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Averil knelt by her father. He was still shuddering, struggling to heal. She touched his shoulders, gently. "Father, Father, please."
He shook her hands off and half fell to the ground. His cloak trailed into the fire. Elaine knelt and rescued the cloth. It hadn't begun to burn yet.
He turned to Elaine. "I ca
"Of course you can," she said. It was a lie, even as she said it, she knew that, but she said it anyway.
"Wizard," Silvanus said, eyes searching for Gersal-ius.
Gersalius came to stand in front of the elf. "Yes, my friend." His voice was full of a deep pity.
"You said I should not be able to heal here in Kar-takass. Why was that?"
"I do not know why, Silvanus, but I know that it is so." He turned to Thordin, who was kneeling by the fire, stirring his stew but watching the cleric. "You had a cleric friend who came over. Did she know why she could no longer heal?"
"Kilsendra said she could no longer reach her god, that she was somehow cut off from her deity." Thordin's voice was heavy; he didn't like saying it.
Silvanus shook his head. "That is not possible. Bertog ca
Thordin shrugged. "I can tell you only what Kilsendra told me. I was never a healer."
Silvanus turned to Elaine. His glittering eyes searched her face. "Elaine …" He let the sentence trail off. He did not look to where Jonathan still sat. He did not have to. Konrad had explained some of Elaine's plight, and the cleric had promised not to reveal that she, too, knew some magic.
Elaine glanced back. Jonathan was watching. His squeamishness forgotten in the novelty of it all. His face was watchful, curious. If he hadn't been so terribly afraid, he might have been nearly as curious as she was, as he was curious about everything else. But his fear stood like an unbreakable wall.
If Jonathan knew what she had done, she would be even less human to him. She turned back to Silvanus. He watched her with quiet eyes. He would not berate her if she refused. She knew that. If he had argued, or threatened, Elaine could have said no, but those quietly patient eyes. . she could not say no to them. More than that, she didn't want to say no. She wanted to know if she could do it, if she could close a wound with a touch.
She nodded. "Show me how."
Silvanus flashed her a smile that warmed her like the glow of the sun itself. "Touch Fredric's wound."
"What are you saying?" Thordin asked. "Elaine is no healer."
"Oh, but she is," Silvanus said. "She helped heal me yesterday."
"Elaine," Gersalius said, "that is wonderful."
"Why didn't you tell us," Thordin said.
Elaine glanced at Jonathan.
Thordin said, "Oh."
They all turned back to the cleric, determined as far as possible to ignore the mage-finder-if one could ignore a storm that might break any minute.
"Touch the wound, Elaine, explore it. Memorize the feel of it in your fingertips," Silvanus said.
Elaine hesitated, hands just above Fredric's bare flesh. Her skin ached to touch the wound, to explore it, but… "Won't it hurt him?"
"A little, but you are new at healing. You must understand the nature of the injury before you can heal it. You must be free to touch the wound as much as necessary." He glanced up at the big warrior's face. "Fredric takes pain well. He won't hold it against you."
"If you can heal me, girl, I will have only praise for your name."
Still she hesitated. "And if I can't?"
"Then you will have tried, and I will sing your praises for that." A smile peeked from behind his mustache.
Elaine gave a nervous smile in return and let her fingers touch the wound. The skin folded back on itself where the teeth had torn it. She ran fingertips over the gash, over bumps in the skin with slick holes underneath.
She glanced at Fredric's face, but it was blank, unreadable. "If I hurt you, tell me, and I'll stop."
He shook his head. "I've had far worse done to me than to suffer a lady to touch a small wound."
The injury was not small, and they all knew it. The partial healing that Silvanus had managed yesterday had given him use of the arm, but until it was healed completely, he would not be at full fighting strength.
He wore a great two-handed sword strapped to his back and needed two good arms to wield it.
She had trailed over the surface of the skin, but her fingers wanted to go deeper. Elaine glanced at Silvanus. "I don't want to hurt him."
"Do you remember in the tent how you explored my life-force until you could sense the darkness?"
She nodded.
"You must explore the wound the same way. You must know if the damage is shallow, or if muscles or bones are involved. What you did yesterday is really much harder, for you ca
"Yes, I did."
"Search this wound until you can feel your fingers melting into his flesh, searching his muscles for injury."
Elaine bent back over the wound. She took a deep breath, then pressed her fingers deep into the teeth marks. Fredric let out a sharp, soft exhalation of air. Elaine didn't look up. If she saw pain in his eyes, she wasn't sure she could do this. And she wanted to do this. She could feel that same growing power. It flowed through her, from Kartakass. The land was with her. She could feel it, almost as if it were curious.
Her fingers dug into flesh. There was a soft grunt of pain. Elaine closed her eyes, pressing her hands around the arm. She pushed her hands over the wound, fingers half-curled, searching the torn flesh, sinking deeper through the injuries. It was as if her fingertips slid inside the wounds and kept going. They traveled through layers of muscle. Blood flowed around them, all safely below the surface, like a hidden river. She touched the bone itself, fingering it like a piece of jewelry, trying to memorize the feel of it.
"Is there any injury below the surface?" Even Sil-vanus's soft voice made her jump. She lost that feel of slick bone, and working muscle. She blinked and dropped her hands to her lap.
"There is some bruising, but nothing more. Nothing's broken."
Silvanus smiled. "Good, now it is time to close the wound."
"How do I do that?"
"You must heal it from inside out. Find the bruised flesh and heal it, then come outward and close the wounds behind you."
She stared at him, frowning. "I think I understand healing the i
"If that makes sense to your mind, do it, Elaine. I do not know about wizardry, but healing is a very individual thing. Each healer uses her own imagery. You use visuals similar to my own, but I know other clerics that go entirely by feel. As long as it works, it does not matter how it works."
Elaine reached for Fredric's arm again. She gave a quick glance to his face, then back to the wound. She had hurt him, she knew that, but it was more important to heal the wound than to ease the pain.
It was easier this time for her fingers to flow into the flesh. The tips of her fingers ran down the length of the bone in its muscle and blood sheath. She opened her eyes, just to see, but her hands sat on top his arm, looking ordinary. If she hadn't been feeling it herself, she wouldn't have known anything unusual was happening.
Now that she had opened her eyes and could still feel the bone, she kept them open. It was odd, almost dizzying; sight told her she was merely holding Fredric's arm, but touch told her her fingers were deeply imbedded in his flesh. She shouldn't have been able to see her fingers at all, but there they sat.