Page 25

CITY

I t had been a while since she’d been on the streets of the city. Emryn was mostly a resident of the temple, and let the people come to her. It was only in extraordinary circumstances that she would leave the temple and go to the people.

The plague five years back had been one such circumstance and she would never tell anyone about standing in the middle of a night-silent street and pouring her fire out as far as it would go, sucking all the illness back to her and immolating as much of it as she could.

She’d been ill after that, but almost all the healers had fallen ill at one point or another during those hellish months. So she’d never been looked at over and above, being just another sick body in the temple.

And if an entire quarter of the city had been plague free after that one night, well that had been an intervention of the Mother, nothing that a single healer could have done.

Emryn had fallen ill three other times during those months, and each time prayers had gone up to the Mother for another quadrant of the city being freed from the sickness.

Those prayers, that praise, they belonged to the Mother. Emryn’s gifts were given by the Mother and if the last time had nearly cost Emryn her life, that would have been a small price to pay for having those lives continue on.

It had taken her a month to recover.

But she’d lived, and the plague on the city had ended.

And no one would ever know about Emryn’s actions on those nights.

Because Emryn would never tell anyone about them.

She walked the city streets, hand in hand with Cas, trying to pretend that there wasn’t a phalanx of soldiers following in their wake.

And that was when she heard the cry. Pained and frightened, and Emryn didn’t stop to think about what she was doing. Her training knew, her power knew, and she kilted up her skirts and dashed off toward the sound.

Skidding to her knees at the side of the little boy and his mother who was trying to shove the bone back through the skin, hands slipping in scarlet.

“Mistress, stop,” Emryn took the woman’s hands away. “I will heal him.”

“The cart-” the woman stammered. “He was hit by the cart.”

“Breathe,” Emryn said, turning her attention back to the little boy who was going into shock if the pallid skin and the lack of tears were any indication.

Emryn positioned her hands over the wound, letting wisps of her fire out, trying to block the view of the passersby as to what she was doing.

The bone receded, the skin healing over as Emryn guided the jagged break back together and wrapped it in her fire so that the bone would mend.

She could do nothing about the blood, could only salve the pain a little, but the injury was healed.

“Do not let him walk,” Emryn turned to the woman, who was looking at her in awe. “He is not to put weight on the leg for two days while the healing as absorbed.”

“Yes healer,” the woman reached out to pull her son into her arms. “Thank you, healer.”

“The Mother Provides,” Emryn said, rising and staggering just a little as the weakness hit her. “Would you like some help with him? He will likely sleep quite a bit for the next twelve hours while the shock resolves.”

“We will be fine, thank you healer.” The woman wiped her face and rose with her son in her arms. They wandered off into the crowd that had gathered and Emryn turned to walk back to Cas. Only to nearly run directly into him.

“Oh, hello,” she gave him a wavering smile. “I could never leave well enough alone.”

“I am finding that to be true,” he smiled at her and pulled her into his arms. “Now, shall we go see what all the kerfuffle is about?”

She hadn’t noticed it before, but the streets were hung with buntings and flowers, as though there was a celebration happening. But it was nowhere near one of the celebration days.

“What?”

“Come with me,” he took her by the hand and led her down two streets and over another until they were in the very heart of the city.

In the square, where there was a party happening.

The people were dancing, there was music and food and in the midst of it all was a large wooden construction where her and the prince sat in effigy.

“Cas?”

“They’re celebrating you, Emryn.” Cas smiled at her. “My people down here in the city have told me that they think you are finally getting the recognition you deserve.”

“That-” she looked around, eyes wide. “That was never why I did what I do.”

“I know,” Cas nodded. “But you are their healer, Emryn. You healed their illnesses, saved their children, and now you are their princess.”

“Join us,” A voice from behind them and Emryn turned to face an elderly man bearing a crown of flowers that he promptly put on Emryn’s head. “Thank you for coming. We were waiting for you.”

“We’re happy to be here,” Cas said, covering for Emryn’s loss of words. “We would have been here earlier, but there was a spot of trouble with a cart.”

The old man laughed, bowing to them both before leading them into the celebration.

Emryn had never danced before, had never had that amount of gratitude thrown at her at once. But she recognized some of the faces. That one had come to her after a bull had gored him through the middle and all the other healers had pronounced him un-mendable.

That one had been a chest infection left far too long. And the woman who offered her a large daisy, tucking it into the end of her braid, was the one whose eyesight she’d saved.

It was all incredibly overwhelming. Healers were the invisible ones, working for the good of the city. But she was also their princess and as such was never going to be invisible again.

The celebration lasted far into the evening, Emryn’s braid slowly growing more and more flowers until she resembled a garden hedge.

But it was lovely, all the dancing and the people.

When the fairy lights came on, the party started breaking up. Most of these people had work the next day and Cas took her back up to the palace.

“Thank you,” she smiled at him at the door of her rooms. “That was very nice.”

“It was,” he took her hand and kissed the back of it. “I am going to go change, and then may I join you?”

“I’d like that.”