First Apprentice

Chapter 29 Part 2

My headache disappeared with the link.

Hands folded in front of her, she slipped through the rows of sleeping sealers and passed through the ward. She rolled her neck then stretched her fingers almost exactly like Uncle Manfred did after a trying seal. Head cocked, she raised an eyebrow at me as if silently asking if I was brave enough to join her.

I paused outside the nullification ward and looked down at Mael, noting the brown seals written on his face and how his chest rose gently with each breath. No death rattle like I heard last night. Her work. If my candidates could manage seals like that, he'd have worn them when they arrived. I glanced at Tara, Li, Maria, each sealer in turn. All sported one or more seals, each unique to the patient. She'd earned a little trust.

Shoulders squared, I glided down the row of bodies laid end to end, round a blonde Dracon's head, and stopped at the ward's edge. With the back of my hand, I thumped the ward. The magic flexed and broke then reformed around my wrist. No warning jolt. It seemed safe enough. Taking a deep breath, I stepped inside.

"A prudent apprentice. Here I didn't think those existed."

"I wouldn't call entering an unknown ward with an unknown dae prudent," I replied. "I'm Alannah."

"You tested the ward first," she said evenly.

Her hands slipped under the hem of her robe and shucked it off. Naked, she stuffed the robe in a waiting laundry sack and padded to the tub. Magic flared under her hands as water gushed out of a seal. The mingled scents of lavender and chamomile hinted at a purification ritual, but I didn't spot any runes around the tub. Perhaps they carved them into the frame or hid them under the canvas?

Water sloshed around her ankles as she stepped into the tub. "Damn that's cold!" She turned to me with a forced smile. "Since today apparently hasn't been trying enough, the only uncontaminated stream your men could find is so high up that its edges are already encrusted in ice and some fool decided WM outfits don't need heating seals."

"WM?"

Hissing through gritted teeth, she lowered herself into the tub. "Wagon and mule, healer slang for the portable aid stations issued to the Seven. It all fits in a single wagon. We didn't exactly bring the entire outfit, just the serviceable cots, a trunk of elixirs, and some basic ritual supplies."

"Five cots out of how many?"

"Twenty-five." She sighed. "It's not surprising. Terry holds the Well, not the anchor points. Unless there's a war on, he doesn't need portable anything. The Seven save a fair bit of gold by letting the fourth and fifth seat swap their heavily used supplies with the first and seventh's unused ones, which doesn't help us a whit."

"The other supplies?"

She heaved a sigh. "The elixirs and herbs will do. They're not high quality, which varies the dosage a bit, but I can work with them."

Around them, she meant. I made a mental note to have Uncle Manfred introduce Philip to the herbalist Grandfather used as his personal supplier and acquire a few samples for Mei's approval.

She waved her hand at the trunk. "A stasis seal failed on the bandage trunk, so those are moldy. Ritual robes," she shrugged. "It's a length of linen sewn down each edge with a hole cut for the head—almost impossible to get wrong. They forgot to cut the head hole on one of them. Another they sewed all the way up to the shoulder. Both are easily fixed. However, ritual robes must be purified and washed after every use. I don't have time to teach anyone how to handle them properly."

"I know the procedure. Leave them by the waterfall and I'll take care of it." While teaching my candidates how to handle clothing contaminated by the gates. "Do you have enough?"

"Eight usable ones, about two days worth. You weren't around to ask earlier. Where did you find a magic-free stream? This," she kicked the water, "works in a pinch, but it still contains more ambient magic than I'm comfortable with."

"Helen said you needed a ritual chamber," I reminded her as I ran through what little I knew about the Border Guard's field drinking water seals.

Grandfather, Uncle Manfred, and Endellion all agreed the Dracon seals were superior because their seals distilled the water where the Border Guard relied on a finicky filter seal that failed half the time. The Border Guard's used half the magic the Dracon's did and it didn't require the caster master the first three fire exercises.

A stream connected to the tub implied a piping seal, which worked by folding the space between two seals. My ancestors once feared that seal would put us out of business. Then they discovered how much magic it needed. That seal was out of reach for ninety-nine percent of the population.

"Which you constructed beautifully," she said. "I'm glad you tested the ward. Most apprentices aren't that cautious. Then again, caution's a learned trait. Few apprentices live that long. Mei, by the way."

I stilled. Huxian dae, master healer, the Seven, the pieces clicked into place. Mei the Life Giver, the only Rainer-era apprentice to survive the Second War and the longest serving Seventh seat in the Border Guard's history. I didn't dare ask her to confirm those titles outright. I knew better. Endellion, Uncle Manfred, and Aunt Sumati did not take well to reminders of the First War. I doubted Mei would appreciate me reminding her of the second. There was a better way to verify her identity.

"Are you Xian's niece?" I asked.

She snorted. "A polite way of asking if I'm that Mei, as expected of someone raised by Endellion. She never did like being called 'The Bloody'."

"You know her," I said, fishing for information.

"Since the day she caught me teething on Rainer's scabbard, or so the story goes. Can't say I remember that myself. To answer your question, I'm that Mei, Xian's apprentice, the only Rainer era apprentice to survive the second war, which is a nice way of saying I survived my betters, and Katia's seventh. Funny that. I served five chiefs and most people only remember the last." Her teeth chattered as she splashed water over her arms. "When did you last check your stream for poisoning?"

"Cistern," I corrected absently, still reeling from the realization that Helen did not hire a simple apprentice healer turned guardian. She hired Mei-dae the Life Giver. I knew my history. Rather, I knew what my ancestors' journals said about Mei. During her time as an apprentice and with the Seven, Mei took more lives than Endellion and Sumati combined. Her unparalleled healing abilities meant she saved more than she took, earning her a more palatable cognomen.

Mei was as dangerous as she was competent. I sent up a silent prayer that Helen didn't blackmail or otherwise coerce her into helping us. If she had, we'd all be dead by morning.

"How long before you run out and we're back to drinking poison?" Mei's pointed question drew me away from imagined nightmares and back to my living one.

"Twenty-one days, assuming daily purification rituals." For which, we lacked the facilities.

Even an abbreviated, tandem ritual like they used last night needed fifteen minutes. A full purification ritual like I used after every summon took forty-five minutes to an hour, depending on the gate, and couldn't be performed in tandem. The books mentioned an emergency, seal-based variation used by some healers, but I didn't know it and Xian refused to teach me it. He said it caused more problems than it solved.

"There's no real need for rationing. Out of curiosity, why aren't you using my tub? Do you need a different ritual or was the water too hot?" A complaint I heard several times last night. Like most Dracon, I enjoyed heat on occasion. I didn't need it like Endellion did, but I liked it.