A Balance Broken (Dragonsoul Saga) (34 page)

“Hi…”

Maddi knelt down beside the woman. “Are you alright?”

The student nodded, dabbing her eyes again with a kerchief. “Yes. I’m sorry to meet you this way. The Lord Doctor can be…harsh.” She reached out her hand. “I’m Amilia Magrone…Ami to my friends.” Her smile broadened. “I hope we can be friends.”

After shaking Ami’s hand, Maddi sat down upon the bed next to her. “I’m Maddi, and I’d love to have a good friend. They are hard to find in this place.” She tilted her head. “What did Doctor Marten mean when he called your Talent
warped
?”

Ami wrapped her blanket more tightly. “He doesn’t know what he is talking about.”

Patting the woman’s knee with her free hand, Maddi leaned in closer. “I want to be your friend. Tell me what’s wrong, and I will help if I can.” She grinned with mischief. “After all, if that arrogant bastard can’t bring us together, who can?”

Ami chuckled. “Fair enough.” A calm look crossed the woman’s thin features. “My parents both work at Belcester Palace in Wellsfield. My mother is a housemaid, while my father works in the stables.” A slow smile split her narrow lips, one that grew with each line of her tale. “As a child, my mother taught me to clean the rooms of the palace and to help her with the laundry. I hated it. Every time I could, I slipped away to see my father in the stables. I loved the horses.” She laughed. “And the goats, and the dogs, and the cats…”

The young woman’s eyes glittered, and Maddi could not help but grin with excitement.

“So one day – oh, I don’t know, about three years ago – my mother and I were arguing about the wash. I threw the duke’s undies into the basin and ran off.” Ami folded her hands in her lap and stared up at the oak raftered ceiling. “I found the stable, searching for my father. He always consoled me and let me stay with the animals for a while. Then he would convince me to return to my mother and the duties of a maid.” She looked down at her hands. “This time, however, there was a mare in foal. She screamed in pain. It was the most terrible sound I had ever heard.”

Ami rubbed her hands. Maddi could almost see the memories playing through the woman’s mind.

“I knelt down beside my father,” she continued. “I can still remember the grave look on his face. When I…when I touched the mare’s neck, her wild eyes settled and…and she lay there calmer, breathing hard.” Ami looked up from her hands, her gaze boring into Maddi. “I closed my eyes and I reached out to her life force…her
psahn
as Doctor Marten calls it. I felt the baby inside her, separate yet connected by the fragile umbilical cord. The foal’s life force flickered. I…I reached inside her with my mind – just as you did with the girl today – and I eased the baby out. I steadied the flow of its life force, and then healed the wounds inside the mother.”

Maddi gasped, reaching out again with her hands to cup Ami’s. “You opened your Talent without the help of another doctor?”

Ami nodded, her lips wrinkled in both fear and joy. “I saved the horse and its foal, but I scared my father. When he realized what had happened, he took me to the closest doctor, who recommended I come to the college.” She rolled her eyes back, counting in her head. “I’ve been here over two years now.”

“But what is warped about that?”

Shrugging, Ami shook her head. “I can only heal animals, not humans. I’ve even tried elves and dwarves. No good.” She grinned. “Really, I don’t see a problem with it. Animals deserve healing as much as people.”

“More than most,” Maddi agreed. She looked at Ami with a bright smile. “I think we will definitely be friends.”

D
octor Witesell droned on, his voice a slow monotone that coaxed Maddi into drowsiness.

“The Red Death came to the Hadonese Empire through an unknown conduit. The contagion swept the empire. Thousands upon thousands died. Most of the deaths occurred north of the Hadonese Range, in the cities and towns surrounding Avaros and Lake Iyar. By the time Aravath the Navigator led the People of Gan in the Return, those entire regions of Tarmor were virtually unpopulated, the Red Death having mostly stayed north of the mountains. In fact, the Hadonese Empire was so decimated by the plague that the People of Gan quickly settled Avaros and Iyar, claiming them for the kingdom of Gannon.”

Epidemic History is boring. What does the history of a disease have to do with curing it?
She stared out of the window, watching the sunlight filter through leaves already shifting to autumn brown. The grass on the open quad still held its deep green hue, beckoning her to lay down on it and nap until the warm sun left Daynon wrapped in a late summer evening.

The tolling of the yard bell awakened Maddi from her thoughts and tore the sleepiness from her mind.

“Very well, class. Read Aberson’s History of Gout for next week.” Doctor Witesell raised a finger, thin with age. “There will be a test.”

The students shuffled out of the room, whispering quiet plans to one another. With no class tomorrow, many suggested going out into the city.
Maybe Ami will want to go too.

The fresh air and late summer sun brought a smile to Maddi’s face. She skipped down the brick steps and headed toward the dormitory.

A bundle of dirty clothes and spiky hair tackled her as she rounded the corner of Prince’s Hall. A pair of sinewy white arms, streaked with mud, wrapped around Maddi’s waist. She took a step back under the sudden onslaught.

“What the—”

A wail escaped the attacker. “Please…can you help my mommy the way you helped me?” A pair of pale green eyes looked up at Maddi from behind stringy hair that appeared red under all the dirt. “I’ve been looking for you so long.” Tears left gray streaks down the little girl’s cheeks.

“Tanya?” Maddi patted her hair. “Is that you?”

“Yes, Miss Maddi.” The girl let go. Stepping back, she twisted her toe into the ground and stared at the grass. “My – my mother is sick, just like I was. You cured me.” Her gaze strayed toward Maddi’s face. “You could cure her too.”

Maddi stood there, watching the little girl’s lower lip tremble. She had no desire to follow her into the slums, and she let it show upon her face. Tanya stood her ground. Not a whimper escaped her throat.

The girl has a heart full of bravery, just like I did. If only someone had been there to save my father...

“How far away do you live?”

Tanya’s face brightened. “Not far! Just down at the bottom of the hill.” She grasped Maddi’s unwilling fingers. “Please come!”

Her reluctance weighing down her steps, Maddi followed the girl. Behind Prince’s Hall, the Avenue of Willows trailed down to the bottom of Jalanine Hill. With each intersection, the buildings grew more ramshackle, stone and brick becoming far scarcer materials. Mud splattered the streets and the clothing of the people living there. The few open shops hawked goods for survival, or more likely, the goods of debauchery. The further they descended, the more the scent of wine, vomit, and rare opiates rose to Maddi’s nose.

“You live down here?”

Tanya pulled her along, her path direct and purposeful. “Yep. In a flop over here on Green Street.”

Maddi cast her eyes about, rubbing the hilt of the dagger hanging just above the cuff of her sleeve. Most of the passersby remained focused on their own drudgery. A few drunks passed a bottle behind a dilapidated stoop. A single, wiry fellow watched her from across the street. A good hard stare from her, and the man disappeared into an alley.

“This way!” Tanya pulled her toward a three-story building tucked between a locked warehouse and a makeshift tavern. Dingy paint peeled in strips from the walls and doorframe. The hinges creaked when the girl pushed it open. A fog of human stench washed over Maddi, hot and musty as it belched forth from the darkness.

Wrinkling her nose, Tanya gave Maddi a telling nod. “You’ll get used to it. Come on.”

The stench within clung to the inside of Maddi’s nose. It coated her mouth when she tried breathing through it. She swatted at fat, green flies that buzzed about her head. Movement from behind a worn desk caught her attention.

“You’ll have to pay for your new friend, Tanya. No free visitors.”

Maddi squinted against the darkness. Her eyes adjusted when the light pouring in through the door spread to the room’s corners. A thin, greasy man brushed blackened fingers over the few long strands of hair still clinging to his scalp. Bucked teeth and a needle grin turned from Tanya to look at her.

“Well, now aren’t you a fine lass to be wandering about down here?” His grin shifted to an angry scowl, and his simpering voice became a snarl. “What are you up to, Tanya?”

“I’m tryin’ to save my mom!” Tanya crossed her arms and stuck out her lower lip. “You leave me alone, Briscoe. My friend is an important doctor, and she won’t let you touch me.”

Maddi shifted her stance into a more dangerous posture. “She’s right about that.” The dagger rested a hair’s breadth from her fingers. “I’m here as a representative of the Doctor’s College, and I will see to this girl’s mother.”

The man took a step back, his brows raised. “I would not harm the girl. I am the landlord’s representative, and I must know who enters the building…for safety’s sake.” His fingers fidgeted and he sniffed. “There is a visitor fee...”

Maddi set her jaw and scowled at the man.

He held his hands up in surrender. “…but I will waive it for a doctor.”

Staring at the man until he skittered back behind his desk, Maddi followed the girl up the rickety staircase to the second floor.

Tanya pointed to a weak spot in the floor. “Watch the hole!”

Six rooms lined the hall, two of which had no doors. Maddi cast quick glances into them as she passed, following Tanya. Stained mattresses and worn chairs lay scattered about in both rooms. Bare wall slats showed through the plaster. Distant memories of painted flowers clung to it behind layers of filth and grime.

Twisting the knob on the last door, Tanya waved for Maddi to follow. “You get your door when you pay the rent.”

Inside, a small window with cracked, dirty glass let in enough light for Maddi to see a woman curled up on a narrow bed.

This room is cleaner than anything else in this building, but old and dilapidated can only be tidied so much.

A moan escaped from the woman.

“I brought the doctor, Momma!” Tanya drug Maddi toward her mother, whose ashen face gleamed with a sheen of sweat. “She’s the one who cured me!” Her nervous eyes looked up at Maddi, on the verge of tears. “Please…will you help her?”

Kneeling down beside the bed, Maddi placed her hands upon the woman’s shoulder and arm. Ice-cold flesh met her fingers, when she had expected the heat of fever.

Not good…
She looked at Tanya. “I will try. Bring me clean water and towels.”

The little girl nodded. She grabbed a few folded rags from a small trunk in the corner, and then dashed away with a cracked pitcher in her hand.

Closing her eyes, Maddi delved into her Talent. She conjured up a mind’s-eye view of the life forces swirling about her. Dozens surrounded Maddi in the building, surprising her with their crowded numbers. Some flickered with sickness. Tanya, however, stood out bright and strong when she returned, free from any taint of disease.

Her mother appeared far different.

Oily blackness oozed over the surface of the woman’s life force, sinking into it, dimming the light of its glow. Steadying herself with a deep breath, Maddi dived in, careful to use the techniques the Lord Doctor had taught to keep her own life force safe and separate.

She drew the oiliness toward her, wrapping it in pockets of
psahn
. She pulled it out with her Talent, wiping black tar onto the towels Tanya provided. A dozen times she went into the woman, drawing some of the poisonous disease out with each attempt. Her shoulders and back ached as though she had been fighting all day. Sweat beaded on her forehead, running down to nestle within her dark eyebrows. Her breaths became hurried.

Yet still the blackness held sway over the woman’s life force. Every time Maddi thought one part was clear, the disease would spring back elsewhere. All the while, the brilliance of the woman’s
psahn
faded, until at last Maddi broke away from her Talent, gasping for breath. She wiped the sweat from her brow with the back of a blackened hand.

“I must rest,” she panted, thankfully gulping down a cup of water offered by Tanya. “Now give some to your mother while I collect my strength.”

Tanya refilled the cup from the pitcher and held it to her mother’s lips, cradling the woman’s head with her other hand. Her mother did not drink. When Maddi scooted closer to help, the woman popped open her eyes, pale green like her daughter’s.

“Tanya! Is that you?” Her voice weakened swiftly. “I…I want you to be…to be a good girl.” A weak cough brought a small spray of crimson that spattered across her threadbare coverlet. Those feverish green eyes stared at Maddi. “Care for her…”

The rattle of her last breath left those eyes gazing at Maddi, who fought down heat rising in her chest. Pulling herself together with a sniff, she reached over and closed the woman’s eyelids. Tanya collapsed against the still form with silent tears. The little girl stroked her mother’s hands while she folded them together.