Disclaimer – I do not own BMT world, it belongs to Trudi Canavan.

Broken Word

A faint glow flickered into a brief existence before dying, leaving the room dimly lit only by the first rays of the rising sun. Sonea wiped the beads of sweat from her brow. Another failure! She had tried to make a globelight twenty one times this morning, and each attempt had failed. Her best effort had lasted five seconds before winking out.

She took a sip from the glass of water on the table and composed herself to try again.

Why bother? her mind said slyly, You will never be able to use your magic again… She was beginning to find it harder and harder not to listen to that insinuating whisper. She was afraid that she was starting to believe it. She had tried to raise her concerns with Akkarin, but he simply repeated his advice to let things take their course. She kept on badgering him to enter her mind and examine her magic source and once or twice he had had done so rather reluctantly. His answer was always the same; that there were thinning patches of the weave covering the source and with time, all would be well.

Her twenty-second globelight followed its predecessors into oblivion. She had chosen this method to test her magic because it was one of the first things a young novice learned. It was so simple to do, that the Novices' Quarters were often filled with hundreds of globelights, especially on the floor allocated to the youngest novices. They had even been known to have globelight fights, where the aim was to knock your opponent's globelight out of a ring! Briefly, she wondered if she should try another spell, but soon dismissed that idea. If I can't make a globelight…

Later, while endeavouring to hide from Takan that she didn't want to eat any of his breakfast offerings, she tried to think how she might find someone to help with her difficulties. Akkarin was close to becoming very impatient with her impatience to be a fully functioning magician again. She could tell he didn't want to spend time rummaging around in her mind and he was not particularly confident in his own Healing skills to want to meddle with the operation of the drug. She needed advice from someone who was.

Lorlen….her mind whispered, He would help you...

The promise she'd made only a few days before loomed large in her mind. She tried to remember the exact wording of it. She was a dwell, after all, and they had a way with making promises which could be bent and changed into something else. She had promised not to have any contact with anyone in the Guild. Why? Akkarin had a reason, what was it? She mentally replayed her conversation with Akkarin. That was it! He didn't want anyone in the Guild to know he was still alive. If I can get help from Lorlen, without telling him about Akkarin, then I'm not really breaking my promise, my real promise, to keep Akkarin's survival secret!

She was glad that Akkarin, as usual, was not at breakfast. He always disappeared before first light and usually didn't return until later in the morning. If he'd been sitting across the table from her, he would have read her surface thoughts and would not have been pleased, to put it mildly.

They had agreed between them to make a systematic search of the back streets and courts of the North Quarter. It didn't sound a huge task, but that particular Quarter was riddled with narrow lanes, streets and passages. Many of these rather disreputable streets contained courts, small open areas or yards, surrounded by buildings. They were originally the gardens of larger houses, but over time, as the city had become more and more crowded, they had been built over, often with poorly constructed structures. These flimsy buildings had themselves been added to over the years resulting in an overcrowded area full of higgledy-piggledy buildings which concealed many potential hiding places. Every evening they identified particular routes that each would cover the next day, so she had her task for today. There was no reason to wait for Akkarin to return, she could leave as soon as she liked. She looked at the table; she had merely crumbled a bread roll or two and dug her knife in the butter, to make it look as if she had eaten. It would not fool Takan long, but perhaps just long enough for her to leave.

She grabbed her cloak, shouted a goodbye to Takan and left the house. She had resumed male clothing, as a single woman walking along some of the more disreputable areas attracted too much attention. She had also taken to wearing an apprentice's felt cap, which covered her curly hair. Its wide brim also provided shading for her face, so she was confident that her identity would not be known.

She hurried to the North Quarter. She had around eight narrow back streets and three courts to search. If she worked quickly, she could seek out Lorlen around mid-day, and still be able to get back home at her usual time. However, it took her much longer than she had anticipated and it was well past mid-day when she started towards the square in the South Quarter where she had first seen Lorlen.

The square was deserted, with only the raka seller and a couple of people sitting on the bench. There was no cheerful Healer present. She remembered that he'd said people knew him, so she looked for a likely person who might direct her to where Lorlen worked. After a few minutes, she caught sight of a young boy, playing in the gutter. After a little conversation, and the passing over of a copper coin, the child agreed to take her to the Healer's place of work.

It was only a few minutes from the square, a brightly painted building with a large sign showing a Guild Healer. It didn't look anything like Lorlen, but would advertise his business for those who couldn't read the neatly lettered sign giving his name and occupation which was attached to the door. The child pointed at the door and scampered off, clutching his coin tightly.

Sonea walked over to the door and stood looked at it for a moment. It was not too late to turn away and keep her promise not to have any contact with anyone from the Guild. Mentally she shrugged; she was here now, convinced she was doing the right thing, there were no other options. She raised a hand, knocked at the door and slowly pushed it open. The room inside was clean and freshly painted. There were benches around the wall and another door leading off somewhere. There were no people waiting to see the Healer, nor any sign of Lorlen. Sonea went and sat down. Perhaps he would come out to see who had opened the door?

Minutes passed with no sound of movement within the house. She didn't know what to do, should she go through the other door or not? What stopped her was the notion that perhaps Lorlen didn't work alone and there may be other Healers within. She continued to sit on the bench. She would wait until she heard the bell toll the quarter-hour, if Lorlen hadn't come by then, she would go.

Just as she was getting ready to leave, the street door opened and Lorlen came in. He had obviously been out to see a patient because he was carrying his Healer's Pack. He saw her sitting there and said, "Sorry there was no one here when you arrived, but I'm back now and can see you straight away. Follow me."

He went through the other door and when Sonea followed, she found herself in a smaller room, set out like the Healers' rooms in the Guild, with shelves full of potions and medicines. Lorlen turned to her with a smile, "Now tell me what's the matter."

He obviously hadn't recognised her! She suppressed a giggle, then removed her hat. She heard his grunt of surprise as he realised who she was.

"Sonea, what on earth are you doing here?" he said sharply, "Don't you understand people are still looking for you?"

"You told me to come to you if I needed help," she said hesitantly, "Don't you remember?"

"Yes, but I thought you'd be more sensible. You should leave Imardin, today if you can. The sooner you are away from here the better."

"Don't you want to know why I've come?" she asked pointedly.

Lorlen's face coloured slightly as he registered her tone, "Yes, yes of course," he replied quickly, "What is it?"

She told him about the drug Vinara had put in her food and drink and how her magic had been blocked. "It's still affecting me," she went on, "I can't even make a globelight. I need you to give me something to get rid of it."

Lorlen didn't say anything straight away. He stared at the bottles and packets on the shelves as if seeking inspiration. Then he glanced over to her, apology written on his face.

"I'm sorry, Sonea. I don't have any clear knowledge of how the drug works. It wasn't used much when I was a Healer before and then, all those years I was Administrator, I had nothing to do with drugs or medicines. I don't know how to deal with it."

She couldn't hide her disappointment. Tears sprang into her eyes and she blinked them away, hoping he hadn't seen. All her hopes had been pinned on Lorlen. She'd imagined he would take down a pill or powder, weave a Healing spell and everything would be right again.

"Are you sure?" she asked, "There's nothing you can do?"

"Well," he hesitated a moment, before speaking quickly, "If I could enter your mind, I could see exactly what it is and perhaps that would be enough to enable me to find something to help."

It was her turn to hesitate. If Lorlen entered her mind, there was no knowing what he would discover. She remembered with horror what had happened the last time he had been rummaging around in her mind, all the problems Akkarin had had since then had arisen because Lorlen read her mind. And it might not work! Lorlen had not been overly confident about finding a cure, he only said he would try. The risk she faced was that he would discover from her that Akkarin lived and that she was with him. Does that matter? she asked herself. Lorlen is his friend. He would not betray us, not this time. Not after all that's happened.

Lorlen was staring at her, wondering why she hadn't agreed. She had to say something and soon. So far, she had kept to the spirit of her promise, if not to the letter, but once Lorlen saw into her mind, everything would be broken and she would have betrayed Akkarin's trust. I'm doing this because I have to help Akkarin and I can't do that hampered by lack of magic, she told herself fiercely, her mind made up.

"Yes, Lorlen, of course," she said, firmly.