Page 28 of The Frog Prince
He just had to remember that, and it would all be all right. He’d get back to normal in no time.
Squaring his shoulders, he closed himself away inside his mentor’s home, mentally listing the tasks he would have to complete before going back home to his sister.
His resolution faltered several times throughout the day.
When he caught footprints that didn’t belong to a human just beneath his own. Webbed and wide.
When he caught hopping shapes out the corners of his eyes as he crushed dried herbs and bottled tinctures for Henne.
When the wind whistled through the cracks in the worn-down house, whispering his name.
It made the knife he was holding wobble in his hold, nicking the skin and making him hiss. He pulled his hand toward his chest, and for a split second felt a phantom of a damp touch on wounded skin before he forced himself to remember.
He was alone.
He was safe.
He bandaged his finger and finished his work as quickly as he could, glad Henne was out on house calls and not around to leer and prod at Otto.
The old man wouldn’t have been Otto’s first choice for a mentor, but the pickings were slim. It was Henne or a woman three villages over. Apprenticing under her would have required him moving, and that was never an option. So he was stuck foranother two years until he could practice independently. Two years until he had learned what there was to learn.
Not that Henne actually taught him much of anything. Everything Otto knew, he had learned on his own. Henne treated him like unpaid help, pushing all of the dumb, easy tasks onto Otto so he could dedicate himself to the high-paying jobs.
Otto accepted it all without fuss, hoping that he was making a difference. That in the end he would be able to give the people of this village another option.
The day grew late, the sky dark, and the moon high as he organized his finished tasks on the wooden desk, knowing Gisela would be worrying herself sick at home. Hopefully she was already in bed. He left a note for Henne to let him know he had been around and would be back tomorrow as usual.
The sheet of paper looked damp in one corner, and Otto brushed his fingers over it and found it strangely warm. As if someone had been holding it just before he took it. Someone whose hands…
He forced the line of thought away forcefully and packed his things, heading for the door.
He winced when it slammed open and there was Henne, looking angry as usual, thin lips pulled into a condescending sneer. Grey hair was slicked back over bald spots, and he wore clothes too expensive for someone who could barely afford to eat. It was all about appearances with Henne. If he looked more expensive, he could trick people into thinking he was worth more.
“Ah, he returns,” Henne said, voice grating.
“Henne. I apologize, I couldn't send you word straight away. I have completed all the leftover tasks and prescriptions you’d left, all of it is on the desk and labeled. I will return tomorrow.”
He tried walking around Henne, but a thin hand gripped his wrist. “Not so fast, Otto. I let you leave for days and this is all the respect you afford me? Not even a passing conversation?”
Otto bristled. He didn’t want to be touched. He couldn’t be touched when his skin still prickled from the Frog Prince’s caresses, but he couldn't pull away either.
“I apologize,” he said, lowering his head in deference. He had learned that it was the only way Henne would be appeased. “I simply have pressing matters at home.”
“Ah yes. I have heard the rumors.”
“What rumors?” Otto asked, chest constricting.
“People saw Gisela walking around with you yesterday.” Henne’s dark eyes were sharp. “When she was barely alive just the day before. Care to explain such a miraculous recovery?”
“I told you I was looking for a cure,” Otto said, trying not to sound defensive but failing.
“That excursion was futile and we both know it,” Henne snapped, tightening his grip on him. “So how did you do it?”
“I found herbs in the forest,” Otto lied.
“And just happened to know which ones to give her to cure her?” Henne sneered, scoffing in his face.
Otto bit his lip. Henne wasn’t stupid. He was reprehensible and unworthy of the title of healer, but he was intelligent and insightful.
