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CHAPTER 6

The next few weeks fell back into the familiar routine. As Tianna picked up the language, Thanlos began teaching her the symbols used for writing and reading, as well as some of the more complicated preparations for his clinic. She learned that the strips she had ground into powder the first day were willow bark and had been used in various tonics of different strengths as a painkiller. Some of the other common treatments were Queen’s Cup in a poultice for infections and strawberry leaf tea for stomach upset. Anything worse than the common cold usually took ingredients shipped to Thanlos from a larger center.

Tianna put her mind to everything she could learn, and she found most of the medicinal treatments came naturally to her. He even started her seeing some of the milder patients, mostly women and children with mild symptoms that needed reassurance more than anything. She began to get tentative smiles from some of the mothers and younger women, and was even invited for tea one afternoon with one of the older ladies of the town, which, thankfully, Thanlos was able to decline due to his need for her at the clinic.

“Shila is a gossip. You are doing very well, but I do not think your story is ready to stand up to scrutiny yet,” he told her that night over their evening tea.

“What story?” She blinked at him. Of course, it had occurred to her that he had to have provided the townspeople with a background before, but as they seemed to accept her, she had quite forgotten about it.

For the first time since she had come to know him, Thanlos looked embarrassed.

“I'm sorry. I should have discussed with you first, but I had no way of asking. I'm afraid I came up with the excuse that suited my purpose the most. Honestly, I never really believed you would stay long enough for it to be an issue.”

Tianna set her tea down. “What issue? What did you tell them?”

He sighed and sat back in his chair. “I told them we are married.”

“What?”

Suddenly, all the things she thought she knew about Thanlos came into question. Never had he made a move on her, nor had he even done more than glance at her to ascertain her appearance was satisfactory.

“It is what they would expect with us sharing a living space. I am a foreigner in this place, so it wasn't that hard to convince them that you had finally come from my homeland to join me.”

Okay, that made sense. Tianna relaxed a little.

“You aren't from here?” she asked after processing. She could live with Thanlos' pretend assumption for now, but she found herself suddenly curious about him.

He shook his head. “I traveled a very long way to get here and start fresh where no one knew me. You see, I am an outsider to this world, like you.”

“You are from Earth?” she leapt up from her chair. “Why haven't you said so?”

He reached out a hand, on instinct, before retracting it. “No, not from Earth, if that is the name of your home. And not me, exactly. My father was from...somewhere else. Through a gate like the one that was in the forest where I found you.”

Tianna sat back down. Another world. Multiple worlds.

“What happened? Did he go back?”

Thanlos picked up his tea and stared at it for a long moment. “No. He was killed by the people who had found him. They labeled him as one of the devil-kin that inhabit this world, though that race wouldn't take him either.” His voice turned bitter. “They tortured him publicly before killing him. Tore him apart piece by piece. I never met him. My mother told me about him in secret, once I was old enough.”

Tianna's stomach twisted and suddenly she felt her supper rising to her throat. Oh God. What if that had happened to her? What if anyone other than Thanlos had found her? What if they figured it out now? Would she be torn apart? Real fear began to seed within her.

Wait.

“Devil-kin?”

“You have only seen such a very small portion of this world, but none of it is easy, nor kind. The Daemons, as our people call them, share this world with us. They are feared for their looks, as well as their cruelty. They once raided villages to steal men and women, and even children. For what purpose is only speculation, but once they are taken, none return. There hasn’t been a raid for a long time that I have heard about, but our people try to stay away from them regardless.”

He sensed her discomfort and stopped speaking, then ventured another thought. “Do not worry, we are far too south for such things...but I can calm your fears if you like.”

It took Tianna several moments to get past the idea of Daemons. When she did, she looked at him rather blankly.

“It is a trait, I am told, that I inherited from my father, the ability to calm one in need. It is what got him killed, by all accounts, yet he was driven to use it, to share comfort, as am I. It is almost a physical need. It is why I became a doctor. People feel calmed and reassured and put it down to the medicine I use or their own relief when I provide medical assistance. Still, I don't dare stay in any one settlement for too long.”

“Ah...no thanks. Not just now, anyway. I want some time to think about...all of this.”

He looked disappointed, but tilted his head in acknowledgment.

“One more thing,” he told her. “The arch will not return, not if my father's own experience is the norm. My mother told me that, as hostilities began to arise toward him, my father became increasingly desperate to return to his own world, but the archway never reappeared.”

That couldn't be; she wouldn't accept it.

“I have to try,” she told him. He gave her a small, sympathetic smile.

“Then, if we are done for the night,” he rose, carrying his tea cup to the wash bucket.

“You're leaving again.” It was late, far later than most of the village stayed awake; their conversation had taken them deep into the night.

Thanlos stilled and Tianna got the impression that this was a topic that was even more sensitive than that of his lie about her and his father's history.

“There are many aspects of my being that are unacceptable to the village,” he hedged at last and she frowned at him.

“After all of this, you don't trust me?”

He met her eyes. “It is not about trust. This is personal and it has little to do with you, or your situation.”

That was bullshit, but if she hadn't quite met the requirements for personal confessions, then so be it. She supposed if she had been raised in a world where she had to be so careful of her person, she would be reluctant to share, as well.

Thanlos left without saying anything more and Tianna washed her own cup before stoking the fire in the stove. Fall was progressing and the nights were colder than what she had grown used to. The stove provided heat for the apartment, though, she was forced to leave her door open if she wanted the full benefit of it. That didn't bother her much; Thanlos never intruded, his honor wouldn't have allowed it even if he had shown interest, which he hadn't, to anyone, that she could make out. In fact, she thought she could hazard a guess at Thanlos' personal issue. If the world was as biased as he had explained, then his sexual orientation would most certainly be something to hide from the villagers. For that, she was happy that her appearance had done somebody some good. If their 'marriage' made him more acceptable and less suspect, then so be it.

She lay in bed for a long time that night unable to sleep. The cruelty of the human race appeared to traverse even the bounds of the Earth and she found the fact somewhat disturbing and depressing.

The second full moon saw Thanlos and Tianna making their way back into the wood, ostensibly to collect ingredients. As Thanlos had promised, there was no sign of the arch. Even the bones of the creature had been displaced so that no sign of its presence whatsoever existed anymore. The small ray of hope that Tianna had carried fluttered away after only an hour of searching the grove and she quickly returned to helping Thanlos gather the ingredients that he needed. This time, there were several wrinkled mushrooms that grew upon an old log that excited him, but he was careful not to touch them with his skin. They scraped what they could off into a sack using a broken stick and then made their way back to the village.

A howl interrupted their gathering and they looked up at each other.

“Bigfoot?” she asked.

“What?”

“The creature that had attacked me when you found me, in my world it would have been called Bigfoot.”

“Oh. No, this is not the Mortari, the howl is too long and deep. Wolves, I would imagine. Regular ones, if we are lucky...though dire wolves are known to haunt the woods from time to time.”

Oh good. Tianna didn't protest as Thanlos ushered her away from the grove and back toward the village. While the villagers had become used to, and even complacent, with her presence, they still viewed wandering off into the woods as somewhat of an oddity. Thanlos guided them home through the back alleys to avoid as much attention as possible. Where they thought the herbs for the medicines they were so eager for came from was beyond Tianna. But Thanlos seemed to simply accept the injustice.

It was nearly a week past the full moon and their trip to the forest when the first case of a mysterious illness surfaced. An elderly gentleman entered the clinic, his skin blazing red as if he had spent the day working in the hot sun, his hands and cheeks hot to the touch. Accompanying this was a deep rasping cough.

Thanlos led him back into one of the examination rooms and shortly came out frowning.

“What is it?” Tianna stirred the steep she was preparing. It was a delicate thing, and she couldn't stop until it was finished.

“I'm not sure. I've never encountered this.” He studied the shelves, grabbed two separate bottles, and then left. Tianna recounted the symptoms as well, but came up with nothing good. What she did know was that, without modern medicine, oxygen, and antibiotics, or some kind of anti-inflammatory...things would not go well.

The old man died later that evening, despite Thanlos staying by his side, desperately trying to manage the man's fever and breathing. The rest of the week brought three more cases in quick succession, one of which was a child barely four years of age.

The wave of deaths left the village rocked from its usual complacency. Discontent spread and whispers of evil began to circulate.

Somehow, Thanlos caught on to it easily, though none of the villagers seemed to trust him enough to gossip to him directly. He instructed Tianna to use extra care in all of her interactions, to give off nothing if not a mournful and helpful air. They remained in the clinic house and only left for supplies when they desperately needed them. Instead, they worked day and night on new formulas with known ingredients. Yarrow for the fever, but not too much, for it would poison the body. There was no way to test the solution, so they increased the ingredient infinitesimally. They bought the general store out of mustard and ordered more, getting all the compounds for a mustard pack ready.

When the next case came in, Thanlos had a little more luck. This man was younger, but not a child, and seemed a little less intense than the others. The mustard poultice managed to break enough phlegm in the lungs that the man's breathing improved. The next day, his fever broke and his skin, though still dry and cracked from the illness, took on a healthier sheen. His was the first recovery, and it seemed to break the tension somewhat. Talk turned a little more hopeful, but Thanlos and Tianna couldn't yet breathe a sigh of relief. Many of their more powerful ingredients were running low, and despite placing an order with Takika, a city to the east, it was likely to be weeks yet before more arrived.

“They will not take more deaths well,” Thanlos warned her when they had prepared the last of what they had available. “It will be you and I who take the blame first, as outsiders.”

“What are you saying?” she wanted to know.

“Have your things packed and ready to go. I wish to help here as long as I can, but I am not willing to be their sacrifice.”

After that, Tianna slept with a wariness of every voice, every noise from outside. Her few things remained packed into a leather satchel at the end of her bed, ready to leave at a moment's notice.

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