A Mori boy only a year or two older than Rueln ran out onto the road from the building across the street to help, but I knew he wouldn’t make it. I had to interfere. Dashing forward, I moved in a blur, scooping Rueln up and rolling out of the way of the wagon, Thornton too busy arguing with his father to see the danger Rueln had been in. 

“Is he alright?!” the Mori boy asked, sliding to a stop beside me. 

“That isn’t your concern,” I said, rising to my feet, clutching the shivering child to my chest as his eyes fluttered open, then closed again. I studied his face, knowing he would fade in and out of consciousness over the next twenty-four hours until the memories settled into this life’s body. He wouldn’t remember my face even if he saw it now. There was little I could do even if he did. I wouldn’t regret interfering to save him. 

Already, his frail body grew warm with fever, sweat beading down his forehead and into the auburn hair. I shifted him in my arms enough so I could reach up and brush the soft strands back, my eyes roaming over his face, searching for familiar features and surprised to find a few. “You look like him,” I murmured, before realizing what I was doing and shaking my head. He isn’t him. I had to remember that. 

I stepped around the Mori child and pushed my way through a few others, who checked on Rueln in concern, and hurried out of the market. There was an attempt on my part not to be too harsh with them because they only acted out of concern, but it still annoyed me. I knew the inn where he and his master were staying since it had been in the letter, but finding it was a different matter. Unfamiliar with the layout of the city, I had to ask directions from three different people before I finally found the right place and entered.

I had barely made it through the door when a blonde woman laden with packages saw me as she was about to go upstairs. Her face paled when she saw Rueln unconscious in my arms, his tunic now soaked with sweat. “Rueln!” she exclaimed, the familiarity making it clear she was the boy’s new master, Esra Greyborn. Dropping everything she was holding, she ran to me and pulled the boy from my arms. “What happened?!”

“Recall,” I explained, taking a step back, planning to leave him in the woman’s care. As reluctant as I was to do so, I knew I couldn’t linger any longer. I had already done much more than I should have. Pulling my hood lower, I said, “Have a healer come to tend him. They will tell you what to do.” 

“Wait,” Esra said, and I made the mistake of hesitating at the door. “Will you fetch a priest? I can pay you for the trouble. I—I don’t want to leave my apprentice.”

For that, my dislike for the women lessened. “Of course,” I promised, and left without another word. 

A priest wasn’t all that hard to find. All I had to do was go to the tallest building with a spiraling tower to mark its place. 

When the humans inside tried to make me wait for services to finish, I might have lost my temper a bit with the door, leaving a prominent crack in the thick oak wood. After making it clear I hadn’t come for a priest to shower me with false blessings, but a healer for a child in recall, they were quicker to do as I wished. 

The healer that was fetched looked like he should have died ten years prior. He was tall and so thin I didn’t understand how he was still standing, but he moved towards me with enough strength that I doubted he was as frail as he appeared. 

Sweeping his long beard over his shoulder where it blended with the white of his hair, he adjusted his spectacles and addressed me. “You are the one who asked for a healer?”

“Yes,” I confirmed, ready to be done with this. I needed to distance myself from these humans as quickly as possible. Being involved any further would be dangerous. “He is at the—“

“Take me to him,” the healer ordered, frowning when I raised a brow at him for interrupting me as well as trying to order me about. It was rude and I disliked it. 

“Excuse me?” I said.

The healer frowned at me as if I had been the one rude. “Take me to the child,” he repeated as an aide came out at a run from a door, holding a black bag. She was young, hardly into her teens, and the bag looked as if it weighed half her body weight. “You said the child is in recall. I need to see him as soon as possible, and you are delaying matters.”

“Master Gibbs,” the child beside him said, grunting as she tried to hand it to him. “Your bag.”

He didn’t so much as look at her before he waved her off dismissively. “You carry it, Precila.”

To say my dislike for this man was immediate would be an understatement. I ground my teeth together before taking a step forward and yanking the bag from the child’s hands and easily lifting it over my shoulder. “As I was saying,” I said, attempting to hold my temper back. It made each word clipped. “You will find the boy and his master at the Hollow Hill Inn. I am a messenger, nothing more, and certainly not your guide.” I threw a distasteful look at him as I turned. “But I will hasten your arrival by waving down a carriage for you, for the child at least.”

The man blubbered behind me, too offended for words, but I could hear him following me as I left through the temple’s double doors. I didn’t indulge the pompous healer any further, walking down the pathed courtyard and out to the streets to look for a carriage to take the priest on his way. I hoped to flag one down quickly, so I didn’t have to speak with the man again, but to my disappointment, there wasn’t one nearby, giving the man ample time to gather himself.

“I have never been spoken to so rudely,” Master Gibbs huffed at me, which I ignored. “If I wasn’t the only healer in this city, I would leave the child to someone else.”

This arrogant mortal. My eyes slid over to him, sharp as a knife. “You are testing my patience.” The more this man spoke, the more I suspected he might neglect Rueln’s care, if only to spite me. The thought made me lower my hand I had raised to hail a carriage. Sighing with annoyance at what I was about to do, I said, “Forget this. Follow me. It will be quicker on foot at this rate.” How, by all the gods, did a temple not have its own carriage for the city’s healer? Clearly, there were enough funds to have a marble floor. They couldn’t spare the silver for a carriage and horse?

“Honestly, if you would have done this at the start,” Master Gibbs grumbled, as if I were being helpful for his sake. I fought the urge to roll my eyes, ignoring him and his little assistant as she trotted along behind us. 

It took twenty minutes at a brisk pace to make it back to the inn. I didn’t check my step once, forcing the old man and the child to keep up with me the whole way. I think the only reason he managed was because of his long legs. The poor child with him appeared winded, however. I dropped the bag next to her as she caught her breath. “He’s upstairs. The clerk can—” I stiffened when I saw Esra Greyborn coming down the stairs. 

Seeing me, she looked immediately to my left at the healer and motioned him forward after offering the man a polite bow he did not deserve. “This way Master Healer. Thank you for coming.”

“Of course,” the healer said, suddenly smiling at the other woman to portray an air of confidence and kindness. “Of course. It is my sacred duty to tend to the children of our generous god.”

“Please,” Esra said, motioning upstairs. “He is inside the third room to the left. The door is open. The Innkeeper’s wife is in with him now.”

“Precila,” Master Gibbs barked, and the child grabbed his bag by the straps and tugged it after him, the bottom dragging as they went up the stairs. 

Esra remained where she was. Her gaze locked on me. I refused to enter any further into the room. “Thank you for your help,” she said, her gratitude genuine. “Would you be willing to stay? I can buy you a meal.”

“No,” I said as I shook my head. My tone was firm, leaving no room for debate. “I appreciate the offer, but I’m not interested. Good day to you. I’ll be on my way.”

“May I have your name at least?” she asked.

I paused in the doorway, looking back at her for a moment before turning away. “No.” I shut the door, ending the conversation there. I half debated with myself if saving him had been worth all the irritation. Closing my eyes, I sighed before deciding to find a room nearby to wait out the child’s recall and see him in good health once more before leaving. Maybe he was worth some trouble…