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Those weren’t among the ones left behind by Mother Dilys. They were the few things she still had with her from her old life. She went up to her bedroom and dug in the bag she’d brought. At a noble court, enchantment was a constant threat, as many great lords kept court wizards to use against their enemies. Duke Maxen hadn’t kept a wizard, but she had visited a friendly wizard to get some remedies against enchantment, and she’d been afraid that if she left them behind she’d have had witchcraft added to the accusations against her. Magic itself wasn’t forbidden, but using it for harm was, and the mere presence of magical items could have been used as evidence to condemn her.
She should have left them somewhere once she fled so they couldn’t be found on her if she was caught, but she hadn’t been able to bear discarding something so precious that would be nearly impossible to replace. The vial she took from her bag wouldn’t break a sleeping curse, but it would lessen the impact of any other magic that might be affecting him. She brought it downstairs, opened it, and knelt beside him to wave the open vial under his nostrils.
After a few moments, his eyelids fluttered. Then they opened, revealing bright blue eyes. “What happened? Where am I?” he mumbled. He frowned and added, “Who am I?”
Chapter 6
“I was rather hoping you could tell me that,” Elwyn said.
He blinked at her, looking dazed. “And who are you?”
“I’m the person who found you in my garden with a wound in your side and a bruise on your face. You must have been in a fight, though I can’t tell if you were the winner or the loser.”
“I don’t feel like a winner,” he said with a grimace.
“You’re alive, with relatively minor wounds.”
“What does the other guy look like?”
“I have no idea. He must have staggered to someone else’s garden, if he didn’t flee entirely.”
“He’s not here?”
“I can’t see any sign of a fight having taken place here, and there was no other man in my garden. My nearest neighbor definitely would have let me know if she’d found a man—unless she wanted to keep him to herself.”
“I had to have been hurt fairly badly for me to lose my memory,” he said. He rubbed his head, then touched his bruised cheek and winced. “This must have been a blow.”
“It’s only a bruise. You don’t have any head injuries.”
“And how would you know that?”
“You were fortunate enough to collapse in the garden of a healer. Someone who knows something of healing,” she hurried to correct herself.
“That was clever of me. I wonder if I did it on purpose. Thank you for coming to my aid. I’m afraid I can’t introduce myself, but may I ask who you are?”
“I’m Wyn,” she said, giving the same name she’d given to Mair. “And you’re fortunate that I happened to be here. This cottage had been abandoned for years before I moved in not too long ago. And now, if you’ll excuse me for a moment, I’ll bring you something to help ease your aches.”
“I would definitely appreciate that,” he said heartily, closing his eyes.
She rose and went to the kitchen, where the helper was already brewing willow bark tea. “Just what I was coming to get,” Elwyn said. “I think there’s some kind of magic at work. My potion for diminishing the effects of magic was what woke him, and he has no memory, in spite of having no head injuries. There’s something very odd about this whole situation.” She reassured herself with the reminder that the duke hadn’t kept a court wizard, so this likely had nothing to do with her own situation. It was merely a coincidence. This cottage was on the edge of the village, so obviously someone stumbling into the village who was growing weaker from his injury would go there first in search of aid. At least, that was what she told herself.
She took the tea to the sitting room and helped the man sit up so he could drink it. “Any dizziness?” she asked him. “Headache?”
“I feel somewhat lightheaded. And hungry. I don’t know when I ate last—literally. I have no idea.”
“I doubt you could have eaten since last night, at the earliest. I’m sure you are hungry.”
“So, what is my prognosis?”
“You’ll need to be careful with that cut. There are stitches in it, so no sudden moves, especially with your right arm, and don’t lift anything heavy or you may tear it open. You’ll be sore for some time. Otherwise, rest. Now, you sit here and drink that, and I’ll check on supper.”
She went back to the kitchen, where the helper had soup going in the pot and had already set places for two. “I think it’s best for now if we don’t let him know about the magic,” Elwyn said softly. “I don’t want to steal credit for your work, but we should be careful since we don’t know who he is or where he’s from. I’m not even sure he’s telling the truth about having no memory, since there’s nothing physically wrong with his head. Is dinner ready?”
The ladle scooped soup into one of the bowls. “I’ll take that as a yes. I’ll give you a couple of minutes before I bring him in.”
Back in the sitting room, she found that her patient had finished his tea. “If you’re hungry, there’s soup for supper,” she said.
“That sounds nice. At least, I think it does. I know what soup is, but I don’t know if I like it. That’s so odd.” He glanced down at his bare chest. “Um, I’m not really dressed for dinner.”
