The next house Yann and Anríq came to was on the ground. The case inside appeared much more straightforward than the previous one.

A mother, father, grandmother, and four young children lived there. No one attacked the two men with weapons nor did they fight back.

A different malady afflicted each person. The grandmother sat in a corner rocking on her stool, hugging her arms around her shoulders, and sobbing uncontrollably. She didn’t respond at all when Yann told her that Anríq was a healer who was here to help them all.

The father sat at the table with his arms folded on the surface and his face buried in them. He snored nonstop and didn’t wake up when Yann and Anríq shook him.

The mother stood in the opposite corner screaming bloody murder and clawing at her face, arms, and body with her fingernails. She’d already bloodied herself enough to soak her dress.

She didn’t see Yann or Anríq at all, either.

All four children crowded onto one bed in the corner. The oldest boy convulsed in spasms. His next oldest sister lay on top of him with her back flattening him against the wall to hold him still.

She sprawled her arms and legs wide and stared out into the room with huge eyes. She didn’t blink once, not even when Anríq passed his hand in front of her face.

The youngest boy lay near the very edge of the bed with his head hanging off the mattress. His head dangled toward the floor and a line of mucus dripped from his nose and mouth to form a puddle underneath him.

Anríq took hold of the kid’s hair to pry his head up. A thick film covered the boy’s eyes and crusted around his nose. His head sagged the minute Anríq let go of it.

The middle girl lay flat on her stomach with her face buried in the pillow. Yann didn’t see what was wrong with her until he tried to turn her over.

He sprang back in horror and yanked his hands away when he saw that her face wasn’t there anymore. Her skull ended at the ears. A solid sheet of bloody flesh covered everything in between her ears where her face should have been.

Anríq came over to take a look when he saw Yann’s reaction. “The rest of her looks okay…and she’s still breathing,” Anríq remarked. “This is just the curse. She should come back to normal when I break it.”

Yann’s eyes skimmed the room. “Are you telling me….are you telling me you have to go through the same thing with each of them that you went through with the old woman—and then you have to go through the same thing with everyone else in the whole town?”

“Yes, exactly—so we better get to work. I need you to build a fire, bring in more milk, salt, and daisies, and then try to find some food for these people. They’re all going to wake up as hungry as the old woman.”

Yann gulped and hustled out of the house. This Servant business was turning out to be a thousand times harder than he realized.

He got busy handling everything while Anríq started on the drooling boy. Anríq rolled him over. At least Yann and Anríq didn’t have to knock anyone out in this house.

Anríq started drawing his symbols on the boy. Yann tried not to watch when Anríq started pulling the Darkness out of the kid.

Yann bent over the fire to add more wood to it when he heard what sounded like a whimper of agony.

He crossed to the bed to find Anríq grimacing in pain and sweating just as badly. The boy convulsed on the bed and the whole bed started to shudder.

Anríq didn’t stop this time, not even to ask Yann to hold the boy down. Anríq kept going until the boy let out a gasp and another flood of black vapor erupted from his mouth.

It all poured into Anríq’s hand as before. He crashed down on his knees this time and let his head rest on the mattress. He didn’t go as far out into space as he did with the old woman.

He got up much sooner this time, too. Then he started working on the girl with no face.

Yann walked away. Seeing Anríq in pain bothered Yann too much to stand around watching. Anríq already told Yann what to do to help him.

The patients all woke up cheerful—and hungry. Yann had his work cut out for him going through the town and raiding every pantry for all the food he could find.

It wasn’t easy. The few healthy people left in this town hoarded their food. The sick had been down for so long that all the food in their houses had either rotted or turned as hard as rock.

It took a lot to convince the healthy people to part with any of their supplies to take care of the newly healed patients, but Anríq’s condition worried Yann much more.

He worked his way through the second house. Yann started to fear the worst when they entered the third house.

It was a large, two-story house with four families living under one roof. Each family had at least three children.

Anríq started in the very first bedroom he came to and worked his way from room to room without stopping.

Yann went back and forth to the well for water and back and forth to any firewood pile he laid eyes on. He didn’t care if he took wood from one house to supply another.

He lit the fire in the kitchen stove and put on a pot of water to heat. He was on his way back to the house with a second bucket of water when he happened to pass the third bedroom down the hall—the bedroom Anríq had been working in a second ago.

Yann didn’t hear any noise in there, so he put the bucket down and went in.

Three children lay on the bed. They all suffered from horrible boils erupting all over their faces, arms, necks, and legs.

Anríq lay unconscious on the floor next to the bed with blood dripping out of his nose. Yann attacked him again, but Anríq didn’t respond at all this time. He was out cold.

Yann tried to roll him over. Anríq’s body had gone rigid. He didn’t uncurl when Yann turned him onto his back.

Yann threw inhibition out the window, left Anríq lying there, and stormed out into the street. Yann had seen enough—and Anríq had done enough.

Yann barged through town until he found the mayor, Avol. “Where’s the church house your man said my friend and I could stay in?”

“Um….it’s right over there.” He pointed to the church in another corner of the town. The mayor frowned at Yann. “Is something wrong?”

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“Round up two of your strongest men and tell them to come over to that house there. My friend collapsed and we need a few strong men to carry him to the church house so he can recover.”

The mayor turned white as a sheet. “What do you mean—he collapsed?”

“He took the curse on himself to save those people’s lives. Do you get it now? He drained the curse out of them and exhausted himself. Now bring your men over there before he dies, too.”

Yann walked away fuming. Nothing better happen to Anríq because of this.

Anríq was still out senseless on the floor when Yann got back. Yann could barely lift one of Anríq’s arms, let alone any other part of him.

The children in the bed were all waking up. They didn’t understand the commotion when the town men came in and hauled Anríq out of the house.

Yann gave orders to the mayor and any other able-bodied people hanging around to take over tending to the newly recovered patients. Yann had more important things to deal with.

He followed the town men to the church house. It turned out to be a little stone building with one main room and one bedroom in the back.

The town men put Anríq on the bed and left Yann blessedly alone.

He turned all his attention to Anríq, but Yann couldn’t help him. Yann couldn’t fix whatever was wrong with him the way Wesh and Eliska healed Anríq last time.

Yann covered him up with blankets, heated some warming irons on the stove, and slipped them under the blankets to keep Anríq warm. Then Yann tore the town apart a second time to find enough food to make Anríq some soup.

Yann was just taking the soup off the fire when he heard Anríq stirring in the other room. Yann sat down on the mattress next to him. “How do you feel? You look terrible.”

“I’m sure I feel much worse,” Anríq croaked.

“You should work more slowly so you have time to recover between patients.” Yann held out a bowl of soup. “Eat this.”

“I don’t want anyone else to die. I need to heal as many people as possible as quickly as possible.”

“You don’t need to do any of that if it costs you your life.”

Anríq tried to sit up and failed. Yann took the bowl back, crammed another pillow under Anríq’s head, propped him up, and tipped the soup into his mouth while Anríq drank it.

He sank back into place with a shaky sigh. “Thank you, Yann,” he breathed.

“Just make sure you get out of this town alive, okay? Don’t die on my watch. I didn’t sign up for that.”

Anríq looked away. “I won’t.”

“Are you sure? It seems like you’re in a hurry to destroy yourself with service the same way you said you wanted to destroy yourself with your magic.”

“I have no desire to destroy myself.”

“Then slow down. Please. I wouldn’t want anything to happen to you before I find a way to take you back to….” Yann stopped himself in time.

Anríq’s eyes blazed with an unnatural light considering how weak he was acting. “Before you find a way to take me back to what?”

Yann used that moment to put the bowl down so he wouldn’t have to make eye contact with Anríq. “Nothing. I just meant don’t die on me.”

Anríq didn’t answer. He stared at Yann so ferociously that Yann shivered.

He distracted himself by fiddling with a thread that had come loose from the bedspread. “I was about to say….before I take you back to Eliska.”

Anríq snorted. “Eliska doesn’t want me, my friend. Believe me.”

“Of course she does. You’re everything I’m not.”

“And what am I?” Anríq demanded.

“You’re taller, bigger, stronger, better looking….”

“I’m a Barbarian,” Anríq countered. “You’re smarter, better educated, more socially capable, and better at everything than I am. I’m a brute.”

Yann’s head shot up. “You…..you mean…..you’re actually…jealous of me?”

“If Eliska likes either of us, it’s you she likes. Do you think I don’t see the way she looks at you and talks to you and smiles at you? I would have to be blind not to see it. Eliska would never have anything to do with a Barbarian like me.”

“But what about….” Yann trailed off blinking into space.

Anríq couldn’t be jealous—not of Yann. That wasn’t possible—and yet Anríq was right about all of that. Yann was smarter, better educated, and more socially capable.

“Is this the secret you’ve been keeping from me all this time?” Anríq snapped. “You think Eliska likes me instead of you?”

“Well….she does. Look at the way she acted around when she first invited you to join us.”

Anríq made a face and looked away. “She was very kind to me, but she only did it because I’m a Servant. She did it to help you—and the rest of the Watch—but mostly because of you. Do you think all this help and effort she’s putting into the Watch isn’t because of you? Who else would she do it for—Rien?”

“No, but….”

“You can’t honestly think Eliska cares about me being taller, stronger, bigger, and better looking. There are countless Barbarians bigger, taller, stronger, and better-looking than I am. She doesn’t want them, either. If she likes me the way you say she does, it’s not because of any of those things.”

“No, she wants you because you’re a warrior and a Servant.”

“And what are you?” Anríq demanded.

“Me? I’m nothing.”

Anríq smacked his lips in annoyance. “You’re a warrior and a Servant. You’ve dedicated your life to service in the Black Watch. Look at the way you’ve been acting in this town ever since we got here. You’re an intelligent, educated man in ways I’m not. You’re everything that is good about me and more. You know Eliska likes you. I might even go so far as to say she loves you. Why do you doubt that?”

Yann couldn’t look at him. The words hurt.

The feelings between him and Eliska had already gone way beyond friendship. He knew that. No one had to tell him.

No one had to tell him they were mutual, either. She did dedicate all this help and effort to the Watch because of him. It started back in Middleborough and it just kept building with every passing day.

Anríq let the silence linger for a long time—too long.

After a few minutes, he pushed himself up on his elbow, picked up the soup bowl, and drank the rest of it without help.

Yann sat defeated on the bed next to him. Just when Yann made up his mind to walk away from Eliska, Anríq threw another piece of bait in front of Yann’s nose to tempt him farther down the wrong road.

Anríq lowered his voice to a confidential murmur. “Tell me what’s really bothering you. It will only get worse if you don’t talk about it.”

Yann kept his eyes down. He couldn’t keep it to himself any longer.

How painfully obvious it must have been to someone like Anríq. He must have seen from day one that Yann carried a secret burning a hole in the middle of his chest.

“If anything happened….between me and Eliska…..or me and anyone….I would have to leave the Watch,” he blurted out. “I would have to betray my oath….and I haven’t even taken the oath. How could I walk away from the Watch—and my father—and everything we’ve all been fighting for all this time—just for a girl?”

“How did it happen with him?” Anríq asked. “How did he have a child before he took the oath?”

“I don’t know. I never thought to ask him—and now I might never get another chance. I don’t know if I could ask even if I did get a chance. I don’t want to pry….”

“But whatever he did affects you,” Anríq pointed out. “For all you know, he might regret taking the oath. How do you know he really wants you to join the Watch? Maybe he wants you to have a different life but he doesn’t say anything because he thinks this is what you want. You wouldn’t know unless you asked him. He might tell you not to make the same mistake and to go off, find a girl, and be happy. If he can do it, you can do it, too.”

Yann tore his eyes away again. “I could never ask him that.”

“So you would throw your life away because you can’t ask him? That’s cowardly.”

“How do I know I would be throwing my life away? I never thought I would do anything else—and then I met her. What if she’s just a temptation to test my resolve? What if joining the Watch is as important to me as being a Servant is to you? What if going off, finding a girl, and raising a family is what would be throwing my life away? Isn’t that what you would have done if you stayed with your tribe?”

Now it was Anríq’s turn to look away. “You’re right. It’s exactly the same thing.”

“So what’s the answer? How am I supposed to know? If I don’t take the oath, I’m out of the Watch. I’ll never be one of those men again. I might never even see them again. I would stay in whatever town I settled in and they would….do whatever they’re going to do.”

“You might settle in the same town where they join the Watch,” Anríq suggested.

“I would still never be one of them again. I would spend my life thinking I let them down—because I would have let them down. I would never be able to look any of them in the eye again without feeling that shame. It would make my married life with my family a living hell.”

“And if you join the Watch, you would see all those men raising families and going home to their wives and you would regret your decision. You would come to hate the men of the Watch for robbing you of what you could never have. Then your life in the Watch would become a living hell.”

“So what am I supposed to do?” Yann asked. “You must know. You’ve been through it before.”

“I went through it for myself. I didn’t go through it for you. Only you can make that decision.”

“That doesn’t help me. You said talking about it would make me feel better.”

“It will make you feel better. I didn’t say it would make the decision easier. Nothing can do that.” Anríq stretched back out on the bed. “These things are never easy. They’re especially not as easy as they appear when someone else does it. Believe me. The decision to leave my family to become a Servant wasn’t easy. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do—much harder than healing these people.”

End of Chapter 39.