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“Um… look, this isn’t really my area of expertise. No one sent me, I was just checking on a friend of mine, Scalla. She didn’t turn up for class so I came by to see if she was OK.”
“Scalla Andus? She’s one of the patients who needs a healer. Come with me,” Acorn said, gesturing for me to follow. She shot me a sharp look. “You’re the new girl from through the dimensional portal, aren’t you?”
“Yes.”
“The rounded ear tip is quite odd-looking. Never seen it’s like on a humanoid. I take from your conversation that medicine is practised differently in your homeworld.”
“Well, there’s no magic for one.”
“I find that very difficult to get my head around,” she said with a shake. “I guess you don’t have the problem of tapping out of magic when an outbreak happens though.”
“No, it’s all medicines and surgery and hard work.”
“Pfft…herbalism and backyard butchery? You piqued my interest there for a minute. No, our way is much more sophisticated. Now, Miss Andus…” She grabbed Scalla’s chart, flipping through it, but I just sat down in the chair beside her bed and
stared.
There was something of a cutesy anime character about Scalla. Her huge brown eyes and pigtails all gave her that elfin, sweet look many female romantic interests had. Not so now. Her cheeks were sunken, the bags under her eyes puffy and bruised. She lay still, so very still, her hands resting on the blanket over her chest, the skin looking almost translucent, the blood vessels a mottled pale purple. “Poor dear,” Dr Acorn said. “She’s a scholarship student, so I’m supposed to see to the full fee-paying students first, but I can’t leave her like this, not when you have enough to heal the lot of them.”
“What?”
“What what? There was quite a lot of information in that sentence. Narrow it down to what you wish to know.”
“I could heal everyone here with magic?”
“And barely make a dent in it. I find it very hard to believe you come from a non-magical dimension. This is a sacred space, no one will use that information against you here,” the doctor said, looking at me with a frown.
“If you think our medicine is primitive, you wait until you see what passes for magic. Basically sleight of hand kinds of stuff. Seriously, nothing at all.”
“Must come from an over-reliance on hedgewitch workings,” she said with a sniff and grabbed my hand again. I took what she was doing a little more seriously this time and sure enough, within minutes Scalla’s eyes opened and she looked a hell of a lot better.
“Oh,” she said, looking around in alarm. “What happened?”
The doctor felt Scalla’s forehead and then nodded, noting something down on her chart. “Bad batch of fish I’m told. Kelethian poison, love.” Dr Acorn turned to me. “Now, I’ll give you a couple of minutes with your friend and then I’m going to need you to look at the more serious cases, Tess.”
“Friend?” Scalla said, not unkindly.
“Sorry, I didn’t see you in class and someone said heaps of people were sick. I thought I’d come by and see how you were…” What was I doing? I barely knew Scalla and I had a to-do list longer than Miazydar. It was just friendly faces were a bit thin on the ground at the moment. When I turned back, I expected that strange expression of pity and scorn combined together into some sort of bastard love child. Instead, her eyes were all weird and shiny.
“Are you OK?” I said. “Is there something wrong with your eyes? Do you need me to get the doc?” She just shook her head and then held out her arms. Oh god, did she want a hug? I came in closer, kind of edging towards her, not stepping in because maybe she was waving to someone else across the other side of the ward or was pumping the air in excitement at not dying. Evidently, I was wrong, she grabbed me as soon as I got close enough and pulled me down in a surprisingly strong embrace.
“Thank you so much.”
“Um… OK, so it’s great to see you looking better, but I ought to go and help these other people. Apparently, I have hot and cold running magic that the doc needs.” FML, I’m such a big ball of awkward now I don’t know how to friend anymore.
“Of course,” she said, swiping at her eyes. Oh my god, those were honest to goodness tears. “And Miazydar’s OK?”
“Yeah, nothing’s likely to happen to the goose that laid the golden eggs. Look, I’ll bring him by tomorrow when we visit. Sound good?” She nodded quickly, her eyes growing suspiciously dark and sparkling.
“I’ve heard of women playing hard to get, but this is ridiculous.”
My eyes snapped open to see Merlin the magician looking down at me. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“Dr Acorn put it about the teacher’s lounge that one of the students had passed out trying to help heal the sick students and could someone come and get you. Imagine my surprise, finding the student I am supposed to be helping.”
Shit, Keel!
“One and the same.”
