Chapter 16
Ren could feel warm blankets and a soft bed under him. That itself made him think it must be a dream, but the pain in his leg was real. He groaned a little and instantly felt a gentle hand on his forehead.
His eyes flew open and he gasped, “Kat!”
He realized she was smiling softly down upon him, brushing his hair away from his sweaty brow. “Whew. It’s really good to see you, Kat,” he said hoarsely. She looked better than he’d seen her in a while. She’d finally had a chance to wash her hair and clothes, and they were both still damp. She’d also pulled her hair back with a ribbon, and he suddenly noticed with a pang that her face was scratched and worn from long days and nights on the trail.
She interrupted his thoughts with, “Let me get you some water.” She handed him a small wooden cup a minute later. He gulped down the water and then asked, “Where’s the little gremlin?”
“He’s outside gathering herbs. And you shouldn’t call him a gremlin. He saved your life, you know,” Kathryn reminded him.
Ren shrugged. “I suppose. He wasn’t very polite about it, though. Kind of rude, in fact.” He sat up, wincing in pain. “How long was I out?”
“Only through the night.” Kathryn was quiet for a minute as he yawned and stretched. Then she said, very softly, “I was really worried about you, Ren.”
He looked at her in surprise, then grinned his usual boyish grin. “Don’t be silly. You know a little thing like that isn’t going to kill me.”
“You have to be more careful, Ren. You really could have died. I want you to promise me that you won’t try to fight again without my permission,” Kathryn prodded.
Ren shrugged. “Sure, whatever you say, Kat.”
“Promise me.”
Ren was confused by how serious her brown eyes were. Then he took both of her hands in his and smiled reassuringly. “I promise, my lady. You don’t have to worry.” To his shock, Kathryn threw her arms around him and buried her face in his shoulder. He froze, trying to process the confusing situation.
“Yoohoo! Lovebirds!” Chance’s cheery voice interrupted the moment, and Kathryn hastily released Ren and straightened her hair as the man burst in without knocking. “How goes it, Ren? You look good.”
Ren tossed his head. “I always look good.” Then he frowned. “I guess we’d probably better get going, right, Kat? They’ll be after us before long.”
“They won’t find us here. Did you forget how hard this place was to get to?” Kathryn reminded him. “Calix has kindly agreed to let us stay for a while, until you’re completely recovered. But you have to follow his orders to the letter.”
Ren bristled. “That’s nonsense. We’re not going to risk Xian getting ahold of you just so I can rest on my butt a few more days.”
They all jumped when a small voice in their midst said, “I-is that s-so?”
Calix had come in without any of them noticing and was quietly standing by until Ren’s words seemed to annoy him. Now he put down his basket of herbs on the little wooden table by the door with a sharp thump. “Who do you think you are? You don’t make the decisions. You’re my patient, and you’ll stay here until I say you can leave!” he raged, ending with a huff and a glare.
“Do you really think you could stop me?” Ren scoffed.
Chance said hastily, “I wouldn’t underestimate the little fellow, Ren. Besides, you ought to learn how to play nice with others. He’s offering you a comfortable place to stay. Your dearly beloved could use a rest, don’t you think?”
Ren glanced at Kathryn with sudden consternation. He hesitated. Kathryn felt it was probably better not to alleviate his concerns. If he would just give himself time to recover, they could get through anything.
At last he said, “But if Xian comes…”
“N-nobody finds this place,” Calix muttered, picking up his herbs and walking over to a little table covered in jars, mortars and pestles, and wooden implements.
Kathryn watched with interest as he began mixing herbs together into a paste. “What are you making?” she asked.
He glanced over his shoulder at her. “Poison,” he said morosely.
Kathryn decided not to ask any more questions.
Ren watched the boy for a minute and then whispered to Chance, “Is he all right in the head?”
“Sure is,” Chance replied cheerily. “Do you want breakfast?”
Ren’s stomach growled loud enough for them all to hear, and he laughed a little. “I guess so,” he said.
“Great! Then go get it,” Chance invited.
Kathryn glared at him and handed Ren a plate. Ren stuck his tongue out at Chance and started to eat.
Kathryn could hardly believe that they finally had time to rest. She’d been on the run so long she could barely remember what it felt like. Now it was time to accept her losses and decide what to do next. At long last, she had time to think.
Over the next few days, Kathryn remained close to the cabin, ensuring that Ren remained in bed and obeyed Calix’s orders. Brenin stayed away for the most part, for whatever reason. He was always hunting or in town, and he was tight-lipped and grim for the most part.
Kathryn amused herself mainly by trying to connect with Calix. The young healer was strange. He spent all of his time mixing poisons and concoctions, only to hide them away in a drawer. Out of curiosity, Kathryn looked in the drawer once when he was gone and found that several of the jars had some of their contents missing.
She never saw him give it to any animals, though he was constantly surrounded by pet birds, pet mice, pet rats, and pet snakes. He would sit at his little table reading through books for hours at a time, even long into the night in dim light, with a mouse in one hand, a bird nestled on his shoulder, and a snake wrapped around his wrist.
He seemed to love the animals. He would whisper things to them that she couldn’t quite hear. But it was evident that Calix was unhappy. He often rumpled his unkempt hair as he looked through his books. He looked stressed and nearly frantic most of the time.
He didn’t like talking to anyone, either. Kathryn tried asking him how he became a healer, and he turned his back on her. So she decided to leave him alone.
A few days after they arrived, though, Kathryn came into the cabin and saw Calix quickly hide something behind his back. However, he couldn’t hide the faint green glow in his eyes, though it faded quickly.
Kathryn said softly, “I thought you might be a mage.”
Calix slowly pulled the verdant opal she’d given him out from behind his back and set it on the table, shrinking away from her into himself. His beady little eyes showed shame for some reason.
The girl sat next to him, leaving quite a bit of space between them as she saw the way he fidgeted nervously.
Then he said, “Are y-you a Warden?”
“No,” Kathryn replied softly. “I never finished the training. I am a mage, though.”
Calix reached out his hand and touched the surface of the opal.
Kathryn watched him and saw a look of longing in his face. She wasn’t entirely surprised that he felt an affinity for verdant opal magic. Healers often did, since they spent so much time around herbs and earth.
But she was curious about one thing. “Calix, how is it that you never attended a Warden academy? It was mandatory during the war.”
He flinched and pushed the opal away. “M-my parents d-didn’t want me to go.”
“I see.” Kathryn didn’t really see, but it seemed to be quite difficult for him to speak. She reached out and put her hand on the opal. It glowed and gave off a soft green light. Calix’s mouth dropped open and his eyes widened with wonder. Kathryn smiled at him. “If you want, I can show you,” she said softly. “Verdant opals can be used to enhance healing. Perhaps you already felt that.”
Calix seemed fascinated, but also frightened at the idea. He started to shake his head, then hesitated. He stared at the glow of the opal. Then he nodded. “Sh-show me.”
Kathryn kept her hand on the opal as she spoke. “Verdant opals seem to be closely linked to plant life. So the Wardens use it to increase plant growth, strengthen the effect of plant-based poisons, to diffuse poison into the air, or conversely to strengthen the effect of healing medications, diffuse them into the air, or even diagnose illnesses.”
Calix frowned. “H-how does that work?”
“When herbs are ingested by the human body, sooner or later, they enter the blood. A highly skilled Warden can trace their pathway through the blood and sense any abnormalities.”
“Can you do that?”
“No, I don’t have the skill,” Kathryn said gently. “However, I am familiar with herbal enhancements. If you would like, I can show you how to perform a simple enhancement. Continued practice will allow you to improve the enhancement to the point where you only have to use a tenth of your normal amount of herbs when treating a patient. However, one thing that’s important for you to understand is that every time you use opal magic, you use up a little bit of the opal itself. Once they are used up, they become worthless stones. So you want to use verdant magic sparingly, since verdant opals are very rare since the war. Your use of magic can become more efficient over time, but when you are first learning, magic is inherently wasteful.
“In addition, there is always a physical cost to opal magic. For example, blinding opals will render the user blind eventually. Boulder opals can cause severely dry and cracking skin to the point of bleeding and injury. Verdant opals have the lowest cost; they only seem to cause miscoloring. So you might turn green if you use them too much,” she finished, smiling a little.
Calix listened, staring into the opal. Then he said, “An herbal enhancement could allow a weaker antidote to overcome a stronger poison.”
Kathryn raised an eyebrow. “Theoretically, yes. Calix, can I ask why you have so much interest in poisons?”
Calix didn’t respond. Kathryn suppressed a sigh. “Well, let’s begin.” From that day, Kathryn started teaching Calix basic verdant magic. He was an eager student, and he treated her with respect and something approaching awe. But he didn’t talk to her outside of their lessons.
For his part, Ren had a more difficult time settling into their new surroundings. He found Calix a bit frightening, and he didn’t trust Chance. Still, he was glad to feel his strength return, and with it, his everlasting confidence and good cheer began to come back as well. On the fifth day, Cal finally permitted Ren to get out of bed, and he limped around the house, poking around at every corner until Cal shooed him outside and slammed the door behind him.
Ren looked over at Kathryn, who was sitting by the garden and watching the plants grow. Ren decided to sneak up on her to try to frighten her. He chose his steps carefully, but she still heard him and said without turning her head, “Playing games, are we, Ren?”
He laughed and sat next to her. “It’s too relaxing here for me,” he said, leaning back in his chair to stare up at the blue sky. “There’s nobody to fight. I can’t even have a good spar.”
“You’re in no condition to spar,” Kathryn reminded him.
“Oh, I suppose not. But I’d like to give Chance a good thrashing just to see if I could.” He turned to her with a sudden worried look. “Do you think we can trust him, Kat?”
“No,” she answered without hesitation. She stood up and moved behind him so she could braid his wild hair. “He’s working for Illian. He lies every time he opens his mouth. Do you know what happened the other day? I asked Calix how he and Chance met, and if it was when Chance had been stabbed by a Viper. Calix gave me a bewildered look and said, ‘A Viper? Don’t be ridiculous. He fell off a donkey and bumped his head.’”
Ren couldn’t help but laugh out loud at this. “So he likes to embellish a bit. There’s still something about him I like. But I trust you, Kat, so if you say I shouldn’t trust him, I won’t.” He looked up at her with a grin.
“I can’t braid your hair if you sit like that,” she reminded him. “Anyway, as I was saying, Chance is utterly untrustworthy. But until I figure out his motivations and why he’s really here, I want to keep him close. I still believe I can learn something about Illin’s plans from him.”
She paused, then said, “Ren, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about something.”
“What about?”
“I don’t want you to call me ‘my lady’ anymore. Or Princess.”
“What?” Ren was startled. “You mean when we’re alone? I mean, I call you Kat most of the time anyway, so-”
“I mean ever. I’m not a princess. I never will be again.”
Ren caught her hands and drew her closer to him so he could look up at her face. “You don’t know that, Kat,” he said softly. “Maybe someday we can go back.”
“It won’t happen, Ren. I don’t want the constant reminders of everything I’m not. Please, for my sake, just…just call me Kathryn. Or Kat. You’re not my bodyguard anymore. You’re my only real friend.”
Ren winced at the last word, but at least it was an improvement over just being a bodyguard. He said, “All right, Kat. Should I call you Miss Kathryn in front of other people?”
“Don’t be silly. Call me Kathryn or Kat. You don’t have to talk to me as though I’m your superior anymore. We’re the same.”
Those words made up for everything he’d been through over the past weeks.
Ren enjoyed the familiar feeling of her braiding his hair. He asked suddenly, “Why don’t you ever let me braid your hair, Kat?”
Kathryn was surprised, and she paused. “Well, Carina always did that,” she said slowly.
“I can braid hair too, you know.”
“I’ve seen the way you braid your hair, dear.” Kathryn patted him on the head. “There; you’re all done.”
“Hmph. I braid my hair the way I do because I don’t care how it looks.” Ren leaned back again, smiling up at her. “I could do yours.”
“You’re not my handmaid,” she reminded him.
He shrugged. “I’m not your bodyguard, either, yet here we are. Say, do you think it’d be all right to clue me into whatever plans you’ve been making? I see you stare at the fire all the time.”
Kathryn sat next to him and leaned her head back so the sun fell on her face. “I don’t know yet. I keep thinking. But I don’t have it quite figured out. There’s something…a thought I had…but it’s too early. We’d have to wait until almost midwinter, and in the meantime, we’d be putting Calix in terrible danger all the while. I’ve been thinking I want to go into the next town and get as much information as I can, but my hair is a bit too noticeable. I’d rather word didn’t get out to Xian.”
“I can f-fix that,” a voice behind her said.
Kathryn and Ren both started violently. Ren exclaimed, “Blast it, why do you always sneak up on people, Cal?”
Cal glared at him and repeated, “I can fix your h-hair, Miss K-Kathryn.”
Kathryn cocked her head curiously. “What do you mean, Calix?”
“D-dark brown is a much more c-common hair color here. It can be d-dyed,” he explained. He turned on his heel and hurried into the cabin. Kathryn followed him, and Ren limped after them. Calix started rifling through a basket and then held up what appeared to be a bottle of very dark ink.
“Aww, but I like her red hair,” Ren complained.
“Yes, dye it, please,” Kathryn said at once. “How do I use this?”
“I’ll d-do it. Sit.” He pointed to a nearby chair.
Kathryn complied, and twenty minutes later, her hair was completely dark. Calix darkened her eyebrows as well. Ren grumbled to himself, but didn’t dare say anything else, and after it was done, he forced himself to tell her, “You look great, princess-I mean, Kat. Always thought you’d look stunning in dark hair.”
Kathryn looked into the mirror Calix had given her in fascination. “It looks so odd to me,” she remarked.
Chance barged in through the door as usual and stopped short. He pointed and exclaimed, “Who’s that?”
“Shut up, Chance,” Kathryn said without looking at him.
“My goodness, it’s Miss Kathryn! I never would have recognized you. What have you done to her, Cal?” the man said in mock-horror.
Cal muttered something unintelligible and began cleaning up the traces of dye on the chair and floor. Kathryn said, “Chance, I want you to go into town with me first thing tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?” Ren interjected. “I mean, I guess I can limp along, but-”
“Not you.” Kathryn turned to him. “You need to rest longer.
“That’s right. You don’t g-get to leave,” Cal said firmly.
Ren’s eyes widened. “What in blazes-are you saying you’re going to let that rat escort you all by himself?”
“Now Ren, you really must stop being so possessive of your beloved,” Chance told him.
Ren glared at him, but before he could reply, Kathryn said lightly, “It’s only to the next town over. You don’t need to worry.”
“But Kat-”
“No.” Her tone was firm, and Ren knew her well enough to realize he wasn’t going to sway her. He bit his lip and turned away, trying to hide the hurt in his face.
Chance watched as Ren went outside, slamming the door behind him. “That wasn’t very nice, Miss Kathryn,” he observed.
Kathryn said simply, “This time, I’m keeping him safe.”
Subscribe to the blog to get notified when the next chapter goes live.
Loyalty Fallen Hub 