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“Acorn oil?” I asked, unable to prevent my fascination from showing.
Pallen’s midnight gaze narrowed on me. “Acorns protect the heart and aid the blood with struggles and upsets. The oil is naturally the colour of fire and holds the properties of ritual protection.”
I nodded eagerly. Too eagerly. Desperate to know more.
She tilted her head, studying me. “I see you’re interested in learning, so I’ll warn you that acorns are not to be trifled with. They are toxic if eaten raw. That’s why they allow us to commune with the fire, because fire is what helps leech the poison out and in return keeps our poison from leeching into the flames as we walk through them.”
“Our poison?” My eyebrows rose. “How are we—”
“We do not belong in the fire, yet we carry a spark of it within us.” Snapping her fingers, she summoned a flame in her palm. “We are permitted to tread in their heart, all while we must protect it from our contamination.”
Questions crowded in my head.
How could a mortal carry an ember within them?
How could the elements that made up life pick certain kingdoms to bestow water, earth, fire, and air as gifts?
Out of all the Nhil people I’d met, Pallen was the most riveting.
Her gifts, her knowledge...I wanted it all.
Closing her hand and extinguishing the small fire, she pursed her lips at the ugly sun-dried mushroom in my hands. The mushroom I’d been doing my best to forget about.
Her teacherly tone turned sharp. “Finish eating that. You’ve been nursing it for too long and getting distracted by my apprentices. Eat. Not a bite left, you hear?” She sat cross-legged before me on the furs that protected us from the decaying willow leaves on the ground. Her black eyes saw everything, criticised everything, and her stern mouth with tight wrinkles above her upper lip had guided me through the many steps of the ritual since this morning.
She’d watched me bathe with a special foamy root that smelled tart and acidic. She’d schooled me on how to score my white hair with river sand and brush out the endless tangles with the fire-hardened prongs of a handmade bone comb. The comb had been carved with symbols that were said to layer protection onto those about to commune with the flames.
Pallen’s own hair glittered in the sun, silver strands streaking the black, creating an interesting pattern of light and dark. Her skin wasn’t like her students but similar to other Nhil with reddish-brown tones, pink fingernails, and lips as red as roses. Wrinkles also etched her eyes, making me guess she was older than Tral and even Solin, aging her with wisdom and history.
Wrinkling my nose, I ripped off another mouthful of dried, chewy mushroom. The same tingle I’d felt when Meko first placed it into my hands hit my tongue, sending the strangest sensation of earthy awareness down my throat.
Forcing my last swallow, I cringed and licked my lips clean. “Why did I have to eat that?”
Pallen scowled. “You ask a lot of questions. All day you’ve been nosy. How did I carve the symbols so delicately on the comb? How do my bowls withstand the heat of the fire while melting tallow? How many others have undergone this ritual?” Rolling her eyes, she smiled to soothe her tone. “You have a curious mind, Girl, which I like. But it’s not up to you to know these things. You merely have to trust that I do.”
“Oh! I’m not afraid you don’t know what you’re doing,” I rushed, horrified to have come across that way. “I-I just find it fascinating.” Waving my hand at the weeds growing thick, the moss, the willows, even the river grass swaying in the water-shallows, I added, “You know what each plant can do. You know how to prepare it to eat or use in healing. You can even turn toxic acorns into something safe. After watching you morph plants into medicine, the world is suddenly full of wonders.”
Pallen’s cheeks pinked with pleasure. “You know how to stroke the pride of an old woman, and a curious mind is always one that will live the longest, because an open mind will evolve and always find a way forward, even when no way forward seems to exist, but today, you need to put aside your questions. You belong to the fire, and the sun is falling quickly.”
I sighed and nodded. “I’m sorry, Medicine Woman.” If I was honest with myself, my curiosity toward Pallen and her students came partly from feeling a new awareness within me—a calling to know everything I could, but also as a defence mechanism so my mind wouldn’t have to think about tonight.
So I didn’t shiver as the afternoon wore on.
So I didn’t panic as dusk crept ever closer.
“I’ll tell you what.” Pallen lowered her voice, reaching across the furs to pat my knee. “If you wake tomorrow. If our Chief Tral names you Nhil and you choose to stay, then...you may learn with me, if that is what you wish. I am getting old. Meko and Jilaa were meant to be my last apprentices, but if you are eager to learn, then you cannot ignore your calling. Who knows, you might turn out to be a healer or even end up as a medicine woman like me one day.” She studied my hands with a quick glance. “After all, you do seem to have a gift.”
