Page 4 of Sun Elves of Ardani

“It’s there, Roshan. I can see it.”

“I believe you.”

Roshan was endlessly personable above all else. That was what she liked best about him. It was what everyone liked about him, in fact. He was the sort of person who was friends with everyone he met. But like most Ardanians, he did not understand magic at all.

They’d married a year ago. Most people considered him quite a catch, and they weren’t afraid to tell her so. She noticed women in town looking at him every time they went out together, perhaps wondering what a woman like her was doing with him. He was undeniably handsome—a young, well-built man with dark skin and darker eyes—and the owner of the iron mine just outside of town. Looks, personality, and money was a winning combination.

He was also gay, of course. But Kadaki was one of the only people in the world who knew that. It wasn’t the sort of information people often shared freely. Not in Ardani, at least.

“Perhaps you’ve been working too hard at this,” he said. “You know how…focusedyou can get when you’re trying to solve a problem.”

“Yes,” she said reluctantly.

“Why don’t you take a break? There’s someone here from town asking for healing.”

Her eyebrows lowered. “An injury? How bad is it?” Most people in Refka didn’t trust mages. They wouldn’t have come to her for help unless it was something bad.

He motioned for her to follow him toward the house. “I’ll let you diagnose the patient yourself, doctor.”

He led her into the kitchen. It was a small, simple room, considering the size of the house. Someone had closed the drapes on the window, leaving it dark inside, and a young man was seated stiffly at the table. Kadaki recognized him: Gregoris, the smith’s apprentice. She did not often interact with the people in town, but she watched them from a distance, and she knew most of their names, faces, trades, and families.

He looked up warily as she entered, and when she flicked a hand to summon a sphere of mage light, he stared at her as if she’d come to kill him instead of heal him.

“Gregoris, this is my wife, Kadaki,” Roshan said.

Gregoris nodded jerkily, but his mouth seemed stuck shut.

“I’ll leave you to it,” Roshan said before ducking out the door again. Gregoris watched him leave with visible dismay.

Kadaki studied the man. She easily found the location of the wound. He was holding his left arm protectively, and she could see a patch of bright pink skin. Her heart sank.

“A burn?” she said.

He looked almost surprised to hear her speak. He cleared his throat. “Yes.” He carefully extended his arm for her to see.

Kadaki sat down in the chair beside him to look at it. The wound was a stripe about six inches long, angled across his wrist and forearm, pink and beginning to peel and blister. She raised her hand over it, and her fingers glowed faintly with healing magic, not yet knitting flesh but assessing the damage. Gregoris went completely still.

“I’ve seen worse,” Kadaki said, and got up to gather supplies.

“It’s very painful, lady.”

She glanced over at him, studying his worried expression. She’d thought she was being reassuring, but perhaps he thought she was being dismissive. “I know,” she said. “I can tell by looking at it. I can’t take away the pain completely, but I’ll see if I can do something to decrease it.”

He nodded, relieved. “Thank you, lady.”

She levitated bottles and clean gauze to the table one by one, then sat down beside him to get to work. To his credit, he didn’t flinch as much this time.

“The elves did this?” she asked quietly.

He looked up at her in surprise. “No, thank the Five. Not them. It was an accident at the forge.”

She watched his face, searching for a lie. But now that he mentioned it, the burn did look like it could have been made by a length of hot metal.

There was silence for a few minutes, and Kadaki was so engrossed in her work that she almost forgot that there was a person attached to the arm she was treating. She glanced up at him, noting his uncomfortable expression.

“There’s nothing to be worried about,” she said.

He nodded. “Of course.”

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