The Chronicles of Nir

27 | Tali na asté

Maisie yawned, set the blade she'd been sharpening aside, and rubbed her eyes. Only a day had passed since Tallon had been injured and the mimic revealed, but it felt more like a week.

She shuddered at the memory. It had taken the elves nearly an hour to extinguish the flames, by which time the whole top deck had burned. Very little of the mimic's body remained among the ash, but it had been enough to haunt her dreams and make her shun sleep. Luckily, she had plenty to keep her occupied.

She had brought her work to the infirmary, and sat between two cots. Ben lay on one, still deep in the magically-induced sleep, and Tallon lay on the other, doused in sweat and lost in fever dreams. As she watched over her two companions, she reflected on how her life had changed so swiftly that it was hard to remember who she was at times.

As she worked, she reminisced: recalling her mother, her father's face the last time she saw him, her unfortunate marriage, the joy of meeting Raebel and falling in love, the pain of her indenture, and now this strange adventure on which she found herself. Not to mention the discovery of her hidden powers and a dalliance with an elven queen—that had been a pleasant surprise.

Looking at her hands, she frowned. Did she really have magic? Could she really heal? There was no time like the present to find out.

Starting with Ben, Maisie stilled her thoughts, imagining a soft golden orb enveloping her in a warm hug. As if Queen Nephinae herself was present, offering strength, comfort, and support, Maisie inhaled deeply and relaxed.

Placing her hands on either side of Ben's head, she uttered the incantation to heal his wounds, transferring warmth through their connection.

When she finished, Ben uttered a gentle sigh as if drawing his first painless breath in ages.

With her hands still on his head, Maisie mentally sought other injuries, but found nothing else. Ben's concussion wouldn't return to trouble him.

As for his magical sleep, she left the spell intact. After all, his magic was capricious and tied directly to his emotions; the last thing anyone needed was for him to finish the job of breaking the ship in half. The Gatekeeper was in bad enough shape already.

As Aeslin had taught her to do, Maisie took several cleansing breaths and shook out her hands, shedding any residual energy. Once she refocused herself, she turned her attention to Tallon.

Bran and the medics had carried him down after the mimic's attack and stabilized his condition, but he had yet to wake. The medic on duty had checked the wound several times, tutting unhappily, but skirted Maisie's questions, saying only that Tallon would need time to recover from losing so much blood. Oddly, though the healers claimed the knife had missed any organs or major arteries, they'd struggled to staunch the bleeding. Maisie wondered what would have happened if the knife had struck a less 'ideal' location, and shuddered at the thought.

As she moved her stool closer to his cot, Tallon moaned, as if troubled by bad dreams. She placed her hands over the site of his injury and shut her eyes, attempting to channel the healing light as she had for Ben, but immediately sensed something wrong.

Instead of a living wound which could be mended, his lacerated flesh oozed decay and emitted a strong, foul odor, resurfacing an old memory. Maisie's mother had just finished amputating an injured miner's leg, and Maisie, barely four years old at the time, had cried, not understanding why the limb couldn't be saved.

"What is dead cannot be healed," her mother had explained, "only what is living."

Already fearing what she might see, Maisie drew aside the coverlet and lifted the bandage from Tallon's wound. She bit back a cry of dismay. The tissue around the injury had blackened, and a gaping hole stared back at her. The stitches had disintegrated, allowing the wound to continue draining blood and pus. The surrounding veins had turned black as well, spreading outward along Tallon's side like spider legs reaching for prey.