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As the healer’s encampment came into sight, Tanja realized how
long she had been in Gromhaven, and how efficient the servants were.
Although she hadn’t noticed at first, as smoke from the pyre had clouded
the sky, the sun was nearly set. Yet in the several hours before
darkness had fallen, the bodyguards and servants had transformed a wagon
full of supplies into a respectable looking camp. There were two large
tents, one for the sick and one for the servants. Smaller tents were set
up for pairs of healers; Tanja was surprised, but flattered, to learn
she would be sharing her tent with Vera. A black flag had been hoisted
at the gate to the city, indicating a town ravaged by disease. Since
Vera said the disease wasn’t contagious, Tanja found this a bit odd, but
kept her opinion to herself. Afterall, who was she to question the
elder’s decisions?
“Tanja!” The mention of her name dragged Tanja from her thoughts
back to the matter at hand. “Come here! We’ve got seizures!” cried
Forde.
The young healer ran towards the sick tent, dashed inside, and
saw Vera, another experienced healer named Ryonara, and Forde gathered
around Dioren’s bedside. The mage was shaking violently, his eyes wide
open, but staring at nothing in particular. Though gaping as wide as it
would go, no sound escaped his mouth. Tanja noticed that the large
blister on his right arm had popped, and Vera’s arm was splattered with
blood and a black, oily substance.
Vera began barking orders as soon as she caugh sight of her
subordinate. “Tanja, get a blanket from the chest in the far corner of
the room. Soak it in kayseed oil, and bring it here.” As she hurried to
her task, Tanja could hear the other healers grunting in exertion,
trying to restrain the twitching man long enough for one of them to cast
a soothing spell. As she returned with the towel, Forde snatched it from
her hand and wrapped it around the diseased mage’s body. After a word of
magic spoken by Ryonara, the kayseed oil hardened, capturing its wearer
in a make-shift straight jacket. This forced the twitching to stop, and
Dioren’s body fell like a dry twig to the ground. He stayed stock still,
every visible muscle straining in vain.
The three healers gathered around the body didn’t skip a beat.
They instantly began chanting in unison, drawing their collective powers
to focus on the sick man lying upon the floor. The look of agony on his
face increased, and Tanja turned away in horror. The rhythmic chanting
continued, but if Tanja tried hard enough, she could almost forget that
a human being was in unspeakable agony.
Just as she was ready to face him again, a wail erupted from the
sick mage’s lips. It pierced the soothing chants of the healers, and
shattered Tanja’s own, forced serenity. Abandoning any pretense of
control over her emotions, the young healer threw her hands to her ears.
Tears streamed down her face as the scream increased in pitch and
intensity. Sinking to her knees and burying her head in her lap, Tanja
wept uncontrollably at the agony in Dioren’s scream.
She had no idea how long it was before she passed out, but the
next thing Tanja remembered, she was awakening in a sick bed next to
Dioren’s. Vera and Eledan, the bodyguard who had offended her earlier,
stood over her bed. Although the large man’s face was creased with a
smile of relief, Vera continued to stare sternly at her follower. “Do I
have the Pestilence?” was all Tanja could think to ask.
Vera shook her head. With an agitated expression she countered,
“Of course not! Frankly, after the way you reacted to Dioren’s
treatment, I don’t think you could endure lying awake if you did.”
“Then what happened to me?”
“You weak-stomached girl, you do not remember?”
“I remeber that terrible scream-” she stopped herself, unable to continue.
“And you lost complete control of your emotions, and yourself.
It is fortunate you were not administering aid to him, or you could have
cost Dioren his life.”
“Is he all right, then?”
“Of course.”
“What about me?”
“Oh, I’ve found nothing wrong with you. Were it up to me, you’d
be up and about right now.” Vera stormed off and left Tanja with a
plethora of questions in her mind.
“What happened to Dioren? What happened to me? What did Vera
mean ‘if it were up to me?’ Who else would it be up to?” The
hospitalized healer realized whe must have spoken at least the last
question aloud, because Eledan answered it.
“I convinced her to let you rest.”
“You? But-” she had been about to call him ‘just a bodyguard,
but caught herself. Apparently he was not.
“Contrary to what you may believe, I am not along solely for the
protection of your entourage. I am involved with many of the decisions
made on the mission, including those regarding assignment of tasks to
the hearers.”
“But why?” Tanja wondered aloud.
“Vera, as you have noticed, is quite a bit
more...well...affected by the stress than she was in her earlier years.”
The young healer was taken aback. Who was this man to pass such judgment
on such a person as Vera? Apparently, this surprise registered on her
face. “Ah, you feel I do her some disrespect. You’ll soon learn
otherwise.”
Once again, just as Tanja had begun to appreciate his company,
Eledan went and said something brutish. “I think perhaps you should
leave,” she told him icily. With a smug smile, he departed.
Tanja had only had several moments of silence when she heard
another voice.
“You are Tanja?”
Startled, she looked about. There was nobody at the door, and
the only people within the tent were herself and... “Dioren?”
“I want to thank you for any part you may have played in my
recovery.”
“Well, actually, Vera, Forde, and Ryonara did most of it.”
“You refer to the three who recently ‘relieved’ my seizure?”
“Why do you speak with such contempt? They saved you!”
“The only thing they saved me from was brought about by their
hands.”
“What? How dare you speak of them in such a way?” If only she
could order him away as she had Eledan.
Surprisingly, Dioren chuckled quietly. “You do not know what
caused the seizures, then.”
“No, we haven’t determined exactly what you have contracted.”
Again, Dioren laughed, but more bitterly this time. “They had
nothing to do with the infection. In an effort to see exactly what
caused the outbreak, those ‘healers’ probed my memories, forcing me to
mentally relive painful, agonizing days in a few short minutes.”
Tanja gasped at the horror of the mage’s accusations. “Vera
could never be so heartless,” she thought, but kept it to herself.
“Did you not wander why there were no others in this sick tent?
Undoubtedly you were told there were other survivors.”
“Yes, but they have not been found yet.”
“Oh, they’ve all been found, but none had the strength to
survive the painful memories. I, the stongest of them, barely held on to
life.”
“No!” Tanja shouted at him, more in fear than anger. It’s not
possible!”
“Isn’t it?”
“Nooooo!” she shrieked, so terribly that Dioren covered his
ears, and one of the other healers that Tanja didn’t recognized ran in.
“What has happened, Lady Tanja?” questioned the pretty young elf
woman who had come to investigate.
“This man is delirious!” she gestured at Dioren. “He speaks
lies. Lies!”
This was not the response the other young healer expected. She
looked at Dioren questioningly.
“Much of what we consider lies are simply truths too painful to
accept.”
The elven healer looked around confusedly, wondering how she had
managed to place herself in such a frustrating situation. “I will fetch
Mistress Vera, please wait.”
She turned to leave, but was stopped short by Tanja’s pleading,
bloodchilling howl of “NO! You mustn’t! Please, please don’t. I
can’t...I...” she had begun to sob to herself.
“You are delirious, m’lady.”
“No, no I’m not, no, don’t leave!” she shouted fruitlessly at
the retreating healer’s back. Tanja tucked her body under the dingy gray
sheets and hid from the light shining in through the door of the tent.
Trying to crunch herself into as tight a ball as her weary muscles would
allow, she continued to weap and shudder involuntarily. Dioren watched
her behavior with a grim, nonchalant face.
The several minutes before Vera arrived took a lifetime for
Tanja. In that brief span of time, she thought of what it must have been
like, being forced to relive every bad thing which ever happened to you
in a few moments. Things which took a lifetime of coping to deal with
individually were piled upon the already sickly and weak survivors. How
could they be expected to survive? NO!, it must be a lie. Vera could
never be so heartless.
At that moment, Vera appeared in the doorway. “What is the
problem now, Tanja?” Tanja had expected rage at being discovered,
perhaps even fear. Such cool irritation, like a horse swishing a fly
away with its tail, was completely unexpected.
Convinced of how transparent she must be, with tear-streaked
face and cracking voice, Tanja attempted to lie. “Di- Di-...” She was
unable to finish his name. “The mage here has perhaps grown delirious,
he speaks terrible lies, Mistress!”
“Lies?” asked Vera.
“About...about his seizures...and...and the other...the other
villagers, Mistress.”
Vera took a step closer to her protege. “He told you I forced
them to relive the virus.” She presented this as fact, not a question.
“Yes,” replied the young healer, shocked at the nonchalance in
her leader’s voice. Still, as she awaited a response, she looked up at
the older woman with a pitiful expression of hope in her tear-stained
eyes.
“It was imperative that we learned how this disease was
contracted. Those villagers traded their lives to potentially help many
others, Tanja. They were heroes, and Dioren dishoners their memory with
his false accusations.”
“I do not!” shouted Dioren at the elderly healer. “These people
did not voluntarily choose to give of themselves for the greater good.
You took advantage of those entrusted to your care, you stole their
innocence and their lives, and then you tossed them aside like so many
table scraps!”
“They would have died had I not arrived, isn’t that correct?”
“That is not the point!” shouted Dioren.
“Answer me!” Vera briefly loosed the rage inside of her into a
the hideous command.
“No, they wouldn’t have,” Tanja joined the conversation with her
meek answer. “I would have saved them.”
“You? You couldn’t even stand to help with Dioren’s seizures.
Curing the Pestilence is a great toll on the healer and the healed, and
what these people have is even worse.”
“You know what has affected our town?” Dioren asked, concern for
those he had once known over-riding his fear and anger.
“I know how it was caused, I know how to cure it, and I know it
is much worse than the Pestilence. I also know that you are not yet
cured, Dioren. If you want to be, I suggest you stop questioning my
decisions and accept that a few lives were a worthy sacrifice for the
knowledge I have gained.” She stormed out, leaving Tanja with more
questions than answers.