The Huntsman of Adamos (Quartet)- draft

CH TAKING CHANCES/ SEASICK

Yurieth groaned as he chewed one of the mint-flavored motion sickness tablets Serapha made for him. As it mixed with the aftertaste of bile in his mouth, he wanted to vomit again. The ship had only left port a ten-day ago and he was ready to jump overboard and swim back to shore. He felt like his magic was withering faster than his body.

“I have never seen anyone get so sick on a ship.” A blonde adolescent girl with the large pale eyes of a healer stared at him. “I’m Callie, my parents are healers, I’m going to be one too. Can I make you some tea? What are those pills you keep chewing? Do they help? They seem to help because you don’t vomit for a while after you take them.”

Yurieth nodded, “Yes, they help. I’m Reith, son of Riles, a woodsmith.” He looked around, “Are you sailing alone?”

“Yes, but it’s okay. The captain is a cousin of my mom’s. I’m on my way back from two years on Aetheria where I interned at the Healer’s Hall with my grandfather.” Callie seemed exuberant about it. “My parents are the healers of the Southern Star Archipelago, they run the Healer’s Halls on the main island of Brightwater, in Brightwater Port, and in Amberwood on Golden Isle, that’s the second biggest island. There is also a little clinic in Lumberton, on Arbor Isle. I love Arbor, the cliffs are so pretty.” The girl talked as quickly as his niece Jenna, so he decided to get as much information as he could on the islands from her.

“I was hired to select wood for a commission on Aetheria. There was some wood imported from Lumberton and Wheattree that was unusually colored. Do you know much about those places?”

She favored him with a look he had often gotten from his nieces when they were her age, a look that said of course she knew as she answered, “I have lived here since I was 54. Wheattree is on Golden Isle, we’ll sail past there. All the trees on that island have pale wood and the leaves turn yellow in the fall. If we haven’t had a bad Southwester, the leaves might still be on the trees. It is so pretty. Arbor Isle has the dark colored woods, cedars and such things that cause allergies. Lumberton is in an old volcanic crater and there are streaks of different colored rock veins. It looks like someone painted the mountains. The trees growing in different mineral soils, that’s what makes the wood pretty colors. All the plants that grow here have stronger properties, the Healers on Aetheria have been studying them since I was a little girl. My father was the first to figure it out.” She eyed him curiously as a new wave of nausea hit. “You’re turning green again, Reith. We are ten days from land, usually people have their sea-legs by now.”

“I have a little forestry magic, like the Huntsmen. I was warned that sailing could make me ill, but I didn’t think it would be this bad,” Rieth lied. “I wish they had portals.”

“Brightwater is supposed to get a portal station in the next year so we can export our lumber and healing plants more easily. Mother offered to let me stay on Aetheria until it was put in, but I wanted to come home and see my friends. My great-grandfather Miles says I talk too much to be a proper healer, I was tired of having my mouth taped shut.” Callie complained, then she tipped her head at him. “I need to make you some tea, I’ll be right back.”

He waited at the rail to see if he would start vomiting again, before he did Callie was back with nausea tea. He listened to her for hours until the first mate came to fetch her for the captain. Callie found him in the morning. She made him more tea, asked about the tablets he took, what it was like to be a woodsmith, and then she talked and talked and talked.

On the third day of the second tenday at sea, the captain asked Rieth about his intentions toward his adolescent cousin using discerning magic. Reith truthfully admitted his missed his late daughters and his nieces, adding that Callie’s chatter distracted him from his misery. Satisfied, the captain thanked him for putting up with her constant talking. They discussed the weather and the islands; Reith was so sick he couldn’t have used his weather sensing magic if he tried. The fourth day at sea, he had tried to use his night-seeing magic and he had ended up in bed with a migraine.

With Callie’s constant attention and companionship, Rieth held on. She introduced him to others in the crew and he learned most of the lumbermen joined together to hire flyers to bring them to the isles for the forest harvest rather than making the voyage by sea. During the third ten-day at sea, they sailed through an early winter storm, the waves had Reith so sick he was confined to his room for days.

One pre-dawn morning when the ship seemed to be rocking less, Callie dragged an almost skeletal Rieth up on deck. There was a pillar of rock jutting out of the sea with a few trees clinging precariously to it. A red light blinked at the top and a bell clanged, tolling the danger. In the distance, he could see the sweep of a lighthouse warning ships of the shoals.

“There it is!” Callie proclaimed happily. “That’s Farpoint Rock. It’s the first of the rock of the shoals of the Southern Star. And look, the Veterans Lighthouse, that means we are a day and a half from making port. My cousin says we will be around the isles and to Brightwater Port, two days early. I messaged my parents, my father is away, but my mother will be waiting for us.”

Rieth had worried that Healer Cassie would recognize him, but looking in the mirror the other day, he barely recognized himself. Never in his life had he been so sick or thin and he believed no one could possible recognize the sickly gaunt woodsmith as the Huntsman of Adamos. He trusted Serapha’s enchanted comb, his almost complete loss of magic, and his illness would be sufficient to disguise him from Cassie. It was a chance he had to take. Using the burst transmitter hidden in his tools, Yurieth had sent a message to his brother. He was grateful that Abe had been able to lure Milo away. The Master Herbalist and Healer’s ability to touch the minds of his patients and speak to them telepathically meant no magic would have hidden who Rieth really was. As he watched, the smaller islands approaching, the land and the trees called to him so strongly he almost jumped overboard to swim to them. He felt dizzy and collapsed, blacking out to Callie’s dismayed shout.

He came to with the first mate putting him back in bed. “You know, Rieth, you’re not the first woodsmith to make this voyage and get sick from it, but you have definitely had it the worst. A lot of your kind leave the archipelago and never come back; the journey is such a trial. You should fly like the others.”

“Next time I get a commission for wood from here, I will. I didn’t think it could be this bad. I have pills for portal sickness, they only helped a little,” he groaned.

The first mate laughed, “Being at sea for thirty-plus days is a lot harder on a body than slipping between worlds for a few seconds. Don’t worry, the sea was kind to us this trip, with only one small blow. The fair winds have put us to port early. Tomorrow, you’ll be in a proper Healer’s Hall. Ahh, and here’s Callie with your tea. Stay off the deck today. The last time we had one with forest magic on ship, he jumped overboard at the first sight of land and almost drowned before we got him back on deck. The fool wanted to swim to shore against the currents flowing out to sea.”

“I was tempted, but I am a fair-weather swimmer, give me rivers or mountain lakes. You can keep your oceans.” Reith complained, as the chuckling sailor left.

Callie patted his hand and let the soft glow of her magic settle over him. “I am so glad you made it. Honestly, I thought you were going to die when we hit that little storm.”

He gave her a wan smile as he laid on his side. “Callie, I can never repay you for keeping me alive. I honestly didn’t know I was going to be this sick. Don’t listen to your grandfather, you are going to be a great healer... as long as your patients are deaf.” He teased her with the last to chase her worried tears away. She gasped and pretended to be hurt as she swatted at him, then they both laughed.

“I bet you were a great father and uncle.” She praised him.

He shrugged. “I tried to be. My girls meant everything to me.”

“You’re a really good person, Rieth. I hope you find someone to love again.”

The next day, he couldn’t even walk. Callie had the first mate fetch two strong men to carry him on a stretcher to the Healer’s Hall. Her mother Cassie, who had treated the clean-shaven, muscular Huntsman Yurieth’s wounds many times, did not recognize the bearded, emaciated Reith as someone she knew. He wondered if he would even care if she did, he was on land again. Lying in bed, he could feel the solid earth below him, but his body still remembered the sway of the sea.

Weeks passed and finally, Rieth had enough of his strength return to walk and work. During his convalescence, he had remade and carved all of the cabinetry doors in the Healer’s Hall in Brightwater and in Cassie’s home. His work had impressed several locals and he had been offered commissions to work all over the islands. Cassie had been called to take care of patient on Arbor Isle, so he went with her and Callie.

Suffering the ferry ride with the help of the motion sickness tablets meant he only vomited twice. He wondered how he would survive leaving this place if they didn’t put the portals in Brightwater. They had arrived in Lumberton and he was appalled to discover she had nothing more than plain metal shelves in the small Healer’s Clinic. Four days later, he was just finishing hanging the last of the simple doors on the new wood cabinets he had built when he heard Cassie on the comm in her office. The healer was talking to someone with a very familiar voice.

“Her migraines are increasing and so are her break-through memories, Asha. I don’t know what else to do.”

“I am looking for another solution beyond increasing her dosage. The memory magic becomes less stable every year, if it fails...” Asha sounded very worried. He realized they were talking about Daisy.

Reith slipped away to the living quarters and packed his things, he needed to find out where Cassie had gone. It couldn’t be far because she had only been gone for the day each day since they arrived. The Clinic comm chimed and had him going to the top of the stairs to listen. A woman was in labor in Westfalls, and they needed the healer.

Going into the kitchen where Callie was making tea, he gave her smile, “I am glad your mom made it back before the weather. She sounds worried about her patient.”

“Oh, she is. Miss Fleur is so nice, but she suffered so many injuries during the war that only Lady Asha’s magic saved her. She lives on the coast in...” Callie paused as her mother came in, “What’s wrong?” There was a worried expression on her mother’s face.

“I have to go to Westfalls.” Cassie began pulling on her cold weather gear, “There is a storm coming in, a Southeaster. Stay here and I’ll be back when it clears.”

“I’ll go with you,” Rieth offered, “It isn’t safe to travel alone at night, and I am finished with your cabinets.”

Cassie gave him a sweet smile, “I wish all my patients showed their thanks the way you do. The King covering all healing cost is nice, but I would never be able to afford the doors you made for our home in Brightwater.”

Rieth shrugged. “I owed Callie, she saved my life. I’ll get my pack, maybe I can find a job there, if not, I’ll come back here. Lumberton has a mill, right? Maybe I can get a job to hold me over until spring, I’ve imposed on you enough.”

Callie hugged him, “I’ll miss you. I’m glad you lived.”

“I’m glad I lived too. Perhaps I will find my hope again.”

The young healer and her mother both nodded, they felt sad for the widowed woodsmith. He hurried upstairs to get his things, then followed Healer Cassie out into the evening. Once Cassie was safe at her patient’s home at the Westfall Mining town. Rieth lied and said he was going to the Inn. Instead, he looked at the map of the island, and followed the road back to the northeast, instead of turning off to Lumberton he went on.

He was standing at a fork in the path that wasn’t on the map. Above him to the east, he could see the sweeping beam of a lighthouse shining on the clouds coming in from the sea. It was just beginning to snow. Everything in him told him he was close. He was sure Daisy was the Fleur Callie said her mother had gone to treat, and that Cassie and Asha had been talking about her.

As he watched the sweep of the beam, he heard a stick break behind him, and barely managed to dodge to the side to avoid the dagger thrown at him. Rolling to his feet, he had his bow out and an arrow flying toward the dagger thrower. The magic he had kept so subdued the last few months so the healer wouldn’t know what he was, flared around him like a living thing and he realized he was in trouble. Eleven men were rushing toward him. As he reached over his shoulder for another arrow, he vowed they weren’t going to stop him from finding his hope, not when he was this close.

The moon was rising far to the northeast through clouds that were streaming in from the south like silver ribbons. It was just starting to snow silvery flakes. It would have been beautiful to see, but the white-haired woman putting her son to bed on midwinter’s eve was blind.

“Mom, tell me about dad,” the seventy-eight-year-old begged.

“Yuli, you know I don’t remember very much,” she chided.

“Please, then sing me his song. It’s my birth anniversary.” He gave her a pleading look she felt instead of saw.

She shook her head slowly as she caved in and agreed, “Fine, but only because it is your birth anniversary.” She tucked the covers around him as their big gray cat settled itself by his shoulder.

“Your father and I fought together in the war. We were in the Guardsmen corps, he was an archer and I was a swordswoman. I remember that I came back to the castle barracks where we all lived, and he was sitting on the step with the tiniest gray kitten that looked like Fish. I remember how he used to listen to me when I sang and would always ask me to sing again. That was before I knew he loved me, before we were caught in the blizzard.” She paused with a slight smile.

“Tell me about the blizzard.” Yuli begged sleepily.

“Well, somehow I got separated from everyone. I was wet and cold, and running from the enemy with only my wolf-dog. It was so bad I couldn’t seem more than an arm length in front of me. I didn’t even have my swords. My wolf was killed, and I was alone, running blindly through the storm. Then Yuriel found me, but he was thrice shot and died in my arms. I pulled out the arrows, I think, then I defended us with his sword until he revived. As we fought the enemy, one grabbed my hair and I ended up in the frozen river. I remember him shouting my name as I went over the falls. It was so cold I think I might have died. When I revived, we were hiding in an ancient stone cot, with a timid fire. We were cold and wet and huddled together for warmth. He kissed me, and I knew I loved him then, and he loved me. He had silver eyes just like yours. He promised to ask me to marry him someday after the war was over.”

“And then?”

“And then we moved to Meridian 3 and your brothers and I lived in a little village while he was away. When the attack came, a great storm swept through the valley with necrorriors and a terrible vortex that destroyed everything. When I woke, I was buried under debris. I crawled out and found I was to only one left alive. So, I buried your brothers, Benni and Danni, and our neighbors, then help came. Lady Asha put me in a healing sarcophagus in the hope of saving me. I didn’t know about you until I woke up and she told me. She apologized for my blindness and my scars, then gave me the wonderful news. The Black Swordsman, my war-brother Lord Shadz, told me Yuriel died in the last battle with so many others. I was given my veteran’s retirement and came here to live with my elderly Aunt Meara and the other disabled veterans who could not bear to live in the cities after the war. My cousin Vole and Aunt Meara took care of us for the first ten years, then Vole took over our grandfather’s station as Master of the Oceania southern fishing fleet. Aunt Meara died when you were almost forty-four. I am sad that she is gone but I am happy to have lived here with her, and gladder to be alive with you. I love our life.” She kissed his forehead

“I love our life too,” Yuli yawned. “Sing me father’s song.”

“May it be an evening star shines bright on you,

may it be when darkness falls,

your heart will be true,

though you walk a lonely road. Oh how far...”

She didn’t finish the verse because downstairs, Fang, their wolfhound went crazy barking. Fish growled and leaped to the window sill. Pushing the cat down, she opened the window and listened. There were the sounds of fighting coming from the high cliff trail that lead to the inland Mid-coastal road.

“Brigands are attacking someone traveling. Quickly Yuli, grab your bow,” his mother ordered as she ran to her room for her swords.