Page 12 of The Elven Healer's Apprentice

“Whether or not you want to go.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “This compound is a haven, a place of healing. If you wish to remain, you are welcome. If you wish to go, you are free to do so.”

“I wish to stay.” I loved tending the animals, helping Sina with the housework, nursing patients. “Will you allow me to help with the patients?”

“That depends.”

I opened my mouth to ask for clarification, but I found him watching me expectantly, as though he knew exactly what I was going to say. I pressed my lips together and lifted my eyebrows instead.

He answered my silent inquiry. “Apparently Junipergo approved of your skills, but I have different standards. If your skills and knowledge are adequate, I will allow you to assist, but you are not to call yourself my apprentice.”

“Understood.” I had never fashioned myself as his apprentice. His patients had.

He nodded. “Then meet me in the still room after the noon meal. I need to assess the stores, but I need to check on my experiments first.” With that, he turned and left.

Sage snorted after him.

“I heard that, Sage,” he responded over his shoulder.

She snorted again and then whinnied, as though she needed to have the last word.

I finished caring for Sage and left her, much to her annoyance. Making my way to the kitchens, I found them empty. My meal waited on the tabletop and the air bore the heavy with the scents of cooking food. Though I lingered over my food, Sina didn’t appear before I finished.

Leaving the relative comfort of Sina’s domain, I made my way to the stillroom hut.

A small building with a high roof and only two windows, the whitewashed walls were draped in climbing vines. Hiding in plain sight, the structure was easy to miss among the towering shade trees and heavy foliage crowding around its foundations. I climbed the shallow steps, eager to retreat into the cool depthsof the interior, only to be brought up short by a sharp awareness. There was a spell on the door.

Within the compound, magic was everywhere. It hummed in the ground, buzzed lazily about the plants, and hung in the air. In the year I had lived there, I had grown used to the constant awareness of it lingering about. I accepted and understood that it wasn’t completely dormant. But when someone used it in a spell, it felt different, more alive, more tingly. And that sensation now hovered around the latch of the still room hut.

Why had he bespelled it? I frowned at the latch. Dare I touch it? Would he know? Somehow, I suspected he would know. For all I knew, the spell would do something to me to make it very clear that I had attempted to enter. So, I sat on the ground under the nearest tree and waited for the healer to appear.

Thankfully, I didn’t have to wait long. He rounded the turn in the path. Confidence evident in every movement of his lithe form, his long legs ate up the ground at a swift pace. The sunlight glinted off his hair as the dormant magic in the air sizzled, apparently drawn to his presence. His eyes flashed blue and brilliant beneath his silver brows when he spotted me.

“Why are you waiting out here?”

Scrambling to my feet, I brushed the dirt from my kirtle skirts. “There was a spell on the lock, and I didn’t want to risk touching it.”

The elf was oozing irritation, and it made me wary. He led the way to the door, striding with elegant confidence. With a touch, he did something to the spell that made it flash and spark before melting away.

I flinched at the burst of power.

He paused on the threshold before opening the door. Studying my features with a measuring gaze, his eyes flared and changed from azure blue to a silvery gray.

“Why did you flinch?”

“There was a flash.” I motioned to the now-benign latch. “You melted the spell, and it flared brightly.”

His already intense gaze narrowed. “You can see magic?”

“Can’t everyone?”

He slowly shook his head. “No, not everyone can. And humans tend to be the blindest of all when sensing magic.” He frowned. “I wonder…”

I waited, but he never finished the thought. Instead, he opened the door and stepped into the stillroom hut. A wave of familiar scents washed over me as I followed. Moving to close the door behind us, I glimpsed Lippin running past on the path. His blurred features appeared mildly distressed as he raced away into the brush.

“Is Lippin well?” I asked, before recalling who was with me. For all I knew, the healer had caused the faun’s concern.

“I wouldn’t know.” The master healer muttered a word, and light manifested above his head, settling among his nest of hair, giving it a strangely ethereal glow. And as he moved about, the light cast strange shadows across the floor. The drying and dried herbs on the ceiling stirred with the healer’s passing, letting off wafts of stronger fragrance. “I haven’t seen the faun since my return. However, I have business with him should you see him.”

“I will let him know.” Though, I suspected Lippin already knew, hence the worried expression.

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