“What did I say wrong? All my comforting words are stinging.”
She wiped a tear from her eye. “It’s not you, Exeres. If you only knew what I’d been through the last few weeks. One of the friends we lost in Landmoor was a knight from Owen Draw. He died because of me.”
Exeres looked at her skeptically. “I don’t mean to be rude, Ticastasy, but you don’t look like you could kill a knight of Owen Draw. No offense.”
A rueful smile shone through. “I didn’t mean it that way. It’s my fault that he died. If I’d acted quicker and unlocked them faster, then we might have made it out before Secrist came.”
“You’ve completely lost me.” He dabbed some of the juttleberry ointment on the wounded forehead and pressed a tobac leaf over it. “You come from Sol and knew a Drugaen. You met a Shae with some Silvan magic. And now a knight is involved somehow, and you think you caused his death. You’ve had a busy month.”
The smirk turned into a flickering smile, like candle shavings struggling to hold onto a flame. The glow brightened and her smile lingered. “Thank you, Exeres. That was more helpful than a thousand sermons.”
“Good, because I only know short sermons.” He looked at her again, wishing he could not see the life draining out of her so rapidly. She had a tender heart. But he could never fall in love with a human. He already knew that. But what Shae girl would want a half-blood Druid priest? “How many more pallets are in this place? By Hate, we won’t be done until dawn at the earliest.” He gave her a wink and a smile.
“Thank you, Exeres.”
He nodded and savored the compliment, moving on to the next man, who lay sleeping on his side. The suffering man had a head full of black choppy hair and his face was waxy and pale. He had taken a crossbow bolt in the thigh, shattering the bone. Exeres stared at the man, at his Life magic dwindling away so quickly. He would last a few years maybe, but the wound would plague him with a limp for the rest of his life. It would cause him years of suffering. Exeres bowed his head, laying his hand on the ruptured flesh. He inhaled the Earth magic into himself to give himself strength and then mixed some of his own Life magic into it, sending it out to fuse the bone back together. The man stiffened in pain and jerked awake.
“Hold him,” Exeres told her, concentrating.
Ticastasy gripped the man’s shoulders and helped force him back down on the pallet.
“It hurts! By the Druids, it hurts!”
“There,” Exeres said, releasing him. His head spun and his stomach lurched with nausea. He looked at the man and saw the ebb of Life magic slow slightly. It almost didn’t make sense healing a human. The lifespan was so short anyway.
The man edged up off the pallet and tested out his leg. “Thank you, Zerite. My name is Holm. You will always be welcome here. Thank you! Thank you!”
Exeres nodded and sat down on the now-vacant pallet. He looked for the tray of stew and saw Ticastasy already fetching it. He drank water for his thirst and nibbled more on the crust of the trencher.
“Tell me about your eye. Is it some rule of Forbiddance or something that you can’t speak about?”
He chewed slowly, exhausted. After finishing the bite, he brushed off his hands and lifted the patch to show her. Most people were disgusted by what they saw, but she wasn’t. Her face pinched a little and she cocked her head.
“I’ve never seen…it’s a strange color,” she said. “Like milk. How did it happen that way?”
“I can’t explain it other than I was born with it. If you waved your hand over my right ear, I wouldn’t see it but I would know it’s there. So I’m not really blind in that eye, but it’s easier just to call it blindness. I see Life magic with this eye. I can look at you or Allavin Devers and tell you about how much longer you have before you die.” He looked down at his hands. “It isn’t anything that I wish I could do.”
“Why do you wear the patch then?”
“I wear the patch because people don’t like looking at me without it.” He adjusted it back into place. “I believe it came from my mother’s side. I wish I knew more of her, but my father never spoke of her. I don’t even know her name. People have seen dogs with eyes of different colors. But they don’t trust a man like that. Especially one with Shae blood.”
“I’ve seen stranger things in Sol, Exeres. Inlanders are too superstitious. That’s always bothered me about them. Not everyone in this world would look at you like an outcast. I don’t.”
“Thank you, Ticastamy.”
She smiled. “Ticastasy.”
He shook his head. “I’m horrible with names. I’m sorry.”