Chapter
1
Deckard knew that healing people wasn’t easy. It took skill, patience, and knowledge to mend bones, close wounds, and stop disease. His innate abilities helped, of course, but he refused to rely on their power. Mainly because he had always wished that he didn’t have it at all. Blessed were rare and prized; they could heal anything short of true death. Unfortunately, due to their rarity, they were treated much in the same way a rare animal was; they lived fine lives in gilded cages. A beautiful contraption, so long as you didn’t think too hard about the fact that it was still a cage.
He had never been kept that way. Instead, his mother
had taught him to use his ability sparingly, gently encouraging the body to
mend itself faster while he healed with more conventional means rather than let
his secret out. He was the youngest healer in Hidan, but he had studied hard,
trained for years to learn the trade and gain the trust of the community. He
had built himself a normal life.
All that work and effort… wasted.
Dark thoughts fouled his mood, and the weather seemed
to follow suit, bringing winds that chilled him to the bone. He shivered,
pulling his jacket snugly around him. Deckard turned the corner with relief as
he saw the warm glow of the Lucky Koi Inn. The chill of spring hadn’t been
replaced by summer’s warmth yet and wouldn’t be for another month or more. The
cold had gotten to him more than he liked lately, a condition he hoped the fire
burning in the Koi’s huge stone fireplace would be able to solve.
He studiously ignored the fact that the cold he’d been
feeling had nothing to do with the weather.
He jogged to the heavy door and opened it, slipping
inside.
The lamps were lit in the center of the room, the area
most densely filled, leaving dark, lonely spots against the walls where young
lovers could pretend they had privacy. The stone fireplace sat against the far
wall, beside the door that led into the kitchen. The fireplace was a two way,
open to both rooms and through it, the scent of old fish stew and new bread
with melting butter wafted into the main room.
As the door closed behind him, every eye turned his
way. Their eyes judged him warily; the same as they would Tieni simply for
being one of the Corvidae. He waited to be recognized and his heart skipped in
an unhealthy way when he realized that while they knew him, they weren’t sure
if he was a friend or a stranger anymore.
Deckard had been living in Hidan since he was eleven.
He’d fought hard to be accepted, to be welcome in their places. It had taken
years and becoming a healer to do it. The idea of working his way back to that
acceptance among them seemed insurmountable.
He would have left were it not for seeing Tieni in the
far corner, near the kitchen, strumming her lute. Her hair and face were dark,
but her clothes were bright, garish when compared to the rest of the townsfolk.
She saw him and smiled. That smile still made him feel giddy. She quietly
played another measure and then shook her curly hair out, thanking everyone.
Even from the door, he could hear, faintly, the sound of her thick hair beads
clicking. She gestured towards the bar with the instrument and quickly began
tugging a thin string through its bridge. She bit her lower lip as the cord
stretched.
Deckard walked over to the bar focusing on Tieni’s
strong hands rather than the stares of people he’d thought of as friends. As he
neared the bar, Kenneth caught his eye, an expression of pity on his face.
“They’ll get
over it soon enough, Deckard,” he said, cleaning a glass. “It’s only been a
week, after all.” His expression was friendly, and Deckard relaxed seeing it.
At least one person didn’t think he had suddenly changed just because they’d
found out he was a blessed.
Kenneth had been the bartender here since Deckard had
moved here, but he thought the man was wrong in this case. Nothing had been
right since the stranger, Richard, had come to town. With the way things were
going, he didn’t think they’d get any better when he finally left again.
Richard had been searching for a ship lost at sea
decades before. While in Hidan, four men had nearly succeeded in murdering him.
It had been Kuzunoha, his own ex-girlfriend, who had saved the stranger’s life
by bringing Richard to Deckard. Once healed, Richard had convinced her to go
treasure hunting with him. Deckard had thought that neither of them would be
his trouble again. Until the stranger had returned to town a week later with Kuzunoha
nearly dead in his arms.
During their adventure, she’d gotten herself infected
with a mold that had been turning her insides to jelly. His heart had been
caught in his throat, choking him as he’d felt her heartbeat stutter and stop.
He shivered remembering the feeling of her dying in his arms. He’d been lucky
that the healing itself hadn’t killed her. He hadn’t considered the
consequences before he’d made use of his power, forcing the mold and sickness
out through her pores.
Everyone thought he’d brought her back from the dead.
He hadn’t, of course. There were limits to his power
and death was one of them. Kuzunoha had been on the brink, unconscious with a
heart stuttering to a stop, but it was close enough for his power to restart it
as the sickness was forced out of her body. Everyone had seen him do it, his
body practically glowing with the magic released.
Of course, he didn’t regret saving Kuzunoha’s life. He
just hoped that people would come to their senses soon; that saving her
wouldn’t end up costing him the life he’d built here.
“I hope so. Could you have a couple of drinks and some
stew brought over to my table?”
Kenneth nodded.
“The usual
drinks for you and the cro– and Tieni?”
Kenneth was a good man, but he still referred to Tieni
as a crow. Strangers were always treated with a mix of suspicion and
attraction, and that held double for the traveling folk known as the Corvidae.
Fortunately, Tieni could sing and play the lute more than passably well. Since
she’d left her family, they let her play in the inns, walk around Hidan and
outwardly, people welcomed her like they would have any other traveling bard.
So long as she didn’t steal their men, their children, their coin, or caused
any trouble. Of course, his relationship with her was seen as proof of the other
three and some people were becoming vocal about it.
Kenneth’s eyes flicked to Deckard’s left, noting
someone walking up to the bar and gave Deckard a nod.
Deckard glanced behind him to see who was coming and
smiled, recognizing Carol, the smith’s youngest daughter. She was younger than
him, wearing her bright hair bound into a matron’s hair clip. Her wool dress
was undyed, other than a single tiny handprint in bright blue. She carried her
young son in her arms.
He knew her
from around town, but the first time he'd spent time with her was when he'd
helped deliver her son a few months back. What had she named the boy again?
Calvin? He hoped the child hadn’t taken ill. It was all too easy for cold to
get into the lungs when they were that young.
“Good eve, Master Healer,” Carol said, pausing when
her voice caught. She could be terribly nervous at times. He tried to smile
warmly, even as he stepped back towards the bar.
“Good eve to you, Carol. How is Calvin doing?”
She’d come in much closer than she usually preferred
to. Her expression was intense; wide unblinking eyes and the rest of her face
set as if rigor mortis were about to set in. Before he could worry about what
might be wrong, she thrust a thick set of blankets at him. The baby burbled
happily inside, smiling as if he recognized Deckard, at least enough to know
that he was a friend.
“I didn't ask before; I didn't know to ask... can you
bless my baby? I want him to grow up strong and handsome and skilled with bow
and fishing rod...”
Deckard held up his hands and moved away.
“Carol... I helped you deliver him. I'm the same guy I
was then.”
Her eyes filled with tears of relief and she pulled
Calvin towards her chest, hugging him.
“You blessed him when he was born? Thank you!”
That was not what he’d been trying to say. He tried
again. “Carol, I didn't... I can’t…”
She looked confused and then her expression turned
stricken and she squeezed Calvin to her chest protectively. The babe squeaked
and then burbled at his mother in annoyance.
“You don't approve of my son?”
“Calvin is fine-”
“Is it me you don't approve of?”
Calvin had started to whimper now, not sure why his
mother and friend were arguing. In any other situation, he would have taken
Calvin from her, playing with him to make him smile again. He wouldn’t do it with
Carol acting so erratically.
He had to stop this before it got out of hand. Tieni
stepped in front of him and gestured at Carol’s baby.
“The blessed doesn’t feel worthy of your thanks but he
knows that you will be a perfect mother to the little one.”
Carol pulled Calvin closer to her breasts as if
worried Tieni might try to reach out and grab him. She looked up to Deckard for
confirmation. She smiled after he nodded and glanced back at her baby as she
walked away.
“Thank you,” he whispered.
He was normally better with words, but the idea that
he could do what Carol had asked was ludicrous. He was just a man. One with a
God-given gift that could heal nearly any sickness, but a man, nonetheless. Who
would have come up with the idea that he could grant wishes and make people’s
lives easier? Everyone’s eyes were still on him.
Tieni pretended not to notice.
“You need to learn how to escape from people like
that.”
At her words, every eye turned to glare at her. More
than a few of those included him in their wrathful stare. Kenneth growled
loudly behind them.
“Hey! No one messes with one of Hidan’s healers.
Blessed or not, he's safe in my establishment. Go back to your drinks.”
There was a pregnant pause before everyone returned to
their food and talk. Deckard let out a breath.
“Thank you.”
Kenneth picked up another glass, filling it.
“My momma nearly died of the flu; didn't because you
helped her. Whether you healed her or blessed her, I got nothing to say either
way. You got the job done and that’s what matters. Now, go take a seat.” He
slid their drinks towards them.
Tieni smiled at Kenneth and grabbed the ale he’d
pushed towards her with one hand while he grabbed the light-colored wine. Tieni
led the way to one of the dark tables, near enough to the fire that Deckard
started to sweat. He put his drink on the table and pulled his jacket off,
tossing it on the back of his chair before sitting down. This close to the
fire, it should be thoroughly heated by the time they wanted to go back home.
“Thank you Tieni. I’m sorry you had to see… that.”
“I hadn’t expected anything else. I mean, I waltzed in
and took the best-looking guy in town from them. They were never going to like
me,” she said, pretending as if he’d meant the glares she’d received, rather
than his embarrassment. She continued, “I will say that I'm surprised to get it
from the menfolk too. Normally it's only women that are the vindictive ones,
fearing I'll steal their husbands and sons.”
He wanted to argue, but even if it hadn’t been true
before, with his status as a blessed known, he would certainly be Hidan’s most
eligible bachelor. Some were treating his newfound status as if he were a gift
of the heavens, but even the ones that distrusted him were willing to thrust
their daughters at him. Elder Zeisolf had begged him to consider his twelve-year-old
granddaughter for a betrothal since she wouldn’t be able to legally marry for
another five years.
“They don’t seem to understand that if I was going to
marry someone here, I would have done it already.” His tone had venom to it.
Tieni took a drink from her mug and licked the ale
froth from her upper lip.
“No one wanted you to marry her, but they still would
have preferred her to me.”
It was a nice assumption, but he wouldn’t have bet on
it holding water. Most people in town wanted nothing to do with Kuzunoha. They
tolerated her, would accept her spending her family’s money in their
establishments, but that was as far as it went. Even her beauty and her
family’s wealth hadn’t been enough to entice more than one or two to offer,
unsuccessfully, for her hand. He admitted that after he’d broken it off between
them, that realization had cheered him, petty as it was.
“I'd hoped they would start accepting you as one of
them.” He told her.
She scoffed. “Deckard, some of these people still
refer to you as the ‘new boy’.”
The new boy… while he preferred wine, with the way
this conversation was going, he wished he’d ordered something harder.
“What are they saying about Kuzunoha?” He asked.
“What you would expect; you healed her for old times’
sake, that you still love her and are using me,” she snorted. “I don’t mind
admitting that I had wondered. Now that she’s been with us for a week, I see
those rumors are just that. Speaking of, how long before she can go home?”
Deckard frowned, looking to his drink again.
“The sickness that nearly killed her is gone.
Unfortunately, it did a lot of damage before I pushed it out. Her body is weak
and thin, her blood flows sluggish and her muscles could take weeks to fully
repair themselves. And don’t get me started on that leg injury.”
“You could heal her faster, couldn’t you?”
He resented the question. First, he didn’t want to
rely on his power that way, had trained hard for years so he wouldn’t have to.
He also didn’t want to set the precedence that he would. Healing was difficult
enough the way he used it, bolstering all his patients to heal a little faster
than they would have naturally. He didn’t even know if he could use it the way she
suggested, and he wasn’t going to put any energy into finding out.
“I don't want her in my home any more than you do, but
I won’t turn her out until she’s well.”
He was also concerned that she wouldn’t stay at her
sister's, meaning that she’d be staying with Richard. In addition to the Koi
being less than optimal for someone convalescing, he also didn’t think that
sharing a room with that man would result in the rest she needed.
Tieni nodded and hesitantly put her hand on his. “My
father’s letter arrived. He’s wondering when I’ll rejoin the caravan.”
Deckard sipped his wine again and leaned back. The
Corvidae didn’t settle often. They might for a season, maybe two, but if they
stayed longer, they tended to stay forever. Tieni had been here since the
festival of light, a full season already.
“What did you tell him?”
“I’ll wait until he gets here and see how things are
if I haven’t decided before then.” She shrugged. “He should arrive by late
summer.”
“That wasn’t what I asked.” He moved a hand to hers
and wrapped it around her fingers.
She looked away. “I can’t stay forever, Deckard. I
like you. But if you’re asking if I’d ever give it up and stay in one place…”
she shook her head. “I can’t answer that yet.”
He kept his hand on hers, but she turned hers so that
he could caress her wrist. She knew how much it soothed him.
“Would you consider leaving Hidan?” she asked.
The idea nearly gave him hives. Travel was dangerous;
his father had died on the road and his mother had never been the same. Inside
the walls, there was safety… but even more than that, Hidan was home now. His
heart was pounding. Could he leave town, leave everything that he knew for her?
“Can I think about it?”
He saw a shadow move out of the corner of his eye and
turned to see Kenneth’s wife bringing out their dinners. Tieni leaned over the
table and kissed him over the bowls of thick stew and fresh-baked bread.
“Of course.”
