Duty-Bound [ Lore of Penrua: Book II ]

10

When Koreti awoke, he was lying on a wooden floor, all his limbs atremble. The urge to be sick that had threatened him in the lorekeeper's chamber came again, and this time he could not stop it. He wretched, tasting bile in his mouth. Someone lifted him by the shoulders and slid a basin toward him across the floor. He wretched again, and all the buttered biscuits and bacon he had eaten came up in a flood.

"There, now," came a hushed voice. "There, now. You're all right, sweet. It's all right."

Koreti could not still the shaking of his limbs, and the vomiting did not help. When his stomach was emptied at last, he crouched on hands and knees, shivering with the ague. He was uncomfortably aware of how naked he was; he was still wearing only his nightshirt and did not even have a robe.

The stranger bathed Koreti's brow with a warm cloth and then wiped his face, cleaning the sick away from his lips. When he at last mustered the courage to look up, he saw an old woman, her seamed face framed with waves of silver hair. She smiled at him. On her wrinkled cheek was a delicately-wrought marke, a single curving line with a dot above it near the corner of her eye and three dots below it near her mouth.

Koreti drew back from her on impulse when he noticed the tattoo. "Where am I?"

The old woman had been on her knees next to Koreti. She reached out to brace herself on the hearth, pushing herself to her feet. "Safe," she said. She reached for a folded blanket which had been warming near the hearth and shook it out, then draped it around Koreti's shaking shoulders. "Just rest. Traveling by the blood is hard on a person, especially the first time."

Warmth flooded Koreti's senses, sending a shiver of relief through every limb. He closed his eyes for a moment, feeling wearier than ever he had in his life. When he opened his eyes again, he looked around the room in which he had found himself; its purpose was not immediately apparent. There was a sturdy wooden table and chairs, a sideboard, a stove, and shelves for cooking things—things Koreti had only ever glimpsed on his adventures in the kitchens of the palace. But Koreti also noticed two low, wide, cushioned benches which he realized, as he grasped for a word to describe them, must have been some kind of poor little bed. To the left was a wooden door, and to the right was a curtained doorway which must have led to a chamber beyond. The cottage reminded Koreti more of the imperial stables than a place a person could live. It was in every way different from the gleaming, tapestried halls of the palace.

Disoriented, Koreti tried to push himself to his feet, but his trembling legs did not obey him.

"Here," said the old woman. She reached out a gnarled hand. Koreti looked at the hand uncertainly for a moment before accepting it. He used it as leverage to raise himself up, endeavoring not to try his weight against the old woman's strength. Once he had gained his feet, he edged away from her again.

The sound of whining hinges startled Koreti; a wave of adrenaline coursed through him, reminding him unpleasantly of the magic that had risen in his blood. He turned to face the door, expecting danger.

A lean woman stepped through the door, her fox-colored hair catching the light from the glowing hearth. She wore a dirty tunic tucked into high-waisted breeches which, in turn, were tucked into scuffed boots. Her marke was similar to the old woman's in shape, but consisted of two lines instead of one, with a single dot at either end. She paused inside the door and swung it shut, her fingers on the handle. From her fingertips came a subtle blue glow which put Koreti in mind of the light he had seen in the lorekeeper's chamber; it spread from her fingertips and passed over the panel of the door before fading from sight.

She, a marked woman, was using magic—a practice that had been outlawed for centuries. She was a criminal, and she was not even shame-faced at her own wickedness. Horrified and afraid, Koreti stared at her, half-convinced she'd round on him and zap him with a magic bolt.