A Walk Amongst Shadows (Book 2)

I felt a return to normalcy the next morning. As I stirred from my rest, the events from the night before felt more like a dream than reality.

“How are you?” Aris asked, a great deal of concern in his voice.

“I’m alright, better than I was last night at least.” I smiled.

He didn’t seem convinced. I leaned over in bed and kissed him on the cheek and finally got a smile from him. He put his arm around me, and I snuggled close to him, resting my head on his chest.

“I’ve been worried,” he said as he pushed my hair behind my ear. There was a brief pause before he spoke again. “Are they expecting you at the apothecary today?”

“Ugh,” I sighed, remembering, “yes. They were all upset that I took the day off the day before yesterday.”

“What do you mean?” he asked.

It dawned on me that he and I had not had a chance to speak since yesterday morning. I quickly caught him up on all that had transpired. He was as annoyed as I had been at the welcome I had received by both Evangeline and Simon. I felt him tense when I mentioned patients waiting to see me.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, propping myself up on my side with my elbow to face him.

“Nothing…” he trailed off.

“Who’s the terrible liar now?” I teased.

He laughed. “Just be careful. I’d hate to see you taken advantage of.”

“I know, I know,” I rolled my eyes and laid back on my pillow, “I won’t let them take me hostage.”

“You know what I mean.”

“I do,” I replied. “I know you’re suspicious of their intentions, but I promise I’m being careful. If I sense anything is amiss, you’ll be the first one to know.”

“That’s all I ask,” he winked at me and gave me a quick peck on the lips before swinging his legs around the side of the bed to get up and ready for the day. We chatted about lighter topics as the morning went on. I told him all about my evening in the pub with Simon and Deja and my experience with the wretched beverage called ale.

“Damn, I wish I could’ve seen that,” he chuckled at my disdain. He also found it humorous that Simon had been reluctant to join us until I told him he wouldn’t be joining us.

“And here I thought you hated how much people feared shadow walkers,” I jested as I brushed out my hair.

“I never said it was without benefit,” He quipped back.

“How come you never told me about the Night of Masks?” I asked.

“Honestly, it never occurred to me.” He seemed surprised.

“Have you been before?”

“Oh yes, both as a mortal and a shadow walker,” he clarified. “We should go this year. I think you’d like it.” His eyes flashed with excitement.

“Really?” I asked.

“Yeah, it’ll be fun. It’s been a while since my last festival.”

I beamed at him. “Do people tend have a problem with shadow walkers participating in the festival?” I raised my eyebrows at him.

“Not at all. With the masks on I’m practically invisible.”

“Really?”

“It’s the one time of year shadow walkers can blend in with everyone else. Of course, we’re going to take advantage.” He had a sly look on his face. I decided not to ask.

“Deja will be ecstatic when I tell her.”

“I don’t doubt it.” He walked up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist. I turned my head to the side and was met with his lips. I relaxed into him, completely forgetting the worries from the night before. All was well.

As predicted, Deja was giddy with excitement when I told her we were planning on going to the festival. She spoke of little else throughout our limited time together that day. Sadly, I found myself working around her less and less as demands grew for me to work with patients while at the apothecary.

“Do you know what you’re going to wear?”

“Not at all…” Despite having made enough money over the year or so I had been working here, I had not gotten any fonder of shopping, least of all for clothing.

“Great! I’ll help you!” She exclaimed. “I wouldn’t mind finding something new for the occasion myself.”

“Of course you wouldn’t,” I teased.

Deja wasted no time whisking me away to Anna Maria’s later that day after we had each finished up our work for the day. I hadn’t been back to this place since the first time Deja had brought me here. I was met with the same feelings of aimlessness upon entering the clothier. Deja took me to a different corner of the store this time. One look around told me that this was the section where formal attire was kept. I saw silky fabrics, laces, and fine satins of all colors and combinations. Deja immediately found the brightest garments there and began pulling them out to examine closer.

“Absolutely not!” I chided, as she gestured towards a bright pink gown.

She giggled. “Perhaps it would look good on me…” she thought aloud as she held the dress across her body.

“Of course it would!” I answered. With her skin tone, almost any color would look great on her.

“Maybe this one for you then,” she compromised, handing me a dark emerald-green dress.

I took it from her and held it against me. I don’t think I had ever worn something so colorful before.

“At least try it on!” she urged.

Begrudgingly, I obliged. There was a small room cut off from the rest of the store for just such purpose. I slipped my current frock over my head and stepped into the one Deja had selected. The silky fabric was a cold shock to my skin at first. I had never worn anything of this sort of fabric before. It had to be laced up in the back, a task which Deja happily took on. I noticed small golden detailing scrolling across the bodice as I got laced in. The skirt hung loose around my hips and to the ground. It made for an interesting silhouette, with my top half being so fitted and the bottom so loose.

“Absolutely stunning!” Deja admired when I was finally laced up properly. “What do you think?” she asked.

I examined myself in the mirror. I liked how the neckline was cut and the sleeves that hung just off my shoulders looked nice. But there was just one problem… “I can’t breathe!” I complained. Laughing as I put my hands over my crushed ribs. “You sure you tied this right?” I asked.

Deja laughed. “Of course! I’ve worn dresses like this thousands of times. Have you never been in a corset before?”

I shook my head.

Deja laughed again. “This isn’t even a proper one, normally, you wear the corset under the dress. This one has it sewn in.”

“Either way, I’d like to take it off now please,” I asked, turning my back to her so she could unlace me. I was dismayed at the lack of options there were for formal attire that involved no corseting. Deja gave me a brief history of fashion as we looked, explaining how corsets had once been standard issue for all women regardless of the garments they wore. Luckily, as time progressed so too did the clothing.

“Now it’s not uncommon for women to wear pants just like men do, isn’t that crazy!” she exclaimed.

“What about this one?” I asked, gesturing towards a black dress hanging up near the back.

Deja scrunched up her face. “Why so dark? We’re going to a festival after all.”

I smiled. “I don’t know, I kind of like it.” I examined it over once or twice. It didn’t seem to be as form fitting as the corseted monstrosities from before but was instead sewn to flow more naturally with the curves of the body. Like the green dress, it was silky smooth and flowed over my head and around my body like water. My skin looked pale against the dark color but I didn’t mind. I inhaled and found that I could breathe comfortably before I walked out to show Deja. Her mouth dropped.

“Oh my…” she trailed off as she circled me. “I take it back! This looks fantastic on you.”

I rolled my eyes. “You’ve said that about everything I’ve tried on.”

“Well yeah, but it doesn’t make it any less true. Are you going to get it?” She pressed.

I sighed and looked back at myself in the mirror. While I liked how I looked, I couldn’t help but feel exposed.

“It’s too much…” I twisted to get a better look at my back and noticed that most of it was exposed. “And it doesn’t exactly leave much to the imagination,” I felt my face flush.

“Oh please, don’t be a prude,” she teased, “besides, that’s part of the fun of the masks. You are still perfectly concealed even if your body,” she nodded towards me, “isn’t.”

I looked skeptically at her. The last time I had worn a mask had been in the village. The Elders had always said that they served the purpose of concealing our identities from evil. The only difference was we also wore robes to cover our bodies as well.

“Trust me, Rose. There’s something liberating about anonymity. Ask Aris, he’ll back me up.” She winked.

I flashed one last look at myself. Remembering the black robes, I felt a sudden urge to embrace the more revealing nature of the dress. I wasn’t that hiding and scared villager anymore. Deja was overjoyed at my decision. She ended up selecting a scarlet dress for herself that looked as though it had been made for her.

We left the store together and made our way back towards the apothecary. Just as we were about to split up and head our separate ways, I heard a frantic voice calling my name.

“Rose! Deja!” we both spun around and saw an out of breath Evangeline running towards us. Her normally polished and put together appearance was disheveled as she flagged us down.

“What’s wrong?” Deja asked as the two of us ran to meet her.

“We-we need you, now!” she panted at me.

Deja and I exchanged nervous glances and rushed back to the apothecary.

“Simon’s looking after him now, but it’s not looking good,” Evangeline informed me as we entered the building. She ushered me back to one the sickrooms leaving Deja behind in our wake. I hurried through the door and saw Simon hunched over an operating table. Walking to his side to get a better view of the patient, I felt my mouth fall open. The man on the table looked as though he had been torn in half from his shoulder to his hip. I felt my stomach turning. Never had I seen such a gruesome sight. There were two other healers in the room holding rags over the open wound, cleaning away the blood and applying pressure as Simon worked quickly to stitch up the wound. I took a deep breath and steadied myself. Simon glanced at me as he continued working.

“Please, help us,” he muttered under his breath. I could sense his hopelessness as he worked.

I wasted no time sensing the man’s life energy. He was unconscious, but breathing, at least for now. I sensed for a moment but felt nothing. I placed my hands on his arm, careful to stay out of Simon’s way. Come on. I thought. Where are you? I began flooding him with life energy. I couldn’t resurrect the dead but I could strengthen even the weakest of life forces, whether I could sense it or not. For a moment nothing changed. I kept at it. I felt the man twitch ever so slightly. Like a spark, his life energy ignited. Gotcha. I thought. I placed a second hand on his arm and continued the steady flow of magic.

“You can stop now,” I told the others, “I’ve got it.”

I half expected Simon to get angry but instead he sighed in relief. “Praise be,” he muttered under his breath as he leaned back.

I moved my hands from his arm to his chest. I heard the man moan in pain. He was awake.

“Hang in there,” I encouraged my now lucid patient, “just a little bit longer.” I felt the mangled flesh beneath my fingers begin to knit back together as new skin began to form.

He yelled out, gripping the side of the table.

Simon made a move towards me.

“It’s fine,” I told him. As I continued working his moans of discomfort became sighs of relief and even pleasure near the end. Not an uncommon experience to say the least.

“Gods bless you girl,” the man said, taking my hand in his. “You are a saint.” He kissed the back of my hand.

“I wouldn’t get that carried away,” I smiled as the other healers began cleaning up the mess and moved to wash the blood from my own hands.

Without the blood covering his face, I could now see my patient was a middle-aged man, maybe a little younger than my father. But unlike my father, he was far less physically imposing. His dirty blond hair, now streaked red with blood, was still plastered to his face. But the look in his eyes was that of rejuvenation.

“No,” he insisted, “I owe you my life.” His tone was serious. “If there is ever anything I can do…” he trailed off.

“Nonsense,” I assured, “it’s my job. I’m just glad we got you when we did.”

He swung his legs to the side of the bed and flexed his feet. Standing up he paced back and forth in the room a few times, laughing in disbelief.

“Everything alright?” Simon asked.

“When I was a boy, I broke my leg, never healed right. Been walking with a limp ever since. Now look!” he exclaimed as he hopped around from one leg to another. He spun to face me and threw his arms around me. “Sweet girl!”

Simon made a motion towards the man to get him off of me.

“Sorry,” he looked near tears, “I just-” he searched for the right words, “thank you.”

Simon had the other healers see him out. When all was quiet and only the two of us remained, he spoke again.

“That man should be dead…” he rubbed his tired eyes. “I couldn’t have saved him,” his voice was full of remorse.

“Simon don’t-” he held up his hand.

“I don’t pretend to understand this ability of yours, I don’t know if it’s good or evil…”

I narrowed my eyes at him.

“But you have managed to make it into something miraculous.” He concluded looking lost in his thoughts. He looked up at me, “I am honored to know you Rose Rivyn.”

I smiled at him, surprised by his words. “But I must caution you,”

I rolled my eyes. Not this again. “Simon, I’m safe, you don’t need-”

“How do you think that man sustained those injuries?” His eyes burned with anger, hatred even.

I felt my blood run cold.

“He was attacked by a shad-”

“Aris didn’t do this,” I asserted coldly.

“Are you sure about that?” he asked, raising his voice, “can you say with one hundred percent certainty that this wasn’t your shadow walker’s handiwork?” He leaned in, nearly spitting the words at me.

“Of course I can,” I spat back.

Just then the door burst open and Deja walked in. “Oh my goodness! I just saw your- what’s going on?”

“Nothing,” I answered, keeping my eyes locked on Simon. “I was just about to head home.” I turned to face Deja and smiled. “Thanks for the help today, I’ll see you tomorrow.” I gave her a hug and left the apothecary without sparing a glance behind me.