Enat opens the pouch of herbs and seeds that dangles from her belt and puts a pinch into a cup of stream water. “It’s not Beannach water, but this chiandra tea will help you regain your strength.”
“Thank you.” My gaze roves over her, scrutinizing her movement as she hands me the drink for signs of weakness or pain.
“Don’t thank me, girl.” Enat sits back and frowns. “I should scold you for wasting your energy on me. You could’ve hurt yourself. Or worse, you could’ve given too much of your energy away.” I start to argue, but she silences me with her upheld hand. “Don’t waste yourself on an argument. You’ve been sleeping for nearly two days and could probably use more.”
“I barely feel tired.” Time is not a resource we can spare. “I’m fine,” I insist, stretching out my legs and sitting taller.
She eyes my movement and shakes her head. “You’re determined is what you are. You’re lucky, girl, that we heal quicker than others.” Enat notices my head cocked to the side and explains, “I know you’ve much to learn, and yet I keep forgetting how much. We weaken and age like everyone else, but our gift helps us naturally absorb energy that helps restore us to a healthier state.”
“I thought taking another’s energy is wrong or, at the very least, dangerous. Like black magic.”
“Aye. It’s both when a Spiriter forcefully takes energy”—?Enat’s fingers curl into her hand—“or controls it, like in the case of your king. But there’s energy all around us that is, in a sense, given to you. It’s in sunshine and wind and water and the food we consume.”
I reach out and squeeze her fist. “Well, then, you shouldn’t worry. I spend enough time in the woods to reenergize myself daily. Did I heal you enough that you can break the curse?”
She twists and stretches her back. “Perhaps better than I was before,” she says with a wink. “Don’t do it again, though. Spiriters do not heal each other. Healing those who do not have our gift will make you physically weak. But when healing another Spiriter, there’s the chance you could lose your power.”
I tuck my chin, taking stock of my energy level. “Have I lost some of my ability?”
She waves a dismissing hand. “No. My ailments weren’t the type to siphon any power from you. You’ll be exactly as you were once you get a little more rest.”
“There’s no more time to rest,” I say. “Now that I’ve slowed us down, we’ll have less time to find the Spiriter.”
Enat exchanges a look with Cohen, who is cooking quail on the fire, a silent agreement. “You’ll at least eat first,” she says. “Besides, we won’t have to search too hard to find the Spiriter. It’s likely she’ll be close because that is a requirement for maintaining the bind. If we need to subdue her, I brought the chiandra tea mix. After she drinks it, her heart will slow and put her into a sleep that lasts a couple hours. Then all I’ll have to do is sense the two energies and work at unwinding them.”
I think about what she’s proposing and what she’s just warned me of. Siphoning power. “Is there a possibility she could take your gift?”
“No. You cannot take someone’s gift.”
Even so, there are too many ways in which this mission could go wrong. “What if we cannot get her to drink the tea? Or, worse, what if we cannot find the Spiriter? Is there another way to break the bind?”
Her gaze follows Cohen as he steps outside the cave. She knots her hands, similarly to how I wring mine when I’m uncomfortable. “A bind will break if one of the energies is too weak to hold,” she says. “That’s the only other way.”
The only time I’ve felt weak energy is when something is dying. My chin makes a sharp jerk up. “You mean, if one of them is dying? Are you saying you could break the bind if you hurt the king or the Channeler? Bring one of them close to death?”
Her gaze drifts to the side. She unfolds her hands to press them flat against her legs, pressing until the blood leaches from her skin. “Near death is not my preferred way to break the curse, as there are too many risks. But, yes, it is a way to break the bind.”
I scrunch my face up. “I thought . . . that is, you said we don’t heal other Spiriters. So you would kill her?”
“It would have to be the king.”
Panic burns the rest of my thoughts to ashes, leaving only fear for Enat. If she was to wound the king and then heal him, she would surely get caught and charged as a Channeler. Even though her actions would be helping the kingdom, there’s no doubt in my mind that the Purge Proclamation would prevail and she would be killed.
“No. It’s too dangerous,” I say.
Her arms, shoulders to the tips of her fingers, visibly relax. “Aye, there are many risks involved when healing someone who is mortally wounded.”