Forged in Fire, page 21
“Not many can. You’ve got a sensitive touch,” Risha said, coming into the room and closing the door behind her. “What were you doing?”
“I had one of my headaches,” Alanar answered. “He offered to help. And yes, he’s got a good touch. I barely felt him, and you know I always feel Treesi.”
“And me,” Risha said. “You told me you always feel me.” She looked at Aven. “How are you feeling, Aven-I-shouldn’t-be-healing-with-an-uncleared-head-wound? Did I need to say that explicitly?”
Aven bit his lip, then nodded. “Probably. Yes. I didn’t know I shouldn’t.”
“The price of a piecemeal education,” Risha said with a sigh. “You know what you know in your bones. And you have no idea what you don’t know. Testing you is going to be all kinds of fun. Have you heard anything yet?”
“Nothing yet,” Aven answered, glancing at the window.
“But I think that’s about to change,” Alanar added. He got up. “There are people in the corridor.”
The door opened again, and Aria came in, smiling when she saw Aven. Behind her was Rhexa, Treesi, and...
“Owyn!” Aven cried. He started to throw the blankets back so he could get up, and stopped when Aria raised her brows at him.
“Stay there,” she said, her voice firm. “He can come to you.”
“Then he needs to hurry up,” Aven replied, making her laugh. Then Owyn was there. He smiled, but he still looked nervous. Aven met his eyes, wondered why he was hesitating.
“Mouse?” he said softly.
“I worried you,” Owyn said softly. “I’m sorry.”
“You can make it up to me by coming closer,” Aven said. Owyn crept closer and perched on the edge of the bed. Close enough — Aven reached out with his good arm and dragged Owyn into a one-armed embrace. Owyn hesitated, then put his arms around Aven and hugged him back.
“If you’re upset, Mouse, come to me,” Aven whispered in his ear. “Let me help.”
“You’re hurt. And you were asleep. You needed to sleep. I...” Aven felt Owyn shudder, and he rested his forehead on Aven’s shoulder. “I don’t know why he did that. Mem. Why he said that. I... I don’t know.”
“Have you asked him?” Aven asked, rubbing Owyn’s back. “I want to know, too. Where is he? He didn’t come with you?” He looked up at Aria, who shook her head.
“He was gone when we got back to the house,” she said. “He has not come back.”
“I think he’s gone off to hunt visions,” Owyn added. “His smoke blades were gone when I looked for them.” He straightened and stood up, walking around the bed so that he could sit down on Aven’s good side. Aven grinned and put his arm around Owyn’s shoulders; Owyn pressed close against his side and sighed. “I’m sorry I worried you all.”
“You were upset and angry,” Aria said. “I understand.” She smiled, and took something out of her coat pocket. Aven saw blue flashing in the light.
“Is that my gem?” he asked. She showed it to him, and he grinned. “Thank you. I was missing that. I felt naked without it.” He sat very still as she hung the gem back around his neck where it belonged. He sighed as she touched his cheek.
“You are, you know,” Owyn murmured. “Naked.” He rested his head on Aven’s shoulder. “It looks good on you.”
“Naked?”
“And wearing only your gem,” Owyn said, and grinned. Aven laughed.
“You’re feeling better.”
“I’m with you and Aria,” Owyn said. “How could I not feel better?” He looked up at Aria. “Well?”
“Now?”
“Yes, please!” Treesi giggled. “Now!”
“What’s going on?” Risha asked. Her eyes widened as Aria took something else from her coat.
“She knows?” Aven asked. Owyn nodded.
“Aria told her. But Treesi asked to wait for this until we were all together.”
Aria smiled and walked over to Treesi, holding the brown and gold gem in the palm of one hand. “Healer Treesi, this is yours. If you’ll have it. Have us. Stand with us. It won’t be an easy road.”
“You’ll be on it,” Treesi said softly. “You, and Aven, and Owyn. That’s the road I want to share.” She reached out and touched the gem, then stopped. “It’s really mine?” She giggled again, then looked over her shoulder at Alanar. “I still think Alanar would have been a better choice,” she said.
“Oh, fuck no!” Alanar yelped. “Not me!”
Aria laughed. She took the cord in her hands and fastened it around Treesi’s neck, letting the gem rest against her skin. “The Earth gem is yours. Really yours. You are my choice. The Mother’s choice. The only choice. Welcome, my Earth.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
SEATS WERE FOUND FOR everyone — Aria and Treesi joined Aven and Owyn on the bed, while Risha and Rhexa brought in chairs to sit with Alanar.
“I thought of something,” Rhexa said. “Risha, I’m not a healer, but I’ve lived with Pirit for a good number of years. So I know a little. Check me on this?”
“You usually have good ideas,” Risha said. “Tell me.”
Rhexa folded her arms over her chest. “Did Memfis tell you that he was an addict?”
Risha’s eyes widened. “No!”
“Alcohol, he said. And he pulled himself out on his own,” Rhexa said with a nod. “Owyn, will you confirm? Back in Forge, he had people to support him? And who kept him sober?”
“Besides me?” Owyn asked. “Yeah. There was Meris, and Karse. They both kept him honest. And I made sure there was nothing to drink in the house ever, once I understood.”
Rhexa nodded. “Now, he’s out of his safe area. He has no control over anything, and he knows it. He has no one to whom to turn—”
“He has us,” Aria interrupted. Rhexa shook her head.
“He doesn’t see you as his peers, Aria. He sees you as his responsibility,” she said.
“He said he never planned on being a father,” Owyn said. “And now he’s got us. And he’s got Mannon breathing down all our necks.” He paused, then sighed. “Right. So are there taverns in Terraces? Are we going to need to go comb through them and drag Mem out of a bottle again?”
Risha shook her head. “Not the way you have them in Forge, no. Not with the way the dispensary works. Although it wouldn’t be hard for him to find something — there are a lot of little distilleries, and there’s a brewery on North.” She sniffed. “We’re going to want to restrict their names in the dispensary.”
“I’ll take care of it.” Rhexa took a small book from one of her pockets, and a stump of a pencil. She wrote something down, then put her tools away.
“He took his smoke blades,” Owyn said. “If he’s gone hunting visions, he won’t be drinking. I hope.” He shook his head. “That doesn’t explain everything.”
“How much do you know of addictive behavior, Owyn?” Risha asked.
Owyn frowned. “I knew addicts,” he said slowly. “Alcohol, narcotics, anything you could get on the streets. I tried them, too. Didn’t like how they made me feel. But... yeah, once you were hooked, you’d do anything to keep on getting it. That’s why some of the street whores were there to begin with. They had nothing left to sell but themselves.”
“So you know a bit,” Rhexa agreed. “Now, here’s what I think, and you can tell me how wrong I am. I’m thinking that Memfis is overwhelmed by the danger you’re all in, and by the responsibilities that he’s taken on. He’s feeling that he’s going to relapse. And, given that he knows he’s in danger of relapsing, he’s expecting the people around him to be feeling the same thing.”
Aven felt Owyn shift uncomfortably. “Relapse. That means that he’s worried that he’s going to crawl back into the bottle, because everything is going wrong and he can’t handle it. And because he wants to do that, he thinks I’m feeling the same way, and I’m going to crawl under the first man who smiles at me?” He looked at Aven. “That... sort of makes sense? I think?”
“Risha?” Rhexa said. “What do you think?”
“I think it’s hard to say,” Risha answered. “But it does sound plausible. What we need to do is have him sit down with someone and unburden himself. Someone for whom he’s not responsible.”
“You, or me?”
“I think you’ll have more access, since you’re mentoring his son and the Heir,” Risha said. “Now, Alanar, Treesi and Aven. How much of that did you follow?”
Aven spoke first. “Not a lot, actually. We don’t have much of an issue with alcohol or narcotics out in the deep.”
“I can understand why,” Alanar said. “Water doesn’t mess with those sorts of things. Virrik said something about that. Trees, do you remember?”
“Oh, Virrik. I remember. I just haven’t thought of that in a while,” Treesi murmured. “Yes. He said you didn’t dabble with things that dulled your senses when you were out in a canoe.”
“Who is Virrik?” Aria asked. “I thought I’d met most of the healers today.”
“He’s not,” Treesi answered. “Well, not anymore. He was a healer-in-training, our last training partner. But he left. He didn’t leave a note or anything. He just left one night. He was like Aven, Water and Earth. Umm... Allie? What canoe?”
“He was from Tersera’s canoe,” Alanar said, and Aven shivered.
“You’re sure it was Tersera’s canoe?” he asked.
“Aven?” Aria asked. She turned to stare at him. Then her eyes widened. “Oh.”
“What?” Owyn sat up, frowning. He looked at Aria, then Aven. Then he coughed, “Oh, fuck.”
“What is it?” Rhexa asked. “What’s wrong?”
Aven licked his lips and looked at Aria. “Should I tell it?”
“If you would,” Aria answered. Aven nodded.
“On our way here, we stopped for the night in a cove, south of here,” he started. “There was a cave. It looked like it had flooded. Owyn said there was a big storm about two months ago, so we think it flooded then. We found a body. He was Water, and his family tattoo was from Tersera’s canoe.”
“Mother!” Alanar gasped, sitting up. “No!”
Risha leaned forward. “What else do you know?”
Aven shook his head. “Not much. He’d been there for a while. The body was...” He glanced at Alanar, who looked stricken. Treesi had started to cry, and Aria put her arms around her. She looked at Aven and shook her head, but he didn’t need to be told to stop. He’d tell Risha about the damage later. “He’d been there for a while,” he repeated. “I... did what was needed for him. I took him to the deep and gave him back to the Mother.”
“Mother hold him.” Rhexa murmured. “He was a good boy, a good healer. I’d wondered why he left so abruptly. And how. None of the guides ever admitted to taking him through the tunnels.”
“He might have found a way down through the seawall,” Risha said. “We probably won’t know. And we’re getting off topic. Alanar, Treesi, I know I’ve covered addiction with you. Does what Rhexa proposes sound like it makes sense?”
Aven felt Owyn shift. “I... I don’t think now is a good time—” he started to say.
“They’re my healers-in-training, the both of them,” Risha interrupted. “They can have off times on their own time. Which is not when I’m teaching. Well?”
Alanar cleared his throat. “I... ah,” he stammered, looking completely flustered. He closed his eyes, swallowed, and winced. “I...” He winced again and folded forward in his chair, holding his head as he started to cry. Treesi jumped to her feet and dashed to his side, holding him.
“Enough, Risha,” Rhexa said. “He’s in pain. They’re both in pain. Let them be.”
“I don’t tell you how to run this town—”
“Oh, horse-shit,” Rhexa snapped. “You complain about my administration every damn day. Now let them mourn and leave them alone. Lessons can wait.”
Risha scowled. Then she got up and left, slamming the door behind her. Rhexa sighed, closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Her lips were moving slowly, and Aven realized that she was counting. She’d reached thirty before she turned the rest of the way toward them, letting out another long breath.
“Treesi, why don’t you take Alanar back to your room?” she said, her voice almost calm. “You have rounds in the morning, and you need to sleep.”
Treesi sniffled. “I’m not sure I can sleep,” she said in a quavering voice. “Virrik—”
“I know, sweetheart. I know,” Rhexa said. She moved over to Treesi and touched the younger woman’s shoulder. “It’s hard. We’ll mourn him. At least now we know. And we know he’s gone back to the Mother.”
Treesi nodded. She sniffed again, then looked at the bed where Aven, Owyn and Aria sat. She touched the gem at her throat. “Shouldn’t I—”
Aria shook her head. “You should do as Rhexa says. You have your responsibilities, Treesi. Being my Earth doesn’t change that. Go take care of yourself, and Alanar. We’ll see you tomorrow.” She looked at Rhexa. “How much longer can we stay?”
“I wouldn’t stay too much later,” Rhexa answered. “Given how well he’s doing, I think Risha may intend to test Aven tomorrow. Regardless, he needs to sleep, too. And you should go back to Fourteen, in case Memfis comes back early.”
“If he’s off hunting visions, I wouldn’t expect him back before tomorrow midday,” Owyn said. “And if he’s like he usually is, he’ll record his visions, eat like he’s never seen food before, then sleep the day around.” He leaned against Aven. “I really don’t want to leave right now,” he added. Aven chuckled, and kissed the top of Owyn’s head.
“Aven needs to go to sleep,” Alanar croaked. His voice was thick. “He was keeping himself awake by reading to me. He needs to sleep.”
“We will stay until he sleeps,” Aria said. “Cousin, go to bed. Treesi—”
“I’ll take him,” Treesi said. She took Alanar’s arm. “Come on, Allie. I’ll put you to bed.” She paused. Frowned. Then shook her head. “I owe all of you kisses. Tomorrow.”
“Don’t worry about us,” Aven said. “Tomorrow you’ll give us each two.”
Treesi smiled slightly. “I like that. All right. Come on, Allie.” She led Alanar out of the room, closing the door gently behind them. Once they were gone, Rhexa sat down and rubbed her forehead.
“Is there anything else you need?” she asked. “Any information I can provide?” She smiled. “Anything you want to add?”
Aven glanced at Aria, then looked down at Owyn. “The body... Rhexa, he was dead when he hit the water. He wasn’t changed — he still had legs. And his legs were shattered. The bones were destroyed completely. His hips were torn apart. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Rhexa paled. “Oh, thank you for not telling that to Alanar and Treesi. Tell Risha tomorrow. She might have some ideas. I was thinking he might have jumped from the lowest terrace. But hearing that... no. I don’t know.” She grimaced. “I’ll check with the tunnel guides, see if any of them have seen Memfis. Aria, Owyn, I’ll be in my office tomorrow morning. No need to rush, though. I spend most of my mornings doing very boring paperwork.”
“We will see you there,” Aria answered. “We will need to learn the boring parts as well, will we not?”
“We’ve had enough exciting,” Owyn added. “Boring looks really attractive right now.”
Rhexa laughed. “You’re going to regret saying that. I can give you a great deal of boring.” She smiled at them and left. Once the door closed, Owyn sighed.
“I really am sorry I worried you both,” he said. He shook his head, leaning more heavily against Aven’s side. “What Rhexa said made sense. I just... I suppose. If he ignored every single thing I’d said about being uncomfortable, then yeah. Maybe.”
“When he comes back, we’ll all talk. All of us,” Aria said. “And he will make it right.”
“How?” Aven asked. “How do you fix something like this? How can you repair trust?”
Aria shrugged. “He will have to find a way,” she said. She poked Owyn’s leg. “You like Rhexa all of a sudden?”
Owyn scratched his nails over his trousers. Then he nodded. “I... I think she might be right, Aria.”
“Right about what?” Aven asked.
“She thinks I might be related to her. That I might be her sister’s son,” Owyn answered. “The idea... it kinda scared me, when she told me before. When she first saw me, she said I looked like her sister. That’s when I went and got lost and met Alanar. But, there’s something else. There’s... Aven, when we were still out there, were you ever awake enough that you heard me singing?”
Aven frowned. Then he shook his head. “Not that I remember. I’ve heard you hum, but not sing. Not yet.”
“I haven’t heard you yet, either,” Aria said.
“It’s just... there’s one song,” Owyn said. “Not even a whole song, really. It’s just part of a verse. And I’ve known it forever. No one else ever knew it, anywhere in Forge.” Owyn took a deep breath. “When I was trying to get out of the rain, Rhexa found me. She sat me down in front of her fireplace, and went to get something for me to eat. And she was singing, while she worked in the kitchen. It was the same song. The same song that I’ve known my whole life, and that no one else ever knew. She knew it. The whole thing, even the parts I didn’t. She said it’s something specific to Terraces. And she said that her sister used to sing it to her son, as a lullaby, before they went to Forge.” He looked startled. “I might have been born here!”
“There are ways to find out, you know,” Aven said. “Healers know—”
“Aven,” Aria interrupted. “Treesi says there are no level five healers left.”
Aven’s jaw dropped. “None?” he croaked. “But—”
“There is a great deal we need to tell you,” she said. “Things we’ve learned while you slept. First among them is that this is the only healing center left. According to Rhexa and Risha, there were purges—”
“Treesi said something about that, didn’t she?” Aven interrupted. “Before we had to run? That Mannon had burned all the healing centers?”
