Mirror, rirroM
Chapter 4
Cursing himself for the folly of curiosity, he started after her, catching up easily with his longer steps. For a while, there was silence, and he wasn't sure that she knew that he'd started to walk beside her. She broke the silence with a question, not pausing to look at him, just asking it as she walked, hand extended, silver glinting from the object on her palm.
"Come to get your coin back?"
He stared at the coin in her hand. Within his line of sight were her legs, and he realized with a jolt that she was limping. Why hadn't he noticed before? "Lina? You're limping."
"Does it matter? Forget about it. It's not important. Your cure is important, so take the coin and go find your cure." Her voice was edged, but with what, he couldn't tell.
He came to a halt, watching her as she walked on ahead. Little things that he hadn't seen earlier became noticeable, and forgetting his desire to be alone, he moved quickly to get in front of her. Stopping in her path and turning, he looked at her. "You're hurt."
Lina came to a stop, scowling and folding her arms. "I said forget about it, Zel. It's not that important."
He looked at her, considering several courses of action. As he considered, her expression went from blank to irritated, and moving faster than she could, he reached out a hand, casting a sleep spell and moving to catch the sorceress as she fell. He wasn't much of a healer, and he knew that she wasn't either, but he could tell that she'd had the injury for a while. How long, he couldn't tell, but he decided that he'd take her to the next town and get her to a true healer.
That was, if she didn't wake up somewhere along the way and kill him for this…
She didn't wake at all as he carried her through the burned out city and on down the road to the next town. That fact alone worried him, and somewhere a dispassionate part of him wondered why it was bothering him. But he hadn't left her any of the times she'd been hurt, had he? He'd even tried to fight against the Golden One… but Gourry had proven the better man there. He paused in his steps, looking with sudden thought to Lina's still face. Where was Gourry, anyway? The last he'd seen them; they'd been bickering over dinner.
He'd ask her later, he decided, and continued on to the small town, arriving with Lina as the sun was beginning to rise. He'd walked all night carrying her. He was tired, but it was a better tired than usual. He'd earned it helping Lina.
As he approached the cleric guildhouse, he wondered that she hadn't woken up yet, and thought perhaps that she'd been more tired than she'd let on. He knocked on the door of the guildhouse, and waited for someone to answer the summons to the door.
After some shuffling, the door creaked open, and a wizened old Cleric squinted out at them. "Yeah, what do you want?"
Zelgadis blinked in surprise at the gruff voice, and then indicated the sleeping sorceress in his arms. "I need a healer."
The squint shifted from Zelgadis to Lina, and then backs to Zelgadis. "You don't need the healer. She needs the healer. There's nothing wrong with you, boy."
Zelgadis felt his temper starting to fray. "Now look here… I've walked all night to bring her here to you for help. If you're not going to help, just say so, and I'll just find someone who will help."
From inside the door came a voice calling. "That's enough, Kearne. Let the young man bring the girl in."
The wizened man called Kearne shuffled out of the way, and made way for Zelgadis to enter the guildhouse with Lina still in his arms. Standing in the doorway with the white robes of a High Cleric was what Zelgadis imagined an angel must look like, if angels were inclined to exist on this plane. She was tall, young, thin, and her long blonde hair tumbled down her back in waves of gold.
She was exactly the kind of woman that men would gladly go off to their deaths for. What in the name of Cepheid was she doing as a High Cleric?
She hid a smile and reached out to the youth and his charge. "Come, Zelgadis. Let us see what we can do for Lina."
Unable to hide his startlement, he looked at the woman, who answered his unspoken question. "I know a great many things, Zelgadis, and it is hard to miss the actions of those who have fought against Shabranigdo when one is a Cleric of Cepheid. Now, come,"
She turned to walk into the room behind her, and Zelgadis followed with Lina still cradled in his arms.