Beyond the Boundary Stones (The Chronicles of Tevenar Book 3) (15 page)

The woman gave Josiah a shaky smile. “Thank you, wizard.”

“My joy is in the service.” He still couldn’t give the words the special intonation Elkan did, but he meant them. He waved her off and turned toward the next person in line.

Vigorre stared after the bouncing, chattering boy as he tugged his mother through the crowd. “Dear Mother,” he whispered.

Josiah beamed. This type of reaction was the best part of coming to Ramunna. “That was nothing,” he said casually. “You’ll see a lot more before we’re done. And I’m just an apprentice. The stuff Elkan and Tobi can do is even more impressive.”

Vigorre swallowed and swiveled to stare hard at Sar. The donkey regarded him calmly, flicking one ear forward, then back. “I never…” He shook his head hard. “Would you like me to continue speaking with the patients?”

“Yes, please. And if you can keep the parents or friends or spouses or whoever out of the way like that, it would be great. I spent way too much time this morning telling them to stay back or calming them down when they got upset.”

The two of them settled into a smooth working relationship. While Josiah and Sar healed a patient, Vigorre spoke to the next one. They were able to move from one healing to the next much more quickly than they’d done in the morning. He was invaluable reassuring one frantic husband while Josiah and Sar healed a bloody gash his wife had received when a carelessly driven carriage had struck her. If Vigorre hadn’t been there, Josiah would have had to call on Elkan for help.

The quick pace of the work took its toll. After only an hour Josiah was panting and shaky and Sar was soaked with sweat. “Time for a break,” he told Vigorre. The line wasn’t any shorter, but the people in it looked less impatient. “We’ve got to rest for a minute.” He sent Sar toward the water bucket with an affectionate slap on the rump.

Without waiting for Vigorre, Josiah went to the table. Thank the Mother, someone had brought a big pitcher of fruit juice. He poured himself some, marveling at the chunks of ice floating in the liquid, causing a coating of water droplets to form on the outside of the glass. “Gevan told me how you bring ships full of ice up from the southern wastes,” he told Vigorre as the Keeper arrived, “but I don’t think I really believed him.”

“There are whole caves under that mountain packed full of it,” Vigorre said, pointing to the crag with the Matriarch’s palace at the top. “Every summer there’s a party for the children of the aristocracy in one of them. For a few hours we were cool. We’d eat frozen sweet cream with fruit, and throw balls of crushed ice at each other. It was my favorite event of the year.” He wrinkled his nose. “They don’t invite you after you turn fourteen. That’s when I became an acolyte and started studying full time at the Temple.”

Josiah made a sympathetic sound. “In Tevenar we apprentice at thirteen. Before I became a wizard I was an apprentice fuller. It was interesting at first, but after a couple months it was the most boring job in the world.”

“Fuller?” Vigorre looked honestly intrigued. “I know there’s a fulling mill in Betham, but I’ve never seen it. They raise a lot of sheep up there.”

“Yep, we fulled wool fabric.” Josiah launched into a description of the machinery of the fulling mill. Not many people found it as interesting as he did, but Vigorre listened attentively and asked intelligent questions.

Josiah reluctantly quit talking as he got to the end of his third glass of juice. He felt much better, ready to face another hour or two of healing. But he noticed Elkan and Tobi straightening from over a patient, who sat up and climbed from the cot. “Hey, Elkan,” he called. He grabbed Vigorre’s arm and towed him over. “I’ve got someone for you to meet.”

He performed the introductions. Elkan eyed Vigorre with approval when Josiah boasted about how much help he’d been. “I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your effort. I knew when I agreed to come that a whole country without the Mother’s power would be a challenge, but this is beyond what I imagined.”

Vigorre bit his lip. “I’ve tried to do what I could. But it seems like no one cares about the people of the Beggars’ Quarter. I tell Father that as Keepers we should make it our business to serve all the Mother’s children, but he never takes me seriously. The Purifiers do more, but still very little. There’s only one House of Mercy to serve the whole Quarter.”

“I’m not criticizing you,” Elkan reassured him. “I’m glad you sought us out today.”

Vigorre dropped his eyes. “I couldn’t stay away.”

Elkan clapped him on the shoulder. Josiah noticed an oddly speculative look in his master’s eyes. “That shows you’re a true servant of the Mother.”

Vigorre met his gaze for a moment, then looked away, flushing. “I—”

Raised voices dragged Josiah’s attention to their source. The guards were in heated conversation with yet another petitioner. He headed in that direction. If it was someone else who’d prove as useful as Vigorre, he wasn’t about to let them get away.

He froze when he caught a glimpse of the girl’s face. Then he rushed forward. “Nirel?”

Nirel was taller than he remembered, and the Ramunnan dress she wore accented her figure far more than Tevenar-style clothes. It had to be her, though. Kevessa had said Nirel had come to Ramunna. The two girls had become friends. But Josiah had never expected to encounter her here.

Nirel grinned sheepishly at him. “Hey, Josiah.”

“It’s great to see you again! What are you doing here? Wait, come over and see Elkan. He’ll want to hear the whole story.” Josiah wanted to throw his arms around Nirel, but from the way she hung back he didn’t think that would be very smart. So he contented himself with grabbing her hand and squeezing it.

The guard let her pass with a resigned look. She followed him to the table where Elkan and Vigorre were standing, speaking quietly. They turned to greet the new arrival. Nirel stopped, nearly jerking Josiah’s arm from its socket before she yanked her hand from his. “Vigorre?”

Vigorre’s face was equally stunned. “Nirel? I thought—”

With two long strides he was at Nirel’s side. He put a possessive, protective arm around her shoulders and glared at Elkan and Josiah. “I don’t know why Nirel’s chosen to make her presence in Ramunna known to you, but you need to be aware that she’s under my protection, and my father’s, and the Matriarch’s. We won’t allow you to detain her or take her back to Tevenar. Whatever crimes she may be accused of there, here she is an honored guest. The Matriarch will consider any action against her an insult to Ramunna.”

Elkan spread his hands. “Calm down. We’re not watchers. The joint operation between the Wizards’ Guild and the Watch that Guildmaster Dabiel authorized to stop Ozor’s band ended when they were captured, so I have no authority to take her into custody on that account. And the Mother rescinded the Law of Isolation, so she’s no longer in violation of it. As far as I’m concerned, Nirel is free to do as she pleases. I’ll have to report to the Watch that I’ve seen her when I return to Tevenar, but I don’t think that needs to cause a problem between us now.”

“Yeah. Me, too.” Josiah rubbed the hand that had been holding Nirel’s against his breeches. He was very aware of the way Vigorre was staking his claim on Nirel, the way her body pressed against his. “You know you can trust us.”

Nirel shrugged. “That’s what I hoped you’d say.” She put a hand on Vigorre’s chest and raised her face to meet his swift kiss. “See, Vigorre, it’s all right. They’re my friends.”

He studied her with a furrowed brow. “If you say so. But you told me—”

She waved off his concern and slipped out of his embrace. “I heard about all the good work they were doing here, healing people, and I wanted to help.” She blinked at him. “I never expected
you
to be here, though.”

Vigorre looked even more baffled, but he quelled her with a short shake of his head. “I’ll explain later.”

“Yes.” With a last worried look at Vigorre, Nirel squared her shoulders and turned to Josiah. “I guess Kevessa must have given you my message.”

“Yeah.” Josiah shuffled his feet and looked away. “I was glad to know you were all right.”

Elkan took Vigorre’s arm. “Would you assist Tobi and me for a while? Nirel can work with Josiah. It will give them a chance to catch up. And I’d like to get better acquainted with you. Tell me about your work as a Keeper.”

Vigorre looked as if he didn’t like the idea of leaving Nirel in Josiah’s company, but he let Elkan lead him away. Josiah flashed Nirel a half-hearted grin and headed to where Sar waited beside the cot. She trailed behind him. He didn’t look at her as he spoke. “Vigorre was speaking with patients, getting them ready, keeping people company while we healed their family members. Could you do that, too? I bet your Ramunnan is a lot better than mine.”

“Sure.” Nirel moved past him and addressed the man at the head of the line. “Sir? Come this way and have a seat. What’s your difficulty?”

The man’s ankle had been crushed and set badly. He limped to the cot. Sar sent power through Josiah, and they determined that the injury was only a few months old. Recent enough for the Mother’s power to reverse what healing had taken place to the point where they could arrange the bone fragments properly and set new healing in motion.

Josiah leaned against Sar and let his thoughts drift as the donkey kept a steady stream of power coursing through him. Mending bone was slow and took a lot of energy, but no attention on Josiah’s part. He needed the chance to sort out his confused feelings.

So Nirel had taken up with a Ramunnan. He didn’t have any right to object; it wasn’t as if he had any sort of claim on her. But he cared about her and didn’t want to see her hurt. She was so young, more than a year younger than he was. True, he’d immediately liked Vigorre, but first impressions weren’t everything. Who knew what he might be hiding? There had certainly been something strange going on between him and Nirel just now.

He shot a surreptitious look at her. She was chatting easily with the next few people in line, smiling and relaxed. She seemed to be doing a good job of making them feel more comfortable. He saw her point to where golden light enveloped their patient’s ankle. Probably she was explaining what it was and what they could expect when it was their turn. Of course, Nirel had seen the Mother’s power at work lots of times and wasn’t intimidated by it the way the Ramunnans were. Once she’d admitted to Josiah that she’d dreamed of becoming a wizard, of controlling the magical golden light. That had been before he knew the truth about the relationship between wizards and familiars and had harbored similar dreams himself.

He bet Nirel would make a good wizard. She cared about people. She was doing as good a job assisting as Vigorre had, and Josiah was sure Elkan was already sizing Vigorre up as a potential wizard. The Mother had declared that her power was no longer reserved for Tevenar, and that from now on she would be giving it to the whole world. That meant she would have to choose new wizards in Ravanetha. Kevessa surely wouldn’t be the only one. Although Josiah wasn’t sure how that would work, since the Guildmaster wasn’t here for the Mother to name new apprentices to. Maybe the familiars would take matters into their own hands, the way Nina had done with Kevessa. And Sar with Josiah, for that matter.

Elkan wouldn’t be staying in Ramunna forever. Eventually, after the Matriarch’s heir was conceived and safely born, he’d go back to Tevenar. He hadn’t talked much about it, but Josiah thought he intended to make sure a new branch of the Wizards’ Guild was well established here first.

Josiah wasn’t sure what he would do. There was so much to learn and see here. He was deeply fascinated by Gevan’s experiments and inventions and wanted a chance to find out a lot more about them. He wanted to visit the University and sample the vast array of knowledge taught there. He wanted to travel to more of the exotic places he’d heard of, Marvanna and Giroda and others. All that would take much longer than the year or two Elkan planned to stay.

And of course, Kevessa belonged here. And now Nirel lived here, too. He wouldn’t mind staying in Ramunna and serving with the new guild if it meant getting to stay near them.

Although neither of them appeared to have any interest in him. He sighed and returned his focus to his work.

When the man’s ankle was sound enough to hold together while it healed the rest of the way on its own, Josiah called a halt. It was especially important today not to spend any more energy than absolutely necessary. The man thanked them profusely and limped away. Nirel sent over the next patient, and Josiah and Sar set to work again.

A few dozen patients later Josiah finally had a chance to talk to Nirel, as a mother worked to settle a distraught child so she’d hold still enough for them to examine her. He hung back and kept his face pleasantly neutral so he wouldn’t scare the girl more than she already was. “What have you been up to since you got here? Still hanging out with Ozor?” His contempt for the bandit leader probably came through in his voice, but Nirel already knew how he felt about him.

“Yes. The Matriarch let us settle in a village about three miles north of the city. I live there with my father. We’ve got some farmland, and Ozor’s been taking the ship on trading voyages.”

The stolen ship, but Josiah thought it wiser not to bring that up. It hadn’t been Nirel’s idea to take it. “The Matriarch is something else, isn’t she? I guess she likes Ozor a lot.”

Nirel shrugged. “She was excited to find out about Tevenar and wizards.” She shot him a sidelong look. “Everyone must be awfully angry at Ozor for telling her how to find you.”

At least he could reassure her. “Actually, it turned out to be a good thing he did. After you left, a nasty disease hit the wheat crop. The weather was already bad, so not much else was harvested either. If Gevan hadn’t shown up and agreed to send food in exchange for a wizard coming to help the Matriarch, a lot of people would have starved.”

She blinked, startled. “Oh. I guess that was good, then.”

The little girl had stopped thrashing, and her wails had quieted to hiccuping sobs. Josiah kept his eyes fixed on her. “So. You and Vigorre, huh?”