AN: Thanks to all reviewers for their support- secret-scribbled-notebooks, Dragonfly275, Merkaba7734, Mirukarumi, Shang Leopard, peppymint, crouchingbunny, Evilstrawberry, and Madame-S-Butterfly. And especially my beta, KyrieofAccender, for this chapter, which was abysmal before you helped me out. :D Yay for teamwork!
As I've said before, I'll try to update as regularly as I can, but I can't make promises.
Chapter One
"Boy!" I stopped running as a guardsman stepped towards me; he had been stationed near our home for a few months. He was huge, broad shouldered and muscular, even though he looked as though he left any chasing to his youthful partner. Garbed in the black uniform of the Provost's Guard, the two men stepped forward. "You the healer's boy?" I nodded respectfully; I had seen these two take away a drunken father a few weeks ago when he beat his wife, Mistress Ward. I knew her sons well; Marek was around my age. For his sake, I was grateful to the guardsmen.
"Yessir." The older one frowned thoughtfully, his bushy blond eyebrows knitted together.
"I've got a bit of a pain in my right foot; I'd be in her debt if your ma'd look at it," he told me. Wordlessly, I pointed to the small home lining the street that we rented.
"Ma's in there." I hefted the bag of herbs over my shoulder; Ma was looking after somebody with a stubborn malady- she had told me to hurry to the market and back.
I was her helper, the one who fetched her whatever she needed. We weren't rich, but she had saved up enough to keep me from resorting to the measures that plenty of lads did, being lookouts or pickpockets. Thanks to her, I lived freely for six or seven years, as free as a boy in the Lower City could. At least we didn't live in the Cesspool. Ma forbid me from going there; she said there were still slavers who'd snatched me up. I never thought she should worry so much.
My ma was wiping the brow of her young patient, a girl, who she had lying down on a cot, when we entered. She looked up, surprised by my companions, but Coopers recovered quick. As she took the sack from me and dumped its contents out on her little table, she smiled at Bushy Eyebrows.
"What can I do for you, Guardsman?" she asked, tossing a few sprigs into a soup she had already prepared.
"I have a rhemetism, in my foot, ma'am," he told her as she made her way back over to the girl, wiping hair off of her forehead.
"George, feed her," she ordered me as she turned her attention to the man. I took the bowl from the table and walked over to her; she might've been a year or so older than me. Her blond hair was streaked with dirt, shining with grime. Her face was covered in sweat. When I lifted the spoon to her lips, she slurped greedily before lying back feebly.
"What's your name?" I asked lowly. Her brown eyes fluttered shut.
"Talia," she whispered. I waited for her to sit up for more soup, but she did not; her breathing steadied, grew heavier. I sat quietly, watching her sleep, as Ma sent the guard off with a few instructions. When he left with a smile and a friendly wink in my direction, she came up behind me and put her hand on my shoulder, squeezing gently.
"How many times did I send you to the market today?" she asked, a smile in her words. I thought for a moment.
"Four." She laughed.
"I keep you hopping." I shrugged, my eyes still on Talia. "You can go now; she needs her sleep." I used to linger when Ma had patients, feeling guilty that I was out and playing as they tossed and turned in fevered dreams, but I've learned since then that there will always be the sick; you need to take a break when you can.
Marek was with the other boys when I found them, tossing stones into the fountain on the corner of Broad and Record Streets. He was the only one who stopped his throwing to greet me.
"I was with Duke today," he said proudly. I frowned; Duke was ten years old, and a notorious pickpocket among the children of the Crow Section, as we called this part of the Lower City. There were five sections of the Lower City: the Cesspool, the Crow, the Lark, the Starling, and the Dove District, where the Court of the Rogue resided.
"Why?" I asked warily; his ma would tan his hide if she found out. Both my ma and his were very against crime, of any sort. Marek shrugged shiftily, smiling smugly.
"No real reason."
Liar. I didn't need my Sight to tell me that. I crossed my arms.
"You thinkin' about foisting?" Marek laughed.
"Sore?" He pushed me; caught by surprise, I nearly fell. "Race you," he called, stepping past me as he broke into a run. "To Comes Street!" he yelled over his shoulder. Noting the direction he streaked off in, I dashed off the other way; if I cut through a few yards, I could still beat him-
I nearly crashed into old Mistress Lunt; I hastily scrambled to pick up the few onions that I had knocked into the street before she could spell me. She had very little magic, but enough to curse me if she felt up to it. She was one of the old crones who despised my ma for her skill and low prices; many of the poor healers tricked their patients and ended up hurting them more and taking all their money, but anyone with sense in the Crow came to my ma now.
"Theiving bastard!" she howled, even as I stuffed the vegetables back into her basket; I received a smack around the head for my effort. "You and your harlot of a mother! Putting on airs in the Crow, cheating us all of our business! May your home catch fire and burn!"
"Good day, Mistress Lunt," I muttered under my breath as I sprinted off. I should have taken the onions….
I lost the race, but Marek didn't have too much time to gloat; Ma swept down on us and dragged me off- sunset snuck up fast in Corus, and she refused to let me be on my own at night.
After finding a salve for the guardsman in the market, we headed for home. The scent of smoke wafted thorugh the air; it was not unusual, for breezes to bring up the smell from the nightly escapades of the Lower City. Something was probably burning in the Starling, maybe even the Dove; nobody even bothered in the Cesspool, except for laughs….
"How's Talia?"
"Home." Ma's stride was long; I had to scurry to keep up with her. She keep a hand on the scruff of my neck, clenching the collar of my shirt. "Her fever broke, so she went-" She broke off, stopping; I nearly choked as I was yanked backwards by my shirt. I looked up at her, puzzled. Her face was pale. "George-" Then she was moving forwards again, dragging me along. As I struggled to keep up, the smell of smoke grew. We were a block from home-
When we rounded the corner, Ma gasped. It took me a moment to understand; flames reached their orange tongues to the black sky, in the very place our home had stood. I stared, for a long moment. Fleetingly, I remembered Mistress Lunt, and wondered if I was having a nightmare, but I pinched myself hard and the fire didn't leave; this was no bad dream.
Ma picked me up in a swift motion and rushed forwards, towards the guard post at the corner. Busy Eyebrows stood there with his partner. He smiled when he saw us.
"Ah. Found it?" he asked. Ma pointed to the fire.
"The houses need to be evacuated," she told him. The guardsman drew close; his eyes roved over the both of us. "My shop is burning!"
"What do you think we can do about it?" he demanded, snatching the basket with his remedy out of my ma's hands.
"Give it back!" I yelled, glaring at him. He raised one of his giant eyebrows, then took the salve and dropped the basket.
"Fiery little fellow," he observed off-handedly. I retorted with a fervent but soft curse.
"Are the people gone?" Ma asked, ignoring the fact that he had just taken the package from her. Ignoring that he had just stole the salve from her; it had not come cheap! "Is everyone out of the houses? The City should be warned-"
"What does it matter?" the younger man asked; he had stayed silent until now. "Move on; your troubles ain't ours." I stared at him; who did that lout think he was? Ma's hazel eyes turned cold.
"You'd let innocent folk die?"
"Nobody in the Cesspool is innocent," he replied coolly. My jaw dropped.
"This is the Crow," Eyebrows muttered. His fellow guardsman shrugged.
"Doesn't matter, does it? They live in their squalor, let them die there; it's best for everyone." Ma's jaw set; her eyes flashed as she let me down.
"Have the Provost's Guard forgotten their duty?" she hissed; the fire was spreading to the houses around ours. "You serve Corus-"
"Quiet, woman," the young man snapped, shoving her backwards. "Corus doesn't mean the scum like you." I swore at him, lunging forwards, but Ma pressed my face into her skirts. I still heard him slap her, and continued a long string of curses I had picked up from sneaking into the taverns, breathing in dusty cotton as I spoke. "Move on," he repeated. "Your problems ain't mine."
Your problems ain't mine. The words echoed through my head as Ma tugged me along the street, away from the flames.
"Never mind," she said brusquely as her stride quickened. "I have a friend we can stay with for now." I frowned.
"D'you think Mistress Lunt-"
"Any number of burglars loot and set fire to destroy any evidence that a mage could follow," she replied, voice steely. I could tell she suspected foul play, and told her so; she sighed. "If it was deliberate, it could be any of those healers, George," she said wearily. "Or their sons; they've been threatening to do plenty of things worse than this for awhile; I'm just grateful no one was there when they struck." She patted my back. "I still have you, don't I?" I still remember how she bit her lip, then forced that worried look aside, resigned but determined.
"Who's going to help those people?" I asked, fists shaking. "Someone has to tell them-" Ma's eyes narrowed; with her free hand, she made a fist that glowed with her magical Gift. As her fingers sprang apart, small sparks of magic shot through the air, towards the homes. They were tiny speaking spells that would find anyone nearby and repeat the warning Ma now chanted, "Fire; get out. Get away. There's a fire." Then she stopped, glaring into the blaze that illuminated the sky.
"We will," she said softly, words vehment. "Who else will?"
AN: More than semi-cliched, I fear, but I tried to fix it up as best as I could to be as painless as possible; it gets more fun and George-like soon. I promise. :D The chapters will also be getting a bit longer soon enough...