" " ‘ ' The healer stood beside the narrow bed. Crissa rested soundly, her wounds mostly healed. Peris smiled happily at the soft-spoken healer as he turned toward her. "She will be fine, but needs a day or two bed rest," he said. He face then shifted to a rather sardonic expression. "It's good that you forewarned me that her wounds might seem as if earned in a fight, else I surely would have thought them such."
"I feared they would, those steps can be tricky," she said, with utter solemnity. She stepped over to the cot and pressed a small, cool hand to Crissa's brow. "You're sure she's well? She was hi - er - rather she struck her head many times falling."
"Yes," said the healer, "she had some swelling in her mind, but I've seen to that, and the worst of the wounds. As you likely know, though, magic cannot mend a body fully, except that granted by the One, and that's hardly magic at all."
She nodded agreement. "More a miracle, I would think," she said.
A bright smile crossed onto the face of the healer. "As would I, young woman," he said.
He had been extremely gentle in treating Kenett and Crissa's injuries, his hands moving delicately over them as he expended magical energies from small red mana crystals. Peris had never seen those used before, but to those who had not the gift of magic, it was the only way to practice the art.
"Could I learn magic with those?" asked Peris, eyeing the crystals as he slipped them into his black sack.
Pallin looked at her a moment. "You seek to learn the arts?" he asked. "As a healer?"
Peris shrugged. "It seems an honorable and noble profession," she said.
"And a tiring one," said the healer, grunting as he lifted the sack. "You implied favors for my services, yes?"
Her eyes looked down shyly, this had been the moment she feared, or hoped for, as her whim flipped and turned in her mind. "Yes," she finally said, after achieving a rather appealing shade of pink to her cheeks.
"Good," he said, his voice filling with desires unspoken, softening and hardening all at once. "My home has not had a good scrubbing and cleaning in at least a year, life of a bachelor and all that," he said. "I expect you to be there by noon, and you clean until I am satisfied that the place is spotless."
Peris was not sure if she was pleased or annoyed by this change in tack. Surely any other forms of favors would be over quicker. However, he thought he was doing her a kindness in having her clean instead of lie down for her payment. She donned a bright smile that became truth in but a moment, as she realized how kind he must truly be. "It will be, then," she said. "If you are asked about injured parties this night?" she asked, suddenly worried for Crissa and Kenett's safety and the watch's possible investigation of the break in at the asylum.
"What injured parties?" he asked, suddenly appearing quite shocked. "I was called out by a fearful young woman who worried that her beau may have passed her something in their loving that she had not bargained for."
Peris barked out a laugh that caused Crissa to half stir in her slumber. She covered her mouth with both hands. "That's almost worse," she said, giggling. "But imminently believable, I should say."
The middle-aged man nodded. "Aye," he said. "One advantage of being a healer is that most folk believe whatever you tell them." He thought for a moment. "Which is why we do not lie lest we believe the need great."
The young noblewoman nodded. "I understand," she said.
"If I find that you have mislead me, and your part was ignoble in the events that led to these injuries. . ." he let the threat drift off into the night.
Peris looked up at him and said, "It's not, though rumors may say otherwise, please give us two weeks for you to see that."
"Two weeks, then," he said, giving her a nod and picking up his black sack.
She hugged his wide chest and squeezed hard. "Thank you," she said.
The healer patted her back and laid a small kiss upon her brow. "You did tempt me, you know?" he asked.
Peris nodded at that, then asked, "Why did you not demand the offered price, then?" Her expression was nonplused.
"I'm too old to be taking a girl's innocence," he said, smiling at her. Then he grinned even more broadly at the shock on her young face. "Of course a healer can learn these things," he said, patting her shoulder. "Had you been more experienced, I'd likely have gladly taken the offer."
"I'd have given it without complaint," she said, her eyes now again shyly looking downward.
The healer walked toward the door. "I know it," he said, chuckling. "Which is why I also know you will clean my house extremely well."
Peris pushed the door shut as he walked out into the thick fog of the night. She slid the long wooden bolt back into place to secure it and looked back at Crissa and Kenett, both sleeping quietly on the bed. She crawled onto the bed, as well, leaving on her clothes, and cuddled up beside Crissa, putting her head on the tall girl's shoulder. Crissa murmured something in her sleep, but did not awaken.
Soon, Peris joined them in slumber.
- - - - - - - - - -
"How can one man have so many socks?" asked Peris, looking at the huge heap of smelly footwear in the middle of the hall floor.
Pallin laughed from the study, where he was pouring over some musty old tome. "I find it easier to buy them than to have some winsome young lass come clean them," he replied.
Peris was now doubly unsure that he did her a kindness by not bedding her last night. The place, like many homes of unwed men, was a sty. Cleaning for four hours netted her but a room full of dirty clothes and an aching back. She was not the most efficient of cleaners, as cleaning was not a typical duty of young noblewomen, but this seemed a woefully slow progress, even to her.
"Take a break," said the healer as she struggled with a particularly unwieldy pile of clothing. "Come, sit in the study for a while, and have some tea."
She followed him into the study and sat in a proffered chair. Dread filled her eyes as she noted the layer of dust on the shelves and the disorder of the small library in general. "You just wanted me to see my future of indentured servitude, didn't you?" she asked, gazing about the room.
His eyes hardened a bit, more mocking than truly upset. "Do you know how much I normally would have charged for last night's aid?" he asked.
She shook her head.
"Fifty marks," he said simply. "Were I to seek to collect that from you, even given a premium value as you are a virgin, which only is good for the first time, it would take you most of a tenday, bedding five men a day."
Peris blanched slightly. "You're serious?" she asked.
"Very," he replied. "Your friends' injuries were serious, especially the young man's, in truth, he was more wounded, more deeply, than the young woman. He was dying, in fact."
"One save me," she sighed out under her breath.
"I'd say he was tortured, by someone who knew what they were doing," said the healer. "If my opinion were asked on the matter. By someone who knew exactly what they were doing."
Peris nodded at him, her face downcast. "He probably was," she said.
"And one might ask how it is that the apprentice of Marrat finds herself grievously injured, as well," said the healer. "Of course I know who she is," he said, noting her look of surprise. "I have to have my manastones charged by his other apprentice, the one who was arrested a couple of days ago. . ." his voice drifted off, something he seemed wont to do. "Oh One's mercy," he said in an exhaled sigh of air. "This is to do with that, isn't it?" he asked.
"It's likely best that you not know more than you do," said Peris. "For all of us."
"I see," said the middle-aged healer. "Still, it begs the question of what passes, though I'll leave it to your word."
Peris sipped the tea, it was strong, and perked her up slightly. Her back also stopped aching quite so much. "This is good tea," she commented.
"Yes," he said, taking a sip himself. "All the better to get a good days work out of a person." He grinned broadly at her mock look of annoyance. They spoke idly of her impending chores and finished the tea, eating some biscuits in the process.
A few more hours of the hard work and she returned to the little inn. Crissa was awake, sitting up in the bed, watching the door impatiently as Peris entered.
"He's not awakened yet?" asked Peris.
Crissa gave her a hard, upset look. "He has, twice," she said. "I've put him back to sleep both times. He's not happy with our ‘rescue'."
"What?" asked Peris.
"He says that he'll be killed," explained Crissa.
Peris thought a moment. "Did he say by whom?" she asked.
"He refuses to," said the sorceress. "Then he gets unreasonable and begins raving. That's when I put him to sleep." She cast an impatient glance at Kenett as he lay, sleeping.
"Whoever put that into his head surely is the same folk that tormented him," said Peris. "He was dying, or so the healer said."
Crissa's eyes widened. "Healer?" she asked. "I meant to ask you about that. Where did you find a healer, and how did you pay him?"
"The pay is still being worked off," said Peris, a tone of annoyance in her voice. "The where was the first one I came across."
"I hope you don't mean you. . ." Crissa let the statement go unfinished.
