by Guy Antibes
Sam opened his eyes and looked at the man standing across the room in the cozy cottage. He looked a bit older than his father.
“I’ve never seen a person reject pollen casts before. They lasted a few days and then the structure fell apart. Your father said you have no magic, and I believe him.”
“I ca- see po’n.”
“Don’t try to talk. Whoever beat you up smashed your jaw. It will take awhile before you are able to describe who damaged you.”
Sam sighed and closed his eyes.
“I’m Harrison Dimple, by the way. I’m a healer of sorts, but I don’t work full-time in Cherryton,” the man had dark, curly hair and a lush beard. He sat next to Sam. “Your older brother said you were beat up by your rivals in school. They must really, really not like you.”
Sam blinked his eyes and was able to nod his head, painfully, but less so than he feared.
“I’m going to give you something to put you to sleep. Tomorrow we should be able to talk a bit better.”
Sam woke up in the warm, yellow light of a lamp.
“Water,” he said. The healer was right; he could speak a bit better.
“Good. The swelling went down like I had hoped. I’ve got some broth simmering.”
Sam worked his jaw. It wasn’t as painful, but it still promised to give him some trouble. He tried to lift up his hand but found both of them bound. His mind had cleared enough to assess his injuries.
His chest was bound, and that meant broken ribs. One of his legs was encased in something, probably a pollen cast, and both his hands were broken. A thick bandage wound around his thigh where one of his assailants had shoved the point of his wand into his leg. His head hurt from bruises.
“I’m pretty broken up,” Sam said. “I don’t feel very well.”
“They punished you severely, boy. Severely, indeed. It looked like you were taking inventory.”
“I was. My hands are broken?”
“Yep, along with your right wrist. I’m still worried about that hole in your thigh. I had to pour a paste of disinfectant into the wound. I hope it won’t get fouled up. What happened?”
“I, uh.” Should he tell this healer what happened? Sam thought for a minute. What would it hurt? he thought. He began with getting burnt and Mark’s smashing of his clay mold. It ended with his memories of being discovered. “I had a horrible time yesterday.”
Harrison shook his head. “A week ago,” he said. “I kept you from waking up except for the one time you came to on your own. You needed some healing before you woke up. That’s why we are talking instead of me talking and you mumbling.” He gave Sam a sip from a steaming mug. “This is just warm broth. Your mother visited yesterday.”
“You could have woken me up.”
Harrison smiled. “I could have, but I didn’t. I wanted to talk to her without you listening.”
Sam couldn’t think of why.
“Your middle brother Mark has told your parents that if you come back, he is leaving your home.”
“He just about killed me,” Sam said. “If I were home, I can see myself saying the same thing.”
“The problem is that he is your father’s apprentice, and you are still a seventh-year student.”
“You are saying that I’m not welcome to return home?”
Harrison nodded. “I’d say that sums up the conversation nicely. Your mother was in tears about it.”
“Even though Mark was one of my attackers?”
“The two boys who attacked you said that your brother wasn’t with them.”
“That’s not true,” Sam said. He sat up, but the pain in his back forced him down onto the bed. “He was there. My older brother said he went off with Gob. Why would he leave the smithy and not join Wally and Gob in beating me to a pulp?”
“I think you are right, but I don’t think your parents want to face the truth. If you can’t stay with your parents, where will you go?”
Sam closed his eyes. He was so wrapped up he couldn’t move around like he wanted to. “There is no one. When you can’t do magic, you are an outcast.”
Harrison chuckled. “Just like me, but for different reasons.”
“You are an outcast?”
“Why do you think I live in the forest? I’ve made some mistakes in my life, and I continue to pay for them,” the healer said. “Forget I said that.”
“What am I to do?” Sam asked.
“Get better. You can’t be my apprentice if you can’t work pollen. Magic is a prerequisite for being a good healer, or a good anything,” Harrison looked at Sam. “Nearly anything, in your case. Perhaps we can find something you can do while you are stuck in my only patient bed.”
Sam tried to get up, but couldn’t. “I am stuck.”
Harrison chuckled. “You are, lad. Simmer down. I’m not a person without wits. We will figure out what to do with you. Just rest. Before any decisions are made by anyone, you need to be able to move around. You’ll heal faster than you think if I can keep up with replacing the pollen casts.”
“What?”
“Casts. You have an aversion to pollen. I’ve never seen such a thing before.”
Sam vaguely remembered a conversation from before. “Did you tell me that earlier?”
Harrison nodded. “I did. You were still under some pretty powerful potions at the time. You and pollen do not mix. Pollen casts and pollen sutures generally last until I have to remove them. Not with you, Sam. They last three days before I can feel them soften up. I was going to remove the pollen sutures I used to sew up the hole in your thigh, but they had already decomposed. Thank Havetta, you heal very, very fast. I have a few patients who would trade their magic in exchange for your recuperative properties.”
“I did survive a lightning strike.”
“Your mother told me. I looked at your feet. The scars are still there. The lightning bolt should have killed you,” Harrison said.
“Sometimes I think that would have made my life easier,” Sam said.
“You don’t mean that. You would have had no life.”
Sam smiled for the first time since the beating. It felt good. “I think you have a point.”
“I do.”
~
Harrison was in town collecting supplies when Sam noticed Miss Featherstone walking up to the cottage from where he sat, propped up in the bed.
“Come in,” he called out.
His teacher opened the door a fraction and stuck her head in the cottage. “Sam?”
“I’m the only one here, and I can’t get around very well yet,” Sam said.
She walked in and sat on the chair next to Sam’s bed. “How are you mending?”
“Mr. Dimple says I have a talent for healing, even if I have none for magic. How is everything at the school?”
Miss Featherstone frowned. “Not so good. I came by to tell you that Gob’s and Wally’s parents brought pressure to bear on the schoolmaster. They have been let back in after only a week’s detention, and I’m afraid you have been expelled.”
“For being beat up?”
“Gob and Wally made up a story that you taunted them with very colorful language and to protect their families’ reputations, they were bound by honor to thrash you.”
“That is hogwash!”
“Whatever hogwash is,” Miss Featherstone said, “it is at least that. Your brother, Mark, was even a witness for the first part. He helped them beat you, right?”
Sam nodded.
“I figured that. Your father did not join in on demanding your expulsion. However,” she sighed, “it is done, and you are out of school. If you need a reference, I wrote one up for you.” She pulled an envelope out of the bag and laid it on the table next to the bed. “You were far enough ahead of the others in everything but pollen magic that most of the students won’t catch up to you before they graduate as seventh-years. This might help secure an apprenticeship somewhere.”
“It won’t be in Cherryton,” Sam said. “I’m leaving town. My parent
s won’t take me back into their home.”
“Your brother Mark made an ultimatum?”
Sam nodded. “How did you know?”
“Something Wally said as I walked into the schoolmaster’s office during your hearing.”
“And I wasn’t even allowed to defend myself.”
Miss Featherstone put her hand on Sam’s still-wrapped hand. “It is all so unfair and all because of Gob and Wally’s intense hatred. However, make no mistake that people do not like you walking around town since you are so different.”
“I don’t look different,” Sam said.
“But you can look right through a matron’s veil. Everyone knows that. If a person makes a mistake of wearing mostly pollen-made clothes, you can see everything.”
“But I learned to ignore all that long ago,” Sam said. “My sister Addy taught me how to act around people who looked naked.” He gave his teacher a tiny smile.
She colored. “I never realized that. I’m very glad I don’t wear clothes made from magic. I have never liked the feel, and now I know why.” She began to laugh, and that made Sam join in. At least he knew a few people around town who didn’t fear him.
Miss Featherstone stood. “I need to return to school for a meeting with the Schoolmaster about another student, or should I say a non-student.”
“Glory Wheeler?”
She nodded. “How did you find out?”
“She left the class after the exploding ward. Who else other than me is a non-student?”
“The Wheelers haven’t perfected your tire idea yet. Everyone thought they would become the richest people in Cherryton, but there is more to making the things than they originally thought.”
“That’s because pollen isn’t durable enough to support a carriage. There are limitations to the stuff. She leaves, and someone wants her back. I leave, and I’m an outcast as soon as someone gets a chance.”
Miss Featherstone frowned. “I’m afraid you’ll be facing that all your life, but I believe in you, Sam. You’ll make your own way.”
“I hope so. Right now, I’m not so sure.”
His former teacher left the cottage, and Harrison arrived not much later.
“I passed Miss Featherstone on the way. She had some good news and some bad news, eh?”
“Mostly bad,” Sam said. “I have been expelled.”
Harrison nodded. “I heard about that from your mother. Miss Featherstone has been diligent in defending you.”
“What did she say?”
“She made teary sighs, lad. Your mother is broken up about what she is forced to do. Your father is a realist. Mark will likely take over the smithy and your brother Tru will go off on his own since he wants to do more decorative metalwork.”
Sam shook his head. “I’m a burden, I guess.”
“If you think you are a burden, you are. If you put the situation aside and move on, you have just become a free man a little sooner than most.”
“It’s not that easy.”
“And you think your life has been easy, so far? Not from what I hear.”
Sam pursed his lips. “Have you been asking people about me?”
“I have. You are different, and different interests me,” Harrison said.
“I sure am.”
“Not in the way you think. You can hold onto a job. The Washjoy’s had nothing but good to say about you. They let their son do deliveries because of some complaints about you doing the delivering. I think Scrivener, the father, was behind most of those. You didn’t sabotage the bakery or disparage the baker. You know Miss Featherstone likes you. She said you were the smartest kid in her class. But you know who really impressed me?”
Sam wondered who else would give him a compliment.
“Glory Wheeler. She left school because she wanted to work on your invention. She’s not quite as smart as you. When she heard you would be leaving Cherryton, she realized that she needed to finish her schooling.”
“Now that I am gone from the classroom? Who told her I was leaving?”
Harrison made a face, “Me. She was the last reference for you. From what I can tell, you were angry, which is very understandable, but you were not vindictive.”
“I’ve had to learn a lot of control.”
“Indeed you have. You’ll need to keep that up for the rest of your life.”
Sam nodded his head. “Why have you done all this investigating, this snooping?”
Harrison smiled. “Because I’m going to give you a reprieve, if you’ll take it.”
“How can you do that? You already said I couldn’t be your apprentice.”
The healer sat down. “You still can’t, but you can be my helper this summer. I do a circuit of mountain villages. I’ll start in a week or two. I want you to be my helper while you figure out what you want to be. I’ve been around, and perhaps when our tour is over, we might come up with some good ideas about where you can go and what you can do.”
“I’ll really be recovered enough to go into the mountains?”
Harrison nodded. “How much pain are you feeling?”
“My jaw is a little sore, and my hands ache, but my back is better, and my leg doesn’t hurt if I don’t move it too quickly.”
“See? Are you up for it?”
Sam thought for a bit. “I really don’t have much choice.”
“Sure you do. You can head for Baskin and see what promise the capital city has to give. You can beg for food in Cherryton. You can walk up into the mountains and just disappear forever. You always have choices.”
“I need to get away from Cherryton, and you used the term reprieve. I think that is as good a reason for a tour in the mountains as any.”
The healer grinned. “I thought I could talk you into it.”
“Not much talking required,” Sam muttered.
“What did you say?”
“Only a fool wouldn’t take you up on your offer,” Sam said more loudly.
“And I know you are no fool, Sam Smith.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
~
A FEW DAYS LATER, SAM FELT GOOD ENOUGH FOR A WALK INTO TOWN to visit his parents. He wouldn’t be spending the night under the same roof as Mark.
His mother gave him a hug as soon as she saw him. “You look so thin,” she said.
“Being beaten half to death by your brother does that.”
“Mark said…”
“I don’t care what he says. He was the one who thrust the wand into my burn. The other two wouldn’t have known it was there. I just wanted to say goodbye. Where is Addy?”
“Out berry-picking with her friends and a few boys,” Tessa said with tears in her eyes.
Sam felt angry all of a sudden. She was just as responsible for removing him from their house, despite the tears. After all this, she still defended Mark. It made Sam’s stomach upset. He got up. “I guess that’s it. I’ll grab my clothes—” He stopped after looking at his mother’s face.
“Mark destroyed my clothes?”
“We tried to stop him from damaging your possessions.” Tessa looked very guilty. He no longer belonged in this house. Her look betrayed her.
“You should have had me killed when I was five,” Sam said quietly and left the house.
He wanted to visit his father, but Mark would be there. He thought he had no place to go other than out of Cherryton, but he remembered Tom Washjoy, so he walked over to the bakery.
“I’m leaving for good,” Sam said.
“We know. Your father told us. He said the rest of your family have already moved on.”
Sam grimaced at the term. He was a person. He had brothers and a sister, a mother, and a father. How could his family erase his existence so easily and so quickly. Perhaps they couldn’t wait and pounced on thin reasons to desert him. He felt profoundly violated by each one, his mother most of all. He wouldn’t bother trying to seek out Addy. His Cherryton days were over.
“Here,” Tom Washjoy handed over a sack full of baked good
s. “Good luck, Sam.”
“Thanks. It looks as if I’ll have to make it on my own,” he said, trying to staunch the tears he had so far been able to hold off. “Goodbye, and thank you for being a friend.”
Sam left the bakery and found Harrison sitting outside with a few more pollen sacks filled with supplies. He looked at Sam’s baked goods with raised eyebrows. “Can I pick out something?”
His comment made Sam laugh, after all. “Take your pick. I’ve lost most of my appetite for today.”
Harrison rummaged around and pulled out a filled pastry. “I used to get these as a kid,” he said, smiling. “Time to go home.”
Sam nodded. “I’m done with Cherryton.”
“And, unfortunately, Cherryton is done with you,” Harrison said. “You had a hard time with your mother?”
Sam nodded. He wiped a tear away, grinding his teeth when he felt one fall. “They have adjusted to my absence too quickly. It’s hard to realize that I’ve been a burden all these years.”
“Your parents brought you into this world. They are the villains, not you. I’m surprised that your mother turned out to be so weak. In my experience, a mother’s love is typically the strongest in the family.”
“She let Mark burn my clothes and destroy all my possessions. I’m not even fully healed yet.”
Harrison nodded. “They will leave a scar on your life every bit as enduring as the one on your thigh. Forgive most of them. Your brother Mark doesn’t deserve forgiveness, but the others do, even your mother. If you don’t, you won’t be able to become the person you have the potential of being.”
Sam snorted. “As if you know.”
“We will talk more on the road after you’ve gotten over some of the sting you’ve got to be feeling right now,” Harrison said, taking another bite out of the sweet roll. “You know, Washjoy really knows his baking.” The healer took another big bite and walked faster, quickly leaving Sam behind, still hobbling to catch up.
When they reached Harrison’s cottage, the healer grabbed a book from off the shelf.
“This is yours,” he said to Sam. “It’s an empty notebook. As part of your duties as my helper, I want you to document everything you can. I will do the same, and at the end of our trip, we will compare notes. If you do a good job, the book should have enough nuggets of information to use for the rest of your life.”
