Page 6 of The Elven Healer's Apprentice

As one of a minority among the elves, I didn’t request a shadow elf escort whenever I traveled. To do so would’ve meant the two of us passing through the shadow lands, a perpetually dark place of shadows and grayness. My stepfather had been a shadow elf and tried to force me to adjust to walking through shadows with an escort, but I couldn’t stand the feel of the magic required. It made my skin itch. I still avoided it as much as I was able.

Walking up to the river’s edge, I reached out to the border spell with my magic. It responded with a sensation of identification and then welcome. However, this time, an additional sensation of assessment brushed over my senses,following the welcome. The spell was examining the woman in my arms.

Hesitant to move until I knew it would accept her, I waited. After a moment, reluctant acceptance clicked into place but no welcome. Only then did I initiate the crossing spell. A mist formed like a blanket over the width of the river. Then it rolled back, revealing the very real bridge the spell had hidden. I began crossing as I normally did. All went smoothly until the middle of the bridge.

The spell suddenly resisted. Dragging at my companion, it slowed my steps. Puzzled, I tweaked my magic, changing the parameters of my request for entrance to include the woman in my arms specifically. The spell accepted this, dropping all resistance. We crossed the rest of the river without issue.

Still, as I strode down the familiar road toward home, I wondered at the spell’s resistance. It was the first time I had attempted to bring back an unmagical companion. Perhaps that explained the issue. I would have to discuss it with Emrys. For now, I focused on the more pleasant prospect of home.

“What do you have there?” Thomasina, my housekeeper and cook, met me at the property line with a sharp glance at the woman in my arms.

“A rescue-and-release, Sina. Nothing more.”

The wizened old hobgoblin female wrinkled her nose at me. “Humans aren’t animals, Master Merlon.”

“I never said they were. Is the isolation house empty?” I asked as I strode past her and onto the trail that wound through my estate, linking buildings, barns, refuges, and mews. The protective spells snapped into place around me and wrapped the woman in my arms in a cocoon of magic, protecting her and isolating anyone else from her contagion. Thankfully, elves weren’t susceptible to most human illnesses.

“Humans are more of a long-term commitment,” Sina protested as she caught up with me. Although her legs were short thanks to her diminutive height, her speed more than made up for it. Deeply tanned and Leather-skinned in texture, her face was prone to dynamic expressions. Large, luminous eyes of topaz yellow and a prominent nose that ended in a hook dominated most of it. Pointed ears poked through her mop of coarse gray hair. The ears were of similar color and texture to her skin. Much like a horse’s, they swiveled and moved, revealing her moods. They twitched as she ran next to me, betraying her agitation.

“I must protest, Master Merlon. You have too many to care for as it is. The clinic overflows and the animals need feeding. Lippin is missing.”

“The human won’t need much.” I walked past the main house, the stillroom hut, the clinic, and the back garden to the tiny house I used as an isolation hut for contagious patients. A single room with a lean-to for personal needs, the hut contained a comfortable bed, a table and chair, and an enchanted bookshelf that rotated out the selection based on the occupant’s language preferences. Sina stocked the hut with all manner of luxuries and comforts. Most importantly, the entire building had already been layered with multiple spells to promote healing, eradicate any external contagion, and keep the occupant inside its walls until they were well.

As I walked through the doorway, the air filled with the sharp citrus scent of spells burning away the impurities on her clothing and skin.

“She will need good food, quiet, rest, clean water, and someone checking on her twice a day.” I settled her body onto the bed’s soft mattress. “Oh, and fresh air, plenty of it,” I declared as I opened the three windows.

“Understood.” My housekeeper regarded me with her hands on her hips. “And where shall you be?”

“With the king.” I glanced toward the bed and checked my patient’s vitals again. “She should be awake by morning.” I tweaked the spells on the hut. “The spells will notify you when she does. I will be back in a day or two, three at the most. Now, where did you see Lippin last?” I took a step toward the door, but Sina blocked the opening, nose and ears twitching.

“And when she is healed?”

“I will return before then.”

She sniffed and eyed me with one crystal-clear, golden eye. This was a sign she was trying to detect whether or not I was being deceptive. Although elves were hypersensitive to lying to the point that as a species we rarely, if ever, lied, we could withhold truth without discomfort. “See that you do. Humans are a hefty commitment, and I don’t want the responsibility of having to keep this one alive.”

“Understood.” I met her probing gaze. “May I leave now? I need to find Lippin to give him the yaron harvest I collected before I leave for Emrys’ palace.”

“Eat before you go.”

I regarded her with far more patience than I felt. “If you have something prepared in less than a quarter of an hour, I will eat. If not, I won’t eat.”

She wrinkled her nose at me. “Come to the kitchens in an hour. I will prepare something for you to eat on your way.” Stepping back into the garden, she let me pass.

“I knew there was a reason why I keep you on my staff.”

She snorted. “As though anyone else would put up with you.” Then she left in a flurry of legs, skirts, and hair.

I turned the opposite direction and headed toward the first of my wayward assistant’s favorite hiding places—the griffin’s roost.

∞∞∞

Adela

I woke peacefully from the most delightful dream. I imagined someone had come into my dungeon of a chamber, carried me from my bed, and deposited me in a luxuriously soft bed in the most opulent room. Strangely, when I opened my eyes, I realized it must’ve not been completely fantasy considering I lay on the softest surface I had ever experienced and was gazing up at an impossibly white ceiling.

Someone must’ve made a mistake. I was a nobody, an unclean thing. I would only soil the surrounding cleanliness. Sitting up, intent on rectifying the mistake, I was delayed by the swimming sensation in my head.

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