After a while the humming and noise of him crashing through the woods faded into the distance and a grinning L came out from behind her tree, Jonas behind her. I glowered at her. I’d never met a girl as cocky as this one. Without a word, they put their arms back around me, helping me, and we set off again.
Half an hour later, quiet tears rolled down my face. I was in agony. The back of my head throbbed, my cheeks felt stiff and bruised, as did my mouth. The cut on my lip stung. The rise of my breast throbbed, my wrists felt raw, the pain from the broken skin sharp and nipping. My ankles were the same. I tried not to let my legs get too close together so they didn’t rub off one another. And my feet. They felt shredded and swollen.
I expected L to make a comment on my tears but she just looked at me and picked her pace up a little. I tried to keep up, and as dark fell over us, L and Jonas led me off the trail path into the thick of the woods. Wariness clung to me but I tried to shrug it off. L and Jonas were helping me. I really believed that. But my body, still in shock from what had happened, still regarded everyone with fear and suspicion.
We walked perhaps another hour, this time deviating enough from my magic for it tug at me, like a child pulling a friend’s hair in frustration. I didn’t care this time. I needed to rest. Just for a minute. Only a minute.
Finally a well-built shack appeared in a tiny clearing in the woods. There was a vegetable garden outside, and a goat tied to the wooden framing of the porch. It was the homeliest looking place I’d seen since venturing into the mountains; like something from a fairytale. As we hobbled up the rough-hewn path, the door to the house burst open, candlelight from inside streaming out to greet us. I almost wept in relief. A woman’s silhouette framed the doorway, a child’s face appearing from behind her skirts.
“Thank haven,” the woman whispered into the night. “I was gettin’ worried.”
“Ma, we need some o’ yer medicine,” L called out to her as we drew towards the porch. Jonas and L helped me hobble up the steps until I was facing the woman. Her expression changed instantly as she took me in, her smile disappearing into angry concern.
“Dear haven, what did he do to that child?! Get her in here.” She gestured us inside briskly. It was easy to see who L had inherited her gruffness from.
In I went with them, looking down at the little boy who stared at me in horror. I gazed around in wonder. We were in the sitting room/kitchen of their home. Two rocking chairs sat on either side of a large, glowing fire. I was huddled over to the table that took up most of the room. There were empty plates and cups on it. In the kitchen the smell of stew wafted out to me and my stomach clenched. There were two doors, one at the back and the other on the wall opposite the fire. I gathered it led to their bedrooms. Their home was warm and welcoming and cosy. My body gave way at the relief and I crumpled between Jonas and L, both of them crying out to catch me.
“For havens sakes,” L complained. They picked me up, dragging me over to a seat at the table. I slumped back in it, thankful to be off my feet.
“L, there’s water boiling over the fire. Bring it.” L’s mother scooted into a chair opposite me and smiled softly. “Ye be Rogan, that right?”
“Yes, ma’am,” I replied politely.
Her grin widened. “Ma’am. Ye be hearin’ that L. Perhaps ye can be learnin’ some manners.”
L grunted.
“I be Sarah Moss. Ye met L – Elizabeth, but she be preferrin’ L – and my husband Jonas. And that one there.” She nodded warmly at the little boy. “Is Jonas Jnr. We just be callin’ him Jnr.”
“I’m pleased to meet all of you,” I wheezed out. “You have no idea.” Tears, I couldn’t control, spilled over my lids.
“Aw lass,” Sarah tutted. She turned to L, who had placed the hot water before her. I watched through blurry eyes as Sarah rolled up a cloth and dipped it into the water. “L, why don’t ye and yer papa make us up some bowls o’ stew, eh?”
L and Jonas did so without complaint.
I, on the other hand, waited warily as Sarah leaned over with the wet cloth and dabbed at the blood on my face. I winced as she touched my bruises. My nose must have been swollen as well. I was so glad I couldn’t see myself.
For a while all Sarah did was wash away the blood on all my cuts. She drew a deep breath and put the cloth aside. When she turned back to me, it was with only her hands. At the touch of her soft fingertips on my face, my eyes widened at the tingling rush of energy that shot through my nose. My eyes teared as the swelling disappeared, as my cheeks returned to normal, the cut on my lip disappearing. Not a word did I say as she turned those healing hands to all my wounds, even my feet.
Sarah looked exhausted by the time she settled back in her chair. L and Jonas had ladled out the stew and were already busy eating.
“You’re a Dravilec,” I whispered in amazement.
She nodded. I shook my head, glancing between Sarah and L. A Dravilec and a Glava in the same family. L caught my look and seemed to understand. She smirked at me.
“How is that possible?” I asked.
Jonas replied, “I have Glava in my family history. Sarah, Dravilec.”
That really wasn’t what I meant. What I had meant was that, for a world whose mage were apparently dying out, I’d encountered many of them. Haydyn’s evocation wasn’t the only thing in Phaedra changing. More mage were being born. I chewed my lip. I wondered what this meant.
Of course, the Moss family didn’t know I’d encountered many more like them, so my puzzlement was bemusing for them. I shrugged it off. This wasn’t the time.
At Sarah’s insistence I ate the stew given to me. I ate it slowly, my stomach still fragile. But as I ate the stew and warm bread, and sipped the apple juice Sarah had made, my body began to shut down in a sudden lassitude, now that it felt safe.
“No, no, Lady Rogan.” Sarah shook me and I was surprised that it didn’t hurt. Of course. She had healed me. I smiled dopily at her. I could have kissed her for that. “We need to get you washed up first.”
Again I was too tired to argue. Sarah shooed the rest of the Moss’ from the room and set about undressing me. I let her wash me, as my own mother had done years before, too exhausted to be embarrassed. She was gentle with me, even rinsing my hair out and plaiting it into a coil on my head. At last she pulled one of her own clean, soft, cotton nightgowns over my head, and taking me by the hand she led me into the room at the back of the house. It was small, with two single beds and a chest of drawers opposite them. Floral curtains were pulled across the window. In the bed closest to the door, lay Jnr, already fast asleep. In the other bed was L. She sat up in cotton longjohns (it didn’t surprise me she didn’t wear a nightgown to bed), the bedcovers pulled back.
“She alright?” L whispered.
“She will be,” Sarah replied softly and took me over to her daughter. “She just needs sleep.” She turned to me now. “Ye can share L’s bed. She don’t mind.”
At that moment, I didn’t care if she did or not. I crawled over the bed and slipped in under the covers. L craned around to look at me. “Make yerself at home,” she grunted and then slid in too, pulling the covers around us. She reached over and pulled the other side of the quilt up so that I was completely covered. “Night ma,” she turned back to her mother.
“Night, L. Proud o’ ye, lass.”
“Thanks ma.”
I must have fallen asleep as soon as my head hit L’s pillow because I didn’t remember a thing after that.
Chapter Twenty Six
The next morning I awoke snuggled up next to L. She had given a huff of laughter because I’d trapped her in my embrace and she couldn’t get out without waking me up. I had blushed beetroot, but she’d merely shaken me off when I tried to apologise.
Apparently everyone else was already up for breakfast. It was mid-morning, L told me. They’d let us rest longer. I was grateful. I already felt so much better than I’d ever thought I’d feel again. L gave me clothes to wear. We were of a similar height. I pulled on the soft trousers and shirt, warily eyeing the stockings and boots she gave me.
The boots were a little big but I pulled them on. I knew my feet were going to be a wreck soon. As we dressed for the day, L mentioned I’d woken her up with my nightmares. I couldn’t remember that and I apologised profusely. She shook me off again.
“I only mentioned it because…” She seemed embarrassed and I raised an eyebrow at that. “Well because ye might be wantin’ to talk about what happened to ye. Ye can talk to me.” She shrugged and turned away from me.
I smiled sadly at her back. “Thank you, L. I don’t…” I bristled at the way my body still clenched in fear at the thought of the Mountain Man. “I can’t just yet, but thank you.”
L shrugged again and headed into the main room.
Breakfast was delicious. Eggs, toast, goat’s cheese. More of Sarah’s delicious apple juice. The Moss’ were kind and considerate of, not only me, but each other and I enjoyed their teasing banter at the breakfast table. Their home was happy and warm. It was so nice to see that again after what I’d encountered up here in the Alvernian Mountains. It soothed my jangled nerves.
L told me she knew about Haydyn and the Sleeping Disease. None of them looked particularly worried by that and I realised it was because it didn’t really affect them way up here where the evocation didn’t reach. But as L went on, I gathered they realised the importance of the evocation for the rest of our world. They knew there was no stopping me. And I could see in L’s eyes that she knew for me it was personal; that I felt about Haydyn the way she felt about Jnr.
“So the Pool of Phaedra.” L shook her head. By now I knew she was seventeen, Haydyn’s age, but she spoke to me like I was twenty years her junior. “Quite a quest. Ye’ve certainly made a muddle o’ it so far, isn’t ye.”
“L, be polite,” Jonas scolded.
L gave him her favourite gesture. A shrug. “Just sayin’.”
I gave her my favourite expression. A glare. “I’m doing my best. I won’t stop until I get that plant, even if I have to face a million Mountain Men to get it.”
I watched L’s eyes glimmer with a hint of respect at my determination.
“Well, I be gettin’ an idea,” Sarah piped up. “Our L is as tough as they come; knows these here mountains better than anyone. If ye follow yer magic to the Pool, L will be keepin’ ye safe and right.”
“Although I don’t appreciate bein’ offered up as a guide without my say so, I do see the wisdom in the suggestion,” L agreed. “I’ll do it.”
I rather liked the idea of having a savvy, crossbow-toting mountain girl with me but I didn’t want to endanger anyone else. “I appreciate the offer, but you don’t have to help me. You’ve already done so much.”
L glowered at me. “I don’t offer help unless I be wantin’ to. I’m comin’; isn’t no yes thank ye, no thank ye about it. I leave yer lily white ass to saunter through these here mountains and Phaedra will be doomed – ye eaten alive by the Aran and Phaedra fallin’ to nothin’ without that Princezna o’ yers.”