Sacred Mountain

Chapter 7: Unexpected Healing

'So you're female and you're alive but you're not a princess or a Wise Woman. You were born in Frailing and you live in Castle Merlax but you're not a servant or a lady of the court . . .'

Truth be told, Annifer hadn't picked a person to be for today's round of Who am I? She was just answering Poppy's questions randomly with yes or no as she stared out of the sled-carriage window. The snow-covered plains had given way to dark, dense forests now and she watched the trees go past as she brooded over her night-terror and Dollop's demon rider.

'Horse. Are you a horse?'

'Stop!' Annifer thumped her hand on the carriage roof. Petros pulled on the reins, shouting 'Whoa!' and the sled jerked to an abrupt stop. Before Poppy knew what was happening, the door was open and Annifer had jumped out and run to the side of the road. Poppy and Petros followed and found her kneeling in the snow beside the apparently dead body of an enormous grey wolf. It was bigger than any dog Poppy had ever seen. Standing, it would have reached to her chest. Around the wolf's middle was a leather harness with two long leather straps attached.

Petros knelt beside Annifer and helped her untie the knots that held it on: as they lifted it off with gentle movements, Poppy could see it had rubbed the animal's fur away in several places and left raw, bloody sores. The fur around its paws was matted and bloody. Cautiously, Poppy edged nearer and saw that its chest was rising and falling very slightly.

Annifer turned her palms upwards, raised her face to the heavens and spoke some words in the ancient language. She closed her eyes and brought her concentration to centre of her chest. Shutting out her surroundings, she focused on her heart until she felt the heat of her heart fire burning strongly. Then, crunching her eyebrows with an effort of will, she sent this healing energy to the palms of her hands. She spread her fingers and pressed her hands to the fur on the giant wolf's back, taking care to avoid its wounds.

White hot energy flowed down her arms and through her palms as she directed it into the injured wolf. Poppy watched as a bright white aura formed around the animal and its open wounds glowed with a blinding white light. She heard Annifer's breathing quicken as the heart-energy emptied out of her.

Poppy's stomach twisted. Her sister, Daisy was a trainee Wise Woman so she'd seen magical healing before but it always scared her how much it drained the healer and she knew Annifer was no Wise Woman. Gerda had taught her how to heal three years back when her brother, Kriston, was dying but her training was limited. Annifer grimaced. Her arms trembled, her chest heaved as she poured energy out into her patient. Just as Poppy started to panic, she saw one of the wolf's front paws twitch. Its mouth opened to reveal yellow pointed teeth and it drew in a long ragged breath. Suddenly its eyelids blinked open revealing piercing yellow eyes. Its lip curled into a menacing snarl and the girls realized they were face to face with one of Crosstain's most dangerous wild animals.

Poppy yanked Annifer up by the armpits and dragged her backwards but Petros dived in the opposite direction, flattening himself in the snow next to reanimated wolf and began whispering soothing sounds in its ear. Poppy had seen him calm agitated horses in this way before. Gradually the growling stopped. Petros reached out a hand and stroked the wolf's head. It narrowed its eyes, enjoying the touch and its tail beat the ground twice. Poppy, her fear momentarily forgotten, emerged from the carriage holding a leather water pouch. She raised her eyebrows at Petros and he nodded from the ground. She undid the stopper, approached the prone wolf and gently poured out a stream of water in front of the wolf's face.

Instantly, it leapt to its feet and lapped at the falling water. Poppy flinched at the size of it but gritted her teeth and stood her ground. When the pouch was empty, Petros was ready with a new whisper-song. Making little chirping noises and rubbing his thumb and forefingers together, he walked backwards slowly towards of the forest, never once breaking eye-contact with the animal. The wolf followed docilely as if in a trance. When he had led it a little way into the trees, Petros clapped his hands; the wolf barked and ran off into the undergrowth.

Poppy let out the breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding in.

'Well done, Petros!' Annifer clapped him on the shoulder as he hurried past them, heading straight for the shire horses who were stamping and tossing their heads, spooked by the proximity of the predator. 'What do you think caused those injuries?'

Petros broke off between whispers, 'Looks like he's been harnessed to something that's being driven much too hard. But I've never heard of anyone harnessing giant wolves before.'

'No,' Annifer raked her fingers through her hair. 'That would take some powerful magic . . .'

'Look!' Poppy interrupted, shading her eyes and pointing at the sky where three golden eagles were flying side by side in a V shape, the middle one a little behind the other two. They were heading along the direction of the road as if they were following it. 'I've never seen eagles fly together like that.'

'Me neither,' Annifer glanced upwards, her brows furrowed in a puzzled expression as she pulled herself up into the carriage, her maid following behind.

The sled-carriage jerked into motion. Poppy screwed her face up in concentration.

'So are you a horse or not?'

Thanks for reading this chapter 😊

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This chapter is dedicated to CaptainWhimsy16. I've read a few of her books but Tis the Season to be Holly is my favourite.

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