The Duke and the Dryad (Elemental Series) (4 page)

“My Lord, the healer is here,” said Sir Braden from the door. He led the man into the room. The healer was old, with a tall frame and grey hair. His face was hollowed and his eyes dark. He held a bag in his hand, clutching it with both fists. He approached the bed and stopped in his tracks
when he laid eyes upon his patient.

“What’s the matter?
snapped Wolfe. “Now stop your gawking and heal the girl.”

The healer reached out a
hand and laid it carefully on his patient’s forehead. He shook his head solemnly, then quickly pulled his hand away as if he were burned.

“I cannot heal her, my lord.”

“You did not even try,” replied Wolfe. “Now, I order you to do whatever it is you do, and keep this girl from dying.”

“She is not . . . one of us,” said the man. “I know naught about healing one of the Fae folk.”

“Fae?” Wolfe scratched his neck and sat on the foot of the bed. “Are you trying to tell me this girl has faerie blood running through her veins?”

“She does look like a faerie, or
how I suppose a faerie would look,” said Sir Braden, agreeing with the man.

“Sir Braden, I don’t need you entertaining the absurd idea as w
ell. There is no such thing as a fae.” He looked back to the old man. “Now are you going to heal her or not?”

“Would that I could, my lord,” said the healer with a shake of his head. “But I am not qualified to heal the
likes of her, nor do I know how. She is close to death, my lord. And if she does not get help soon than she will die come the morrow.”

“Well what do you suggest I do?” Wolf
e got to his feet, angered by the man’s words. Things this night were going from bad to worse. First he’d lost his bull, and now he was about to lose the bull’s replacement as well.

“There is an old woman that may know how to cure her. She is said to be a seer as well as a healer.”

“Then send a messenger to bring her to me anon.” He didn’t fancy the notion of inviting a seer into his home, but at this point he hadn’t another choice.

“She does not reside in Manterra, my lord. Her home is at
the castle of the dragon in Thorndale.”

“Thorndale Castle
,” Wolfe repeated. “Aye, that’s Drake Pendragon’s castle now, is it not?”

“It is,” confirmed Sir Braden. “And ’tis said that his wife is a dreamwalker and that fire cannot harm her.”

“I care not to hear any more of the bard’s concocted stories. Now, send at once for this woman named Juturna. And tarry not, as I am not sure how much longer this girl has upon this earth.”

The healer and Sir Braden rushed from the room
to carry out the order, leaving Wolfe alone with the girl. He reached out and gently took her hand in his. She felt cold. So cold, that he knew he needed to warm her. He moved the candles closer to the bed and stoked a raging fire on the hearth. Then he removed his cloak and laid it atop her. Next, he sat in a chair beside the bed and removed his boots. Placing his feet on the edge of the pallet he tipped the chair back, exhausted from this weary night. He’d just close his eyes while he waited for his messenger to return from Thorndale with the old healer woman.

Rae-Nyst could hear everything going on around her, but could not move nor even open her eyes. And that fool knight had moved the candles closer to the bed and stoked the already raging fire on the hearth. She’d felt her power draining even more as the mistletoe screamed out to her, when he decided to throw her woodland crown into the fire.

Her energy was drainin
g so fast that she only wished she could use her gift of telekinesis to move things by will alone. But that was a gift not really prevalent to her, since her fae mother had married a human. As the offspring of a mixed marriage, her abilities were far less than one of the pure fae blood.

She seemed only to be able to move things with her mind occasionally when she was upset or angry. But i
f she could right now, she’d knock the damned chair out from under his body. How dare he lounge as if he hadn’t a care in the world while her life drained from her and he decided to take a nap.

Nay, she wouldn’t waste her gift on him, whether it
be to teach him a lesson or not. After all, he would find an explanation for it, as he’d already proved he had no belief in anything but his warrior world. So, instead, she tried to use her other power of telepathy to have her mind speak to her wolf that was out on the planes. Possibly, her wolf, Zev, could help her somehow. She tried to focus and picture the wolf in her head, but all she kept seeing was that fool knight they’d called Lord Wolfe. He truly didn’t deserve such an admirable name.

Please Zev,
she thought, pushing her thoughts into the ethers and hoping the wolf would hear her.
I am dying. I . . . need . . . help.

* * *

Lord Wolfe jerked awake as his body hit the rush-laden floor with a thump. His head banged against the wood and a bolt of pain slashed through him. He jumped up and reached for his sword, unsheathing it in one quick motion. He quickly scanned the room with his eyes, looking for his hidden attacker. No one occupied the room but himself and the dying girl. Puzzled, he walked back over to the chair. ’Twas half-way across the room and he knew that’s not where he’d left it. He’d fallen asleep while waiting for the healer. Right next to the damned bed.

“Aye,” he said, with a furrowed brow. “I must have fallen off the chair as I slept, that’s all.”

“Lord Wolfe?” Sir Braden stuck his head in the door. “Whom are you talking to?”

“Do you not know how to knock?” he growled.

“I did knock, but you were too busy talking to . . . someone . . . to hear it.”

“Let me in already, before the girl dies.” An old, plump woman pushed past Sir Braden and entered the room before she was invited. She hurried over to the bed, opening her bag in the process.

“Old healer, you need to be invited in before you decide to make your presence known.”

“I
am Juturna. And I was invited. By you, my lord. And I’ll not waste any more time talking while this precious child’s life slips away.” She looked at him oddly, and her eyes focused on the sword still in his hand. “She is not dangerous, my lord. She is near death, so I think you can put away your weapon.”

Wolf
e felt foolish standing there with his weapon drawn, and quickly sheathed the sword.

“How did you get
here so fast?” he asked, noticing daylight just starting to break the horizon out the open window. “The trip to Thorndale and back should have taken a day’s time at best. Even with my fastest horses.”

“I was
already in route to your castle when your messenger found me,” answered Juturna, putting her bag on the bed and opening it.

“But how did you know?” he asked. “Who told you?”

“The wolf,” was all she said.

Wolf
e had a sinking sensation in the pit of his stomach. He knew exactly to which wolf she referred. The huge black one that had been haunting him for the last few weeks. Mayhap there was something out of the ordinary here after all. But still, magick was evil and he refused to believe it.

“This girl is not a normal human,” said Juturna, taking the girl’s hand in her own and feeling her forehead as well.
She pulled off the cloak covering the girl’s body that Wolfe had put atop her, and surveyed her patient. “Where did you find her?”

“In the forest,” he answered, giving no other information.

“She was with the druids in the circle of standing stones,” added Sir Braden.

Damn. He didn’t need
to bring that up, especially in front of a stranger. He gave his knight a stern scolding look, but Sir Braden didn’t seem to notice.

“I’ve seen her kind before,” said Juturna, pulling open an eyelid and looking within.

“What do you mean, her kind?” asked Wolfe.

“I’ve just come from Thorndale Castle. The Lady of Thorndale
is an elemental – of fire. While she gets her strength from fire, water almost killed her.”

“Fine. I’ll stoke the fire
if you think it’ll help,” grumbled the duke, “but I don’t know if she’ll like it. She seemed to be afraid of it.”

“I think she is an elemental of the earth,” said the healer. “If you say she was afraid of fire, then that must be her weakness. Have you kept her away from it?”

“Nay,” he answered. “Her body was cold and I tried to warm her near the flames.”

“There’s only one thing
I can do then, and it is not here.” She shoved her ointments back into her bag. “Bring her down to the castle’s orchard inside the bailey. And do hurry, as her life slips away with every moment we wait.”

“I do not take orders from healers,” he told her.

“’Tis a request, my lord, now would you please try to help me save her?”

A wolf howled in the distance and Wolf
e’s eyes shot upward toward the window. Juturna heard it too, and looked to the window and then back at the girl. “The wolf knows she’s suffering and it howls in sorrow for her.”

He
didn’t know what to think any more, but the haunting sound of the howling animal chilled him to the bone. He had an eerie feeling about this, but he was so intrigued by the
elemental
as Juturna had called her, that he couldn’t say no to the woman’s request.

He hurriedly pulled on his boots, then
scooped up the girl in his arms and rushed down the winding stone staircase with Juturna and Sir Braden on his heels. He ignored the people gathering and following them as they made their way through the corridor, past the great hall and out into the courtyard. He headed straight for the castle’s orchard, connected to the garden inside the castle’s walls. He stopped just under an apple tree and looked over his shoulder.

“Now what?” he asked. “Do I hold her?”

“Nay, put her down on the earth,” instructed the healer. “Lay her in the grass, quickly, but gently. We don’t want to harm her.”

Wolf
e did as instructed, laying her upon the grass and dirt. Her hair fanned out around her and she looked so peaceful, albeit very, very pale. The healer started digging in the earth with her bare hands and throwing piles of dirt atop the girl. Wolfe hadn’t thought anything could shock him after what he’d been through last night, until he saw this.

“What kind of ad
dled nonsense is this?” he snapped, knowing half the castle was watching.

“I need all the help I can get if she is to live. Now both of
you, please help me.”

“Of course,” agreed Sir Braden
eagerly, getting down on his knees. “But what is it we are doing?”

“Bury her with the dirt,” the old woman explai
ned. “She needs to be immersed in the earth in order to regain her strength.”

Wolf
e just shook his head and scowled. “This is the most ridiculous notion I’ve ever heard.”

One more howl of the lone wolf split the air, and without thinking he
reached for a nearby shovel leaning against the tree and followed suit. He shoveled dirt atop the girl, almost as if burying her alive. Sir Braden and Juturna dug into the hole with their bare hands and continued throwing dirt atop her. By now, even more onlookers were standing nearby, whispering and some of them even laughing.

“You’d best
be right old woman,” warned the duke. “Because if this is all for naught I am going to look like the biggest fool in front of my people.”

Just then the girl moaned and moved, and he could see the color
slowly returning to her cheeks.

“
’Tis working,” shouted Sir Braden in amazement. “She is being healed from the dirt. It is truly amazing.”

Rae-Nyst pulled in energy from her body being pressed against the earth. The soil atop her and the grass below encompassed her in a newfound strength. Slowly, she felt her body warmth return and also the blood flowing freely through her veins.

She was the earth
, and the earth was she. While the fire almost killed her, she was happy to be back in her element now, and knew she would live after all. Her eyes flickered open and she saw an old woman standing over her as well as the man who she guessed was the captain of the guard. They were smiling, and she smiled back. Then she shifted her gaze and her eyes interlocked with grey eyes, haunting, hunting eyes, not unlike those of her wolf. ’Twas the man who’d almost killed her with the fire. She felt her anger rising, and she despised him for what he’d done. He reached out to touch her, but before he could, she shot up to a sitting position and pushed his hand away, glaring at him intensely.

“You tried to kill me,” she accused him.

“I tried to save you,” he explained.

“You kept putting me near the fire though I
begged you to put out the flame.”

“You felt cold and I was only trying to warm you.”

“Only because you didn’t want me to die, or you’d have no one to warm your bed.”