Page 29 of The Demon's Delight
Conversation had fallen off once again, as we focused on one foot in front of the other. Thankfully, the weather had become cooler and there was a nice breeze.
I stretched my arms out wide, then followed that with my wings, prompting a startled squeak out of Hailon.
“Sorry.”
“It’s alright. I just saw them in my periphery and…” She trailed off. “I can’t believe I’m saying these words out loud, but I’m used to seeing your tail moving somewhere around your legs. But the wings are right at eye level, so they surprised me.”
Amused, I flexed them, a nice stretch and relax so the tip of the one nearest her touched her shoulder, like a fingertip tapping to get her attention.
“Hey.” She brushed me away with her hand, but a relaxed smile graced her mouth.
“How do you know so much about demons?” I tried to reach for my magic, to encourage my body to lift from the ground, but nothing happened.
“Aunt Sal.” Hailon looked away from me, her focus on the road straight ahead as she spoke.
“And the magic?”
Hailon’s hands rose to her hair, the nervous habit she had of tugging at the uneven ends as I’d neglected to offer braids before we left our rough camp. “She’s a wise woman.”
“So, she knows more than most?”
“Yes.” Her eyes flashed, her expression serious again. I missed her smile. “She prepared me for every possibility she could think of, especially when my healing gift revealed itself.”
“Then the real question is more ‘How did Sal know?’” I said the words in a playful way, wings still out wide and getting their own workout while we walked.
“I have no idea. But she taught me about demons and angels. Some about the fae too. The history as we knew it about them all. Witches and magic in all its forms, and how we could both recognize and use it.”
“Is your aunt a witch?” I asked, excited and intrigued. “Are you?”
“Sal may be, but I don’t think her power is very strong if she is. Her magic is more in skill as an herbalist.”
“And you?” I prompted again.
Hailon shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m not talented in anything other than my healing ability, but my only teacher in that arena was Sal, so who knows.”
“Well, the good news is I know several, so if you find yourself near Revalia and you’d like an introduction at some point…”
“That’s kind, thanks.” Red dotted her cheeks. I enjoyed that nearly as much as her smile.
“Are there no other healers in Ravenglen?”
Hailon shook her head. “Sal was the first in a very long while. I guess everyone used to wait for a traveling healer to come through a few times a year before her.”
“Was she born there?” I asked. Something about this situation wasn’t adding up for me, but the ins and outs of human city life were not my area of expertise.
“No, we moved there after my parents left me with her.”
“I see. And Sal’s good with medicines?”
“Very. She can take herbs and flowers and turn them into a syrup or tincture to battle whatever the ailment is. I was out doing the seasonal gather when I was taken.” She paused, eyes unfocused like she was recalling something, but it was fleeting. “Between Sal and I, we keep everyone well—as much as we are able, anyway. Nothing is foolproof.” There was sorrow there, I could see it in the way her eyebrows pinched together. Any good healer lost patients. It was just part of things, though that didn’t make it any easier when it happened.
“That sounds very like a couple of my sisters-in-law. So do you have a shop in the city?”
“No, just our house.” Her mouth pinched. There was something there she wasn’t ready to share with me quite yet.
The road started a noticeable climb shortly after, the path getting narrower and the embankment up the side down to nothing more than rocks and trees.
“What are we climbing to, I wonder?” I muttered mostly to myself, keeping my body closest to the edge of the dirt road. Hailon stuck to the centermost point of the path as possible, the road rising up with a steep slope down either side.
