even one hour had passed, but a week?
She slowly stood and realised her light was much duller than before and she felt weak.
“Do not forget that your love must sacrifice a drop of blood on the wound to heal you,” he said as he touched her forehead.
She floated in different shades of white, listened to voices that she couldn’t discern in the distance, and floated again. She tried to go through what the light being had said. “Blood,” she mumbled. “Why would blood be the answer? Is it the blood or the love that heals?” Then she floated again.
Kajn knocked on Vanor’s door. When there was no answer, he had walked away but then turned back thinking that one hour should be enough for her to calm down so that he could explain himself. He opened the door slightly, and tentatively walked in calling, “Vanor, it’s only me, I came to apologise.” In the late afternoon light that streamed through the window, he saw her hunched frame lying atop her bed facing away from him.
When he quietly came towards her, he noticed she was in a fetal position and when he looked at her face it seemed serene somehow, even with the tears and sweat covering her face. He stared and realised something was terribly wrong when even his gentle touch or voice did not waken her.
Kajn was frantic as he rushed to the north tower. His urgent banging on the Old Man’s door startled the Old Man enough that he dropped the vial of bats’ wings suspended in fluid. The curse he swore would have burned the hairs off a pig. He stormed to the door and opened it angrily ready to curse whoever would disturb him in the middle of spellcasting. But looking at Kajn’s face he realised that something serious must have happened.
“What?” he yelled not realising how loudly he had shouted. Kajn looked startled for a moment but half shouted, half pleaded, “Please, Vanor is hurt,” as his voice nearly broke.
The Old Man held Kajn’s hand and teleported them both to Vanor’s room. Not noticing that Kajn was having trouble orienting himself and had fallen to the floor, the Old Man turned Vanor around and cursed. He laid her on her back, tied a piece of string to a crystal wand and swung the pendulum in a circular motion. After a few minutes, the crystal moved erratically, left and right and then twisting and turning in its mid-air course. “Kajn, quickly come and strip her.”
The Old Man was worried. The two bites on her arm were poisoned or something worse. How come they had not healed and why hadn’t he noticed them? He had been so busy training her that he had noticed nothing out of the usual. He had noticed that she had been a bit tired these last two days but he had put that down to Kajn’s rigid training schedule. The crystal stopped spinning and immediately rocked on its axis as if it danced in mid flight. “Damn!” he shouted.
Kajn was concerned by the violence in his voice and as the Old Man calmed himself, and in answer to Kajn’s distressed look, said, “It’s an evil poison that has no known cure. This conjurer must be destroyed.”
“Tell me what to do Old Man,” Kajn frantically asked as he staggered slightly towards him.
“There is nothing you or I can do. She has to fight this on her own and if she is strong enough, she will survive. If not, she will not be with us for long.”
Chapter 3
Battles
Nearly a week later the Old Man came in to change Vanor’s fever-drenched clothes and bed linen. He found Kajn sitting on a stool asleep , his head resting on her bunk, his hand holding hers. As the Old Man stood and watched these two loves, Vanor started to murmur “blood.” The Old Man touched Kajn and he instantly awoke. When the Old Man immediately made the Shh finger sign, he heard her distinctly say, “Why would blood be the answer?” Her voice was croaky but very clear. The Old Man looked at Kajn and opened his mouth to say something when she said, “Is it the blood or the love that heals?” Then all was silent.
She fell again into a deep slumber. The Old Man looked thoughtful for a few moments, and then with purpose reached over to Kajn, grabbed his wrist and produced a jewelled dagger. Kajn, looking fearful and thinking that the Old Man was possessed, tried to withdraw his wrist but seeing that the Old Man’s age betrayed his strength, held steady. “What are you doing Old Man, are you wanting to kill me?”
Pulling Kajn forward over Vanor, the Old Man sliced Kajn’s hand with the dagger, and amid protests from Kajn he clenched the hand. When the blood started to drop he aimed it onto the bite wounds of Vanor.
Both were surprised when the blood hit the wounds, as a loud howl could be heard in the air, and the blood dissolved like acid int the wound. As they watched, the wounds closed and only a pink scar remained.
Kajn reached out and gently caressed the side of Vanor’s face and quietly begged for Vanor to come home.
Vanor’s arm stung and throbbed and she reeled in terror with the deepness of that pain. She had been floating for so long that it was a surprise when her full senses returned. She heard a voice in the distance repeating a message. Wanting to investigate further, she floated in that direction. “Please Vanor love, come home.” She realised she was missing home and wanted nothing more than to snuggle close to her Kajn and breathe in his love. She closed her eyes and his voice became clearer.
She felt cold somehow and opened her eyes. Kajn hugged her so tightly that she felt she couldn’t breathe and when the Old Man pulled the tearful Kajn off her, she sighed deeply and said, “I thought I’d never get back.”
The next day after a restful sleep Vanor awoke to find Kajn gently holding her hand and staring at her.
“What?” she asked embarrassed that she probably looked a mess. Kajn laughed. “You’ve got a lot more colour now and the Old Man wants you to start work again if you feel up to it.”
Kajn had hold of both of her hands as she gingerly pulled herself off the bunk. She had healed really quickly, and with Kajn and the Old Man acting like mother hens, she had decided to get up anyway. Within a few short steps she realised she was weaker than she thought and decided to not overdo it the first day. But she told them both to go get some sleep, “real sleep”, as she was fine. When both had gone she quietly slipped into a healing trance and soon felt her body rejuvenated and full of life. Slipping quietly out of bed she felt that her body was now lithe and fit and she reached for her sword ready to limber up, as she knew that very shortly she would have to be in battle again and did not want to be weak and unprepared.
She nearly jumped when a voice, half chuckling, said, “I knew you would start without me.” Kajn stepped from the shadows and gave her a great bear hug. “Well if you insist on overdoing it, let’s get moving before the Old Man wakes up. Did you know that he didn’t sleep at all when you were ill?”
Vanor quietly reflected on those words and answered, “No, but I would believe it as he takes his responsibility of me sometimes too seriously. But I love him as a father, even though I deeply miss my real father.”
“You must tell me about that one day, but for now let’s do some slow – and I mean slow warm-up exercises.”
Vanor chuckled and said, “You are up for a challenge are you?” and her voice was lost in the clanging of weapons.
The Old Man stepped back from the scrying pool and sighed. “Little do you know, Vanor my child, but at least now I can get a little rest.” After three hours of deep sleep he awoke and started fumbling around for his alchemy ingredients. By the time he had placed the tooth and a few ingredients
