Alanna The First Adventure - By Tamora Pierce Page 0,26
Let’s get some clean air in here.”
Baird looked at Myles suspiciously. “What goes on here?”
“Alan asked me to help him,” the knight replied. “I follow his orders.”
Baird gaped at him. “You follow the orders of a page?”
“Alan,” Myles said, “you owe Duke Baird an explanation.”
Alanna rose and went to the healer. Quickly she told him everything she had told Myles, stopping only to motion for Coram to close the shutters again. “I’m not grown up and as fully trained as you,” she finished. “But I haven’t had all my power drained, either. And he’s my friend.”
“Friendship will not be enough,” Baird told her. “As a healer, you know normal healing takes only a little of the healer’s strength. This fever doesn’t. It will take all your strength—and if you continue to try and heal, the draining will kill you. Three of my healers are already dead. Can you risk your life against this sorcery?”
“Then you do believe the illness is caused by magic,” Myles said.
The healer rubbed his eyes. “Of course. No one outside the city has this sickness. No natural fever will slay a healer. And I find it very interesting that only after all the palace healers have been drained of their power does the heir to the kingdom fall ill.”
“Can none of our sorcerers fight this fever or track it to its source?” Myles asked.
“There’s no one in Tortall with the power. Duke Roger could, but he is in Carthak. The King sent for him, but not even Roger of Conté can travel so far in less than a month.”
Alanna listened to this and watched Jonathan. He was flushed and tossing under his blankets. She bit her lip. In a way she had caused Francis’s death. She had denied her healing Gift, and he had died. She couldn’t make that mistake again.
“I’ll try anyway,” she said. Looking at Baird’s stern face, she added, “With your permission.”
Baird held a hand out to her, and Alanna took it “I’m very tired,” the Chief Healer said. “If you are as able as you claim, it will be easy for you to strengthen me. Do so.”
Alanna looked at the Duke’s hand. Slowly, carefully, she reached inside herself. It was there: a purple, tiny ball of fire that grew as she nudged it with her mind. Her nose started to itch, as it always did when she first called on her magic. She ignored the annoyance. Her eyes watered. She gently drew the fire up through her body and let it flow down her arm into Duke Baird. He hissed, his hand tightening on hers. Alanna let the purple fire slide into the man until he could hold no more. She whispered, “So mote it be,” and broke their grip.
Alanna staggered, feeling a little dizzy. Myles gripped her arm.
“I’m all right,” she told her friend, then looked at Duke Baird. “I had to master that one. My brother always gets tired when we’re hiking.”
The healer was staring at her as he rubbed his hand. “Mithros guide you,” he whispered. “I think the Prince actually has a chance.”
He hurried from the room. Myles, Coram and Timon stared at Alanna, awed because the Duke had been so awed. Alanna felt dazed and a little lonely. She didn’t like people looking at her as if she were something frightening.
“You’ll stay?” she asked them, pleading.
Myles put an arm around her shoulders. “You may count on us,” he said. The other two nodded.
Alanna bit her lip, thinking. “We’ll try the natural remedies first,” she decided. “Coram, let’s build this fire as high as it will go and keep it that way.” The servingman bowed and left. Alanna went to the desk and seized paper and pen. She wrote quickly. “Timon, I need these things from the kitchens and some extra blankets.”
The man took the list and was gone. Myles began to build up the fire with the wood that was in the hearth basket.
“Alan?” Jonathan’s voice was a deep rasp. Alanna went to him and took his hand.
“I’m here, Highness. It’s Alan.”
Jonathan smiled. “I know you won’t let me die.”
“You’re not going to die,” Myles said over Alanna’s shoulder. “Don’t even think of it.”
Jonathan frowned. “Myles? You’re here?” He looked around. “I dreamed there were people—”
“There were,” Alanna assured him. “Myles threw them out.”
The Prince grinned. “I wish I could’ve seen that.”
“Come on,” Alanna said. “You’ve got to sleep.”
From the look in his eyes, Jonathan was ready to ask more questions, so Alanna reached for her magic