Suelen (Tuyo Book 5) by Rachel Neumeier

Author:Rachel Neumeier [Neumeier, Rachel]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Published: 2022-06-17T00:00:00+00:00

The boy looked even younger and smaller once he was up on the table. A strong child, but in so much pain and so dazed by the poppy that he did not fight the bitter mandragora. Suelen realized only when the moment came how difficult dosing the boy might have been if he’d fought them; but by the time that possibility occurred to him, the dose had gone down and the boy’s muscles relaxed into the deep sleep of the drug. Suelen quickly performed the incantations that would strengthen the heart, steady its beat, lighten the grip of the mandragora just enough to make it safe to use.

The musculature was much more obvious in a boy this age as the layer of fat had not yet attained the mature thickness. Suelen would like to have a careful look at uninjured Ugaro children … later … when he was not so weary.

Then he winced, his focus sharpening as he uncovered the knee to once more reveal the full extent of the damage this boy had suffered. “I really cannot imagine …” he murmured, but stopped himself. Men were capable of terrible acts on their own, and even worse things happened when sorcerers enthralled men. He had already known that. And perhaps the man who had done this had not realized what he did.

“Very well,” he said instead. “Let’s begin.” He laid out the gold disks and the disks of chalcedony. Ordinarily he would have used a very small iron disk for a child. He hadn’t brought any of the proper size; hadn’t imagined he might be working on a boy this young. But a robust Ugaro child ought to be able to handle the weight of an ordinary disk, made for use with much more lightly built Lau patients.

Finally, Suelen lifted his hands, straightened his back, and began the smooth, flowing gestures and clear-voiced phrases of the Golden Invocation and, as he finished, lifted his face to the hot sunlight that came pouring down across them all, power and heat and strength and purity of will.

Everything happened very fast.

From the place they had laid him beside the table, the Ugaro warrior grabbed the edge of the table, hauled himself to his feet, and seized Suelen’s hand, raising his voice in a shout as Suelen’s surgical implements and shining disks of gold and chalcedony flew in every direction, and above and around them the brilliant sunlight splintered into jagged shards of light.

Torowo’s grip was crushingly hard, and Suelen, taken utterly by surprise, fell to his knees, crying out both from the unexpected pain and from terror that his hand might be damaged.

Almost at the same instant, Taralas came up from his place, striking Torowo’s wrist, slamming his shoulder hard against the warrior’s chest. The Ugaro warrior let go of Suelen, falling back with an almost soundless grunt as Taralas snatched up Suelen’s best scalpel in his one hand. Oras dragged Suelen back, away from the table, at great risk to his leg. Suelen gasped at him to stop.

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