Reader Beware

Chapter 22

            Even though the sun was barely up, Rika was still sweating, taking the stance Damek had been drilling her in and staring straight at him. Even just the warm-up Damek put her through left her exhausted. She compared it to her magic lessons, which also left her tired but not sweating, and was beginning to prefer the less physical training. Or she would, if she could learn more than one spell. She couldn’t even defend herself with magic yet. Not that she was much better with the martial arts that she’d been learning, but at least she was seeing progress with-

            Her thoughts shattered as she realized that Damek was in front of her. Too late, she tried to set her weight properly. He saw her wide eyes and tried to pull his blow, but could only hold back some of the force of it. His roundhouse kick still connected solidly with her shoulder.

            A yelp broke from her lips as Rika tumbled sideways, trying to regain her balance. She forgot even her lessons in how to fall, turning the wrong way and putting all of her weight on her tilting ankle. She collapsed with a cry at the sudden flare of pain.

            Damek was beside her in a second, face the colour of bleached linen. “Are you alright? Where are you hurt?”

            Rika sat up slowly, trying to feel if she was hurt anywhere aside from the throbbing of her ankle. “I think I’m fine. Except for my ankle,” she said, reaching down and pulling her pant leg up for a better look. Already the area around it was red and when she touched it, she could feel heat radiating out. She had no doubt that it would be swollen within the hour. Gritting her teeth, Rika carefully lifted her leg and moved her foot in each direction, stopping when she felt pain. “I think it’s sprained, not broken. It doesn’t hurt as bad as the time I broke it and I can still move it.”

            “I’m getting Elthia,” Damek said, standing and running for the tent at the edge of their camp closest to the rest of the caravan.

            In minutes, he was running back, a tousle-haired Elthia on his heels. She was dressed in a light dress that Rika thought must be her nightgown, her hair tumbling down around her face as the healer dropped down beside Rika. “What happened?”

            “I wasn’t paying attention to the lesson and hadn’t set myself properly. Damek tried to stop himself, but he couldn’t pull the blow entirely. I went down wrong and twisted my ankle. I think I’ve sprained it. It hurts, but not as bad as a break.”

            “Let me see,” Elthia said, already reaching out to gently touch Rika’s ankle.

            Managing not to wince, Rika paid close attention to the healer, figuring this was the only chance she was ever going to have to see one at work. It was actually almost worth the pain to be able to say she’d had a real healer work on her. Elthia closed her eyes, letting out a long breath, falling into some kind of trance-looking state.

            It didn’t last long. Eyes flying open, Elthia leaned away from Rika, mouth dropping open. “Y-you! There’s…in your ankle…metal screws! It’s not natural! How…?”

            For a second Rika could only stare. “Oops,” she said, flushing slightly. “I forgot I still had those.”

            Damek was looking at her with wide-eyes as well. “Screws?”

            Rika shrugged. “I broke my ankle two years ago because I was walking and reading, something Connor forbade me from doing afterwards, and they had to put some screws in for it to heal properly. I never them removed since they’ve never bothered me. I guess that that doesn’t happen here, eh?”

            He sighed, dropping his head into his hand. “No. No, it doesn’t. And if I didn’t know you, stranger-girl, I’d say you’d planned this to get your way.”

            “I wouldn’t put your or me through this. It seriously hurts.”

            Damek sighed again. “Well, do whatever you like. I’ll go wake up the mage and tell him. He’s not going to be pleased.”

            Rika made a face. “Whatever. It’s better this way.”

           Elthia, who’d been locked into an open-mouthed, wide-eyed state, finally broke free. “What is going on?”

            Hesitating for a moment, trying to think of the best way to word it, Rika gave up and went for the direct route. “I’m sort of from another world. I ended up here by accident because of this book I picked up. Ahisu and Damek are helping me find a mage to send me home. Ummm…and we don’t have magic or healers where I’m from, so that’s why they had to put screws into my ankle so the bone would fuse right. We’re all into science where I’m from.”

            “Another world? Another world! You can’t honestly expect me to-”

            Rika cut her off. “How else would I get screws into my ankle? Ones that have probably already melded with my bones. I can pull out more proof from my bag if you’d like. I’ve got some plastic hair clips in there somewhere. And plastic doesn’t exist here, not as far as I’ve seen.”

            Elthia paused, mouth half-open to speak. She closed it, mind racing, doing its best to process everything. “That…Is that why you were excited that I was a healer?”

            She nodded. “Yep. You’re the first healer I’ve ever met. I think it’s awesome!”

            “So…so…how did you get here?”

            “Transport spell on the book I picked up. Or at least, that’s what we think. We’re not really sure. Heck, before I picked up the book, I didn’t even believe magic was real, so I really have no clue.”

            Elthia went back to staring long enough for Rika to get uncomfortable. She shifted slightly and said, “Elthia?”

            The healer shook her head. “Yes?”

            “Can you fix my ankle, please? I mean, we can talk about this later, but if we wait too much longer, everyone’s going to wake up and be getting ready, and I’ll never be able to keep up with a sprained ankle.”

            Elthia blinked a few times, then reached back out to touch the swelling joint.