The Cursewright's Vow

Chapter 6: Taking the Cure, Part 4

 Now she looked not wary but positively suspicious. Still, he was relieved to see her sink back into her seat, eyes fixed on his. Never did he let his fingers leave her wrist. Her pale skin was soft, invitingly warm, slightly tacky with the dirt of the road. "Then what? Speak plainly!"

"I want only the promise of gold."

"I do not understand."

Ammas refilled her cup. She took it without waiting this time, not even looking at the water before sipping, her concentration focused on him. There was a great intelligence behind those hazel eyes, perhaps as much as there was behind the eyes of the Emperor. If they also possessed his cruelty, Ammas couldn't see it. Nor could he see the glimmer of the wolf lurking within. "The way I work these days is more improvisational than it once was. I can only take my cases as they come to me, and consult my instincts rather than a ledger."

The princess nodded again, seeming a little more at her ease, perhaps because Ammas was beginning to sound more like a reasonable merchant than either the vengeful cursewright or the huckstering charlatan she'd expected.

"I would propose an arrangement between us. We work out payment in advance. I do what I need to do to diagnose you -- "

"Again, why do you not believe me? Why would anyone invent such a tale? This has been more painful than anything I could have imagined, I don't -- "

Ammas held up a hand and she stilled for moment, her teeth worrying her lower lip. "I will discuss all that with you in as much detail as you want. After we agree on payment, your highness. But I'll tell you this much: if my examination reveals that you are mad, or have invented this tale -- "

She flared up at once, almost burning away all the modest goodwill he had built. "I am not lying, Master Cursewright!"

"Your highness, please. We speak of theoretical matters."

Carala sighed almost theatrically. "Very well."

"If my examination reveals some issue that I cannot treat, then I will charge you nothing. Further, I will pay the expense of a carriage to take you home to Talinara."

"That is very gracious of you." Her voice had turned soft, almost shy. "But I must tell you, you are not going to find a lie, or madness, or anything but what I've told you." Carala looked up again, and there was a sadness in her face that thawed his heart more than he would have cared to admit. "Tacen was real. What he -- what I did with him -- was real. The bite. The -- the love-making. When the moon -- and I -- I -- "

"Changed," he offered softly. She nodded, unable to force herself to say the word. "Obligations to my trade aside, your highness, I'll tell you that I do not expect to find madness or a lie. But there is the possibility you're not actually suffering from wolf's blood sickness."

At that Carala looked nearly as shocked as she had when the Lioness girls had invited her to come to their place of business. "You're lying."

"No. Don't place too much hope in it, your highness. But you are a woman with many enemies, most of whom you probably don't even know."

"You mean my father's enemies."

"I do."

"Tell me plainly what you are hinting at, Master Cursewright."

"I doubt I am the only man or woman alive with knowledge of curse lore. And tell me, your highness, in your study of cursewrights, did you find that we only break curses and dispel enchantments and cure magical sicknesses? Or did you find at times, when the Emperors of the Malachite Throne demanded it, that we cast them as well?"