Fire Angels

Chapter 6 Part 2 Tasha's Vision

Thank you for reading my story.  Hope you are enjoying it.  In this episode Dion gets a glimpse of where Tasha has been.  Please vote for me.  It helps me find more readers.

"Tomas!" cried Mouse and Silva.

There was sympathy in Shad's eyes. He gripped Tomas' arm firmly and looked him in face.

"There's a lot of bandits in the Red Mountains," he said calmly. "I'd say it'd be them. I found her left for dead this side of the mountains near a place call Memit. But there's no point going down there looking for revenge. They'll be long gone now."

"Bandits? She's been gone three months."

"I know," said Shad grimly. "Doesn't bear thinking of, does it? I myself have wished I could kill men who do such things."

His eyes were full of understanding as he stood calmly in Tomas grip and for a moment it seemed to calm my brother. But only for a moment.

"Aumaz! Is there nothing to be done?" he cried suddenly, lashing out and throwing a jug onto the floor.

"Now Tomas, don't start breaking the place up," said Uncle Louie sharply. His thin face was dour and stern. "Stop acting like a wounded bull. You're no more to blame than I am."

Hamel came into the room. "Dion," he said. "I wonder if you could take a look at Tasha and ..."

He stopped short, seeing Shad.

"I'd like very much to see her," I said, getting up and going out of the room with him.

"Isn't there some priest with her?" I hissed, stopping him in the hallway.

"Priest? Oh Brother Alcumund. There's no need to worry about him. He knows all our secrets."

I hoped he was right.

Tasha lay in a little white washed room off a long narrow corridor.

A grey haired man in the rough brown habit of a monk was leaning over the head of the bed and a girl of about fourteen or so was hovering at its foot.

"This is Dally, Tasha's daughter," said Hamel, waving at the girl who hardly looked as us. "And this is Brother Alcumund. This is our sister Dion. I think she might be able to help you."

"Dion?" said the monk startled. "The baby sister?"

"Aye. We ran into her in Gallia. Persuaded her to come home to help search for Tasha. She's been a healer."

I could have kicked Hamel for telling the monk that, but Brother Alcumund just moved aside with a measuring glance.

I looked down and was instantly filled with leaden horror. It was not the fading remnants of the scars that covered the pale face of the sleeping woman, or the bandaged hands which looked disturbingly shapeless as they lay on the blanket; it was the sleep, the heavy almost deathlike sleep she lay in. Her chest heaved painfully as she breathed. I had seen this same white-faced sleep of deep exhaustion before. One summer in Gallia city, the poor had been plagued with it.

Her pulse was weak and slow.

"What is it?" said the girl urgently.

"How long has she been like this?"

"We've been unable to wake her since she was bought home yesterday morning," said Brother Alcumund. "I can't understand it. The injuries to her head do not seem to warrant it. She's not unconscious. She's just deeply asleep."

"Have you got a healers lens? Have you looked at her life force?"

"Yes." Brother Alcumund pulled a lens on a chain from over his neck. Being a member of the clergy he was allowed to carry such things. "It is terrible to see. She has almost no life force left. It's as if she's about to die."