She was talking to him like a small child. Maybe that was a good sign. He didn’t sense she feared him. Of course, she hadn’t feared his brother, either. Rowan wished he hadn’t remembered that little detail. As the last bandage was removed, light streamed into the small quarters and he squinted against the sunshine, waiting for his eyes to adjust, and noticed two things right away. The first was that he was sitting in a metal tub of mud, and the second was that he was inside a gypsy-style wagon.
“Holy shit.”
The walls curved in an arch above him. Murals of life in a medieval farming village swept over the bright yellow walls. An open cupboard displaying pottery and cooking utensils was attached on the wall to his right, while a bed covered with blankets in patchworked prints of purples, reds and greens was tucked against the wall to his left. Completing the feeling of an otherworldly experience was the woman standing before him.
An attractive, petite woman, no more than four feet tall, dressed in a gypsy costume and surrounded by a green aura, moved closer to him. She looked familiar. Where had he seen her? Oh, yes. Vlad’s island…and she was a Troll.
He gripped the sides of the tub and turned toward Morgan. “You brought me to a Troll healer? They don’t heal my kind, they kill us.”
A voice entered his thoughts, pushing past the barriers as though they were made of tissue paper. “Ease your concern. My name is Cassandra, and you are with us now, and safe.We mean you no harm.”
“Get the hell out of my head.”
The woman pressed her lips together.“Does he always swear so much?”
Morgan merely nodded and smiled.
Her reaction annoyed him, but he kept his comments to himself. The female Troll had healed him, and he was behaving ungratefully.
The petite woman smiled, giving him a slight nod. She’d read his thoughts again. When she’d finished her examination, she slid Morgan a glance and nodded. Although they didn’t say a word, their expressions were animated, and without doubt they were communicating telepathically.
He felt like an outsider. As he sat up straighter, thick mud sloshed over the sides of the tub and the smell of warm rotten eggs made his stomach churn. “Damn.” He clenched his jaw down to bite off a string of additional swear words that would have eased his frustration but would have been disrespectful since he realized the Troll who had saved his life disapproved.
“What’s the verdict?” he said. “Will I live? Turn into a dragon? Scurry away like a rabbit?” He’d made the last comments to see if they were listening.
Cassandra turned to leave and, as she did, she glanced over her shoulder. Her thoughts wove into his. “You have not turned, Fire Wizard, although you must avoid further exposure to the Oculist poison in the future. Twice you have cheated its dark purpose. You will not escape a third time.”
“Thank you.” The overused phrase seemed inadequate for what Cassandra had done and what she’d risked. There was no love lost between Trolls and male Wizards. “I’ll not forget your kindness.”
“You’d better not.”
When the door shut behind Cassandra, Morgan moved toward him, bringing the crisp fragrance of salt seas and tropicalbreezes with her. Rowan drank in her fresh scent and felt more at ease. He was beginning to believe her emotions and her scent were linked.
Morgan smoothed the hair from his forehead. “Cassandra advises you stay here until tomorrow.”
“She doesn’t like me.”
“You are correct.”
“Yet I’m alive because of a Troll?”
She tilted her head, smiling. “You saved Donningale.”
“I’m pretty sure I don’t know who you’re talking about.”
“You know him by the name Wiz. Cassandra was very grateful. Evidently, you’re not as much of a monster as you’d like everyone to believe.”
“Saving the mutt was a momentary lapse.”
“That is what I told them.”
Rowan fingered the bandage over his shoulder. The wound was still tender. “I’m guessing the bullet casings were filled with Oculist powder and that’s how my eyes were infected.” When she nodded, Rowan reached for her hand, sloshing mud over the side of the tub again. The mud bubbled. “What is that smell?”
She hadn’t pulled away. He liked the way her mouth turned up in a smile that touched her eyes, making them glitter like starlight. “It is the medicine Cassandra used to heal you.”
What’s in it?”
“Believe me, you do not want to know.”
