Raewyn gave me a significant look that made words unnecessary, and then Wyll’s tortured cry filled the air and removed any qualms I still had about taking him up the mountain.
“Did you find any medicine?”
Raewyn’s tone was tight, her hands squeezing the skirts at her sides. She was trying to hold it together for the girls, but clearly she was feeling desperate.
“Something better,” I told her. “I found an Elven healer.”
She sent a fearful glance up the mountainside. “It was an Elven village?”
“No, a human one. I’ll explain on the way. Let’s pack up quickly. We’re all going.”
Though I sensed Raewyn trusted me, she still had obvious fear. “Are you sure it’s a good idea for us to be seen?”
I shared a bit of what Solfrid had told me about the village, and then I added the clincher.
“She says she might be able to heal him, not just ease his pain.”
Raewyn froze in the middle of collecting the girls’ meager belongings.
“Heal him?” she asked. “As in, stop him from dying?”
“That’s what she said, depending on his condition.”
Which was deteriorating by the minute based on the sound of things.
“The sooner we get him there, the better,” I said, and Raewyn nodded rapidly.
I’ll be honest, the trip up the mountain was horrific. I put Wyll on the horse in front of me, and he begged me to leave him, prayed for death the whole way.
Riding in front of Raewyn, the girls wept at their father’s suffering. I was choked up myself and beginning to wonder if I’d made the right decision.
And then we arrived at Havendor.
As soon as we rounded the bend, and the girls saw the idyllic gingerbread cottages and majestic waterfall, they started oohing and ahhing.
“It’s beautiful,” Tindra said. “Like a fairytale land in a book.”
“Is it real?” Turi asked.
And then the villagers began pouring out into the street. Solfrid must have warned them we were coming.
“Children,” Turi squealed in delight. “There are children here.”
The weeks we’d been on the road must have seemed like an eternity to the four-year-old.
“Stay here and introduce yourselves,” I said to Raewyn. “I’ll take your father to Solfrid’s cottage. She’s a bit shy.”
She nodded, and I stayed on the horse with Wyll until we reached the healer’s door.
Solfrid opened it, urging us to come inside. Dismounting, I caught Wyll as he fell into my arms, wailing in pain.
“Poor soul,” the healer said. “Lay him there.”
She gestured to a raised cot against the wall, and I did as she instructed.
She placed her hands on Wyll, and almost instantly he went quiet.
Having been healed myself a few times, I knew it wasn’t an instantaneous process, but Solfrid must have done something to dull his pain.
