Page 20 of The Elven Healer's Apprentice

His mouth quirked ruefully. “Upon consideration, perhaps I have been more myself than usual.”

I turned and pushed open the door, holding it for him as he followed. “What makes you so…” I searched for the right word.

“Arrogant?” Merlon suggested, before striding off in the direction of the sphynx habitat. “Callous? Cruel? Or perhaps calculating?” He threw the descriptors over his shoulder as he walked.

I hastened to catch up with his long-legged pace. “You aren’t callous,” I protested.

“Oh? Arrogant, then?” He arched a pale eyebrow at me when I caught up enough to see it.

“You wouldn’t do the work you do if you were any of those things.”

“Then what were you trying to ask?”

“Why do you act as though you don’t like your patients?”

“I do like my patients—well, most of them I like.”

“Really? You have an odd way of showing it.”

“Hmm…” Merlon reached the door to the sphynx habitat and pulled it open. Using the bucket of feed like a shepherd’s crook, he herded me through the opening ahead of him. “Many have described me as cold and unfeeling. Would you concur?”

I frowned at his back as he closed the door behind us. He latched it so the elegant cats wouldn’t escape and raid the chicken coop as they were wont to do.

“Merow!” The prima of the sphynx pride, a sleek, silver-gray cat named Mert, head-butted my knee before winding herself around my legs. Lean and elegant, the sphynx constantly reminded me of the barn cats at home, despite their larger size. About the size of a large dog, Mert’s head reached my mid-thigh. The cats’ mannerisms were similar, and the way they had claimed me as their preferred caretaker reminded me of my favorite childhood pet.

“Hello, beauty.” I greeted her with a head scratch and a long rub down her arched back. “Has your court been behaving?”

A soft meow was her only answer before she began purring with a heavy thrum that vibrated through my fingers.

A chorus of meows followed as the rest of the pride approached for their daily scratches and pets. I rubbed backs, scratched chins, and smoothed sides as each sphynx rubbed against me, covering me and my clothing in hair.

“Really, Mert?” Merlon asked. “No greeting?”

I looked up from the mass of cats at my feet to see Mert regarding the wizard with regal affront. Giving him an answering hiss, she then cleaned her whiskers with an indifferent air.

“What is it with you and animals?” Merlon demanded.

“Me or Mert?”

“You.” The elf crossed to the feeding bowls and began doling out the food. “First Sage shuns me and refuses to let me visit her, and now you have replaced me in Mert’s affections.”

I laughed. “Mert is just upset that you haven’t visited.”

Chapter Seven

Merlon

Adela’s laughter rippled through the dappled sunlight like music. The sound made my attention fix on her amidst the crowd of winding sphynx. She appeared to glow in the shimmering sunlight coming through the glass roof of the habitat. In the brief moment her laughter caressed my ears, warmth flooded my chest. A strange sensation I hadn’t experienced since my mother died.

“Merow,” Mert demanded, batting at my hand where it held the pail of feed suspended over the last bowl.

“Finishing now,” I informed the cat-like creature, who scoffed at my distraction. I tried to ignore the hunger to hear her laughter again. Filling the last bowl, I stood, dangling the empty bucket from my fingers. “Food!” I called to the crowd of creatures milling around Adela.

As one, the pride turned and headed my direction. I moved aside so I wouldn’t be jostled in the elegant stampede before I approached my—I flinched. I couldn’t categorize Adela. We needed to define her role now that it appeared she intended to stay—or rather I intended she remain. What choice did I have in the matter? She had beguiled my patients, bewitched my animals, and now I wished to make her laugh again.

While I mused over this discovery, Adela headed toward the door.

“I will leave for a few days,” I informed her as I followed her through the gap and out into the open between the compound structures. “The king has summoned me again.”

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