Daughter of the Healing Witch

My Mother's People pt. 2

Eveina burst out laughing and said, “You come home to your mother’s people after five hundred years and you ask if you are in trouble! You should receive a hero’s welcome!” It was then my turn to avert my eyes.

“I am no hero madame. I am the reason my mother is dead. Besides,” I looked to her, “I have never done anything heroic.” I looked to my feet in momentary confusion.
    “Pardon my rudeness, but my mother was not one of you. At least she did not appear to be so. She looked like me, but she was darker and a great deal more slender,” I laughed. “I remember that I always could out eat her, but I often had more energy.”  I then realised that there were some powerful people that I was casually talking to, so I corrected myself.

“I am sorry,” I mumbled, “It appears that I have been rambling.” Immediately after I had breathed the last sentence a large mass crashed into me.

The man shouted, “Océane!,” He screamed this as he whirled me around, butchering the pronunciation of my mother’s name. He was so strong as to hold me, from under the shoulders, at arm’s length with my feet dangling above the ground. It then became apparent his domineering stature. He frowned and gave me a peculiar look. “You are not Océane. Who are you?,” he asked me this while still holding me aloft.

“If you were to put me down, Monsieur. I may answer your questions,” I answered. His eyebrows rose in contemplation and I considered hexing him. After a too long moment he finally put me down.I finally was able to get a good look at him. He was maybe three heads taller than my diminutive  frame.

 He had grey skin and was very muscular. His upper arm was perhaps the size of my head twice over. His horns were similar to Eviena’s, however,  where her horns were ribbed like a ram’s the man’s horns were smooth and one of them (on the right of the person facing him) appeared to be snapped off half way through the bend. 

I began, “Océane was my mother. I am sorry to tell you this, but she was burned at the stake when mortals discovered who we truly are.”

He clenched his fist and I felt a great fear in my heart. I took a step back and debated fleeing. My magic had been whittled down to nothing over the course of this excursion and I would not be able to fight. A thousand possibilities flitted through my head each worse than the last.  At last he looked at me in the face. I was surprised when I finally saw the look on his face. He didn’t look angry, or even miffed. He looked ashamed. It startled me so much that I placed my hand on his enormous arm.

“I am sorry for telling you so abruptly. It seems like you were very close with her. There is nothing you could have done. I barely escaped with my life and a few things of my mothers. Please do not blame yourself,” I swallowed, “It has gotten me nowhere.”

“What is your name?”,he asked his voice thick with tears that I could tell that he could not risk to shed.

“Léonie. I am Léonie. Might I ask your name?”, I returned with a sad smile. He looked at me as if seeing me in a new light.

“I was there when you were born. I am Andrus Giantcleaver,” he said. “Where are you taking her Nicol?”

“To the King. He should know that the daughter of his court healer is here. I sent word ahead. He will be receiving her promptly. I was going to bring her to an inn, but I think she would do better to be set up in her mother’s old home for the duration of her stay, however long she chooses to,” Nicol responded as if that was to be expected. It was apparently to be expected as Andrus just nodded. 

I followed Eviena and Nicol down the main street. They were engrossed in a heavy debate on battle magic and had taken to ignoring me. I stopped when I heard  young girl crying and two boys yelling obscenities. They were standing in an alley between a tavern and a barber. I looked to my two escorts and mumbled something about returning shortly and slipped off to go check on the girl. They either did not hear me or paid me no heed. 

“Leave me alone,” the young girl blubbered. The boys kept taunting her to an extent that they had not even noticed my approach. She whimpered and looked to me with tearful eyes. Something in her eyes stuck me to my core.

I rose to my full height and said, “Let her alone.” The boys shot me a fearful glance and made a move to run. One look from me ceased their movements. One of the boys that looked younger palmed a crude looking quartz crystal. “Is this what you enjoy doing, making people that can’t fight you off miserable and hopeless?”, I asked accusingly.

“We didn’t mean any harm, Miss,” the older boy said.

“Then what did you mean to do, other than terrify her out her wits?,” I paused waiting for an answer. When I did not receive one, I began, “When I was young, my brother, my mother, and I lived in a village together. The boys in that village were exceptionally cruel to my brother. So much so that he would come home covered in bruises,” I took a breath and the boys looked at me. They were captive with my every word. “We found him, after a few weeks of his absence, floating in a nearby pond. He had apparently put himself there. We buried him the next day.” 

The boys looked aghast.  The younger one broke into a coughing fit so harsh that he collapsed from the force of it. I ran over to him. He sat up and retched. I felt his head and he was burning with fever. “How long has he been ill?,” I asked the older boy.

“Some time now. Please don’t hurt him Miss, he’s all I have,” the older boy cried on the verge of tears. “Kallan, can you hear me?” The older squatted next to me as I held the boy.

I took in Kallan’s condition and asked the older boy, “May I heal him?”

“Yes,” he said eyeing me warily. “But I have to watch.” I nodded and took the older boy’s hand and asked the earth to heal him. I pulled a tonic for the fever out of my coin purse and poured it down his throat. He sat up and shook his head. They older boy looked to me with wide eyes. I helped Kallan stand.

“Are you alright, Kallan?”,  asked when we both got to our feet. He nodded and hugged me around the waist. I poured some of the fever tonic into a vial and handed it to the older boy. “Make sure that he drinks this once daily.” 

“How can we repay you?”, the older boy asked.

“You can start by telling me your name and letting me fix that black eye and that cut that you have right above it,” I retorted. He simply nodded and walked over to me. I pulled out a salve and tended to the cut before he started speaking.

“I’m Callum. Kallan is my brother.That girl over there is Mirana, she isn’t really that bad and we probably shouldn’t have been so mean to her,” he mumbled as I cleaned his eye. He told me about his life on the street and ran off after I fixed his eye. He pressed a copper piece into my hand and ran before I could return it to him.

“They were going to pickpocket you,” Nikol’s cool voice noted from the entrance to the alley. I smiled to myself. This had of course occurred to me as soon as I saw the young girl’s crocodile tears. 

So I smiled and said, “I know,” I then turned to face him and standing beside him was a man with a crown on his head. I curtsied.

“I am Lord Aldith Godfrey. You may call me Lord Aldith,I assume that you are Océane’s daughter. What is your name?''he asked. He was wearing extravagant clothes and he had the coloring of a sunset that I saw once as a child. He was handsome and it was apparent that he knew it.