“How did it get left in the village?” Erin asked, staring at the innocent-looking little bag. “Why didn’t they take it?”
“Well, they did. One of them took it from me after they had me tied up. But he saw that it was empty and threw it on the ground. I suppose that’s where Kirchel found it.”
“Empty? What about all that stuff you just took out of it?”
Arturyn gave a small chuckle. “See for yourself,” he said, handing the pouch over to her.
Erin took the bag and looked inside it. It was, as Arturyn had said, completely empty. She put a hand in and felt the corners. Nothing.
She looked back up at Arturyn, nonplussed. “I don’t get it.”
“It’s really a very clever system,” Kirchel said, placing a bandage over Erin’s salve-covered cheek. “You see, the bag is magically linked to a storage room. Anything that’s in the room can be taken out through the bag, and anything that’s put into the bag goes into the room. But it only works for him. Everyone else just sees an empty bag. Now, no more questions for a few minutes. I need to put something on your lip.” She gently rubbed some of the dried leaves into the cut on Erin’s lip. “There, now hold your lip still for a moment. It won’t take long for the cut to close up.”
While Erin sat, carefully keeping her mouth in the slightly open position Kirchel had left it in, she looked down at the bag in her lap again. It was made out of tanned leather and was very plain-looking other than a kind of crest tooled into one side. It had a picture of an animal in the center that looked like a snake with wings, surrounded by a ring of small symbols. It must have been how Kirchel recognized the bag as Arturyn’s.
Kirchel had started rubbing salve on Erin’s forearms, which were chaffed and torn from being tied around the tree. After covering the salve with a layer of bandage, she examined Erin’s lip again.
“All right, you can move now,” she said before turning her attention to Erin’s leg.
Erin gratefully closed her mouth and swallowed, then ran her tongue over her lips. She could feel no trace of a cut now. She picked Arturyn’s bag up off her lap to make way for Kirchel, who was pushing up the left leg of Erin’s pants, and handed it back to him.
“I don’t think you had any further injury here,” Kirchel said, running her hand back and forth over the top of Erin’s knee. Erin didn’t understand how she could feel anything through the brace and wondered if Kirchel was using magic to probe into her leg. “It’s swollen, but that’s probably just irritation from the rough treatment it’s had to endure today. I’ll give you something for the pain and swelling, and then I think food and rest will help you as much as anything.”
She picked up one of the bowls and the jug that Arturyn had pulled out of his bag. Uncorking the jug, she poured some of its contents into the bowl and placed it on the ground in front of her. Then she pulled a dropper and a tiny glass bottle full of black liquid from her bag. Kirchel opened the bottle and carefully measured a single drop into the thick, brown liquid in the bowl. Then she put the lid back on the bottle and set it and the dropper aside. She moved a finger in a stirring motion over the bowl. The liquid swirled and steam gradually began rising from it.
“Drink this,” she said, handing the bowl to Erin. “It’s a kind of soup.”
“What’s that black stuff? It must be really potent if I only need a drop of it.” Erin tried to keep a note of apprehension out of her voice.
“It’s exceptionally potent,” Kirchel said evenly. “Drinking this whole bottle—small as it is—would kill you almost instantly. But I can guarantee you that what I put in the soup is perfectly safe. It will relieve your pain and help you sleep and heal.”
Erin raised her eyebrows slightly but obediently put the bowl to her mouth and took a swallow. It was wonderfully warm and tasted good, although she couldn’t quite identify the flavor. While she drank, Kirchel stood up and took one of Arturyn’s grayish objects. She unrolled it to reveal a thin mat, which she laid on the ground next to Erin, along with one of the furry objects, which did indeed turn out to be a blanket.
“There, finish your soup and then try to get some sleep,” Kirchel said. “I want to know what happened to you after I left the house and how exactly you managed to end up here, but we can save the explanations for tomorrow.”
She turned to Arturyn, who had been watching her the whole time she had been treating Erin’s wounds. They regarded each other for a long moment.
“You really are a mess, you know,” Kirchel said at last, shaking her head.
“I’d noticed,” Arturyn said, the corners of his mouth twitching. “But I’m sure you’ll be able to piece me back together somehow. You’ve done it before.”
Kirchel sighed. “Yes, but I’ve never seen you in quite this many pieces before....”
She began going through her bag again, pulling out more supplies. Erin swallowed her last mouthful of soup, put the bowl down near the fire, and then crawled gratefully into the bed Kirchel had gotten ready for her. It felt like she had just climbed onto a feather mattress, even though the mat was no thicker than cardboard. Too tired to worry much about this apparent contradiction, she snuggled under the warm blanket and watched while Kirchel pulled a large glass jar filled with some kind of dark orange gel out of her bag.
Whatever that black liquid was, it had already made Erin’s pain fade away, and she felt comfortable and drowsy. She yawned, closed her eyes, and was asleep before she could open them again.
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Some time later, Erin opened her eyes. She felt warm and sleepy and was about to close them again and go back to sleep, when the soft murmur of voices caught her attention.
“Decided to save the worst for last, did you?” she heard Arturyn say.
“Something like that. Do you think your eye’s cut through as well?”
“Well, it felt like it was. And I can’t see at all with it.”
Looking in the direction of the voices, Erin saw that Arturyn was now lying on a mat next to the fire. He had a blanket pulled up to his chest, and his arms and shoulders were bare except for bandages crisscrossing over them. Kirchel was kneeling beside him, examining his left eye.
Erin knew she couldn’t have been asleep for very long. It looked like Kirchel was just finishing treating Arturyn’s wounds.
“I’ll clean it off, and then we’ll be able to tell better. If it’s cut deeply or through the center, I can probably heal it enough to give you back some sight, but you’ll have to spend some time with a skilled healer to get it completely back to normal.” Kirchel picked up her jar of orange gel—now mostly empty—and began to carefully apply a thick layer of it over the gash running down Arturyn’s face. “Now, try not to move until it clears away.”
A moment later, the orange gel had started to bubble and foam. It must have stung because Erin heard a sharp intake of breath from Arturyn and saw his left hand grip the blanket.
Kirchel put a hand against the side of his head to steady him. “The cut must be pretty deep if it hurts that much. Well, it will be over in a few minutes. Just stay still now….”
She started stroking his hair soothingly as she had done with Erin. There was a concerned, even tender, expression on her face as she watched him closely.
“I don’t suppose you’ve come through on your half of our bargain yet, have you?” she asked quietly after a long silence.
“No…I’m afraid I haven’t,” Arturyn said. His voice had also become softer. “And you?”
Kirchel shook her head, her expression rueful. “I’m sorry. I know I promised, but….”
“But neither of us ever really thought we could do it,” Arturyn finished for her. “We both knew that.”
Kirchel didn’t reply. She was still smoothing his hair, and there was an oddly wistful look on her face. They looked at each other for a long moment. Then Kirchel heaved a sigh and lifted her hand from Arturyn’s forehead.
“It looks like the blood is nearly cleared away now,” she said. “I think I’ve got some enolin in my bag. It doesn’t heal as quickly as tylith leaves, but it won’t leave a green streak through your eye.”
Kirchel turned towards the bag, which was on the floor between her and Erin. Erin quickly closed her eyes, not wanting the other two to know that she had been awake and listening.
Her sleepy brain puzzled over the exchange she had just witnessed, wondering what it meant and what kind of a bargain Arturyn and Kirchel could have made. She continued to mime sleep while she listened to the sounds of Kirchel rummaging through the contents of her bag.
But she was still very tired, and before the sounds had ceased, she was no longer miming and was once again fast asleep.
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When Erin woke up again, the muted glow of sunlight was coming from the cave entrance. She raised her head and looked around.
Arturyn seemed to be asleep, but Kirchel was sitting up with her arms and head resting on her knees and a blanket wrapped around her shoulders. It looked like she was watching Arturyn, though she might have just been staring into space. Erin couldn’t tell, since Kirchel was turned so that Erin could only see the side of her face.
Erin sat up suddenly. “Kirchel?”
Kirchel lifted her head and turned to look at Erin questioningly.
“Since when have you had pointy ears?”
Erin was staring at Kirchel’s ears. She could see them clearly because Kirchel’s long hair was pulled back in a braid. They stuck out and came to a point, just like Arturyn’s.
Kirchel smiled faintly. “Since I was born,” she said in a soft voice, obviously trying not to wake Arturyn.
Erin lowered her voice as well. “But aren’t you…aren’t you human?” It occurred to her how very odd that question would have seemed just a few days ago. “I mean, I’m human, and we’re related, right?”
“Yes, we are, but only on one side, remember? I’m half human. My mother was a Silmarith. My father met her when he came to this world to study magic in Katan Jyrat, the imperial capital. That’s where I was born.”
Kirchel gazed thoughtfully into the fire, which was still burning in the middle of the cave floor—even though, Erin suddenly realized, there didn’t seem to be any wood or other fuel underneath it.
“After my mother died," Kirchel went on, "my father decided to go back to the human world to be nearer his family. And probably to get away from painful reminders of her…. But my grandparents—your great-grandparents—helped him a lot in taking care of me, especially when I was very young. And then, of course, his sister took me in when he died. I stayed there until I was eighteen and then came back here to study magic and herbalism. I traveled around a lot after I was done with my schooling, learning about different kinds of plants and how to use them. Then I taught at the school of magic in Katan Jyrat for several years, until….” Kirchel broke off, swallowed, and then went on. “Until I decided to go back to the human world about five years ago.” She gave a small laugh. “So, now you know my whole life story. Probably more than you wanted to know.”
Erin couldn't quite agree with that last statement. “Why did you decide to go back?” she asked curiously.
Kirchel shrugged. “I wanted a change of scene. And to be able to have more contact with family.”
Erin frowned slightly. She didn’t think Kirchel had been having much family contact until just recently. With the distinct impression that there was something Kirchel wasn’t telling her, she asked casually, “So, did you and Arturyn go to school together? Or were you teaching when he went to school?”
“We went to school together. But I saw him quite often when I was teaching there, as well.”
“Does he teach, too, then?”
“No.” Kirchel gave Erin a searching look. “Didn’t he tell you who he is?”
Erin shook her head.
“Well, I guess he wouldn’t have been sure if he could trust you, being a complete stranger. Especially since he was alone and in the middle of nowhere.”
“He did tell me his full name,” Erin said. “And he gave me the impression that I would have recognized it if I had been from here.”
Kirchel looked amused. “You certainly would have. Everyone here knows his name. He’s the Emperor of Silmar, after all.”