'Not if you go blind,' Idalia said with a small cold smile. 'You know, I've heard that if enough bee venom reaches the brain, a person can go deaf and blind… that is, if they don't just die outright. You really should let me go get my salves, if you don't want to take half the price and let me use my magic.' She took a step toward him, and amazingly, the Centaur backed up a pace.
Of course, he's a coward, Kellen realized. Most bullies are.
'I wouldn't count on anything happening to me in the woods, either, Cormo,' Kellen added, trying to put menace in his own voice. 'I never go anywhere without my axe these days.'
Cormo whimpered pathetically, backing up even farther. 'Aw, I didn't mean anything! I'm out of my head with pain, can't you see that? I need healing!' He looked hopefully at Kellen.
Kellen just shook his head. Even if he knew how to heal someone using Wild Magic—and he didn't—he had no intention of interfering between Idalia and Cormo.
'All right—all right!' The last of the Centaur's bluster collapsed. 'But I'll tell everyone at the village how cold and cruel you were to a dying Centaur, Idalia, and see how many people come to you for aid then!'
'Go ahead,' Idalia said amiably. 'I can use the rest. So you agree to take half the cost of the healing?'
'Yes,' Cormo muttered, defeated.
'All right, then. Lie down. I can't do anything for you up there. Kellen, go get me a bucket of water and a rag. I'd like to get this mud off him and see what I'm working with.'
Kellen didn't like the thought of turning his back on the Centaur, though he doubted Cormo had any fight left in him, but he reluctantly did as he was asked. By the time he returned, Cormo was lying awkwardly on his side, and Idalia was kneeling beside him.
Gently—ignoring Cormo's whimpers, grumblings, and moans that she was killing him—Idalia gently wiped away the caked mud from the Centaur's chest and face as Kellen watched. It looked to Kellen as if the Centaur had been up to his old thievish tricks again, and this time he'd had the poor judgment to try robbing a bee-tree when the bees were all at home. Cormo's face and chest were a mass of red welts, and one hand was so swollen it looked like a water-filled glove. Mud was supposed to be a sovereign remedy for a beesting, but all the mud in the riverbed wouldn't have been enough to draw the poison from Cormo's stings when there were this many of them.
But as Idalia gently washed the mud from the angry red welts on the Centaur's body, Kellen could see the redness and the swelling fade away as well. When she was finished, not a trace of the injuries remained.
And she didn't cast a circle. Kellen saw the familiar glow of the sphere of protection about them, but he knew now that it was only meant to keep out evil things, and anything of good will could pass it; it was, in that way, quite unlike the sort of circle the High Mages cast, which nothing and no one could pass. When she was finished, not a trace of the injuries remained, and the sphere of light faded and was gone.
And she didn't uncast the circle, either, or say any words, or anything. She just… did it, Kellen marveled silently. He'd watched Idalia do healings before, but now it was as if for the first time he actually realized what he was seeing: that Idalia could do magic—at least healing magic—without any visible preparation whatever. It was as if she were always inside a magic circle, always in the presence of whatever Gods oversaw the Working of the Wild Magic.
It didn't frighten him—by now he knew his sister too well for that— but it did give him a lot to think about. If this was what becoming a true Wildmage was, it was something Kellen didn't think he was ever going to be: someone who cast spells as easily as they breathed. He knew in that moment that he would never have Idalia's power—he might as well wish to be Arch-Mage of Armethalieh! For him, the magic came slowly, and with great effort, once he'd gotten past the simplest of spells and cantrips. But by the same token, he knew the Wild Magic was still drawing him to itself for some purpose of its own.
I just wish I knew what it was. If I'm not supposed to become like Idalia, then… what?
'There,' she said with a sigh, dropping the rag into the bucket and getting to her feet. 'All done.'
'That?' Cormo said suspiciously, rolling onto his stomach and pulling his feet under him. 'That's it? Doesn't seem like so very much. Certainly not worth all the fuss you made about having to pay for it, Idalia.'
Idalia laughed, stepping back to give Cormo room to get to his feet. 'Oh, but a bargain's a bargain, Cormo, and we'll each keep our side of it. Your part of the price for this healing is to help Mistress Haneida haul her cart to and from the market for a year and a day. Mine is to inform the elders of Merryvale of that price—personally—to see that they enforce the conditions.'
Cormo lunged to his feet and shook himself all over, switching his tail vigorously. 'Oh, no, Idalia, don't trouble yourself—I'll be happy to take care of that for you!' he said quickly. 'It would save you the trip— and it would be such a small thing to do to repay you for all your kindness, that—'
'Oh, no, friend Cormo,' Idalia interrupted, smiling wolfishly. 'I'm quite willing to pay my part of the price. My part is to inform the elders of your village personally, and believe me, I'm more than happy to pay it.'
