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“She’s awake!” A jovial but unfamiliar voice called out the news, and a renewed flurry of footsteps sounded.
I barely had time to take in my surroundings—a row of beds in a suspiciously familiar looking room that had a bright, airy feel—before a small crowd of people surrounded me. They all beamed down at where I lay flat in bed.
“Our sleeping beauty awakens!” the original speaker cried, in the same beaming tones. “Which means we can officially discharge our last storm patient.”
A resounding cheer went up from those gathered around my bed, although I couldn’t spot any familiar faces among them. The speaker seemed to be the one in charge as well as the oldest, a round-faced, matronly woman who regarded me with the affectionate indulgence of a grandmother. I wanted to ask who she was, but that seemed rude. My second thought was to ask where I was, but I was fairly sure I already knew the answer to that.
“Where’s Master Amara?” I asked instead, hoping she would have answers for me.
“Ah yes, someone must inform the girl’s master!” The woman turned to the group around her, and the youngest of them jumped to attention, hurrying out of the room, presumably to search for Amara.
In the wake of his departure, the older woman shooed most of the others away as well, directing them to return to their regular tasks or seek rest of their own. From the way she addressed them, it appeared they had been working hard for an extended time and were now reaching the end of their labor.
“Don’t worry,” the woman said to me in comfortable tones when she turned her attention back to me.
I felt more confused than concerned, but I remained silent, hoping she would continue.
“Master Amara is perfectly well.” She folded her hands across her belly and beamed at me. “She would have liked to be here at your bedside, I’m sure, but she’s a woman much in demand.” She chuckled to herself before continuing. “She visited briefly, of course, and confirmed your identity and condition, but she barely had the chance to leave the harbor until this morning, and the city’s leaders and mages have all been clamoring to consult with her.”
I tried to sort through this flood of words for the important points.
“Confirm my identity? How did I get here?”
I didn’t bother to ask whereherewas. Now that I’d had a more complete look at the room and its occupants, I was utterly certain I was in the Eldridan hospital. My training with Hayes in the Caltoran hospital made it a familiar space since all the hospitals in Tartora had been built with the same design.
“You arrived just after the end of the storm, unconscious,” the healer said. “It was true chaos here, then, so I didn’t get the name of the person who carried you in. But he was the whole package.” She leaned forward and winked broadly. “Tall, dark, and handsome, so you’re a fortunate young lady.”
From the matron’s satisfied beam, it seemed she thought a mid-storm rescue was the immediate precursor to a betrothal announcement. I groaned and rubbed my head, but I didn’t ask any more questions about my rescuer. The healer’s description gave me a good idea who it had been, and hazy memories were starting to return of a familiar voice calling my name and strong arms scooping me up and holding me close.
Gingerly, I sent my power around my body, searching for any sign of illness or injury or even of recent healing. I found nothing. Every part of my body seemed perfectly normal.
I looked again at the broad daylight outside the closest window and frowned.
“How long have I been here? How many hours has it been since the storm finished?”
“Hours?” The healer rubbed her chin. “I’m not sure I could tell you that. I’ve been on my feet for too long to be worrying around with numbers and sums.”
“Sums?” I pushed myself up to sitting, making Ember stir in protest. “How long has it been?”
A younger man, maybe a decade older than me, joined us. “It’s late afternoon, the second day after the storm.”
“Two days!” I shrieked, swinging my legs out of the bed.
The man immediately put his hands on my shoulders to stop me. “Slowly now, Apprentice. You’ve been lying down for a long time. No need to rush things. I’d rather not have you collapse for a second time.”
I didn’t fight him, sitting on the side of the bed, my mouth hanging open. “It’s really been two days? And I’ve just been lying here the whole time? What in the kingdoms was wrong with me that it took that long for you to heal me?”
I could imagine many of the injured and ill had been forced to wait in the immediate aftermath of the storm, but I was the only one left in the room now, and the older healer had declared me the final storm patient.
“We didn’t heal you at all,” the matron said in the same hearty tones as always. “Didn’t use a lick of power on you, in fact. All we did was provide a bed and keep an eye on you.”
A nose appeared from under the crumpled blankets, followed by a lithe body moving sleepily. I put a hand around Ember’s middle, guiding her as she curled back up at my side, this time on top of the blankets.
“We don’t normally allow pets in the hospital,” the male healer said. “But every time someone shooed her out, we would turn around to find she’d snuck back in again. I’ve never seen such devotion from a wild animal—even to a healer. We gave up in the end, since everyone was too busy to keep watch for one small fox.”
“I’m sorry. I seem to have caused you a lot of unnecessary trouble.” My fingers brushed over the stiff cloth that had been covering my eyes.
“Ah, now, that wasn’t one of us,” the matron said, her smile hinting at an intriguing secret.
