Jules swore and they asked their horses to go faster. Once at the palace stables, Natalie handed both horses to Jules. “Just to be on the safe side, stay here with the horses while I go see who is Healing.”
Jules nodded reluctantly and took both horses. Natalie pulled the hood of her cloak tightly over her head and strode toward the palace gate, stomach churning. A room full of the sick and dying she could handle; a threat to Jules’s life made her quake in her boots. She wasn’t about to lose another person, whether it be to illness or to threats by an old man. She took a deep breath and strode through the doors.
A portly, formally dressed, mustachioed man with red cheeks greeted her. “Ah, another Healer. Hello. Please follow me. Everyone is in the ballroom.”
“Thank you,” She followed him through a maze of ornate hallways. After the last turn, Natalie gasped and craned her neck at the largest room she’d ever beheld. Tiled in white, the floors stretched on forever. The ceiling stretched wide over her head like the sky above an open field painted with elaborate depictions of the Isles’ history. Glittering on the floor-to-ceiling columns were five types of stone, each one representing one of the five megaliths of the Isles. The orange sunstones of Solerin, golden-yellow citrines representing Citherin and lustrous amethysts symbolizing Methyseld combined with Ismereld’s emeralds and Obfuselt’s obsidian to form intricate mosaic patterns that twisted and swirled in and out of one another. Large floor-to-ceiling windows let in plenty of light—quite practical for Healers treating a room full of people dying.
Scanning the room, she estimated about twelve Healers present. She thanked her escort and made her way through the room to put her supplies in an empty corner. She kept her eyes downcast and looked out under her eyelids at the Healers, trying to identify any who might be a threat to her or Jules. Her heart soared as she spotted Headmistress Gayla. Carefully, she made her way over to the elder woman.
Gayla’s face lit up. “My dear girl,” she said, giving Natalie a big, warm hug.
“It’s so wonderful to see you. I missed you so much.” Natalie returned the hug quickly and then grasped the Headmistress by the arms. “I am here to help. I’ve learned a great deal about how to treat this illness. But first, can we talk for a moment, please?”
Gayla wiped her hands on her apron. “Certainly. Where is Healer Juliers? He’s not … did he catch the illness?”
“No, but I must ask you,” Natalie whispered, taking the Headmistress’s elbow and walking with her away from the patients and other Healers. “Gayla, what do you know of the charges the Council brought against us? And what do you know about what Aldworth did to Jules?”
Chapter 20
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he Headmistress’s shoulders sagged. “I do know of the charges against you. For the record, I think they are flat-out rubbish.”
Natalie breathed a sigh of relief. “Please believe us; we left Whitestrand for good reasons. The people who were going to contract the disease had already done so. Then, someone broke quarantine and went to Mistfell. We couldn’t help Whitestrand, but we could try to help Mistfell.”
Gayla nodded. “Logical. And were you able to help Mistfell? Can you help us here?”
“I believe so. The most important thing we learned was to begin treatment as early as possible, and in addition to tanyaroot and dullanbark tea, keep patients hydrated with a honey and salt mixture in the tea to help replace the fluids they lose. As of when we left, the mortality rate did seem better in Mistfell.”
Gayla’s eyes lit up. “I’ll convey that to the others. Now, what about Jules. Is he here? What is this about him and Aldworth?”
At first it was hard to speak, with knowledge of Aldworth’s betrayal so fresh a wound. Natalie summoned year after year of memories with the Headmistress—taking tea with the Headmistress, crying on her shoulder, cringing under her hawk-like stare after getting in trouble—and Natalie found the trust to tell her old friend the story of Jules’s abduction and injury at Aldworth’s hands.
Gayla sat in the nearest chair shaking with fury. “A short time ago, I had some of my own start watching him. I found out about his experiments. I had no idea he’d involved any of our own—” she clenched her fists. She stood and leaned close to Natalie. “You should know Aldworth believes an actual mage is alive right now. Finding that person is the sole focus of all his current efforts.”
“A mage alive now?” Natalie said, stunned. “But he doesn’t know who or where the mage is?”
“No,” Gayla confirmed. “But all current leads point to the mage being here in Roseharbor.”
“So if Aldworth gets his hands on an actual mage and some descendants of the Five Mages—which we know Jules is one …” Natalie mused.
“There will be no stopping him.” Gayla finished.
“So we need to find the mage before he does. We’ll just add ‘find a mage’ to our to-do list along with ‘save capital city from certain death,’ shall we?”
“I have trusted people looking for the mage. In the meantime, let us do what we do best.”
“Jules is out in the stables. I will tell him to come in if he is welcome and safe to Heal here,” Natalie said.
Gayla’s eyes fixed her with a fierce stare. “As long as I’m here, he is. You tell that man to come in here and get to work.”
Natalie grinned. “Yes, ma’am,” and she ran off to the stables.
Late that night, Natalie and Jules stumbled into their tent and collapsed side by side.
“If I never move again, it will be too soon,” Natalie said, her bedroll muffling her voice.
“I agree.” Jules turned her toward him and kissed her gently. When she moaned, they both deepened the kiss. Natalie ran her fingers through Jules’s hair, pulling him closer as his fingers traced her jawline to her chin and then down her neck to the dip in her shirt. She broke the kiss to stretch her chin up like a cat. Jules took advantage and planted sensuous kisses along her neck. She sighed as he tantalized her by lifting one side of her shirt and slowly undoing the buttons one by one. He growled as one stubborn button wouldn’t come undone; she laughed throatily, undid the pesky thing herself and tossed her shirt off to the side.
His touch on her skin sent delicious shivers down her spine. In between kisses, she undid his shirt, and it soon joined hers on the tent floor. When they grasped each other again, the melding of their bodies lit a fire in Natalie’s stomach. She fanned it by tracing random shapes on Jules’s back with her energy all while teasing his lips with her own.
When Natalie thought she might go mad with desire, she pulled away from his sweet kisses to stare into his emerald gaze. “I want you.”
He caressed her cheek. “Sweet Goddess, I want you too, woman. But not here.”
Natalie touched her forehead to his. “Why? I have another bottle of moonbark extract.”
Jules pulled back and ran his fingers through her hair, shaking his head. “It’s not that. I … I want our first time to be when we’re not on the run, covered with road dust and the stink of sick people. Maybe even where there’s a bed.”
Natalie swallowed her disappointment, blushing a bit. “But you … you do want to, right?”
“Sweet Five, yes,” he growled and kissed her with renewed passion.
Later, their lips swollen with hundreds of kisses, Jules turned on his side and gathered Natalie against him. They pulled a light blanket over themselves, making a cocoon in which they could hide away from the world.
“When did you first know? About your … feelings … for me, I mean,” Natalie whispered into the dark of the cocoon.
“Hmm.” She felt her lover’s voice vibrate against her back. “Besides the feeling I wanted to throttle you?” Natalie bit him. “Ow! All right, woman. I know you’re hungry for me, but that’s a little much.” He sighed. “Maybe when you promised to make me mud pies.”
Natalie fizzed with giggles.
“But if I’
m being honest, when I returned to the Abbey and saw you standing in the greenhouse doorway, I thought you were the loveliest woman I’d ever beheld.”
Tears filled Natalie’s eyes and she stroked her fingers along one of the arms embracing her.
“How about you? When did you first take a liking to me?” Jules asked, planting a kiss behind her ear.
“My first Naming lesson,” Natalie confessed.
“Natalie Desmond,” Jules scolded. “You should not have crushes on your teachers. That’s just wrong.”
“Oh? Well, I’ll just leave then, shall I?” Natalie moved to stand, and Jules snagged her around the waist, dragged her back and covered her with kisses while she giggled uncontrollably.
It was quite some time before they fell asleep.
Natalie’s kerchief covered her mouth every time she yawned the next day. Still, the cause of her late night was worth it. Jules caught her eye just then, winked and continued treating his patient. Heart pounding and face blushing, she spilled a bit of tea on her own patient. She stumbled to clean it up as her cheeks grew even hotter.
A motion at the ballroom doorway closest to her caught her eye. It was one of the ubiquitous palace pages with a message for the Headmistress.
Headmistress Gayla materialized at her elbow, startling her. “Quickly, come with me,” she murmured. “Aldworth is on his way. Get Juliers.”
“Jules,” she hissed. She beckoned him to follow as the Headmistress rushed her out of the room.
The Headmistress led them just outside the ballroom and into one of the many curtained-off alcoves that ran along the corridor there. “In here, now. I must return so he sees me.”
They ducked in and Natalie pulled the velvet curtain closed behind them. They sat on a red velvet bench. She clutched his hand in both of hers. “Why would anyone have several curtained-off closets with benches next to ballroom?”
“They’re for, uh, couples who want privacy from a ball,” Jules explained.
Natalie slapped her hand over her mouth, trying not to giggle. It proved difficult with the hysteria pressing in her chest trying to get out.
“What’s going on?” Jules hissed. “Why are we hiding?”
“Aldworth is here.”
Jules swore under his breath. Natalie thought his grip on her hand might cut off the circulation. Natalie was certain Aldworth could find them by the sound of her heart pounding alone.
Sitting and waiting was excruciating. No sounds reached them from the ballroom-turned-healing ward. All they could do was wait for Gayla to fetch them when the coast was clear. Eventually, Jules leaned his head back against the wall, and Natalie put her head on his chest and listened to his heartbeat, holding his hand like a lifeline.
After what seemed like hours, footsteps sounded outside their alcove. “It’s me, dears,” called the Headmistress. “He’s gone.”
They thanked the Headmistress, who waved them off. “It’s lucky I have the pages on the lookout for him.”
“Does he come often?” Jules asked.
“No, at this point, he doesn’t like to get his hands dirty when there are others to do the work.”
Jules snorted.
“But he does like to put on a show about being in charge, even though three of us are on the Council,” Gayla added.
Jules muttered a string of insults under his breath regarding Aldworth, Aldworth’s possible parentage and something anatomically impossible involving a donkey.
After returning to her patients, Natalie fought the urge to glance over her shoulder at every unfamiliar sound. Her paranoia grew as the day progressed. Whenever someone helped her change a patient’s bed linens, she kept her eyes averted, hoping the person didn’t know she was wanted by Aldworth. By late evening, she had a headache from the stress. She eagerly mounted Benji and led the way out of the city to their campsite, where they ate cold rabbit and fruit Natalie had gathered earlier.
“I have a headache,” Jules complained as they finished the last of dinner.
“I do, too. I feel like I’ve been watching over my shoulder all day long. Plus we didn’t sleep well last night. Do you want me to Name you? Just to be sure?”
“No, you’re right; it’s just stress. Come on,” Jules offered Natalie his hand. “Let’s try and get some good sleep.”
Natalie took his hand, smiling at him. “Good idea.”
They made a cocoon in the tent again, needing a safe space after the day’s events.
Natalie started out of a sound sleep when Jules vomited up his dinner. Natalie tended to him before she even knew she was awake, checking his fever and pulse.
“I … I’ve got … the sweating fever,” he rasped.
Natalie felt the blood drain from her face but kept her composure. “Well, let’s do a Naming and find out.”
She closed her eyes, her heart pounding, and connected with the ley lines deep in the Isle below her. She imagined the emerald megalith generating the ley lines, and she prayed as she never had to the Five Mages that created it. Shaking, she put her hands on Jules’s body and directed her energy into his. A few minutes later, she yanked her hands off. “No! Let me do it again.” She breathed and tried again when she felt a hand clasp hers.
“Nat, I can feel it … for myself. You have to … start treatment … now.” Jules cracked his eyes opened, his emerald eyes glassy and bloodshot.
Natalie burst from the tent and stood indecisively between the horses and the dead campfire. It would take time to rebuild the campfire to make tea. Then, she’d need to douse it and take him to the palace. On the other hand, it would take about twenty minutes to get to the palace—twenty minutes before starting treatment. She’d seen firsthand the difference in patients who started treatment right away, versus those who waited. As she stood, paralyzed, a raindrop struck her head. She held out her hand. Two more drops fell. The pattering sound of drops on the forest leaves indicated more rain. Palace it was. She ran for the horses and tacked them.
She led Elric close to the tent. Natalie somehow got an arm under Jules—Goddess, the man must weigh as much as the megalith itself—and the two of them staggered over to Elric. Natalie made sure Jules had a hold of the saddle before giving him a leg up. She was only able to get him hanging sideways face down, which made him vomit again. Natalie helped right him and then mounted Benji. Blessedly, Elric followed Benji without question.
The rain came down in sheets, plastering Natalie’s hair to her face. Rivulets of water became small streams across her path and she feared losing her way into the city. Five minutes into the journey, she stopped when Jules vomited and fell off Elric into the mud. Slipping, sliding and pushing with all her might, she got Jules back up onto Elric’s back. Get up. Get up, damn you, get up on this horse or I swear I’ll kill you myself. She managed to get him mounted again, only to have him slide off a minute or so later.
Tears added to the rain pouring down her face, and it took her three tries to get Jules into the saddle this time, as covered in mud and vomit as he was. Each time she failed, she knew it was lost time getting him the treatment he needed. When she finally succeeded, she removed Elric’s reins from his bridle and tied Jules to the saddle. Arms limp and burning and fingers dripping blood, she surveyed her work. If he came off now, it would be because the Goddess really hated her.
She tied Benji’s reins to Elric and led Elric down the road on foot. She stumbled and slipped down the dark road in the downpour. How long had it been since they’d left camp? And where was the city? Shouldn’t they be there by now? She blinked and wiped water and mud from her eyes as best she could. In her stupor, she didn’t notice a rock in the path; she stepped on it, twisted her ankle and fell in the road.
“Goddess damn it all to hell!” she shouted at the sky. Tears welled up as she pounded the ground next to her and succeeded only in splashing herself with more mud. Sobbing in earnest, she got to her feet and took stock of her injuries. Some superficial cuts and
likely a sprained ankle.
Sniffing and hiccupping, she grasped Elric’s bridle and limped forward. After an interminable time, she saw the city lights. One foot in front of the other, she recited to herself over and over until the palace door loomed before her. No one was outside the palace at this time of night, so she dragged Jules off Elric herself. Her back and legs strained with the effort to catch a man a full head taller than she, and her bad ankle threatened to give way entirely. He was only able to walk a bit as they stumbled together toward the ballroom. Thankfully, several Healers came to her aid.
“Please,” she begged all of them. “Help me save him.” And she collapsed.
Chapter 21
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nce the Healing staff situated Jules on a cot and began his regimen of teas and rehydration, Natalie allowed a Healer to treat her. With her ankle wrapped, scrapes cleaned and bandaged, and her own cup of tea, she retreated to a palace bathroom to clean up. One of the other Healers provided her with a change of clothes, and after taking a quick bath, she gingerly changed into them, her back and legs screaming in protest. Somehow, facing the possible death of her love felt more doable now that she was clean.
Her love. She froze. It was one thing to have a crush on someone for years; to daydream about them and pretend you were in love. Now by some twist of fate, she’d actually fallen in love with the man. And she’d never told him. She stared at her face in a mirror. Her wet hair hung in loose scraggles around her face. Her eyes had dark circles underneath them, and her face was drawn and pale with worry and lack of sleep.
Damn it, the insufferable man would have to live so she could tell him she loved him. How did he get this bloody disease anyway? They’d been together the whole time since arriving in Roseharbor. She needed to find out before he was too far gone to answer her questions.
After re-braiding her hair and covering her face with a kerchief, she hobbled out into the ballroom. She took the cup of tea from Jules’s current Healer, thanked him, and knelt to caress Jules’s face. “Jules. I need you to come back to me now. I know you’re far away, but I need to know where you think you got the sweating fever.” Jules moaned and turned his head. She helped him drink some more tea. “Jules,” she hissed, not wanting to disturb the nearby patients. “It’s Nat. Open your eyes and look at me. Tell me where you got this Five-forsaken disease.” He opened his eyes, but they didn’t focus on anything.
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