Unquiet Slumber (2 page)

As he slowly closed the distance between them, groping for her, her entire mind screamed, “Run!” and this time she listened. When she turned to escape, she caught her foot on a root and fell.

He sensed her movement and spoke, low and commanding, “I can feel your resistance. You will not run from me.” He let out another thunderous growl, and yelled, “Hold her! Don’t let her go!”

She quickly scrambled back up onto her feet as the ground below her started to shake. She scanned around her in horror as rotting hands exploded out of the ground and grabbed at her ankles and legs. She kicked and cried out in frustrated terror while they clawed her skin and tried to drag her under. As the hands overpowered her, she frantically turned toward the man and her body froze in terror. He was close enough that she felt his hot breath on her face, but yet she still saw only darkness where a face should be.

He sniffed the air, angry that he could smell her but not see her. He leaned closer toward her position and murmured, “I’ll find you and when I do, you’ll be mine, forever.” He reached out blindly, trying to touch her, but she ducked and hid under her arms and screamed.

*~*~*~*

Tianna awoke gasping and shaking so hard that she knocked books off her bedside table. Her knuckles were white from clutching onto her blanket, and she put a trembling hand over her pounding heart. It was beating so fast that her chest hurt.

She found herself saying, “It was only a dream. It was only a dream,” over and over to convince herself that it wasn’t real. Every part of her aching body, however, told her otherwise. She quickly threw back the covers and examined her ankles. There were no bruises, but they were cold to the touch like something icy was wrapped around them. Her shakes turned into shivers.

“Just another nightmare,” she told herself as she lay back down and tried to calm her breathing, willing her body to stillness. Her childhood bad dream had turned into her adult nightmare. She always hoped that she would outgrow this, but she was now 24, which meant 20 years of restless sleep. Over the last year the dreams had grown steadily worse.

As her body calmed, she stared up at the ceiling and realized that going back to sleep wasn’t an option. Since the sun was just starting to come up and she knew that fretting over phantoms was useless, she decided to make an early start to her day. She got up, dressed, and had a quick morning meal. Her wizard master, Zarin, was on a trip so that left her as the only healer in the village. As part of her training, Zarin asked her to replenish their supply of healing herbs. She went out to the barn to gather the plants she had hung to dry days earlier. Thanks to her large garden, if she worked hard, she might be able to surprise Zarin and have everything cut up and packaged before he returned home.

Tianna gathered up the dried plants and carried them back inside.

She frowned as she sorted the herbs because she was harvesting fewer than normal. Her home, located on the fertile banks of the Song River, was far enough outside the busy village of Trille that it was the perfect place for a bountiful garden. But once again, a wild boar had broken through the garden fence and devoured many of her plants.

One of these days she was going to practice her hunting skills and find that animal. Her meal would be served.

Suddenly the front door banged open and a young girl’s voice called out, “Ty! We need you!”

Tianna quickly covered her herbs as a breeze whipped through the room, scattering the plants around the table. She glanced up, responding with, “What’s wrong Sara?”

Sara ran over to the table in front of Tianna and in a panting voice said, “Ty, you must… come… fast... Garrett. He…did it again.” She had obviously been sent to find Tianna and had run all the way across the village as fast as her little six year old legs could carry her.

Given the girl’s exasperated expression, Tianna knew that whatever was wrong, it wasn’t life threatening. She guided Sara to a chair so she could catch her breath and asked, “Let me guess. Was he helping your father again?”

Sara gave her an exaggerated nod. “Yeah. Garrett cut his leg working in Papa’s shop.” She did an elaborate demonstration, flinging her arms around in the air as she talked. “Papa’s really mad. He’s stomping around yelling at everybody.”

Tianna leaned back quickly to avoid being hit in the face by one of Sara’s movements. She let out a frustrated sigh. “I thought Garrett had learned his lesson the last time he got hurt.”

Sara giggled. “No. He thinks he can do anything Papa can.” Sara rolled her eyes and stood up. She grabbed Tianna’s hand and started to drag her to the door. “Please come quickly. He did it really good this time.”

“Okay, okay. I’m coming. Just let me grab my bag.” Tianna quickly took her medicine bag from its hook by the door. The bag held all of the essentials for healing basic wounds and common ailments. More importantly, it was a gift from her master Zarin when she turned eight and began her formal apprenticeship. It always gave her confidence to carry it.

Within the last few years, Tianna’s master had allowed her to handle almost any injuries without him being present. More recently, she had noticed changes in herself. She felt like she was ready to handle anything. Unfortunately, there was little chance to prove herself in Trille. Living in a fishing and farming village meant that most of the time she usually saw only common injuries, ailments, and broken bones from tavern brawls. She didn’t mind, since healing made her feel useful, but a nagging feeling told her that she had more to offer. There was somewhere else she needed to be.

Sara brought her back to the moment by tugging on Tianna’s arm hard so they headed out the door.

As they raced down the dirt road, Tianna realized how often she had visited Garrett and Sara’s home throughout her apprenticeship. She had visited most of the village families, true, but she almost had this path memorized. Luckily, most of his injuries had been minor and Tianna hoped this time would be no different.

After just a few minutes, she and Sara arrived. Before they entered the home, Tianna overheard Sara’s father talking. “Couldn’t you have waited to do this until Zarin was in the village? You know how much I hate having that wicked sorceress in our home.”

Garrett responded angrily, “Father, do you think I want her to touch me? My skin crawls every time that evil witch comes within a few paces of me!”

Tianna’s stomach clenched at their words, but she pushed back her emotions. She just needed to do her job and get out quickly. She took in a deep breath as Sara pulled her through the front door, announcing innocently “I brought the wizard!”

Tianna walked into the room to find Garrett sitting at the table with his upper thigh wrapped tight with a bloody cloth. His mother was trying to wipe off blood splatters from his arms and hands while his father was standing with his arms tightly folded, tapping his foot, and glaring angrily. None of them greeted her or even acknowledged her entrance.

Tianna took in another breath, walked over, and knelt down to take a look at Garrett’s leg. She said in a calm voice, “Good morning Garrett.” Garrett averted his eyes, refusing to respond to Tianna’s greeting. Ignoring his rude behavior, she asked quietly, “May I ask what you did?”

He turned, glared into Tianna’s eyes, and responded curtly, “The saw slipped.” She felt loathing in his stare.

His father angrily interrupted him. “I told you not to start cutting until I finished what I was doing. There are some things that we still need to do together. You’ve been working with me since you were a young boy. Even now, as a man, you still haven’t learned to heed my words.” His voice cracked like he was having a hard time staying calm.

“I know Father, but I wanted to get the cutting done before we went into the village.” As Garrett spoke he looked at the floor, avoiding his father’s angry glare.

His father let out a long sigh. “As I’ve told you many, many times, whenever you work in haste, you get careless. Achieving both speed and quality will come in time. You have the potential to become a very skilled carpenter, but you must have patience, which I fear, dear son, is something you lack.”

To avoid having to listen to another long lecture on safety, which she could now recite from memory, Tianna interrupted and said, “You two can talk shop later. Let’s see what I can do to stop the bleeding.” She carefully undid the bindings on his leg and noticed that the wound was a fairly deep cut. She started her work.

Tianna mixed up a herbal tea and had Garrett drink it so that he would relax and be still. Although he knew that he needed to follow her directions, when she handed him the cup, he made sure that his fingers never made contact with hers. She touched his thigh, whispered some words, and his leg went numb. Now it was time to begin the healing. She placed both of her hands just above the wound, closed her eyes, and whispered the words of the spell quietly to herself. As she spoke, a slight breeze blew through the room and her hands began to glow, slowly building until what appeared to be blue fire was coming out of her fingertips. This fire would feel hot against Garrett’s skin but it wouldn’t burn him. Even though she had healed him many times, she could feel his body tense when he saw the blue flames.

As the flames brightened and licked against the wound, a feeling of power grew throughout the room. The family huddled closer and closer together as the feeling started to overwhelm them. The bleeding slowly stopped and the cut began to close. Within a few minutes, all that was left of the cut was a thin red line and some bruising. Tianna gradually extinguished the healing blue fire. As the flames receded, so did the feeling of power in the room, and Garrett’s unease.

Tianna exhaled and said, “There, I’m done.”

Everyone in the room also exhaled in relief.

Tianna looked at Garrett’s parents. “He should be alright now. Keep him lying down today, but he should feel much better tomorrow morning.” Without any sign of appreciation, his mother quickly walked to the door. Now that her son was healed, Tianna could tell that she was anxious for Tianna to leave their home. Tianna sighed. She had hoped that over the years their fear and dislike for her had lessened, but for some reason, it seemed to grow more intense.

Tianna walked to the door and paused just before exiting. She glanced up at Garrett’s mother and said, “I’ll stop in tomorrow to see how he’s doing.”

Garrett’s mother backed up like Tianna had spit on her.

Sara, following Tianna out of the door, smiled and hugged Tianna tight around her waist. “Thanks Ty for taking care of my stupid brother.”

Tianna hugged her back, welcoming Sara’s touch. Her parents cringed at the exchange. Keeping their distance, they gave Sara an angry glare and called her back to their side. Although they were grateful for Tianna’s healing powers, they didn’t want her anywhere near their family. Over time, Sara would also grow to fear her, and Tianna didn’t look forward to that day.

Once Tianna was completely out of the house, the door was quickly closed behind her. She walked down the path, stopping abruptly when she realized that she left some of her herbs on the table. She walked back and paused for a moment when she passed a window, watching the family interact. Garrett’s mother hugged her injured son and Sara crawled onto his lap, giving him a kiss on his cheek. His father ruffled his son’s hair and then started the safety lecture. She hoped the lecture would do some good and Garrett would heed his father’s words, but she knew that she would be back soon. Garrett seemed to have a knack for getting into trouble.

Tianna felt strangely sad, realizing that she longed for a family of her own. She loved children and wanted a large family but knew that as long as she lived in Trille, a family was nothing more than a silly dream. She decided to leave the herbs and continued her journey back to the empty home she shared with her wizard master. As always, no one was there waiting to greet her. Her shoulders drooped and she went back to sorting the remaining herbs.

That night, she dreamed about her desire for a husband and family. Her dream faded and was replaced by the familiar image of Garrett as a young boy. In her dream, both he and Tianna were at the age where boys stopped pulling on girl’s braids and they gazed at each other with different interests in their eyes.

Although most boys were afraid to approach Tianna, Garrett had decided to be brave. He stopped at Zarin’s home and asked for permission to take her on a picnic. Tianna was so excited that she begged her wizard master to let her go. After much whining on Tianna’s part, he agreed.

Garrett took her for a walk in the woods and stopped under one of Tianna’s favorite trees along the river. They laid out a blanket, talked and ate, and were having a great time. Once they had finished their mid-day meal, Garrett nervously placed his hand over Tianna’s. A funny feeling started in her stomach as she intertwined her fingers with his. Garrett gazed into Tianna’s bright blue eyes and asked if he could kiss her.