Gods and Faeries, the girl hits hard, Aadhlei thought. Her long fingers traced delicately across the puffed, bruised flesh around her right eye and winced. She sat with her hoofed feet curled under her, staring at the unrecognizable bundle of bandages that lay on the small bed. Aadhlei's eyes searched the gauze-covered face and wrapped a hand tightly around her long, braided hair. What the hell did I do to her?
Newly returned from a two-day journey into Brightvale and deeply tired, Aadhlei had been so shocked to hear Lehnah's voice call out to her from the front garden last night, and had been even more shocked at the sight of her friend in a crumpled heap in the grass, an unknown woman lying in her lap. From there her instincts had taken over, and with Enduun's help, both women had been carried inside.
Her first thought had been to tend to her friend, but her gut told her otherwise. Aadhlei had an innate gift, what the auld matron Kenna, who had raised Aadhlei and Enduun in the orphanage in Meridell, had called the healer's touch. It was a kind of empathy, an ability to sense mental and physical distress. As a child she had been able to sense the other children's discomfort, often tottering up to Kenna and tugging on her voluminous skirts to report that someone had a bellyache, or a toothache, or a fever without the afflicted child having to say a word about it. When Kenna had realized the young Ixi was more than just a keen observer, Aadhlei was quickly swept away from the normal daily chores and brought into a private tutelage. Kenna had taught the young girl everything she knew about healing, from herbal medicines to folk remedies, and under her guidance, Aadhlei's gift of the healer's touch flourished.
Aadhlei gingerly touched her swollen eye and sighed. Her gift had flourished, all right. Up until last night she hadn't realized just how much. She had carried the unknown, unconscious woman inside, Enduun trailing behind her with Lehnah casually slung over his shoulder.
"Put her to bed," Aadhlei had called over her shoulder as her hooves clicked rapidly over the stairs. "She's exhausted, but she's fine."
As she hurried down the hall with the Zafara groaning weakly in her arms she heard 'Duun call after her, but her mind was too focused on her new charge to hear him. Heat stroke? , she thought, confused. How can she have heat stroke? It hasn't been that hot here. The woman's back felt gritty and oddly lumpy. Aadhlei hastened her steps.
She pushed her way through the door at the end of the hallway with her back and stepped carefully into the dark room. Three paces in and her leg brushed the side of the bed, and she laid the woman down carefully, hurriedly groping in the dark for the hurricane lamp she knew was there. Her jaw set as the light grew and the fragile, ashen figure became more visible. She was long limbed and longhaired, her large eyes rimmed with deep dark circles like bruises, her full lips cracked and raw. There was an oddly discolored blotch at the base of the woman's throat. Aadhlei laid a delicate hand on the woman's brow. Her skin felt like hot sandpaper. Remembering the strange feel of the woman's back, Aadhlei gingerly rolled the woman on her side.
"Gods and faes," she breathed, staring at the long, blood-crusted gashes. She probed the wounds gently, flakes of dried blood and what looked to be sand falling onto the bed sheets. There were at least ten gashes altogether, crisscrossed like whip wounds, but Aadhlei had never seen a whip do this kind of damage. The width and depth suggested a large animal claw, but there was no consistent pattern, as sets of claws would make. Gently and slowly, Aadhlei rolled the woman back over and quickly went around the room to light the rest of the lamps.
In the ten years since Aadhlei and her brother had built the house, there had been a surprising amount of wounded travelers or sick townsfolk that would somehow find their way to the vine-covered doorstep. So many, in fact, that Aadhlei had insisted at least two of the spare rooms be converted into sick rooms. This was one such, outfitted with a single bed, a pair of chairs, a washbasin, and a wooden tub with a hand pump built into the wall above it (cold water only, but there were always heat stones in the house, small flint-like rocks that when struck against each other became quite hot. Three or so dropped in a tub of cold water quickly turned the water pleasantly hot without the bother of boiling buckets of water). A cabinet and shelves were set into the wall near the door, the shelves crowded of jars and bottles of various brews and salves Aadhlei always liked to keep on hand for emergencies.
The door creaked open and Enduun stepped inside. "Lehnah's taken care off, Aadh. Do you need help with this one?"
Aadhlei nodded and flapped a hand distractedly at the wooden tub. "Fill the tub, 'Duun, we need to lower her temperature. She's got heat stroke."
Enduun gave his foster sister a quizzical look. "Heat stroke? How the hell could she get heat stroke?"
"I don't know," Aadhlei said sharply, rooting in one of the drawers of the bedside table. "I also don't know why her back looks as though she's been mauled by a mountain lion with one claw, and I don't know why the hell she's got sand in the bloody wounds and on her clothes." She sighed and leaned against the nightstand. "I'm sorry, 'Duun. Just please fill the tub up. I've got to bring down her temperature and scrub out those wounds." He made no reply, but as Aadhlei's hand closed around the old pair of scissors in the nightstand she heard the squeak of the hand pump and a rush of water.
Working quickly but cautiously, Aadhlei cut through the tattered remains of the woman's shirt and peeled off the front, leaving the back to be removed once it could be soaked free of the wounds. Aadhlei started to remove the woman's trousers, but stopped. What she had first taken for a raw spot or some discoloration on the woman's chest was now fully lighted. An odd glyph – two vertical lines intersected by a horizontal line and topped by another – had been burned into the woman's skin.
"Gods and faes, 'Duun she's been branded. "
"What?" he said incredulously, the squeak of the pump slowing.
"On her chest, right below her throat. It's some kind of glyph or a symbol, I've never seen it before." Instinctively, Aadhlei bent over and delicately touched the area around the burn. Everything that happened after that took only a span of ten seconds, but the more Aadhlei played it back in her head, the more it seemed to stretch out to hours. She had sometimes felt things strongly through the touch, but compared to this even the strongest sense was like a passing thought.
As soon as her fingers touched the inflamed skin, the woman's eyes snapped open and locked on Aadhlei. It was a deluge, a torrent of visions that nearly knocked Aadhlei off her feet. A cacophony of chanting filled her ears, accompanied by hellishly discordant pipes. A black leonine figure towering over her with a long metal brand in his hand, the end glowing a fierce red. He thrust it forward and Aadhlei heard a sick sizzling sound and a weak wail as he melted away. A throng of people in desert garb cursing and spitting and throwing sand. The cacophony of voices was cut through by whip crack after whip crack, and Aadhlei knew it was not claws that had made those gashes on the woman's back. It was teeth. A whip woven with animal teeth.
The chanting grew louder, and the images rushed by faster. Sand dunes teeming with a hoard of rodents, rat-like things the size of small dogs, with sickeningly human faces and long rows of spines down their hunched backs. A queer violet light filled Aadhlei's eyes and grew in intensity. As the brightness grew, so did the voices and the pipes, until it all merged into one deafening scream.
"NOOOOOO!!! IA! IA! ANU BE MERCIFUL! "
The vision broke and Aadhlei realized the screaming was coming from the woman on the bed. Her eyes were wide and terrified, her skin even paler than before. Her arms and legs thrashed wildly, as if fending off unseen attackers. The rats or the man with the brand? , Aadhlei thought briefly, and immediately grabbed the woman's arms and tried to calm her.
"It's alright, you're safe! You're safe! It's over!"
If the woman heard her, she made no show of it. Enduun made a grab for her ankles and was sent stumbling back towards the door as she kicked him hard in the chest. She snaked one of her arms free from Aadhlei's grasp and Aadhlei had a moment to wonder at the shocking amount of strength the she still had before she was knocked to the floor as the back of the woman's fist connected with the side of her face. Enduun growled and pushed himself off from the door.
"This is the last time we take in strays," he muttered. As agile as a lynx, he leapt up onto the bed, pinning the woman's arms to her sides and sitting on her knees. She struggled and screamed underneath him, but his grip was too strong. "Aadh, if you're going to do something, you better do it now!" he barked.
Aadhlei sat dazed, a defensive hand to her rapidly swelling eye. What could she do? Sedatives were too dangerous in the woman's weakened (and wasn't that a laugh?) state, and there was certainly no way she was going to be cooperative enough to let herself be treated. But given what Aadhlei had just seen, she didn't blame the woman in the least. The woman's screams were weakening, becoming harsher as her throat gave out, and Enduun barked again. "Aadhlei, dammit, DO SOMETHING! "
Aadhlei scrambled to her feet and, reacting sheerly on impulse, laid her hands on either side of the woman's face. There was a sound like a rush of wind, and a faint greenish-gold glow infused the woman's face. A faint smell the ground after a rainstorm wafted through the room. The woman's cries instantly ceased. Her large eyes again locked on Aadhlei's green ones, and her expression , which had but a moment before been one of utter terror, was now one of shock and gratitude. Her mouth worked silently, her throat so abused it could hardly make more than a squeak.
"Gone," she croaked. She mouthed soundlessly again, and then, "…quiet."
Aadhlei exhaled sharply and stroked the woman's brow. "You're safe now, child. Go to sleep. Nothing here will harm you."
Again the woman's mouth worked as if to say something, but exhaustion got the better of her. Her eyes slipped closed and she fell instantly asleep. Now that she was no longer making frantic moves to attack anything and everything around her, Enduun finally seemed to realize that the woman he was straddling was bare-chested. His cheeks lit up as if on fire and he hastily climbed off her. Trying to cling on to some sense of chivalry, he pried his eyes away from her exposed breasts and stared down at his sister. Aadhlei knelt panting by the bed, her left hand absently stroking the woman's forehead. Her right eye was swollen shut, the flesh a dark, nasty purple; her left was impossibly wide and glassy.
"What did you do?" Enduun whispered incredulously.
Her eyes slowly moved up to meet his, and Enduun could see tears glimmering on her cheeks. When she spoke, her voice was weak and quavery. "I…I don't know. I just…it was instinct. I just did it." She swallowed hard. "'Duun, when I touched the burn on her chest, I…I saw things."
He frowned at her and waited for her to elaborate, but instead she just swiped her tears away and said, "Help me get her in the tub."
Enduun and Aadhlei had spent the next three hours bent over the wooden tub scrubbing sand and old dried blood from the Zafara's wounds and bandaging her up, Aadhlei periodically checking the woman's fever and adding colder water. Several times she shook the woman carefully awake to trickle a small handful of water into her mouth. When at last the woman's skin was a ruddy pink from the scrubbing, Aadhlei took the gentlest washcloth she had and carefully washed her down with a mild soap, even taking care to wash and comb her matted hair and plait it into a sleeping braid. When Aadhlei was satisfied that the cold water would lower the woman's fever no farther, she and Enduun lifted her from the water. Enduun held her upright, trying his damnedest to keep away from both her wounds and her breasts, while Aadhlei patted her down with a soft towel. A thick salve was applied to the wounds on her back and feet, and another ointment of aloe and calendula coated the rest of her skin. The damp weather had Aadhlei worried about the possibility of infections, so while thick bandages covered the deeper wounds, a thin wrap of gauze engulfed the woman's extremities. Her skin had suffered much abuse and would need as much time to heal as her dehydrated organs. Finally, as the woman, looking more like a desert mummy than a woman, was laid back in bed, Aadhlei plucked a large bottle of amber liquid from the shelves near the door and woke the woman again to administer a few sips of the potion before she slipped once again into a soundless sleep.
Exhausted, Aadhlei had slumped into the nearest chair. Enduun eased himself into the chair next to her and put a hand on her arm. "Did you find out her name?" he asked softly.
Aadhlei shook her head slowly.
Enduun squeezed her arm gently. "Are you all right, Aadh?"
Her long braid, which had been so neat that morning, was now a frazzled mess that swung pendulously above her lap. Only exhaustion kept her from bursting into tears. "Gods and faes, 'Duun," she whispered. "The things they did to her."
"What did you see?"
With a shaking voice, Aadhlei told Enduun of the images she'd seen, stopping short of the horde of rats. Her mind could simply not put into words how horrific those things had seemed, monstrous things that simply had no right to exist in a sane world.
Enduun had just stared, flabbergasted. He had known about Aadhlei's gift since they were children, but it had never brought on visions like this. And what about what happened when she touched the woman's face? , he thought. What in Illusen's name was that?
Aadhlei sighed heavily, and Enduun had the uncomfortable notion that she'd heard that last thought. She wearily patted his large hand. "Get some sleep, 'Duun. I'm going to have to keep a close eye on this one, and I'm going to need you to manage the house tomorrow."
And so Enduun had wandered off to bed, and Aadhlei had spent the night dozing fitfully in the uncomfortable wooden chair (she doubted seriously that she would have slept any better in her own bed, every time she drifted off to sleep she dreamt of those abhorrent rats) and periodically trickling small cupfuls of water into the Zafara's mouth when her instincts told her it was needed.
When the sky outside the latticed window had turned gold and fuchsia but the sun still lingered just below the horizon, Enduun had returned, sporting a monumental case of bed head. He was wearing the same clothes as the day before, only now far more rumpled. The overall effect made it clear that he had slept in his clothes. Aadhlei had let him watch over the woman while she busied herself in the kitchen. She had quickly made breakfast for herself, a bowl of oatmeal and a cup of strong coffee, before raiding the pantry to make Enduun and Lehnah's meals. Aadhlei had always preferred eating food that she could grow herself, but her upbringing in the orphanage had taught her quickly to not be picky about what she ate. A belly full of mutton stew was far better than going hungry. When 'Duun's meal was laid out on the kitchen table and Lehnah's was safely stowed in the oven to keep warm, Aadhlei mixed up another bowl of oatmeal for her new patient. She wasn't sure how long it had been since the woman had eaten, but she was betting it was too long. Granted, there was the distinct possibility that anything she fed the woman now might come right back up (frankly, Aadhlei was amazed the woman had no problem keeping the water down), but she had to eat something.
Feeling a little revived from her small meal, and probably moreso by the coffee, Aadhlei had mounted the stairs and let her brother slip away for his breakfast.
"Lehnah's breakfast is in the oven to keep warm, and there's some tea on the stovetop for her. When you've finished with your food, would you bring hers up to her?"
Enduun had nodded and headed down the stairs.
"And tell her I want to talk to her about her companion when she's finished eating," she called after him.
Enduun grunted an acknowledgement and stalked away.
Aadhlei then spent the best part of an hour spooning oatmeal into the zafara's mouth. She never tried to speak, Aadhlei got the distinct feeling that the woman wasn't fully aware of what was going on, but her large brown eyes stayed locked on Aadhlei's face. She did far better than Aadhlei had expected, only throwing up twice. Quick reflexes and a nearby bucket had saved Aadhlei the need to change the woman's bandages early or the bedsheets. When the last of the oatmeal was gone and another small cupful of water had been drunk, Aadhlei had taken the woman's hand and asked softly, "Can you tell me your name, little one?"
The woman blinked slowly, her eyelids already growing heavy. She could not muster up so much as a croak, her voice had been so abused the night before, but a halting whisper escaped her lips. "Nnn-no-nn…," her eyes closed briefly, frowning at the effort it took to speak such a simple thing as her name. "Nonhiel."
Aadhlei smiled at her the way a teacher smiles at a student who has finally solved a difficult equation. "That is a lovely name, Nonhiel. My name is Aadhlei, and I'm going to take good care of you."
The woman's – Nonhiel – mouth opened and closed slowly, as if to say something else, but again her exhaustion took over, and her eyes slipped closed.
That had been at least an hour ago, maybe more, and the sunlight had faded. Rain-laden clouds hung heavy in the sky and rumbled faintly with thunder. The air was thick with humidity, and Aadhlei was sure that it would be raining heavily before lunchtime. She stared out the window at the slow moving clouds and absently toyed with her braid, wondering if Lehnah had finished with her breakfast yet.
As if in answer, there was a gentle rapping at the door and Lehnah's voice called out from the other side, "Aadh? You in there?"
"I'm here, Lehnah," she called back. "Come in."
The peculiar yellow-green stormlight had cast an odd pallor over the room, but as soon as Lehnah stepped through the door the gloom seemed to lift a little. Despite this, Lehnah looked uneasy, even as she smiled and held her arms out to embrace her friend, Aadhlei could sense she was troubled. Aadhlei hugged her friend and gave her a peck on the cheek.
"How are you feeling, dear?" Aadhlei inquired, gesturing to the second chair as she sat down.
"Tired," Lehnah answered truthfully. "I think I could have slept until dinner time if Enduun hadn't woken me up. Are you alright?" She gestured to Aadhlei's black eye.
"Oh, that, aye, I'm fine. It'll go away in a few days."
Lehnah nodded, then added, "You look like you've been up all night."
Aadhlei chuckled. "No, no, not all night. But wooden chairs are not known for being particularly comfortable to sleep in."
Lehnah smiled apologetically, and outside the thunder rumbled louder. "How is she doing?" she asked.
Aadhlei said, "Better. She slept most of the night, when I wasn't waking her up to get more water into her. It will be awhile before we'll know how bad the damage is, but right now I think she'll recover fine."
She recounted the previous night's events, watching as Lehnah's brow knitted tightly when she spoke of the vision's she'd received, and effect her touch had on the panicked woman. She fell silent, and she and Lehnah simply sat stared at the sleeping Zafara. She sighed, amazed at how much idle conversation seemed impossible under these new circumstances.
"Did she tell you her name?" Aadhlei asked.
Lehnah shook her head, her eyes never moving from the bandaged form. "No. She never said anything that I could make out."
Aadhlei said simply, "Nonhiel. It's Nonhiel."
Silence descended again, both women lost in their own thoughts. A sudden wind picked up outside, the trees rustling dryly, and thunder boomed overhead. The rain began, large drops patting down onto the roof. As the rain fell harder, Aadhlei laid a hand on Lehnah's arm, startling the Aisha out of her thoughts.
"I need to know what happened, Lehnah. I know what I saw, but it doesn't make sense."
Lehnah rubbed her temples. She talked for perhaps half an hour, describing her trek through the Lost Desert in search of a hidden temple, the peculiar band of gypsies she'd encountered (which seemed to pique Aadhlei's interest greatly), and finally the arrival of a wounded and delirious Zafara.
Aadhlei frowned and tilted her head to one side, a stray lock of hair catching on one of her short, black horns. "But how on earth did you get here?"
"As impossible as it sounds, I transported us here." Lehnah smiled thinly at her friend's shocked expression. "I know, but Aadh, if you could have felt the power coming from that place. It was like…," she paused, searching for the right words, "it was like dropping a lit match into a haystack. The only hard part was trying to control it."
Aadhlei stared, flabbergasted. "Well. That certainly explains a few things. Unfortunately it also leaves a lot unanswered."
Lehnah nodded slowly in agreement. Outside there was a brilliant flash of violet light and an earsplitting crack of lightning. Both women jumped, and the bandaged form suddenly sat bolt-upright in the bed.
It was the light, Aadhlei thought. That violet light. Witchlight.
The woman named Nonhiel did not scream, but her breath came in harsh gasps, her hands gripping the bedclothes fiercely. "No! " she whispered hoarsely. "No no no no no! God no! Anu be merciful! "
Within seconds Aadhlei and Lehnah were next to her, Aadhlei stroking her hair and Lehnah clasping one the woman's balled fist.
"Shhh, it's alright, it's just the lightning," Aadhlei said, her words punctuated by another clap of thunder. The rain fell harder, and now hail came with it, bouncing off of the roof and occasionally pinging off of the latticed window.
"It's just a storm, little one," Lehnah added. "Just a storm."
Nonhiel's dark eyes locked onto Lehnah's blue ones.
"You," she whispered. "I remember you."
Lehnah nodded and squeezed the woman's hand, which was slowly releasing its grip on the blanket. "Yes. I found you in the temple and I brought you here. My friend Aadhlei has been taking care of you."
Nonhiel swallowed hard. "Not – not a dream?" A look of near-panic came over her face, a fear that this shelter was a hallucination.
"No, little one, this is no dream," Lehnah said, sharing a concerned and pitying glance with Aadhlei. "You are safe here, I promise you."
The relief on the Zafara's face was unmistakable. Tears spilled from her eyes and rolled down her oily cheeks. All Aadhlei and Lehnah could do was hold her as she wept.