Half Heart

Chapter 5

  A blur of light lay before me as I listened to a voice I didn’t recognize. There was a new scent about, and I felt like I was lying in water, yet I wasn’t wet. The whole atmosphere of where I laid was totally unfamiliar, but I was very comfortable wherever I was.

  “Glad to see you woke up. And what a perfect night! …will be so happy.”

  Who would be so happy? I wasn’t listening attentively. I was too distracted with the pain in my head. I reached up and felt the bandage, just swooping over my right eye and wrapping around my head.

  “Who’d be so happy?” I asked the voice, who was in fact a jolly, plump little lady who was obviously not Elfin. Her short springy blonde hair and round face let you know that for a fact.

  “Oh, Dr. Perbal, dear. The herbal doctor here at the castle of blithe,” she said with a wide, warming grin.

  I smiled slightly with a nod and made an effort to sit up, but my hand splashed down on the mattress. Splashed? I shifted my body and scooted back my raft of a pillow. I was lying in water, but I wasn’t getting wet. I was baffled, staring down at the… goldfish?…swimming at the bottom of the water bed. I wasn’t sure how I was floating, but I was, and it was quite cozy.

  “Now don’t you get up, now, dear! I’ll just go get Dr. Perbal and tell him your new condition. He’ll be quite pleased, and wanting to do a final inspection before we let you go to the fire tonight, so you just sit tight and don’t get up!”

  She didn’t have to worry about me getting up. And what was she talking about, the fire? Why, in fact, was my head bandage and throbbing like an egg about to hatch? Suddenly I recalled last night and the Belraingst. Or had it even been last night? I could’ve been in here for years! The fire, it could be the burning of Brye’s old, now dead body! I looked at my reflection in the water. I was still young, but a little rumpled looking. I tried to calm my hair down a little bit with my hands, but Dr. Perbal entered the room abruptly. Suddenly I took a second look at the doctor.

  Dr. Perbal was Soea.

  Soea!

  Again he appears, unexpectedly. My trust was certainly still wavering. I didn’t know what to think about this, this… sorcerer. He had to be. Only a sorcerer could keep from being recognized by anyone but me. But why me?

  “So nice to see you , Dr. Soea,” I said quickly before I lost my courage.

  He smiled nicely, as if praising me. “You too, princess.”

  “Princess?”

  He sat down potions on a nearby– you guessed it– silver table. “That is what you are. Not commoner, not peasant, not noble, and definitely not Queen.”

  His words were astonishingly offensive. Not that I favored being called ‘Queen’, but while I was Queen, I didn’t want to be called ‘not the Queen’. It was highly disrespectful, and even while I wasn’t completely in charge here, I was not going to be taken advantage of. Not by him.

  Being sarcastic and rude, I said, “And I suppose you are?”

  He grinned, as if amused. But he didn’t look directly at me. “No ma’am, I’m not a royal. I don’t even wish I was.”

  He was so terribly confusing. “Oh… then why are you following me?” I demanded.

  “My dear girl, I’m not following you. But it does amuse me that we happen to meet so very frequently.” He walked over to me with a small burning orb, “Open wide.”

  I opened my mouth and he peered inside, just like a normal doctor. The more I thought about it, the more normal he seemed. But could he be lying about not wanting to seize the throne? Then again, he didn’t exactly seem to be the type of person who wanted to be in the center of attention all the time. I wanted to trust him so badly, but at the same time I wished I could order a guard to lock him up forever so I could feel safe.

  “Good girl, you can close your mouth now.” He dropped the orb in the water bed. It extinguished, and sunk to the bottom. A goldfish quickly gobbled it up.

  “I don’t understand you,” I told him.

  “Not many do.”

  Just then Brye entered the room. I let out a relieved sigh, feeling that he saved me, even though now I wouldn’t be able to confront Soea. And I wasn’t about to tell anyone who the ‘Dr. Perbal’ really was. That was my little secret.

  “How’re you feeling?” Brye strutted over to me.

  “Good enough,” I replied.

  Brye looked at the doctor. Would he recognize him as the peddler? “You can leave us now, Dr. Perbal.” I saw no sign of recognition on Brye’s face. I let out a sigh. “What’s the matter?” Brye asked.

  I shook my head.

  “I spoke with Eathay,” he told me.

  “What have you learned? Anything important?” I asked, with anticipation.

  Brye let air out of pursed lips. “It’s important, that’s for sure. Critical.” He paused.

  Was he keeping me in suspense on purpose? “Is it that bad?”

  Suddenly, he smiled. “I can’t make out if it’s good, or if it’s bad.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Brye shrugged. “I guess it’s just not as complicated as I had dreamed. Simply kill all the Colies, and the place evaporates.”

  “It’s more complicated than it sounds,” I reassured him in a cautioning tone.

  “That’s what keeps me from being ecstatic.” Brye stared down, in concentration. Or was it concentration? His eyes were on my bed. “What is that?”

  “Not sure, really,” I looked down in the water. Alarm shot through my body as I saw Soea’s face in with my own reflection. I spun around, and there he stood, in his doctor suit, with a glass containing a creamy gray liquid.

  “Dr. Perbal,” Brye sounded started.

  “You just… appear a lot of unexpected places, don’t you?” I squinted my eyes at him. He seemed to have an amused sparkle about him, still.

  “Drink this, dear Queen, and you’ll be out of the bed in a matter of seconds.”

  I glared at his royal remark.

  “Bed?” Brye queried.

  Soea was about to walk off. He turned to Brye, “Ah, waterbed, that is.”