The study door burst open to reveal Sylvi and my mother.
“It’s happened, Canute,” my mother said, her voice choked by fear. “Heaven help us!”
My father ambled toward them. “You know the plan. Pack only the essentials and head for the capitol.” My mother and sister made way for him to pass. He fetched the crossbow from its hooks on the wall and turned to give us a grim look. “Ride hard.”
Mother threw her arms around him. “Take care of yourself!”
“I will. I love you, Aulin.” He gave Sylvi a kiss on the forehead. “Be strong and take care of your mother.”
“Yes, Father,” she whimpered.
He turned to me but I refused to meet his gaze. “We will meet again.” Then he was gone.
My mother sobbed in the seat across from mine, red-brown curls bouncing over her shoulder slightly with every hiccup. Sylvi patted her back and murmured that Father would be all right. I leaned against the carriage’s small window, hoping to catch a glimpse of our home. I could hear the screams of panic as we thundered down the street. Our coachmen shouted at the horses. My town… I wanted to look away, but all I could do was gawk. Kenshore was being pillaged and burned. My people fled, taking only what they could carry with them. Some galloped beside us on horses. Some clutched their children to their chests and ran. And still the barbarian raiders gained on them.
The men of our town had been training since word of the crusade reached us five years ago. Traps had been set, weapons had been distributed, plans had been made. How were these foreign warriors already running rampant through our streets? Could it be that the rumors of their invincibility were true? Buildings burned. Swords sliced the air. Men were slaughtered in the streets. Women were dragged by their hair behind houses and into dark corners. Children were cut down where they stood without hesitation. I slapped a hand over my mouth to keep from vomiting.
Something struck the side of our carriage. The door I leaned against was thrown open and I was ejected into the horde of people with a shout.
Men with eyes that glowed like liquid copper surrounded me when I woke. Men dressed in strange, form-fitting armor and carrying all manner of sharp weapons. I scrambled to my feet, tripping on the frayed trim of my dress and hastily brushing the hair out of my face. Their looks of hunger and vicious glee were replaced by shock and surprise.
“Gosta,” one murmured to his neighbor. “Look at her eyes.”
“You can still have her, Gosta,” another jeered. “The general need not know.”
My heart hammered painfully against my ribs. Were brown eyes special on their island? Could my eyes somehow save me?
The one called Gosta grimaced in disappointment. “The general always knows. Grab her.”
“It’s called medicine,” said a sarcastic voice from the other side of my door. “It will help dull the pain. It might even help her heal faster. I’m sure my father wants her in class as soon as possible. How do you think he’ll react when he hears you turned me away?”
“She’ll heal quickly enough,” one of my guards grunted. “She doesn’t need your medicine.”
“And if she has broken bones? If there has been lasting damage done to her spine? If an infection has spread? We’re impervious to most illnesses, but we aren’t completely immune. A physician has never set foot on the academy grounds. My father isn’t going to call one now, not even for Dotharr’s Miracle. I’ve helped numerous other warriors-in-training who have faced the whipping post. I’m the closest thing to a doctor she’s ever going to see.”
There was a moment of silence while the guards deliberated.
“The director already gave us permission,” another voice muttered.
The door opened.
I bolted upright in bed only to crumple back against the bloody sheets with a cry of agony.
Viggo and his sensible friend entered the room. I didn’t have the energy to be surprised, much less speak.
“I was handling it,” the young man whose name I didn’t know said under his breath.
“You were taking too long,” Viggo retorted.
I writhed in pain for a moment and curled up in a ball. “Go away.”
“As you wish,” Viggo said, stepping back.
His friend gave him a look of disapproval before smiling at me. “My name is Bryn. I’m an aspiring doctor, despite my glowing eyes. I can help you if you let me.”
“It doesn’t matter,” I sobbed. “I just want to die.”
Viggo rolled his eyes, but received an elbow to the gut before he could comment.
“Nobody is dying,” Bryn said. “At least not today.”
“It reeks in here,” Viggo grumbled. He stalked over to the window and yanked it open.
Bryn sat beside me on the bed and opened his satchel. “If it bothers you so much, why don’t you track down someone from Housekeeping and request some fresh bed sheets?”
“I’m not your errand boy!” Viggo snapped.
Bryn produced a rag, then continued rummaging through his bag. “Or you can stay here and breathe in the lovely smell of blood and oozing wounds. Do what you wish.”
Viggo simmered while Bryn selected a bottle and set his satchel aside. The aspiring doctor poured green liquid from the bottle over the rag before turning to me. “I need you to turn onto your stomach if you’re able.”
“It hurts to move,” I said with a sniffle.
Viggo threw his hands in the air and marched out of the room, grumbling under his breath.
“I’ll do what I can from this angle then,” Bryn said, then gently pressed the damp rag into my shoulder.
I bit my lips but still let out a whimper.
“I’m sorry. This will sting initially, but it will kick in after a few minutes.”
I shut my eyes and let the darkness take me.
I woke to an exasperated grunt. “You think your father will let you become a doctor after all our hard work?”
“All of my hard work, you mean?” It sounded as if Bryn were fighting a smile.
“Yes, of course, your hard work. You could graduate in six months’ time if you did as you were told and dedicated yourself to your courses. Is that not what you want? To be rid of this place?” Viggo asked.
There was no more pain. I opened my eyes to find myself facing the legs of my writing desk. I lay on my stomach on the floor, in nothing but my undergarments. My cheek was pressed against a blanket. Bryn worked somewhere behind me. I could feel the warmth of him against my sensitive back.
“I want the freedom to make my own future.” A substance of some kind crinkled like paper pinched or rubbed between two fingers. Something clinked against glass. Maybe a spoon stirring a liquid mixture in a bottle? “Once the stamp of this academy is added to my record, the only occupation I will ever be considered for is that of a soldier,” Bryn continued. “I can’t be admitted into Ishem’s School of Science until my father expels me.”
“So the past month of training was for nothing?”
“It appears that way, yes.”
Viggo sighed in frustration, but there was sadness in his voice when he spoke. “Why are you so intent on ending our friendship?”
Bryn laughed. “Your friendship I will keep until death, but this isn’t my calling. I know where I truly belong.”