Page 11 of House of Embers
Amond appeared around the corner. His brown skin was sallow as he shuffled forward. His black eyes were cast down, and he looked like he was about to pass out at any moment.
Fordham took a step forward as if to catch him from falling, but the healer put his hand up. “I’m fine.”
“You don’t look fine,” Kerrigan said.
Amond was one of Dozan’s men. Dozan had always collected talented magical users—he’d tried to collect Kerrigan at one point—but Amond was the clincher of his cohort. He was the most talented healer that Kerrigan had ever seen. Traditional healing used the energyfrom both the healer and the recipient and could take hours for injuries, but Amond used a blue light to heal within minutes, without any of the extra problems from traditional medicine. Kerrigan had never learned how he did it.
“Yeah,” Amond said as he came to Kivrin’s side and checked him over. “Withdrawal.”
“Oh,” Kerrigan muttered. “But Clover…”
“Would be worse off without the loch than I am,” Amond said.
While Clover used the substance for her illness, Amond was just an addict. It had been a good deal with Dozan—healing for the drugs. But now the drugs were too limited. Kerrigan couldn’t imagine what he was going through.
“Can the healers…”
Amond glanced up at the two Fae on the other side of the room with disdain. “They don’t know half as much as they need to ease my symptoms, and nothing can fix it. I just have to…” He gestured dismissively.
“Should you be healing then?” Fordham asked.
“Don’t worry about me,” Amond said. “If it gets too bad, Clover and I worked out a deal.” He clapped his hands. “As for your father…”
“Give me the bad news,” Kivrin said.
“You’ll walk again.”
Kivrin gaped. “What?” he asked in a strangled voice.
“Oh my gods,” Kerrigan whispered.
“It’ll take a few sessions,” Amond said as a blue light appeared in his hands. “It would have been better if I’d seen you straightaway, but considering the world was falling apart, I’ll make do with what I have.”
“You’re sure?” Kerrigan asked, tears coming to her eyes.
“Nothing is ever certain, but I’ve seen something like this before.” He went silent for a minute, a catch in his voice before he said, “In a war far from here.”
The blue light disappeared into Kivrin’s body. A sigh of reliefhit her father like a painkiller straight to his veins. Amond started at Kivrin’s hands, which had been hastily healed so still had damage in the tendons. Then he moved from one hand to the other before shifting lower to his abdomen and working at his spine.
Kerrigan had always been so focused on the healing from Amond, she had never paid attention to him while he was doing it. Now that she was, she couldn’t help but see the way Amond almost glowed gold as he used his powers.
She put her hand to her mouth. “Amond…”
With a resigned sigh, he released his magic and let the blue glow fall away. He sank down into the chair next to Kivrin.
“It’ll take a few weeks,” Amond told Kivrin. “Longer if I can’t get my own shit together.”
Kivrin nodded. “Thank you. I never thought…” He shook his head. “I didn’t want to hope.”
“Your work will be compensated,” Fordham told Amond. “We’ll look into the loch situation as well.”
Amond tipped his head at him. “That would be appreciated.” Then his gaze swept to Kerrigan. “Ask me your question.”
“Are you…” She paused because it couldn’t be possible. “Are you Doma?”
He put his head into his hands. “Demi-Doma.”
“You’re half,” she whispered, shock written on her features. Then after a moment, she added, “Like me.”
