Concealed Power: The Healers of Meligna

Chapter Four

Chapter Four

         My uncle lay amongst the buckets of waste. I gaped at the wound in his chest, and Father rushed to cover the body with a silk-threaded rug.    

‘No,’ I said, beginning to cry.

Mother came over and pressed my face to her chest. She picked me up and rushed me from the room.

‘No, I want to see him,’ I said.

‘Hush, Adenine.’ Mother stroked my hair and took me up to my attic bedroom, where she cradled me in her arms while I cried. ‘He’s been sick, hasn’t he?’ she asked after a while.

I nodded. My face felt raw and swollen. My eyes stung, and there was a weird pressure in my head.

‘The whole time?’ she asked.

‘Four days,’ I replied, and a sob escaped my mouth.

Mother moved in front of me, levelling her eyes with mine. ‘And you took care of him all by yourself?’

My eyes stung again. ‘Yes.’ I said taking steadying breaths.

She stroked my hair and pulled me against her again. ‘You’re so brave. I’m so proud of you.’

‘What did I do wrong? Why did he attack me?’

 ‘Sometimes people do bad things when they’re desperate.’

I’d always been a good girl. He always told me I was. I looked after him, I took care of him. ‘I hate him,’ I said.

Mother turned her head. ‘I’ll be right back,’ she said and kissed my forehead. ‘This time, stay here. Understand?’

‘I will.’ I didn’t want to know what was happening anyway.

                                                                                         ***

I heard banging and crashing from within the house as Mother and Father did whatever they needed to fix the mess I’d created. It had been my fault, really. First, Uncle Garrad had said he loved me, and then he attacked me. But he’d never wanted to hurt me before. I didn’t like the way he’d held me down; it scared me. I couldn’t help feeling that maybe it was a good thing he’d died. That horrible disease sprang up and bit him over and over like an angry snake. I began to wonder again if I had been the one to infect him, which would explain why he hated me so much and why he fell sick when he was with me.

After a while, the house had become quiet. I slid under the bedclothes, closed my eyes, and drifted off to sleep.

When I awoke, someone was in my room. The lamp had gone out, so I couldn’t see. The person grabbed me and covered my mouth with a foul-smelling cloth.

Overwhelmed by thick fumes, I sank into nothing.

***

My head throbbed. Remembering the previous night proved difficult. Disoriented, I was almost convinced I’d imagined the whole thing.

Then, my confusion turned to terror when I couldn’t open my eyes. They seemed stuck together. It had to be eye-gunk, a common affliction where the eyes wept and crusted for several days. I’d contracted it before and remembering that calmed me until I traced my fingers over the soft skin. There was no crusty covering, no weeping puss, only strange bumps and pieces of thread sticking out from the corners of my eyes. When I couldn’t pry them open, the fear that I might never see again made me scream.