The Road To Kalbakar, Wyrms of Pasandir #1

CHAPTER 17 - CARAVAN (Part 2)

I woke from Kellani's hands shaking me back into the world.

'We're at the last stretch,' she said. 'How do you feel?'

I sat up, expecting all kinds of aches, but to my surprise, I felt fine.

'All right,' I said. 'How's Naudin?'

'Embarrassed and lamenting his glasses, but fit for duty.' Kellani's eyes searched my face. 'You sure you're all right? That healing session was frightening to watch. Your face – as if someone was torturing you.'

'I felt all Naudin's hurt, raw,' I said. 'Never did that much healing before; it was about the limit of what I can do in one session.' I pressed myself up into a sitting position. 'You say we're almost at the keep. Who drives this thing?'

'I did,' Kellani said harshly. 'Never handled an ox-cart before, but we haven't ended up in the river yet.'

'Good for you – and us.' I hesitated. 'Did I dream it or was there a strange face? A boy?'

'That's Ulaataq,' she said. 'He's a Thali. He and his mother were taken prisoner by the monks. She's an engineer and he her understudy, or some such.'

'Does he know the thing we are going to break?'

'I haven't had time to ask him.' Kellani said. 'He's not strong. Those madmen had starved and mistreated him, so he's thin, wobbly, and feral as a hungry plains lion.'

I slid down from the heaped sacks. 'I know the feeling.'

The ox-cart stood in a small clearing beside the road to the keep. As I jumped down, Naudin came up, his face red with embarrassment. He gripped my hands.

'Are you all right?' Then he burst out. 'Gods, I feel so bad about this. Blown away like any novice! And you had to wear yourself out to heal me. Thank you! Was I very bad?'

I grinned. 'Moderately.' I assumed the haughty tone I'd heard from the healers. 'Your injuries were extensive, Mage Naudin, and I had to perform several delicate, and costly, surgeries. I will send the bill to your father's office.' Then I slapped his shoulder. 'Don't break your head over it, mate. How do you feel? No pain when you breathe? No sore shoulder or ankle?'

He shook his head. 'Nothing. Were they all...?'

'Guy, you splattered all over the place,' I said. 'But, seriously; I'd suggest you let the healers check you over. What I did was to take away the pain and force your body to heal itself properly. I never before did anything as major as this, and I would like a healer's opinion.'

I looked him over and smiled at his clothes. He wore a monk's dark blue tunic and gray pants, both indescribably filthy. 'You look different,' I said.

He shuddered. 'Don't make me think of it. Those fellows haven't washed anything for years.'

'I've got one for you, as well,' Kellani said. 'It's from that guy you tried to rub into the rock wall. They'll be a bit large, so you can put them on over your own clothes.'

I cast one look at the pants and the tunic, and went over to the waterside. I knelt and washed the worst of the dirt away. Then I hung them over a rock and said, 'Ice!' The water in the clothes froze. I only needed to shake them out to have a perfectly dry pair of monk disguise.

I grinned at Kellani's face. 'Those early years taught me that. We rarely had fires, but plenty of frost.'

She shook her head. 'I never remember things I did when I was four years old.'

'I do,' I said. 'Everything. What I did, not the others. I was fully focused on myself.' I glanced around. 'Where is that kid?' Then I saw him, sitting half hidden by rocks, staring at the bend in the road that hid the keep from view.