Chapter 98
Chapter 98
Then the dragon attacked Tuen, Marie the Healer was in Chambert looking after Leonard. That was why she was alive now. The wounded from Tuen were taken to the largest hall of Chambert. Rows upon rows of still moving corpses on the floor. Their eyes fixed, hands reaching out, trying to stop something that wasn’t there. Marie knelt beside a man’s burnt leg. The flesh was gone and the bone was carbonized. It wasn’t the worse injury Marie had seen on that day. At least this man was unconscious. Many screamed — some with their mouths, others with their eyes, some even with their hands. At that moment, kneeling beside that leg, Marie felt weak. She wanted to hide her face in her hands and cry, but her hands were dry with blood and there was other people’s skins under her nails.
She couldn’t hide her face but she did cry while searching for the tools to amputate that leg, that exposed white bone.
Marie froze.
A moment ago the bone was black.
The master healer put her hands on the ground, brought her face closer to the leg. Had she lost all sense? Was she insane? Around the healthy bone, the flesh was alive and it didn’t smell of carrion anymore. It was also spreading.
Marie jumped up, ignoring the vertigo. She wanted, had to, show that to someone else. Around her, another volunteer rose. He pointed, open-mouthed, to the wounded woman at his feet. A little further, a middle-aged volunteer fell on the ground, her eyes wide. A burnt girl stood up. She turned her hand palm up, palm down. Burnt pal, scarred palm, healthy palm.
Wolves of Sátiron, what was going on? Marie noticed a blur of white chaos with the corner of her eye. Enthropic white beard and hair surrounding wrinkles. Buried in the wrinkles, a pair of bright little yellow eyes.
‘It’s him,’ said the volunteer beside Marie. ‘It’s the mage.’
‘Are you doing this?’ Marie asked the little old man.
‘It is Pierre’s wish,’ said Fregósbor.
‘Is he awake?’
‘No. Why are you so surprised? Since when do you have to be awake to wish for things?’
Magic swept Chambert like a tsunami washing away burns, droken bones and death. Fregósbor wanted to heal only those who had been injured by dragon fire (it is dangerous to heal natural wounds with magic), but he had been dormant for too long. He had lost awareness of his own power and accidentally cured everything in Chambert.
Even Leonard woke up from his coma.