“No, I —”
“Oh, be quiet, Healer, and get to work,” Gayla said with mock sternness.
Natalie giggled. “Yes, ma’am. Oh, and we need to spread word to the other cities and Isles about the sanitation measures required to prevent this disease.”
Gayla nodded. “I’ll take care of it.”
Natalie did some quick rounds on the patients in the ballroom. She knelt next to one patient who looked remarkably like Aaron, or what Aaron would look like in ten years or so. She blinked to hide her shock at his appearance as she offered him tea. He smiled and accepted it. Her hands shook as she placed them on his shoulders to Activate the Herbs. Gayla and Jules’s pride in her was not unwelcome, but this was why she did not want to fail. Saving another life, another family, another city—somehow, she’d always believed it must be possible. And it’d been hell getting there, but she’d figured it out. During the Activation, a sense of freedom washed over her, as if someone had cut the strings that had always tied her to Gayla and Aldworth’s approval. Her shoulders relaxed as if a great weight had been removed. As the magic of Ismereld flowed through her, her lips curved into a beatific smile.
After Natalie finished tending to her patients, she sneaked back to visit Jules, something she’d previously never permitted herself to do during the day. She found his cot empty.
A jolt of panic shot through her stomach. She spun around and spotted him at the other end of the hallway, holding on to the wall and trying to walk.
“What are you doing?” she hissed, ran to him and put his arm over her shoulder.
“What does it look like I’m doing? I’m walking,” he said irritably.
“You’re lucky you haven’t fallen flat on the ground,” she retorted, observing the sweat dripping profusely down his face and soaking through his shirt.
“I’m tired of lying down,” Jules grumbled.
Natalie rolled her eyes. “Thank Goddess you’re a great Healer because you’re a terrible patient. Come on, let’s walk back.”
Carefully, they turned around. Natalie assisted him back to his cot and helped him lie down. Once he was settled, Natalie hovered over Jules with one hand on either side of his head and fixed him with a gimlet eye. “Now, you stay here until your Healer tells you it’s okay to try walking.”
“You’re a mean Healer,” he whined.
She grinned. “I am. I don’t want my half handsome patient falling and breaking his arrogant face.”
“What if I try again anyway?”
“Oh, you won’t,” Natalie said smugly.
“Why is that?”
“I think you like your face the way it is.” She giggled. Goddess, she had missed him so.
“I won’t fall,” Jules protested.
“Well, just keep in mind if you do fall and break your face, you’ll be missing out,” Natalie whispered.
“On what?”
Without a word, she bent and kissed him thoroughly, her mouth slanting over his, one hand spreading through his hair and pulling him to her. His Healing energy surged through her, mixed with her own, fueling her passion. They both sighed as her tongue flicked along his lower lip. When he opened to her, they lustily explored each other’s mouths, drunk on the ardor and energy swirling between them.
Pulling back with a tiny nip on his lip, she grinned. “That’s what.”
Smirking, she stood. “I have to get back to the ballroom. I’ll send someone with something more substantial for you to eat than broth.”
Jules growled loudly and Natalie laughed all the way to the ballroom.
Two days later, Jules could walk steadily and pestered all the Healers treating him to let him out of the palace. At last, Natalie relented and agreed to let him come to the morning rat trap building session.
“But you have to cover yourself with your cloak and you have to take it easy. I don’t want you being discovered by the New Mages’ Guild or getting worse,” Natalie commanded.
Jules rolled his eyes. “Yes, Mother.”
Natalie made a face at him, double-checked both their cloaks, and took his arm, and they wended through the cobblestone streets to Siaraa’s, Jake padding behind them.
They no longer needed the milliner’s shop for building space. Jules helped Natalie move the supplies from the milliner’s back to Siaraa’s. The milliner wore an expression of glee as they cleared out.
Only a few children came to Siaraa’s, and Natalie found she missed the crowds of enthusiastic children wanting to learn and help. But, she sighed to herself, if it meant the city wasn’t dying anymore, she could handle it. Working with Roseharbor’s children made her miss her Naming students at the Abbey keenly. That was the problem with her daydreams of running away to a remote part of the Isle—she really wanted to teach again. But Aldworth had decreed she couldn’t Heal until after the farce of a review he’d called, and Goddess only knew what else he had planned for her, let alone Jules. Thanks to Aldworth, the Abbey, her home for the last five years and the center for Healing education, was off-limits. Anger and betrayal burned in her chest.
Natalie shook her head and returned to the present. Jenson sat next to Jules, teaching him how to build a rat trap and regaling him with stories of all the rats he’d caught and burned, and the time he’d gotten in trouble with his mother about the snake. Natalie smiled affectionately at Jules’s dark head bent next to Jenson’s light one as they worked.
Natalie and Siaraa thanked each child by name as they left.
Natalie plopped her logbook on the table, startling Jake from his nap underneath. “Only sixteen dead rats reported today. Siaraa, together with a raggle-taggle band of children, we’ve nearly eliminated an entire species from the city.”
Jules raised an eyebrow at her. “This orchestrated by the woman who once hesitated to kill a rabbit so she could eat.”
Natalie stuck her tongue out at him. “The irony is, the number of years of study and practice we have using magic to Heal, and how do we stop the epidemic? Some wood, cats and snakes. Bridhe herself would laugh.”
“You see? I told you I will never attach myself to one of those big, stupid rocks,” Siaraa said. “Didn’t help you here, did it?”
Unable to contain her joy, Natalie kissed Siaraa on the cheek before the other woman could pull away and dashed out the door.
Arm in arm, she and Jules made their way back toward the palace. Soon after they left Siaraa’s, she noticed Jules staring at her.
Natalie stared at her toes and fussed with her cloak. “What?”
“It really is amazing what you organized here.” His emerald eyes glowed with pride as they walked. “This disease stumped us at Whitestrand and again at Mistfell, and then you—”
Jules fell silent.
Natalie gazed at the ground with embarrassment. “Please. Any one of us would have—”
Jules squeezed her arm tightly. Before she could protest, he muttered, “We’re being followed.”
Natalie’s eyes widened and her heart leaped into her throat.
“Keep walking normally, don’t speed up. Bloody hell, I didn’t bring my dagger,” Jules swore.
Natalie clung tight to Jules’s side. She could tell by his face he was trying to figure out a plan as fast as possible.
“I don’t think we can make it to the palace,” Natalie said between clenched teeth.
“Not the normal way,” Jules said grimly. “Pretend we’re going to the bakery over there.” He smiled and pointed as if they were two ordinary lovers finding a place to get something to eat. They strolled toward the bakery, making every effort to appear as casual as possible.
“Do you see the alleyway to the left of the bakery?” Jules still smiled in an effort to maintain their relaxed demeanor. “What we’ll do is look in the window of the bakery, pretend we don’t find anything, continue walking up the street, then turn fast as we can and run down the alley. I know a way to get from that alley to the palace.”
Natalie glanced at him, a dubious expression on her face. Would he make it? “Are you up for running?”
Jules stared straight ahead. “Do I have a choice?”
They traipsed to the bakery window and peered inside. Natalie attempted several times to swallow her pounding heart back down into her chest.
“I don’t see anything I like,” Jules said in a loud, snobby tone. Had Natalie not been shaking in her boots, she would’ve been impressed with his highborn affectation. He took her arm and they proceeded along the street. As soon as they were both even with the alley, they dropped hands and ran.
Natalie’s fingers grabbed her bag and flung it to the ground so she could move faster. Trying to stay even with Jules, their pounding feet echoing in the alley and the sound of her ragged breathing rasping in her ears. Jake ran with them, his tail tucked low. That scared Natalie even more; Jake sensing danger made the threat too real. Turn after turn through the back alleys of Roseharbor had Natalie quite lost, but Jules seemed to know exactly where he was going.
“Does your family live nearby?” Natalie gasped. “I know you don’t get along, but— “
Jules shook his head. “Outskirts of the city.”
Please let the palace be close by. Jules, so soon out of his sick bed, faltered quickly. He had not recovered enough to be running for his life. Her own ankle throbbed painfully, reminding her that she couldn't continue much further either.
The dark, wooden sides of the alley loomed on either side of them, and their boots were wet from splashing through puddles full of liquid best left unidentified.
Natalie risked a glance over her shoulder; a figure clad in dark leather wielding a gleaming sword followed close behind them. The sight gave her flagging energy a burst of speed. “Are we … almost … there?”
“Yeah,” Jules gasped. “Five more turns … if I remember correctly.”
Natalie glanced behind them again. The dark figure still followed but had not gained on them. She had just enough time to be puzzled by this when they rounded the next turn and something hit her head with a thud. The world went dark.
Chapter 26
R
F
or Goddess’s sake, what was the blasted bumping that wouldn’t stop jostling her body about? And dammit, she couldn’t see or hear very well. She took a deep breath and wished she hadn’t; apparently, she lay on a floor covered in fetid … something, maybe straw. Her hearing slowly returned with creaking and muffled clip-clop of hooves on a dirt road.
Grit coated her eyes when she opened them. It was dark and the fetid straw floor moved. She must be inside a cart. A tiny amount of light flickered across a small row of wire-covered windows near the top of the cart. It was night, but some sort of firelight was outside. She squinted; sometimes there seemed to be two rows of windows. Double vision. She’d been hit on the head in Roseharbor. Right.
Gingerly, she tried levering herself into a sitting position. This proved difficult, as her hands were tied behind her back. They must’ve been tied for some time, as she’d lost all feeling in her hands. Wiggling back and forth, she was able to get mostly upright, though her stomach rebelled at all the motion combined with her pounding head. She leaned to the side and retched, but nothing came up.
Jules was next to her, still unconscious. His arms were tied to his sides and his ankles were tied as well.
Natalie’s head fell forward and she swore silently until she’d said every foul word she knew. Aldworth must’ve found them. She scooted as close as she could to Jules.
“Jules,” she hissed. She poked him with her knee. “Wake up. We’ve got to get out of here.” After several minutes of trying—and failing—to rouse him, she scooted to the back of the cart and attempted to open the door, fingers fumbling behind her back. There seemed to be no part of the door mechanism accessible from the inside.
She swore again, this time more loudly. This woke Jules, and his eyes blinked in confusion. She made her way on her knees over to him.
“Shh, it’s me. We’re locked in a cart. I can’t find a way out of it. I think Aldworth’s got us.”
She expected Jules to swear but he didn’t. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Are you able to untie my ankles?”
Natalie ignored the slight shake in his voice. “Possibly.” She shifted around uncomfortably and began working away at the thick cords binding his ankles. No matter what angle Natalie tried, she couldn’t loosen the knot. Jules tried to guide her, but the end result was an argument between the two of them and a knot no less tight than it was before.
Sweat poured down Natalie’s back and she was pretty sure her fingers were bleeding when the cart came to an abrupt halt. Shouts sounded outside and the horses whinnied. Natalie and Jules glanced at each other in hope when one of their captors screamed in pain nearby.
The window next to Natalie darkened and they both heard a sharp thunk. A few more moments of scuffling went on outside. They heard someone shout, “Search the forests, find them and kill them.”
After a few minutes, the cart continued its journey.
Natalie’s shoulders slumped. “Well, whoever tried to rescue us just failed.”
Silence met her pronouncement.
“Jules?”
“I … I think they weren’t trying to rescue us. At one point, someone got close to the window right? And we both heard a noise.” Excitement and hope bubbled up in his voice as spoke.
“Yes,” Natalie said, still not understanding.
“Search the floor,” Jules commanded.
“For what?”
“Something. Anything that doesn’t belong.”
Natalie took her bound hands and searched through the rotted straw behind her. Her back and knees ached from bending at an awkward angle, but she kept going. Her fingers hit something hard and it slid away from her. Heart pounding, she groped blindly in the straw, cursing the darkness. Finally, she was able to grab the object in question. She ran her thumb over it. Jagged in places but smooth in others, the item felt cool her palm. Possibly a stone?
She relayed this information to Jules.
“How smooth would you say the stone is?” Jules said eagerly.
“Smooth as glass.”
“Obsidian,” Jules craned his neck to see the rock she held behind her back. He sighed and laid his head against the cart wall. “Not a rescue attempt; a message. It’s a good bet Onlo and Anli are following us.”
A spark of hope came to life in Natalie’s heart. “How would they even know we—”
“We need to hide that stone,” Jules said. “If our captors see it, they may recognize it as a message from an Obfuseltan.”
Natalie thought for a moment. “Your arms are tied to your sides, right? Can you still bend your elbows?
“Yes, but not enough to get out.”
“Getting loose isn’t necessary for my plan. If I put the stone in your hand, do you think you could put it down the front of my shirt?”
“What?” Jules choked.
She cocked an eyebrow at him. “Well, if the guards look there, we’ve got bigger problems, don’t we?”
Jules sighed. “All right. Give it to me.”
Natalie awkwardly scooted on her backside over to Jules, who held his hand out behind him. After a few missed tries, she got her hand in his and carefully turned her hand over so the obsidian fell into Jules’s hand.
“Got it,” he said. “Uh, I think this will be easiest if you lay down.”
Wincing at the pain in her bound hands and wrists, Natalie lay next to Jules, trying to line her body up with his hand. She giggled uncontrollably as he felt around for the top of her shirt.
“A bit further left,” she guided. “That’s it. Now j-j-ust p-p-ush it st-straight d-d-down.” Natalie lost it entirely and laughed until tears ran down her face.
Jules swore and retreated to the other side of the cart.
The cart stopped along a d
ark stretch of road, and the guards allowed Natalie and Jules to relieve themselves. Natalie did her best to act naturally, hoping Anli and Onlo would burst from the brush and save them. But nothing happened. The small ember of hope in Natalie’s heart faded. Why go to the trouble of giving her and Jules a rock if they weren’t going to be rescued at the first opportunity? Perhaps Aldworth’s henchmen had killed them after all.
The guards outnumbered Natalie and Jules five to one. Aldworth obviously wasn’t taking any chances. Strange he would send so many guards to escort a one-hand man and a woman who knew nothing of the fighting arts.
Disheartened, she got back into the cart herself; anything to keep the rough hands of the guards off her. Their captors gave nothing away. Clad in black with faces covered, the guards didn’t talk, so she and Jules did not learn anything about their destination. Jules tried to demand of one guard where they were going and got a fist to the stomach for his trouble. Natalie found him curled up in a ball in the cart. She lay on her side, tucked her body behind his as best she could, wishing she could lay hands on him and Heal him.
“Are you all right?” she whispered.
“I’ve had worse,” he grunted.
She kissed his back, rested her forehead against him, and closed her eyes. A tendril of thought took root in her brain and swirled until it became a raging storm. How dare Aldworth decide to seize power that did not belong to him and use it to hurt others—people she loved—in the process? He and the people he’d gathered to his side threatened the very fabric of life on the Isles. Though she was glad Onlo and Anli had tracked her and Jules through the night, she hoped they didn’t catch her until she’d had a chance to speak to that spineless traitor. She wanted that farce of a review to which he’d summoned them. She was going to storm up to the Council table and let him have it. All of it. So long she’d been afraid of losing his good opinion. Not anymore. She’d make sure he bloody well knew she could care less he’d lost his regard for her. Not only that, she’d lost all respect for him; and that meant something in this world.
Emerald's Fracture Page 19
