Page 54 of Heart of Shadows

“What happened?” Aedon dared to ask. He held a beaker filled with cold, fresh mountain water close to her lips so she could take a sip.

“We do not know. When you came, only a few were sick, and it burned slowly through them—like you, we thought we had time when you and our healer could not mend them, for their condition worsened slowly, and so few were affected. When you had departed to find a cure, we thought we were safe, but it spread so swiftly and we could do nought to stop it. Old, young, fit, and healthy. It did not discriminate. Most fled to protect themselves. The rest of us…” She sagged. “When you did not return, we asked them to leave us behind.”

Heaviness sat upon Aedon’s chest as a fierce ache burned there. They had been gone weeks. All the while, these people had suffered. And some had died. He felt personally responsible. He should have been better. Faster. Returned sooner. “Where did they go?”

“Down the pass, into the next village.”

“We will send them back to you.”

Her eyes lit up with burning fear. “There’s no risk to them?”

Aedon hesitated, uncertain. “No. You have no sickness in you any longer. Burn everything you can to purify the area. If there are any of magical blood here, set new wards against sickness upon your households. It should suffice to halt the spread for now. Confine those still sick to their homes. Only those who have weathered this illness should have contact with them to sustain their care.”

Brand immediately flew to the village where the others had fled, soon coming back with word they would return with the coming dawn. Aedon bid their patient farewell.

“I owe you a life-debt, Aedon Lindhir Riel of House Felrian,” she said formally, using his full title.

“I hope to never call upon it. Be well.”

41

HARPER

That evening, Harper sat beside the campfire with the rest of them, just outside the village. Her body ached from a day of labour and activity, and she longed to cleanse the smell of smoke and sickness from her, but there was nothing to wash with. She rubbed a hand across the back of her neck, grimacing at how clogged with dirt and sweat it felt.

“You all right there, Aedon?” Brand’s deep voice broke the silence. Harper watched her companions. Aedon was uncharacteristically quiet that night.

“No—how could I be? Look at what’s happened here.” He shook his head. “We were gone weeks.”

“We couldn’t have done it any faster,” Brand replied. “You know that.”

“I… there could have been a way. Somehow. We should have got horses. Something.” He dragged a hand through his hair, and in the flickering firelight, shadows yawned under his eyes. The anguish in his voice was clear, and Harper softened, longing to comfort him, but she did not know how. She did not see a thief or a criminal anymore. Now she saw someone who just wanted to help, who punished himself for failing.

“You know as well as I that that was not an option. Nowhere we passed had horses, for one,” Brand replied.

Erika added firmly, “There’s nothing we could have done. Don’t beat yourself up—use your energy to help them now. That’s all we can do.”

“Hhmph.” Aedon did not reply. He drew his knees up and rested his crossed arms upon them, and his chin on top, staring into the flames. He did not invite further conversation. Their persuasion would not help change his mind, Harper surmised. The guilt he wore was heavier than that.

“You did a good job today, Harper,” Ragnar said as he offered her slightly stale bread from the village, pressed upon them by a grateful patient. A luxury.

“Thank you,” Harper murmured, ducking her head and hiding behind a curtain of tangled hair. Praise was not something she knew how to receive. She’d just done her best helping Ragnar tend to the villagers, that was all. Anyone would have done the same in her position.

“She has a knack for putting people at ease.” Brand took his share of the loaf, and gave her a tired smile.

“That she does,” Ragnar replied. “Mighty glad was I for her help today.”

Harper coloured. “I just did what felt right.”

“The world needs more of that,” Ragnar said around a mouthful of crumbs and smoked meat.

They ate as night fell around them, but the forest was still and silent. Brand broke the silence first. “I don’t like it here. Too quiet.”

“It’s like the forest knows. The creatures give this place a wide berth,” Erika said, glancing warily around her. Harper noticed how neither of them had settled down, each alert.

“It does,” said Aedon softly. “The very magic of the plants and animals is tainted here. It makes me feel nauseous, this disease on the air.”

“Is that what happened when Saradon cursed Pelenor?” Harper asked. The tale he had spun to her in a similarly dark night preyed on her mind when the sun set now. In her story book, such tales had seemed impossible to be true, but now? Now, she wasn’t sure what was fact or fiction.

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