In Treachery Forged (The Law of Swords) (16 page)

“Well,” Maelgyn began after they reached Nir’Thik’s outskirts. “We got here earlier than I thought. Do you want to find an inn, first, or go see this ‘El’Athras,’ instead?”

Euleilla shook her head. “I’m still adjusting to the sensory overload, and I’m getting a headache. Let’s find an inn and see him tomorrow.”

Maelgyn nodded. “Okay. Oh, and I’m not going to give this inn our real names, so don’t be surprised.”

Euleilla just nodded. For the first time, Maelgyn noticed how pale her skin was – a sickly pale, accompanied by what looked like a cold sweat. She seemed to be breathing heavily, and didn’t seem as steady on her feet as usual. Her whirlpool of magic dust appeared to have disappeared – not completely, as he found when he looked closer, but it so weak he wasn’t able to see it any more. His eyes widened in concern.

“Euleilla! What’s wrong?”

“Tired,” she said, smiling wanly, trying to pass it off casually. Her voice broke, however, even with the lone word.

“No, it’s more than that. Something’s been bothering you since yesterday. I didn’t think it was any more than what you told me, but now I can see that you’re not well.” He picked her up, and started carrying her. When she started weakly struggling, he added, “If you’re going to be my wife, you’re going to have to stop keeping secrets from me. If I’d known you weren’t well, I could have fixed some things and had you riding the pack horse. It is my duty to take care of you, you know. That’s what married people do.”

She slumped into his chest, her remaining magic powder coming to rest in one outstretched hand. “Okay,” she whispered, right before falling limp. Maelgyn almost dropped her in surprise, but then recovered.

“Hell!”

Maelgyn burst into the first inn he saw, not even caring to ensure the groomsman was taking care of his pack horse, and hurried over to the main desk. He was still carrying Euleilla, and he was getting more and more panicked the longer he walked.

“Quick,” he ordered. “I need a room, a bed, and a doctor – in that order.”

The Dwarf running the inn didn’t even look at him. “Rooms are thirty shiels,” he answered, referring to the Dwarven currency. “And we don’t have a doctor, here. I could send someone out for one, though. Whadya need, Dwarf, Human, Nekoji, or something else?”

Maelgyn’s eyes widened in anger. “Well, let me see. I’m carrying my sick, unconscious, pale,
Human
wife. What kind of doctor do you
think
I want?”

Only then did the Dwarf look up. He immediately snapped to attention. “My apologies, sir,” he said once he’d taken a quick glance at Euleilla. “Tur’Ba! Front and center!”

A young Dwarf – probably in his twenties or thirties – rushed into the front hall. “Yeah, pops?”

“Hurry to Dr. Wodtke’s office, immediately! Tell her we have a plague victim, and she needs to get here right away!”

Maelgyn’s blood ran cold. Did the innkeeper just say Euleilla was a victim of some
plague?
He hadn’t heard of any plagues hitting the known world in sixty years, and surely he would have. So, where did this plague come from? Was there a cure? And... could it kill her?

“Sure thing, pops!” Tur’Ba said, suddenly becoming serious. With a quick nod to Maelgyn, he ran out the door faster than the Sword Prince had ever seen a Dwarf move.

“And don’t call me ‘pops!
’
” the innkeeper bellowed. Shaking his head, the Dwarf immediately stood up. “Again, my apologies, sir. My name is El’Ba, proprietor of this establishment. Let’s find your lass, there, a nice warm bed.”

Maelgyn just nodded, following the innkeeper to a room where he could put Euleilla down. Once she was lying on the bed, he turned to the Dwarf with a fierce glare.

“Just what kind of ‘plague’ are we talking about, here?” he snapped.

El’Ba didn’t answer, at first. He sighed, found a chair to sit in, and looked down at the ground. It was then he answered.

“Is she a mage?” the innkeeper asked cautiously.

That filled Maelgyn’s heart with dread. A disease which only affected mages? He’d never heard of such a thing. If that was the case, though, why didn’t he also come down with the same thing?

“We both are,” Maelgyn answered softly, the reality of the situation tempering his voice. “She’s a strong one, too. Never met a stronger one, in fact.”

The Dwarf relaxed. “Good. Then she’ll probably live. I don’t understand all the details, myself – Dr. Wodtke, who’s also something of a mage, will explain when she gets here – but I know that it’s something curable with magic. And it’s best if the magic comes from inside the patient.”

“Well, what
is
the plague?” Maelgyn asked. “I haven’t heard any news about one. And just what does the plague do?”

El’Ba snarled. “Some... unnatural construct. It only attacks women of child-bearing age, and only during their menses. I don’t understand all of it, but it’s some kind of blood poisoning.”

“Unnatural?” Maelgyn frowned. “You mean it’s a poison? But you called it a plague!”

“It is a plague,” El’Ba insisted. “I don’t get the details, but because it seems related to human magic, our doctors believe some Elf or maybe a Human alchemist developed it as a weapon. Over a thousand women died in Mar’Tok, alone, before our doctors figured out how to deal with it. Now we at least know how to cure it if it’s caught in time. Mages almost universally recover within a day with the proper treatment, while other women require magical assistance and take longer.”

“An alchemist came up with this? A
human
alchemist?” Maelgyn growled.

“Probably,” El’Ba snapped. “Dwarves usually don’t bother studying magic, we’re all so weak in it, and the few Nekoji who manage to learn magic are so extremely powerful in it it’s unlikely they’d ever try for alchemy as a specialization. And Elves... well, they might manage to produce something like this, I suppose, but how many Elves do you see nowadays?”

Maelgyn nodded. “Do you know who developed it? Is that why Mar’Tok is preparing to invade Svieda?”

“Invasion?” El’Ba laughed. “Us? Not a chance. What in the world makes you think we’d do such a thing? I shouldn’t be saying this, but it would be pure folly for us to launch a war. We’d be crushed if we attempted any kind of attack against our neighbors.”

Maelgyn was about to confront the man when Tur’Ba returned, a hearty human woman in her mid-to-late thirties in tow. The woman immediately made her way to Euleilla’s bedside and frowned.

“I brought Dr. Wodtke, pops,” Tur’Ba announced. El’Ba immediately started berating the young Dwarf about showing proper respect to his ancestors. Meanwhile, the doctor was checking Euleilla’s fingernails and tongue anxiously.

“How long has she been experiencing symptoms?”

“I don’t know,” Maelgyn said. “I... can everyone else leave? I need to explain some things to the doctor that Euleilla doesn’t want everyone to know.”

The doctor raised an eyebrow, but the two Dwarfs just left without question. Maelgyn used his newly developed magical senses to make certain that no-one was listening in before he said anything.

“Okay, we’re alone,” the doctor said impatiently. “Now, are you going to answer my questions, or are you going to let this girl get worse for no reason?”

Maelgyn nodded. “My wife is a powerful mage – more powerful than anyone else I’ve ever seen, and she certainly would be rated a First Rate if she was ever formally tested. And it’s a good thing she is, because she has a major problem.” With one hand, he very gently brushed the hair away from her forehead, revealing her eyes. The doctor, upon seeing the scars which proved Euleilla’s blindness, gasped. Maelgyn sighed, restraining the rage he felt for both the deceased Cawnpore and the mining conglomerates who had killed her father, before smoothing her hair back into position. “She’s learned how to use magic to compensate for her lack of sight. She uses a cloud of magic dust to see the terrain around her. She can even sense people by their magical aura, whether Human, Dwarf, Nekoji, or something else. The problem is she’s also always lived in a small town... so, when she started sensing the thousands of people tightly enclosed in a Dwarven underground city, even through the dirt and stone below, it was overwhelming her.”

The doctor nodded uncertainly. “And... just how does that matter?”

“Well, I assumed everything that was happening to her was because she was having trouble with all of those people, so I didn’t notice anything was wrong until she nearly collapsed about a half hour ago,” Maelgyn sighed. “And damn me for not paying better attention.”

The doctor nodded sympathetically. “It’s not your fault – these symptoms can show up rather suddenly. She’ll be all right. In fact, once I’ve helped her enough, she should be able to cure herself quite quickly. Mages, for some reason, do a better job of cleaning this disease out of their own blood than they do working on someone else’s. Now, can you help me get her undressed? I need direct access to her skin.”

“Um,” Maelgyn hesitated, embarrassed. “I... that wouldn’t be a good idea. We’re married, yes, but... we haven’t, uh, had our honeymoon, yet. I think she’d want to be awake the first time I undressed her.”

The doctor looked surprised, and then laughed. “That sounds like there’s a story there. Well, I think I can manage this alone. Don’t worry – you’ll get that honeymoon, if I have anything to say about it!”

Maelgyn nodded, blushing even more. The story was even more complicated than the doctor was ever likely to know, but explaining would be worse. “Thank you, ma’am”

Turning serious, she said, “In another hour or two, we’d have had severe difficulty, and even now I’ve got to work quickly. Which means I need to prepare her for the treatment right away, so get out of here unless you want to see her in the buff!”

Maelgyn hesitated, then nodded and headed out the door. “I do,” he admitted quietly, more to himself than to Dr. Wodtke. “But not like this.”

Dr. Wodtke came out of the room about an hour later. Nodding to an impatiently pacing Maelgyn and a sympathetic El’Ba, she said, “You were right, she
is
an impressive mage. I think her system’s already cleared of the disease, or it will be soon at any rate, but it was so advanced when I started treatment that she’ll need more time than usual to fully recover. Keep an eye on her tonight and I’ll be by in the morning to check up on her.”

“Thank you, doctor,” Maelgyn said, slumping in exhaustion. He hadn’t realized how tired he was until just then.

Dr. Wodtke looked him over, and shook her head. “On second thought, you get some sleep. Hold your wife – it will help comfort her, which should speed the healing process – but go to sleep. It wouldn’t do for you to get sick as well. El’Ba, can you check on them periodically?”

“Aye,” El’Ba agreed. “That I can do.”

“But-” Maelgyn protested.

“No buts. Go in, hold her, and sleep. Doctor’s orders,” Wodtke snapped.

Maelgyn looked around for support – not that anyone else would understand. He’d never slept in the same bed as his wife before, but only the smugly smiling Wodtke would know that. After all, Euleilla was his wife, and it was assumed he would have bedded her already.

“Fine,” he growled. “But I want something from you, too, doctor.”

Dr. Wodtke blinked. “Something from me? For staying in bed?”

“That’s right,” Maelgyn said, smiling. “I’m a stranger around here. I was thinking I’d be staying up all night, keeping one eye on Euleilla while I used the other eye to look at city maps. Since it seems I won’t have my night to study, I’ll need a guide if you can provide one.”

The doctor laughed. “Well, my office shouldn’t be too busy tomorrow, so I should be able to help you. Dwarven medicine is pretty primitive, but most people around here don’t trust human doctors, much, unless there’s an emergency that gives them no choice. Thankfully we don’t have many emergencies now that the plague is under control.”

Maelgyn nodded to her and then entered Euleilla’s room. To his surprise, she was awake when he entered... although she didn’t seem aware of his presence.

“Euleilla?” he said carefully. She jumped anyway, and then looked a little embarrassed.

“Hi,” she answered back timidly. “I’ve exhausted all my magic, so I can’t really tell where you are, right now.”

“Okay,” Maelgyn said, stripping off his dragonhide armor as he approached the bed. “The doctor said you’d be better off if I were to try holding you as we slept, tonight.”

“I know,” Euleilla answered. “She told me the same thing. I’m sorry. I know you probably don’t want to, but....”

“Shh,” Maelgyn answered. “Now, whatever gave you that impression? Look, Euleilla, I don’t know what our future will ultimately be together, but I do know that I find you quite desirable. Maybe too desirable, given your current condition.”

Euleilla smiled, although it was fairly weak. Her strength appeared to be fading fast, although she looked healthy enough thanks to Dr. Wodtke’s treatment. Maelgyn slipped under the covers beside her. Much to both of their surprise, he lifted up her hair and kissed her lightly on her forehead, before lowering her hair back over her eyes like she preferred. “Good night.”

As he felt Euleilla fall asleep in his arms, he vaguely wondered why he kissed her at all. It just added to the awkwardness of everything, although it had felt right. Euleilla hadn’t seemed to mind, thankfully, and he...