Curse Breaker (2)

5

Samu doesn't wake up.

Not after the healer examines him.

Not after she feeds him medicine.

Not after she inspects his heart.

Not after I fall asleep at his side, tears staining his bedsheets.

She's still there when I wake up in the morning, tending to invisible wounds. Her gentle hands brush around the curve of his head as if she can conjure his mind from its slumber.

Unlike her daughter Lei, the healer's black hair is pin straight down her back, reaching all the way to her waist. They have the same flat nose and there's a likeness to their mannerism. But Lei's mother has the gentle touch only a healer possesses.

"I'm sorry," she says as she gathers her belongings. "Your brother is well. I don't know why he is not waking."

"There's nothing else you can try?"

"It appeared he had some sort of infection in his lungs. The medicine should heal his wounds, but I'll have to continue adminstering it over the next few weeks."

"Could that be it? The lungs? Keeping him unconscious?"

"It's not impossible. But unlikely." She shakes her head. "I'll continue to check on him but..."

"But?"

"His body is healthy. There's no telling how long he has been in this state for, and yet, he's not malnourished nor dehydrated." She furrows her brows. "This is something else. Something... something my herbs and medicines can't heal."

I don't say anything as she leaves the tent.

Magic.

Its existence plagues my nightmares. A week ago, magic was something from a fairytale. But as the days go on, it becomes more difficult to deny.

On one hand, her words ease my anxities. He's not suffering from lack of nutrition, which means he could potentially survive in this state a very long time without wasting away, provided I stay long enough for the healer to finish with the medicine to help his lungs. But the knowledge that whatever keeps him unconscious is something not even a healer can sense pricks at my nerves.

And so, thinking of Cadence once again, I tell Samu stories. I hear his laugh in the whistle of the wind as I recount memories of Casimir, see his smile in the stillness of the room.

There's one kind of magic my father always encouraged me to believe in–the kind stored in our memories.

***

Trainings with Casimir were always in the dead of night. I'd sneak through the back window of his cabin, my father's old cape draped over my frame and a dagger hidden in my boot.

I was fond of our scheduled trainings. They helped me to regain the power I lost the night I hid in the wardrobe. And when my attempts at finding the deserters in the forge consistently failed, I still had trainings--something to make me feel like I was working towards finding him.

But most of all, it was time alone with Casimir, time I never expected to miss so greatly. I can't help but think of him when Lei retrieves me from Samu's tent a few hours later. I want nothing more than to decline her invitation. But I have a part to play, trust to gain. Things that will make it easier to leave.

She takes me back through the campground, away from the forest and down the bank towards the beach. We mostly avoid the glistening, black sand as we climb the rocks leading towards the cliff. The mouth of a cave comes into view as we round the corner.