Page 1 of King of Fire and Scales

ONE

THALIA

The sunlight was bright and sharp and... glorious.

Thalia stepped out of the front door of her family's cottage and inhaled deeply, allowing her lungs to fill with the pure morning air that blessed the Wildwoods.

For a moment, she envisioned herself running across the meadow that lay beyond the garden of her family home.

But then there came the familiar sound of a hacking cough that reverberated throughout the house. Thalia turned, anguish twisting painfully in her stomach, and walked back into the cottage. It was warm and comfortable, the rooms large and fragrant from the herbs and flowers she had strung up throughout the cottage.

She walked more quickly as the volume of the coughing increased, and by the time she rounded the corner into the living room, her father was bent over double, blood and spittle flying from his mouth.

“Father!” she cried and helped him to stand. She led him to the bed they had made in the living room when his health prevented him from walking up the stairs to the bedroom he had shared with Thalia's mother when she was alive.

On the bed, Evanth, Thalia's father, was better able to breathe.

While Evanth's coughing slowed, and then stopped, Thalia hurried into the kitchen to heat the herbal tincture she had concocted for her father when the illness began.

She also heated the herbal solution in the large cast-iron pot that would go into the poultice that she wrapped around his chest every night.

The poultice and the tincture worked hand-in-hand with one another to slow the spread of the illness through Evanth Hafeld's body. It had taken Thalia months to come up with a suitable recipe for both, and by the time she had figured out what exactly ailed her father, he had already succumbed to the worst stages of the illness.

Thalia had always known that whatever she did wouldn't stave off the illness for eternity. But she hoped she could help alleviate her father's pain and bring him some comfort.

Now, she hurried back to the living room and fed him the tincture which he drank gratefully before drifting off to sleep.

Once Thalia was sure he was asleep and warmly covered, she began her chores.

Cleaning the cottage wasn't a task she relished. She would much rather be outside, tending the large garden which was her pride and joy.

But she also knew her father's illness demanded a clean home, and she couldn't focus on her herbal recipes if her home was dusty.

So now, starting on the top floor of the house, she went through each room methodically with a broom, duster, and mop. She cleaned every day, so it didn't take her long to get through her work.

By the time she reached the ground floor, her small, lithe frame ached from the exertion, and she paused for a second to inhale deeply.

After she finished cleaning, she went into the kitchen again to re-soak the fabric of the poultice in the herbal concoction.

Then, while the fabric was soaking, she skinned a rabbit for dinner and began quickly chopping carrots, garlic, and celery.

She simmered the vegetables in pig fat and then put in meat along with leftover grain. Thalia also added a handful of herbs and spices that she had grown herself to make the food tastier.

While the food cooked over the fire, she pulled the fabric out of the herbal water. It was warm and soggy, and Thalia grimaced as she walked with it into the living room.

Evanth hated putting the poultice on every afternoon, and Thalia hated the process of forcing him to do it. Evanth's chest was where most of his pain was located, and if Thalia wasn't completely gentle, she could hurt him badly.

“Father?”

She woke him slowly. He groaned as he sat up, his arms wrapped around his chest. “I know you don't like this,” Thalia sat on the bed next to him. “But we have to do it.”

“I know, darling.” He smiled fondly at her, even as his face was twisted with pain. “I know.”

She shuddered with grief as she helped him out of his sweater and tunic and peeled off yesterday's poultice.

Her father had once been the most vital of men. Sometimes she couldn't quite believe how much he had changed.

Two years ago, Evanth was still working. He had been a master of his trade and made such a good living that now, two years later, neither of them had to work.

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