The Pain Merchants. Janice Hardy

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      My heart flipped like a beached fish. “You didn’t tell them about me, did you?”

      “Of course not! But you can heal. We could work as a team.”

      Pointless—and dangerous—to even ask. “No, Tali, you know what they’d do to me if they found out I could shift.”

      Experiments, prison, maybe even death. A few years ago, the Duke starting claiming that abnormal Takers were abominations and were to be brought to the League if discovered. He’d put up posters all over Geveg, covered every inch, even the smaller farming isles.

      Tali shrugged. “I heard they might lower the entrance requirements for apprenticeship down to those just strong enough to heal minor cuts and bruises, so I thought maybe the Luminary wouldn’t care. You can heal a lot higher than that.”

      But it wasn’t real healing, not like what Tali did. “He would care. Besides, it would wear you out and the League wouldn’t risk your health. They need you.” Even if they didn’t ship me off to Baseer, I was useless to them. I’d keep drawing pain until I was so twisted up in agony I couldn’t move.

      “Well,” Tali said after a brutally long silence, “if you don’t want to work here, then next time steal a whole chicken. That way you’d have eggs every morning.”

      I grinned, even though I did want to work for the League and be a real Healer. I just knew it would never happen. “A chicken loose at the boarding house? Millie would love that.”

      “So steal a coop as well. And some corn. Maybe a little bit of straw for a nest.”

      I tried to keep a straight face, but the idea of a coop in my room was too much. The giggles came on fast. Tali and I rocked back and forth like children, clutching our sides, tears in our eyes, until the rounds bell rang.

      Tali stood, her shoulders quaking. She pushed a blonde strand of her Healer’s ponytail off her shoulder, jingling the tiny jade and gold beads woven through it. Her hair looked pretty, all smooth and straight like that. I couldn’t afford the irons to flatten my curls. Neither could Tali really, but League apprentices had to look smart, and they got to share luxuries like hair irons and face powders. Aristocrats didn’t want healing from a bunch of scruffy children and, after the war, those were the only Takers Geveg had left. They had to bring in Elders and teachers from Baseer just to train us, and the first crop of Gevegian fourth cords were training now. Next year they’d be full Healers, allowed to go out and seek their fortunes, though most would probably stay at the League.

      “Will you be all right?” Tali asked. “When did you eat last? I might be able to sneak some food from lunch.”

      “I’ll be fine.”

      My stomach rumbled and she sucked in her bottom lip, once again the worried little sister. She nodded quickly, then threw her arms around my neck. “You be careful.”

      “You too. Don’t go anywhere alone, OK?” I hugged her back. She smelled like lake violets and white ginger.

      “Promise.”

      “Go forth and heal the sick, young one.” It earned me a giggle.

      “Go forth and mutilate fish.” She smiled, but still looked worried. Maybe she was thinking about the missing apprentices, or maybe it was the knuckleburn she’d taken from me.

      We left her room. Tali went towards the hospital wing, while I hurried right towards the exit on the other side on the main entrance hall. It was the closest exit to the docks, and the north gate League guards always let me pass. I was pretty sure the skinny one was sweet on me, but I’d sooner kiss a croc than a Baseeri.

      I crossed into the front antechamber and wove my way through the dozen or so people waiting for heals. Bits of green, white and silver flashed as apprentices late for class took the shortcut up the back staircase.

      “That’s her!”

      I jerked around before my wits could stop me. Two wards were pointing at me, as wide-eyed and amazed as they’d been last night. Saints and sinners! I couldn’t find good luck in an empty pail.

      “She’s the one who shifted pain,” the ward said loud enough to turn heads. More than a few folks stopped and stared. “She drew it right out of one man and pushed in into another. We saw it, didn’t we, Sinnote?”

      My empty stomach tightened. Standing between the wards was a League Elder in full gold cords. Eight braided cords coiled on his shoulders like vipers, the ends dangling down to the edge of his vest-robe. Thick arms strained his crisp sleeves and his beaded black hair was pulled back and tied rope-thick at the nape of his neck. A husky man, Mama would have said.

      He hooked a finger towards me and pointed at a tile in front of him. “Come here.”

      Running would make me look suspicious. Disobeying would make me equally suspicious. I’d never make it past the guards anyway, no matter how much that fellow at the gates liked me.

      “Now, girl.”

      Nothing good ever followed just two words.

      I stepped forward, wondering what time they served lunch in Dorsta Prison.

       Chapter Two

      The Elder stared down at me, looking as solid as the thick columns that supported the entrance-hall balcony behind him. He folded his arms across his broad chest and tapped a single finger against a bicep. Men in robes shouldn’t look that intimidating. That’s what armour was for. “Your name?” he asked.

      “Merlaina Oskov.” Tali would give me Mama’s stern face again for lying, but having an Elder know your name was trouble in a box. They paid heed to none but the Luminary, and he paid heed to none but the Duke, just like all of Geveg’s military-appointed leaders. Wasn’t safe to get noticed by any of them.

      “Do you know these wards?”

      “No, sir.”

      The chatty one’s brown eyes went wide and his mouth dropped open. “But—”

      “I work the sundown to sunup shift at the taproom,” I said quickly. “Don’t see how boys would cross my path at those hours.”

      Sinnote pinch-twisted his friend’s arm. “I don’t think that’s her.”

      “It is her. She’s even wearing the same dirty clothes.”

      “You’re wrong.”

      League Elders weren’t fools, much as I needed this one to be.

      “What time did you see her?” he asked.

      “Three,” the boy said.

      “Five,” Sinnote said at the same time. He grimaced and his freckles wiggled.

      The Elder’s mouth twitched at the corners, then he reached for my arm. “Come with me.”

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