter if he started walking about, all burned, only to collapse and die?
Perhaps if she could lessen the pain... she cautiously drew power and blocked some of the pathways. The body under her hand relaxed a little. Unsure if she had done enough, or too much, she drew away and opened her eyes.
The girl’s father was awake. He made no attempt to get up. She realised that he was exhausted, and probably would not have had the energy to rise.
“There,” she said, glancing at the girl and Jayan. “That’s given him some relief.” She looked at Jayan, who had measured out powder into a mixing jar. “Don’t worry about it. I’ve worked out how to block the pain with magic.”
His eyes widened and he stared at her in amazement. Then he shook his head and began to replace the items in her father’s bag.
“Who are you?” a voice croaked.
They both jumped and looked down at the burned man. “Magicians,” Jayan replied. “And Tessia has some knowledge of healing.”