The Last Dryad: The Complex by Sarah M. Cradit

Author:Sarah M. Cradit [Cradit, Sarah M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-12-09T16:00:00+00:00

XI- Wezlei

September 26, 4 AS

Wezlei did his best to stay busy. Being active and focused had never been so hard for him in the past, but previously, he’d not had much competing for his attention. His mother often said she poured herself into her work to put distance between herself and her thoughts. He never understood the motivation because he’d never had worries of his own. None he couldn’t quickly solve anyway.

He was out of hawthorn. Somehow Wezlei had overlooked his dwindling supply of digestion tonic, and now a customer had a real need for it, something more serious than an upset stomach. A Human had come to him fresh from a diagnosis of heart disease. The guy didn’t want to go to a Meta, even though some of them could heal him on the spot. Too proud. Wanted something produced from one of his own.

And Wezlei had to tell his client to come back tomorrow, though he was not at all sure he would have anything then, either. Shaking out the last of his half-empty jars, the ones with leftovers and clippings that never made it to the shelved products, he was forced to admit he was out, and it would take another season before he had more. The foxglove, which was his alternate for heart problems, had never survived in the soil here, which he found to be quite strange, given foxglove could thrive just about anywhere. Back home, his mother had to apply poisons to keep it from overtaking the other plants.

The back of the store was in complete disarray. Bottles lying on their sides, his mortar and pestle caked with dried layers. Clippings had mixed with one another when he failed to properly separate them. Unless he could neatly re-separate them, they would all have to be thrown out. He couldn’t risk even a hint of belladonna or hemlock getting mixed into a wellness tonic.

When Aerwen hadn’t returned the day after he’d last seen her, he tried to tell himself there was a perfectly reasonable explanation. He concocted all sorts of hypotheses. Maybe she thought she’d been followed and wanted to play it cool. Or perhaps the monster, Tariq, had tasked her with chores that kept her busy for the day. He could imagine plenty of reasons why she might not show up for a single day, many of them lacking in anything worrisome or malevolent, but he still hadn’t touched a bite of food or slept more than a few minutes at a time.

One day turned into two. On the second day, worry turned his stomach, so it was a good thing he hadn’t eaten the day before. He held tight to the same logic he’d rolled over the day before. With another artificial day and night behind him, they didn’t provide near as much comfort. Wezlei played through every conversation they’d ever had, trying to recall if she ever mentioned anything that might explain this current absence. Nothing came to mind. There was no explanation.

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