Silver Rose

Fever

“Looks like he’s having a bad dream.”

“Yes.”

“What do you think he’s dreaming of?”

“How would I know?”

“Probably of me,” the girl muttered, but Mara heard.

The girl was Tara’s charge. Her “pledge” as she put it. The princess of this nation where monsters attacked for no reason. At least the girl had said they tried to kill her and her friend without a cause. But she was lying. Mara was sure. Or holding back some pivotal information. Like how some human came in possession of a fairy’s necklace. Mara’s necklace.

Mara hadn’t done anything about it yet. She had hoped the girl would recognize her, since she must have stolen the necklace. Then she’d be afraid, and while in her guilt, Mara would demand the necklace back. And she’d give it to her, Mara was sure of it, she’d be too afraid not to.

But the girl regarded Mara with a stranger’s caution, nothing more. Now, even that caution was relaxing as they’d been together for two days now. Mara, though, was still wary of the girl. She didn’t trust her at all. And the fact that she eerily reminded Mara of her Grandmother Isthar made it all the worse.

Mara pushed the dark wet hair away from the man’s burning forehead.

“When are they going to return?” She asked aloud for the umpteenth time that night.

“I told you, you never should have sent nymphs to get the medicine you need. You can’t trust a nymph.” Tara said. She and the girl were playing some game with rocks and they kept jumping over each other’s rocks. “Hah! I win again!”

“You learned very fast, but I won’t be so lenient this time.”

They grabbed at the rocks—Tara took the white ones and the girl took the gray ones—and set them up on a board they’d found in the cave. Then Tara moved a white rock diagonally; then the girl moved a gray rock diagonally. It was a dumb game.

Mara turned back to the man and sighed. His name was Zander; that’s what the girl told them. Although his name meant nothing to her, the seal of protection his forehead did. It was her seal. She’d never given one to anybody before, but she recognized it nonetheless. Like a dog that knows his territory by the scent he left behind, Mara sensed her own seal. How it got there… Why it was put there? …She could only wonder. Her finger traced the seal again. His skin burned hers. There was only so much she could do until the nymphs returned with the potions she needed. She sighed again. If only… She’d thought Fauyen healers were so skilled, the best anywhere. But that was before she met—

“Mara, you must be exhausted,” Tara said. “Come, sit with us.”

“I can’t,” she said. “He’s getting worse.” She dipped a cloth in the bowl of water on her lap. “Now the water’s too warm.”

“I’ll go to the stream and get more,” the girl volunteered. “Then I’ll sit with him.”

She took the bowl from Mara’s hand and walked out of the cave. Mara placed the cloth on Zander’s forehead. Then she lowered her head until it hung between her knees.

“You should lay down and rest,” said Tara. A chair scraped the floor and Mara soon felt a hand stroking the back of her head.

“I can’t,” Mara said into her skirt.

“You need to sleep.”

“No, I can’t… I can’t save him.”

Tara stopped stroking her hair. Mara lifted her head and placed it in her palms. She pressed her fingers against her watering eyes.

“But I thought Fauyes only had to put their hands on someone and they were healed.” Tara said.

Mara pushed her hair back from her face.

“It doesn’t work that way,” she said standing. “We’re not that powerful in that area. If you wanted a party, I could decorate this cave in a heartbeat. That’s what Fauyes use magic for. Not to help others, but to either be more powerful or to gain more frivolities.” She walked to the fireplace and watched the flames consume the logs. “Our healing powers aren’t really ours.”

“What do you mean they aren’t yours?”

Mara sat down, her back to the fire.
“I mean we didn’t originally have them.”

Tara’s eyebrows rose up in surprise.
“I thought—“

“I know. We like to embellish. But the truth, I learned from my grandfather.”

“Trevon?”

Mara nodded.
“Not all Fauyes can heal. The healers are their own sect within the community, though not by choice.”

“Yes, I saw that when I was there.” Tara said.

“But you didn’t see why.” Mara pulled one knee up to her chin. “The healers are not pure fairy.”

Mara stopped. Tara sat forward waiting for her to go on, but for a moment she couldn’t. It was odd, like admitting she was a demon. Maybe it was. Her mother would never approve. She wondered if her mother had even known.
“They, we, have Charminese blood,” Mara finally said. “It was thousands of years ago. Back before the world was divided, when all races lived together. There were some Charminese and Fauyen unions, and their children had healing abilities. And that blood still runs in their descendants to this day.” She said in a rush. Then taking a breath, she slowed her words down. “But as the generations pass, the healing blood wears thin. We can haven’t been able to heal without help from herbs and potions for many, many years.”

Tara said nothing. She sat in her chair, her face unreadable, her eyes staring beyond Mara at the cave wall. After a long moment, she looked down at Zander.

“Then what happened at the stream?” She asked. “What was that light from your hands?"

Mara took a deep breath.
“We can still help deep wounds. The magic goes straight to the internal, mending from the inside out. It doesn’t heal it so much as it sews things up. That’s why we need our teas and potions, to actually help heal. If we could heal, you wouldn’t have been in Ambremose for as long as you were.”

Tara’s eyebrows furrowed, but she nodded.
“So, this man…” She let the words trail off.

Mara closed her eyes.
“Magic can’t save him. The fever, any virus, can’t be stopped.”

“That’s why we’re waiting for the nymphs.”

Mara nodded.
“I told them what I needed and they said they knew someone who might have those things. So I asked them to bring the potions to me.” Mara opened her eyes. “I’d make them myself if I had the right ingredients.”

“So, you’re relying on nymphs to bring back medicine that they think they might know where to get.”

Mara nodded. The way Tara put it made the plan sound absurd, but Mara trusted the nymphs would do their best. It wasn’t their fault any of this had happened. Lorelei seemed to think it was since her sisters and she had almost let him drown. But Mara knew he’d been sick for a long time. At least two weeks, although the fever hadn’t been bad until a couple days ago. Being wounded and almost drowning only sped up what was already happening.

“So there’s nothing anyone in the world can do?”

Mara looked up. The girl was back. She stood in the narrow entrance, holding the bowl with both hands. Mara sighed.

“Not exactly anyone,” she answered.

The girl walked into the cave.
“How long does he have?”

Mara turned her head away. She didn’t want to think about that.

“How long until he dies?!” The girl shouted slamming the bowl on the table. Water splashed onto the front of her dress.

“I don’t know,” Mara’s throat tightened. “One day. Maybe two if he fights it.”

“He could die tomorrow?” The girl asked quietly.

“He could die tonight.”

Wordlessly, the girl picked up the bowl and sat down in the chair by the ledge where Mara had been. She took the cloth from his forehead, doused it in the fresh stream water, and then carefully replaced it. Mara suddenly had the urge to recall the girl’s name.

“What’s your name, girl?” She asked.

The girl continued to look at the man. Her frowning face full of worry.

“You said ‘not exactly anyone’ when I asked if no one in the world could help him,” the girl said. “What did you mean by that?”

Mara looked over at Tara who stared expectantly at her. The girl never raised her head.

“I’ve met Charmints,” she said.

Tara gasped in surprised, but the girl calmly asked,
“What is that?”

“They are healers,” Tara said. “True healers, Marina.”

Now the girl looked up.

“Where did you meet Charmints, Mara?” Tara asked. “I heard that they lived with the elves well into the most southern reaches of the world.”

“They were in Iosis,” Mara said. Tara looked ready to fall out of her seat. Mara then proceeded to tell the girl (Marina was what Tara had called her) about Iosis and the Walocs. Tara impatiently tapped her foot until Mara came to the part where Bilbarger and the others had taken her. Then Mara told them how she’d chased after them, was pulled up into the sky by a vine, and then dropped into the foliage after cutting the vine. Both women’s mouths hung open when she told them she broke her back in the process, and the strange creature went in search of help.

“I thought he’d never come back, he took so long. But then I heard noises. I didn’t know it was he until he looked up at me and I saw those great big eyes. ‘There it is.’ He said. I couldn’t see what he was talking to. Then I saw a cat race up the tree to where I was. I was so angry. ‘A cat!’ I yelled. ‘You brought me a stupid cat?!’ ‘And a squirrel,’ the cat said. I hadn’t seen the squirrel, so it climbed down my arm. ‘It’s a broken back and right leg. A fractured left foot,’ the squirrel yelled down. ‘And scratches all over,’ said the cat, ‘but not by me.’

“If I hadn’t been in so much pain, I would have thrown them both to the ground. And I was about to say as much, when the squirrel said something strange. ‘Cam,’ it said, ‘tell the vines to make a bed.’ Then the vines from the ground wove themselves together underneath. ‘This part may hurt a bit,’ the squirrel said. ‘Dashi! Go ahead!’ ‘Brace yourself,’ said the cat. Then the tree limb began to bend. It kept bending until I slide off. I landed, on my back, on the bed of vines. The squirrel still held on to my arm. The vines slowly lowered themselves until they were on the ground. The squirrel got off my arm. Then it stood next to me and… and changed. It grew and transformed into a tall male something. I was sure it was a male because it had facial hair, but you never can tell. It had dark skin, and long pointy ears that stopped a couple inches above it’s head. ‘Sorry,’ he said. Then he turned me over on my stomach. Another one like him stepped out of the shadows. Then the cat landed on the ground and transformed into a female that looked like them. ‘We’ve probably messed her up beyond repair,’ the female said. ‘We haven’t,” said the one who’d been a squirrel. ‘Dashi, you take the foot. Cam, you do the leg. I’ll take care of the back.’ Then they each took a piece of me.

“For a long minute, nothing happened. Then I felt warmth ebbing through my body. The warmth became hotter and hotter until I was burning. It was as if I were on fire from the inside. I screamed and cried. They wouldn’t let go. Just when I thought I was going to die, the heat died away. It was replaced with a moment of freezing cold. Then I felt normal again. They let go of me. I was about summon all my power and turn them into frogs. Then I moved my leg. I amazingly sat up. I was healed. And felt better than I have for a long time. I stood up and asked who they were. The former squirrel spoke, ‘I’m Ty. This is Cam,’ he gestured to the other male, ‘and that is Dashi.’ He pointed at the female. What were they? How did they heal me? Ty said they were Charmints. I was as astonished as you are. I’d never seen a Charmint before. I don’t know what I expected, but they weren’t so different from us. I told them who and what I was. They told me they were looking for someone and wanted to know if I had any information. I was so eager to help. I had so many questions. But before they could ask theirs, I was suddenly swept up into the air. I kept going, fast as the wind, until I was plopped into the stream. And you were there a second later, and they were drowning. So we helped them. And… you know the rest.”


Tara’s face was flushed. Marina stared at her, expressionless. Mara scooted to the wall and leaned against it, suddenly exhausted. The wind howled outside the cave opening. The fire crackled; the burning wood snapped. And Zander’s loud, raspy breathing rose above it all.

“Charmints. Real Charmints.” Tara said softly.

“So, these Charmints could cure Zander?” Marina asked.

“Possibly. I don’t know the extent of their powers, but anyone could, it’d be them.” Said Mara.

“But they are somewhere far away.” Marina said.

“Yes,” said Mara. She stood and walked over to the ledge where Zander lay.

“Maybe one of us could go to Iosis and—“ Tara began.

“No,” Mara said, placing a hand on his forehead. “Unless you can get there in less than a day, it’ll be too late. I had hoped the nymphs would return today, but the day is long gone.”

Marina sighed.
“So there’s nothing to be done.”

Mara shook her head. She removed her hand. He was too hot, too weak.
“Unless the nymphs come before dawn, I do believe it will be too late. He’s dying.”

Marina took his hand into her own. She winced when she touched his skin, but held on firmly.
“Then I’ll stay by his side until…”

Mara and Tara watched them for a long time. Marina kept her attention on him. Every once in awhile she refreshed the head cloth, caressed his face, arms, and chest with the cool cloth, dipped it in the bowl again, and place it back on his forehead. Sometimes she whispered to him. But she never let go of his hand.

Eventually, Tara suggested they go and sleep with the assurance that Marina would let them know if the nymphs returned. Tara settled herself on the ledge closest to the entrance. Mara took the middle one and pretended to sleep until she heard Tara’s own rhythmic breathing. Then she got up and sat on the floor against the wall by the fireplace. There she watched her patient until she, too, fell asleep.