The king blinked and the queen put a questioning hand on him. He gave her the barest of nods. Whether to say he was alright or that things really were as bad as they feared, Arie couldn't guess. Suddenly she was sitting in a chair. Her legs had given out, but a hand had guided her to a seat. Duke Baird plopped down in the chair next to her. His robes were soaked in sweat. Looking down at her own clothes she realized she was no better. It looked like she had gone swimming. She leaned back in her chair, closed her eyes, and just breathed. Never again was she doing that with so many people who didn't have Gifts.
A damp cloth startled her almost out of her chair. Numair had dropped it on her head and laid a hand on her shoulder to keep her sitting.
"Rest little one, you've done good work. And I have a feeling your work will not be done for a while."
Arie sighed and nodded. Closing her eyes, she started to drift off to sleep. Someone was using their Gift on her to help her sleep. Numair. She recognized the feel of his Gift and briefly struggled against it. A futile effort, she remembered, the body needed sleep so it was willing to surrender even if she wasn't. Fury gave way to exhaustion, then the sweet release of sleep.
The king watched as Arie's eyes slid shut. Her clothes were soaked through with sweat. How much pain had she endured to bring this message to them, he wondered. The walls she had built around them to protect them in her inner mind had worked, but he still felt the ghost like pain. Like an echo of something experienced as a child. Now he was going to ask for her help again. He was going to ask her to not only help, but to help people she despised. She viewed nobles with contempt. That much was made perfectly clear in both the times he had been brought into her deepest thoughts. Always some of her inner self was revealed, he was sure, she knew too. Which left him in awe of her courage and nobility. This was the type of person he wanted to entrust his people with.
"Give Lady Arie a room. Make sure she is protected. No one is to enter her rooms while she sleeps."
Numair cleared his throat and the king looked to him and nodded, allowing for the mage to speak.
"I think it might be best to give her Daine's old room in the rider recruits' barracks." The king opened his mouth to point out that it would be hard to protect Arie there when Numair added, "Her horse was very vocal about her not being separated from him."
Jonathan closed his mouth with a smile. "Very well." The king looked to his palace healer, "Can you replicate what she did for those people?"
Duke Baird rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Yes. I will begin training others as well. However, your Majesty, it won't matter how many people I train, even if every Gifted person could be trained in a couple of days, this." He gestured to Arie. "A lot of people will not survive, your Majesty. This poison feeds and grows on what is naturally in a person. Many would rather die than allow a stranger to view the ugly internal thoughts."
"What do you mean?" demanded Jorrey. "That-." he paused as he realized no one in the room would be siding with him where Arie was concerned. "Girl managed to heal others."
The duke nodded. "Part of the healing seems to be the victims have to own up to the fact that there is something wrong. No one likes to do that, no one wants to ever admit they are wrong. Much less have someone else bear witness to their shame." Duke Baird looked up at Sir Wyldon with a knowing smile. "Regardless of how honorable they are."
The knight ignored the barely veiled reference to the lady knight and his unwillingness to let her become a knight. Both knew it was not said to be rude but was said as complement and made to point out how doing the right thing can be difficult.
"Are you suggesting lessons in humility?"
The duke chuckled at that. "I doubt that would help. Inner demons are the hardest to fight."
"Is there anything else," the king asked and when no one else had anything to add, the King nodded. He looked pointedly at Myles as everyone else was dismissed. Once everyone had left except the king and Myles, another man slipped in through a hidden door. He had a slightly crooked nose. Probably a result of being on the receiving end of a well-placed punch. Even with the nose he was still handsome, especially with the boyish grin on his face.
"So glad to receive your letter." He bowed to the king but then clasped the king's hand like a friend would. The king smiled back and returned gesture.
"Alright George," the king addressed the crooked nosed man. "What do you think?"
"You know as well as any man that her Gift protects her from mine, and I didn't share her head space." There was a glint of amusement in George's eyes.
"However," the king prompted.
George chuckled. "No patience, just like my lass." Then the amusement was gone replaced with a cool expression of a master spy. "She is definitely rattled by what she saw. Very few can fake that. She spoke no lies that I could detect. But I'd bet Pirate Swoop that she's not been honest about who she is. It took me some time to learn how to properly address the different nobles. She knew. Mark my words on that. What common born woman could stand before all of you important folks and not be a little intimidated? She's been to court before, either that or, she has seen things that make you all seem minor. I'd put my money on her seeing things that would scare a full-blooded knight. She didn't shy away from violence neither. Somethin else to consider, in her anger her accent slipped. You both noticed."
The king and Myles nodded. Myles rubbing his chin as he added, "She is very educated. Well beyond what the schools teach. She could read the documents on the table, including the coded maps."
George nodded, "While you guys were taking a trip through her memories, I studying her. Her arms and hands to be specific. She is scarred and has calluses. The kind that takes years to acquire by practicing with a knife and bow. If she is a noble; and I suspect she is, she may have never been acknowledged. You'd be better off looking at her ma'. I spoke with Numair and he says Arie gave the sir name Annasri. Which literally means daughter of Anna. The way she talked about her mother; chances are that is she gave her ma's true name. "
Myles nodded approvingly at George.
"What do you recommend?" The king asked.
George seemed to turn that question over in his mind before giving his answer. "I think you already trust her, but watch her too. And if she is a noble, I'd be asking myself, why does she have an obvious bone to pick with nobles and knights. It maybe that she's a bastard, but she also took an arrow and instead of treating it, she came here. To the place full of people she hates. That don't strike me as the type to want money or power just cause. If I was you, I'd look at her ma'."
The king tugged at his beard thoughtfully. "We'll keep this quiet for now. All of it. We don't need people panicking and others to start accusing or worse using it to their advantage."
Myles agreed solemnly. "Wise move. What about this mage, Apostate?"
"See if our spies can track him down first. If possible, I'd like to end this before it can get out of hand."
"So, there is a spell?" George asked. He had been hoping against hope that it wasn't true.
King Jonathan was suddenly thoughtful. Recalling the various bits of mage-craft he had learned, both from his studies and with his time as The Voice. "There is definitely a spell, but I don't think it is like the Sweating Sickness where it was entirely magic. It has too many parts." He frowned. "Even the greatest have limits and this breaks them. Which makes me think it is a bit of alchemy too."
George silently he swore.
"And it is worse than anything Rodger conceived." The sweating Sickness killed; it couldn't make puppets of its victims.
George spat on the ground at the mention of his wife's nemesis. She still had bad dreams about him. Myles looked very uncomfortable but didn't refute any of it. The once King if Thieves idly mused to himself, "Someone that powerful has bound to have attracted attention to himself at some point. If so, we will find him. I'll send feelers out to the City of the Gods." He just prayed it would result in answers before something terrible happened. Suddenly George felt the need to introduce himself to the young lady who brought them this news. He never ignored when his Gift called to him; remembering when he first met Alanna. As he walked away, he laughed to himself, he doubted this lady was boy in disguise though.