Annifer

Chapter 9: The Healing Lesson

Gerda pushed open the back door and stepped through it. I took a deep breath, put down my mug and followed.

Outside a beautiful garden backed onto the forest. Matching her footsteps, I walked behind her down a path, between beds of sweet-smelling herbs. At the edge of the forest was a large patch of grass and a thick oak tree. Under the tree, my aunt sat down, crossed her legs and with a gesture of her hand, signalled to me to sit opposite.

"Healing only works when the body and mind are completely relaxed, so let's start by becoming still."

She closed her eyes and put her hands on her knees, palms facing upwards. "Inhale as deeply as you can and then exhale until your lungs are completely empty. As you breathe out, imagine all the tension leaving your body. As you breathe in again imagine it's not air you're breathing but peace, pure peace and calm. This peace is filling your body from the tips of your toes to the crown of your head."

I shut my eyes too and tried hard to relax my body. I unscrunched my eyebrows and smoothed out my forehead. On an exhale, I relaxed the muscles in my hands and untended my feet but when it came to my shoulders, they were so tight that if you'd hit them with a hammer they'd probably have cracked. A voice inside me said,

"How can I sit here and relax when Kris is in danger in the castle?"

"But this is the only way to save him!" argued another voice. As the argument in my head grew more heated, I could feel my muscles clenching.

Then a deep rumbling sound interrupted my internal dialogue. I realised Gerda had started to hum. One long note at first, which blossomed into a melody. My heart lifted as I recognised the tune — a lullaby my mother used to sing to me when I was little. Softly, Gerda began to sing the words in the Moonrun dialect. In an instant, I was transported back to my the sweetness and safety of my early years, to sitting on my mother's knee in the castle gardens as she rocked me gently back and forth singing this haunting melody. My shoulders released, my muscles softened and at last my body drifted into a peaceful state.

Gerda finished her song and we sat in silence for a while. The air around us seemed charged with electricity.

"Your healing power comes from your heart. Place your hand on your heart and feel your heartbeat. Inside there's a flame which will burn all disease. See the flame in your mind's eye. Feel its heat."

To my astonishment, I saw it straightaway: a bright flame burning strongly inside my heart. It was so hot I had to take my hand away.

"Very good," Gerda's voice was deep and resonant, like a chant. "Now feel the energy from your heart-fire flowing down your arms into the palms of your hands. Your hands are getting hot."

And they were. I could feel the energy tingling in my palms. My heart beat a little faster

"Good, Annifer. Now keep the fire in your palms but open your eyes."

When I opened my eyes I was surprised to see we were no longer alone. In fact the little garden was quite full now. Sprawled on the grass were Gerda's dog, Blanco and her cat, Perdita. Three small brown rabbits cropped the grass next to them, noses twitching. A hedgehog nestled next to Gerda's knee. From behind the oak tree, the liquid brown eyes of a young deer with a speckled coat peeped shyly and on the tree's lower branches perched birds of all kinds – doves, sparrows, robins, blackbirds, thrushes, woodpeckers and even a falcon. They trilled and warbled in turn, filling the garden with song. I gasped, breathless with wonder. Gerda held out a hand to the smallest rabbit. He hopped lamely towards her and she gathered him up.

"This one's hurt his paw," she passed him to me. "You can heal him, Annie."

I took the furry creature in my hands. I could feel its little heart beating, its breath expanding and contracting the tiny silky body. Immediately the voices in my head started again.

"I can't heal a rabbit. This is only my first lesson. I don't have the power . . ."

"Annifer!" Gerda interrupted my spiralling thoughts. She mimed undoing a clasp at her neck and taking a cloak off her shoulders. "Take off your doubts and fears." She mimed hanging the cloak up on an invisible peg. "Hang them up. You don't need them anymore."

I laid the rabbit in my lap and copied her mime. Then I breathed in, felt the fire burning in my heart, let it radiate to my hands and touched them to the rabbit on either side of its furry back. Instantly, I felt the energy flood out of me and into the little animal. It started as if electrically shocked and jumped out of my lap. The rabbit sat motionless on the grass for a moment and I watched expectantly to see what would happen. Then suddenly it hopped back to its friends without even the faintest sign of a limp.

"You did it, Annie! You cured him!" Gerda jumped up, hoisted me to my feet and wrapped me in her arms. "I knew you could do it." As she held me I let myself be overwhelmed with joy. But I couldn't stop the voice coming back.

"Kriston is much bigger than a rabbit and his illness is a lot worse than a sore paw."Gerda held my face in her hands and searched it with her deep blue eyes as if reading my thoughts.

"Kriston's healing will require a stronger magic. The magic contained in the healing ceremony. Come inside, I'll show you what to do."

My aunt took my hand and led me through the kitchen into a room where bunches of herbs hung from the ceiling. On a wooden table were a pestle and mortar and an assortment of bowls and glass bottles. She unlocked a cupboard on the wall and took out a stoppered phial containing a few drops of a milky white liquid and a piece of chalk. She pressed them into my hands.

"This remedy will antidote the poison and stop him getting any worse but the damage to his insides is already done and only you can heal that. First pour the liquid into his mouth, then lift him out of bed and lay him on the floor. Draw a circle around him with this piece of chalk. On the outside of the circle to the right and left of his chest, place two lit candles. These symbolize the life energy flowing back into his body."

She reached into a drawer under the table and pulled out a clear crystal, about the size of an egg. It seemed to glow with a white light, all of its own, pulsing with energy and reflecting rainbows around the room.

"Place this crystal at the edge of the circle below his feet. It represents the earth and our prayer that he remain on it. We can energize crystals with healing energy which will pull him back if his soul starts to leave. You will kneel behind his head. Before you begin, say this prayer."

She scribbled something down on a piece of paper and handed it to me."You don't have time to learn the full prayer of healing so this is a shortened version. It's in the ancient language and it means, 'Sweet Goddess, if it please you, do keep this child of yours on the earth with us.'

"When you're finished, say the next one. It's the prayer of gratitude, 'Sweet Goddess, with all our hearts, we thank you for this healing.'"

Gerda read me the words and I repeated them as best I could. She corrected the parts I pronounced wrongly and soon I was able to recite both prayers accurately enough. Time was passing and now I would have to hurry to get back to the castle in time to change for dinner and for Poppy to get back to the servant's quarters before she was missed.

"I have to prepare the crystal," Gerda turned it over in her hands. "I have to pray over it and ask the Goddess to fill it with healing power so it will be energized for the ceremony. It will take a few hours. You'll have to come back tonight under cover of darkness. I'll give you the crystal and make sure you're fully prepared and you can go to Kris first thing in the morning."

"How can I do that? It was hard enough getting out of the castle this time," the voice protested but there was no time to argue. I tucked the phial, the prayers and the chalk in the pocket of the cloak. Gerda hurriedly filled the basket with all the herbs Poppy needed for the kitchen and took my arm as she walked me to the door. She kissed me on the forehead then held me by the shoulders.

"You're strong, Annie. You can do this. I know you can. Goddess protect you."

Thanks for reading 😍

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