The Third Scroll by Dana Marton Page B

have had the healing knowledge some Shahala did, but herbs and spices sang to him. All who ate his food praised his dishes.
    My stomach growled at the sights and smells of the feast being prepared. He pointed to a small wicker basket of fresh-baked biscuits. I thanked him for his kindness and snatched one, still warm from the oven, but did not bite into it.
    I looked around to make sure no one lingered close enough to overhear us. “Tahar is back. I cannot escape now. It is too late.”
    “They will go again soon. War is coming, worse than before. It is coming here.”
    I barely heard his words, so deafened I was by my own misery. “Here?” I asked at last when his words reached my awareness.
    There had been no war in our corner of the world for a hundred years and for another hundred before that. Not since the Kadar had settled the lands to the north. The Island of Dahru stood well-protected.
    “The Kerghi hordes have a new Khan. He allied himself with Emperor Drakhar.”
    I bit into the flaky biscuit at last and sighed with pleasure as the rich flavor melted on my tongue.
    “The Emperor who seeks to rule the world.” I took a few more greedy bites, not worried in the least. Drakhar’s armies had been invading since I remembered, and his father’s armies before him.
    But the Shahala and Kadar lands—mostly mountains and desert with narrow strips of arable land along the coastline—lacked the things that wars were fought over. Any invader would realize that as soon as they set foot here, and leave us alone. “What do the warriors say?”
    Talmir winced as he shrugged. “They are ready for the fight as always. They do not realize whom they face.”
    The Kadar always stood ready to fight. A nation that lived from war would welcome it.
    “How soon will the Kerghi come?” The upheaval might bring an opportunity to escape.
    “Bad always comes too soon.” Talmir used a fist-sized stone to pound herbs into the meat and make it tender. “Remember the Tezgin mercenaries I told you about? They captured me to heal some of their men wounded in a fight against the Kerghi.” His voice grew somber. “Such wounds I have never seen.”
    “Maybe they will never reach the Middle Islands.” Dahru was one of the largest of the Middle Islands, in the middle of Mirror Sea. Vast lands surrounded the sea, holding great kingdoms. Beyond them lay the ocean, raked by hardstorms, its treacherous waves impassable by ship. The lands that spread beyond the ocean could be reached only through the gate.
    “The Kerghi are already here,” Talmir said. “As close as Morlangee. That is why Tahar returned sooner than expected.”
    He slid the meat into the brick oven, and I caught a smattering of dark stains on the back of his tunic. And when he turned, I saw the pain on his face for the first time, although it must have been there all along, invisible only to me through my veil of small troubles.
    “What happened?” My sharp cry drew glances from the other servants, so I lowered my voice. “Are you hurt?”
    “Worry not about me, little sister.”
    “Let me help you.”
    He started to say no but then sat on a low stool in front of me and pulled up his tunic. His back had been beaten raw, the bloodied skin mangled to expose his muscles.
    “Tahar wastes no time, does he?” My fingers trembled with rage as I reached for the phial that hung on the cord around my neck, hidden under my tattered tunic. “He had only just arrived home. What could you have possibly done?”
    “Not Tahar, Kumra. For sending her daughter food that made her sick.”
    I bit my lip as I cleaned his back with water, then dabbed the worst of his wounds with moonflower tears. They were no use against poison, so I could not help Keela with them. But the drops worked well on wounds, fighting off both the yellow pus that brought with it fever and the deadly blackening.
    I used all I had to help Talmir, then, when no one watched, I unraveled from my body the fine