Memorybound

Chapter 22

One more day had been completely wasted. Esmerelda spent every spare moment, making sure that Hailey was warm enough, had eaten enough and had rested enough. The following day, Hailey sat in front of the mirror, looking at reflection. Behind her, Esmerelda brushed her hair, a process that usually took less time if Hailey did it, but she had it admit that it felt good. "The queen said that you need a lady's maid and that I would be the perfect girl for the job, since we're already friends and you aren't used to having people look after you."

That was strange. The queen had much bigger things to worry about than whether Hailey had a maid or not. All of that was the job of the steward, but she supposed that if she didn't want a lady's maid, she shouldn't have run herself so ragged. She sighed, accepting Esmerelda's help for now. She just hoped that it didn't ruin the tenuous friendship that they had had.

"There," Esmerelda said putting down the brush. "You look a hundred times better than you did yesterday." Hailey had to admit that Esmerelda was good at this job and it was nice to wake up and have a tray of breakfast ready for you, but she couldn't help feeling guilty about leaving a mess behind for Esmerelda to clean up.

She hurried to the king's bedroom, where Natalia had agreed to meet her and teach her some of the things that Hailey didn't know. The king himself must have been feeling better because he was no longer in his bed. Had Natalia healed him? Why were they meeting here if the king was nowhere in sight?

All of the curtains were open, letting in much more light than had been allowed the time she was here before. The massive bed sat between two windows and Natalia was actually sitting on the king's bed. Her dark skin and hair seemed an opposite of Hailey's light, easily burned skin and white blonde hair. She was also more poised, carrying herself like a queen, demanding and expecting everyone to follow her orders. Hailey should have seen through her disguise. She still wore the dress of a servant, but she had never acted like one. Hailey had been too tired to see it.

"You're looking much better," Natalia said, sounding satisfied.

"I'm feeling better," Hailey said truthfully.

Natalia began to pace. "I have thought about your problem, and one of the things that you clearly have not learned is about runes."

"I think I have read about these. They are like foci, right?"

Her dark eyes narrowed in thought. "No foci are something completely different. Foci allows a mage to focus their energy on a specific spell or a specific target. It can also help multiple mages focus on a single target. Those can be useful too. It can help you in healing. If you are healing a soldier who has a deep cut, like what an arrow would cause, it can help to focus all of your energy into that one spot on the body, but we are going to help the king, and for that, we need a rune. Your king is very sick. He is probably dying and there is not much that anyone can do about it."

That was supposed to be a secret. Hailey worried that she had said something in her sleep. "How did you know?"

Natalia raised an eyebrow. "I was healing people before I even became a mage. It was my specialty and so I can sense pain in people without even touching them. Just being in the room with the king, I could sense that every cell in his body is crying out in agony."

Natalia's innate power seemed a lot more useful than Hailey's ability to turn invisible, but it was something that no one got to choose.

"The best thing that a mage can do for someone who cannot be healed is to ease their pain and that is what we will do for the king. It will make him feel much better and it will aid in his mobility and allow him to rule properly for his final days."

Hailey nodded, feeling nervous about what Natalia was about to do. If she wanted to, she could easily kill the king and possibly destroy all of Taivalon. Her stomach tightened, but she had no choice but to trust this woman. She was the only one in all the nine kingdoms who had come forward to help Taivalon's dire situation.