AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“No one will swear they saw anything for sure, given the crowds that were coming and going,” the man said with an amused smile of his own. “But given the legends already springing up about you and your master, the younger ones have been talking. They all swear they haven’t had time to come near your bed in the busyness, but at least half of them claim to have seen glimpses of a tall young man slipping in and out among the crowd.”
The matron chuckled, and I realized her earlier comment had been based on more than just Nik’s supposed rescue of me. Warmth rose up my cheeks, and I cleared my throat uncomfortably.
“Nothing like a bit of mystery to add to a legend in the making,” the matron said. “It’s good for the youngsters to have something to focus on other than where that storm came from.”
He exchanged a weighted glance with the man, and I remembered Amara’s words on the road as well as the matron’s assertion that Amara had been in demand among the city’s leaders. What had been happening in Eldrida while I slept?
“But why was I here?” I asked, trying again for a straight answer. “Why did I sleep so long? And what do you mean by legend?” My head was starting to spin almost as much as it had in the square at the end of the storm.
The man, who had a much brisker air than the matron in charge, answered my questions in order.
“You’re here because you overextended yourself in the square and collapsed. That’s what happens when you push your power too far.” He gave me a censorious look. “And you weren’t just sleeping but unconscious, regaining your energy. For two days. That’s also what happens when you overuse your ability. There’s a reason people try to avoid doing it.”
My flush deepened as I realized I hadn’t been injured at all. I had just humiliated myself by making the rookie mistake all apprentices were sternly warned against. I hadn’t known my own limits.
Looking back, all the signs had been there: the flickering fire of my power, the fuzzy thoughts and confusion, forgetting to include basic elements of a healing. I had ignored it all and pushed my way onward without thought.
And once again, Nik had saved me. It had been a dangerous risk, though. Given my location, I could easily have fallen and hit my head—even killed myself, as had happened to Amara’s mother. And I had certainly rendered myself unable to help anyone else—a patient taking up the hospital’s resources instead of another healer to help finish off the less severe cases the following day.
I could still feel the lingering sensation of Nik’s arms around me, carrying me, but I could also hear his voice in my mind.Even the strongest healers have limits.
I had once again tried to ignore that truth, attempting to heal based on the need before me, without considering what was possible.
I tried to look at the matter objectively. The last woman I healed had been badly injured. Should I have left her to die, saving my power to heal multiple other people with dangerous, but less complex, injuries? Could I have done so?
Remembering Coby’s face, I didn’t think I could have. It was only natural to respond to the known need in front of me. But that didn’t mean I had to burn myself out until I sputtered and died. I could have done enough to save her life and then stopped, saving my energy for other patients. And I should definitely have stopped once I felt myself reaching my limits. If I had fallen and died, unnoticed in the middle of the storm, how many future Cobys would have lost their mothers as a consequence?
I never wanted to become a person who refused to give what they had to give, but neither could I act foolishly and rashly, as if I was invincible. That was the action of a child. Part of the gift I had been given involved using my resources wisely.
I looked up, meeting the matron’s eyes. She smiled at me kindly.
“Don’t worry, Apprentice.” Her voice was gentle. “You’re not the first, and you won’t be the last. Some things have to be learned through experience. You’ll know better next time.”
I managed a smile, grateful for her words. Tentatively I glanced at the younger healer to find his face had also softened.
“To tell the truth, you weren’t even the only one in the storm. Although you did need to sleep the longest. The other apprentices seem to think it means you won some sort of contest.” He exchanged a long-suffering look with the matron. “And of course that only adds to the mystique.”
“Mystique?” I asked uneasily, remembering his earlier talk of legends.
“Well, as to that…” He hesitated. “A boy and his mother came looking for you and had to be turned away. They were very insistent about needing to thank you.”
I smiled, tears pricking my eyes. So Coby’s mother had found him. That was a relief.
“They say you’re only an apprentice like us,” a young man of seventeen or eighteen said from the end of the bed. Three others of a similar age clustered around him, eight eager eyes trained on me.
“Even newer than us, I heard,” one of the girls added. “But that mother said she was on death’s door when you got to her.”
“I heard you’d already healed half the injured in the square before her,” a third said. “They say you rode into the city in the middle of the storm, mustered a rescue party, and healed everyone.”
“You pulled them out from under the stalls, and then moved on to the next one like it was nothing,” the fourth added.
“Me?” I gaped at them. “People are sayingIdid that?”
“Not alone, of course,” the first one said, and I relaxed for a second before he continued. “You had your master with you, naturally. And while you were fixing the square, she was at the harbor.”
A new layer of awe settled over the group at the mention of Amara.
“They say she single-handedly stopped the waves breaching the harbor.”
