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  Sorundi hugged Aliana, and teacher and pupil joined in a warm and tender embrace.

  “I’m overjoyed too, to be back among my Sisters once again.”

  “A moment of great happiness amid this sea of sorrow around us has brought you back, my dear child, and we must enjoy it no matter how brief it may be.”

  “Gerart told me the incredible work my Sisters have been doing, helping to save the injured. The Royal Family is very grateful to the Order. He has also told me that the invading armies are closing in…” said Aliana, saddened.

  “This war we find ourselves in the middle of is a well of endless suffering. Pain and tragedy rain down over this Kingdom like bleeding darts, and soon the situation will get even worse. That’s why we’ve taken refuge in the Capital. We weren’t safe any longer in the Temple. The coast is being raided by the vanguard of the Nocean army.”

  “We’ll be safe here,” Aliana said hopefully.

  “Don’t be so sure… The city will soon be under siege. It will be a bloody siege by any standards, and unless there’s a miracle I very much fear we’ll perish… That’s why it’s crucial to save this man. We can’t afford to lose him, his power is too great, too important for the cause of Rogdon. He must live to defend Rilentor. We must ensure that he survives.”

  “Rilentor will resist, I’m sure of that,” Aliana said, more driven by hope than reason.

  “Not without him…” said Gerart, who had come back into the room at that moment. “If we can’t manage to save him, we’re doomed…”

  Aliana turned and looked at the Prince, so handsome and gallant in his silver armor trimmed with gold. Those deeply buried feelings were surfacing anew in the Healer, taking her back a lifetime to their first meeting, when those feelings had first taken hold of her. They had not had time to talk. Mother Healer Sorundi had requested Aliana’s presence at once. Gerart had offered to go with her. Along the Palace halls, escorted by the Royal Swords, the Prince had not mentioned anything personal beyond expressing his immense happiness at finding her alive. All the same, Aliana could see in Gerart’s blue eyes a yearning, a wish to express something he could barely keep under control. Aliana knew it was not the time for anything of the sort, and that the Prince was maintaining a silence it was obvious he wished to break.

  “We’ll do everything we can, your Highness, I guarantee,” Sorundi assured him.

  “Thank you, Mother Healer,” the Prince said, and came up to the bed.

  He sat down beside the old man and whispered in his ear:

  “Hold fast, Mirkos, fight for your life. Don’t let death take you. Rogdon needs you. The King needs you. I need you. You are Mirkos the Erudite, the King’s Battle Mage. Fight, you must survive this and get better again so that you can confront the Nocean Sorcerers. They’re on their way… we need you…”

  The old man twisted in his bed. As if Gerart’s words had moved his spirit.

  Mother Healer Sorundi came to stand beside Gerart and stared at the great Mage with deep worry.

  “My dear child,” she said, looking at Aliana, “perhaps Mother Helaun has sent you at this exact moment which is so difficult for us. Your powerful Gift might succeed in accomplishing what we still haven’t been able to.”

  “I’ll try, Mother Healer. I’ll do everything in my power to save him.”

  “I know, my child. I can’t ask any more of you.”

  Sorundi smiled at Aliana gently, and the girl went to the bed where the Mage was fighting a losing battle for his life. He was sweating profusely. When she bent over Mirkos a stench hit her nostrils, as if there were sewage under the bed. Aliana turned her head away, overcame her disgust and laid her hand on the old man’s forehead. It was burning hot. Something strange was happening here. That stench was not normal, nor was the high fever which the mage still had after such intensive care. A feeling of unease came over Aliana.

  “Gena, please help me,” Aliana asked her pupil. “Keep his thread of life stable with your power while I examine him.”

  Gena nodded. Both Healers laid their hands on Mirkos’ chest, and the blue energy began to flow from the two young women into the Mage’s body. Aliana watched Gena’s energy sustaining the old man’s life, and wondered at the skill and power of her pupil’s Gift. This reassured her. Gena would make sure Mirkos’ remaining thread of life did not break. Aliana examined the serious wounds; they were near-fatal, yet the Sisters had managed to work a miracle and stabilize them. Then why was he not improving? Why did he seem unable to come out of this feverish state? She went on pouring forth her energy, seeking to find the cause. She knew that some organ must still contain a latent point of infection, contaminating the blood with its poison. For a long time she searched for it but was unable to identify any putrid part. Aliana was at a loss to explain this. If the organs were clean, what was causing the fever? What was infected?

  Mirkos thrashed his arms and body in the midst of his delirium, and two Sisters came to hold him down. With difficulty, Gena was managing to keep him alive.

  Aliana realized they had no time left. She concentrated harder and focused her power. She had been drawing on her own inner energy for some time, and was afraid she would not have enough of it. Luckily this was no ordinary patient but a mage of great power, with an immense well of energy. Aliana decided to use this instead of drawing on her own. Her optimism turned into stupefaction in an instant. There she discovered what was killing Mirkos. The Mage’s well of energy was completely contaminated, so that the natural whitish color of the immense source of power was now greenish brown and resembled a putrid pool of pestilent water. An unbearable stench invaded her nose and throat. The impression was so strong that she was overcome by gagging. Aliana’s concentration broke, and she was forced to move back to be able to breathe.

  Sorundi hurried to her side. “Are you all right, Aliana?”

  Aliana could not speak, the nausea was too strong. She managed to calm herself at last and get her breath back.

  “I… I’m… all right… it’s over. It’s his power, his energy that’s corrupt, not his body.”

  “What… how is that… even possible?” Sorundi asked, taken aback.

  “I think I know the answer,” Gerart said. “He was attacked by a blood demon conjured up by Zecly, the very powerful Nocean Great Sorcerer. Mirkos fought desperately against it and managed to defeat it, but this Demon left him badly hurt, on the verge of death. I rescued him from the wall and carried him on my shoulder along the underground passage to the woods. He was losing blood. I didn’t think he would make it out of there, but he did. He’s a very tough old man.”

  “In that case,” said Aliana, “the Demon must have somehow poisoned his pool of energy, his power.”

  “We’d never come across anything like it,” Sorundi said, her brows arched and her voice deeply troubled. “Steel, magic, always attack the flesh, the body, sometimes the mind. But we’d never seen it attacking the source of the inner energy of someone with the Gift. This is something new and alarming.”

  “Do you mean to say you don’t know any cure for it?” Gerart asked Sorundi. There was great concern in his voice.

  “I very much fear not,” Sorundi replied, with a questioning look at Aliana.

  The young Healer took a deep breath, then let it out abruptly. She put her hands on Mirkos’ chest again. Concentrating deeply, she searched for the old Mage’s contaminated pool of energy. She reached it and focused all her healing energy, trying to cleanse that malign infection. But her energy could do nothing against the terrible evil which was corrupting the Mage’s power.

  “He can’t die,” she heard Gerart say. It was more a prayer than a statement.

  Aliana tried everything in her knowledge, everything she had been taught in the Order, but she could not eliminate a single trace of the deadly infection.

  I have to find how to act against this evil. If I don’t, Mirkos will die and with him the scant hopes the Rogdonian people still have. But nothing I try works! It
’s as if the infection was immune to my healing power. I must find how… somehow…

  And in that moment of anguish, of her desperate need to find the cure, the Ilenian medallion began to shape strange symbols in Aliana’s mind.

  The medallion has activated itself! It’s casting a spell!

  Suddenly the blue energy of her power began to change color, turning into a golden sheen which Aliana immediately identified as Ilenian magic.

  Is the medallion really casting a spell to help me cure Mirkos?

  The medallion has always generated destructive magic… Will it be capable of invoking positive, healing magic? I’d be very surprised, these objects of power don’t seem created for that.

  Aliana watched as the magic of the medallion worked on the inner well, and before her astonished eyes the contaminated pool began to take on its white shade once again: very faintly at first, but then growing steadily in intensity. The magic of the medallion was cleansing the infection.

  It was using her own energy, but this was practically exhausted. In reality the medallion was not healing Mirkos. As she had guessed, the medallion lacked that power. But what the Ilenian artifact could do was to enable the benign effects of her healing magic. And that was precisely what it was doing. Little by little Aliana’s Gift, empowered by the medallion, eliminated all trace of the infection in Mirkos’ well of power. The fever began to come down at once, and the old Mage’s delirium ceased.

  Aliana opened her eyes. Exhausted but also euphoric, she looked at Sorundi and Gerart, who were watching her expectantly.

  “He’ll pull through. Rogdon has a shred of hope left,” Aliana said, and smiled broadly.

  It was almost midnight when Aliana arrived at the great terrace over the royal gardens. She smiled at the moon, high and coquettish in the clear night sky. The thousand stars surrounding the pale goddess of the night seemed to escort her in her nocturnal ride. This place brought back pleasant memories. She had spent many evenings there with Gerart on that superb platform of white granite and grey marble, leaning on the elaborately designed rail, looking out at the beauty which stretched before them. A sea of roses, jasmine, poppies and exuberant growth spread as far as the wall, and in the middle was the great lake, with those lyrical white water lilies she enjoyed so much. Everything arranged so exquisitely, tended with infinite care by the royal gardeners.

  Aliana sighed. She was nervous, much more than she had expected. She had not been as nervous since… since… the oasis… She tried to relax, her date would arrive soon. That was what the note had said, the one the maid had given her. At midnight. She looked up at the beautiful moon once again. It was midnight. Steps behind her warned her he was approaching. She was afraid to turn, and instead stayed with her gaze fixed ahead.

  “Aliana…” he said, coming to stand beside her and looking at her with his determined blue eyes.

  “Gerart…” was all she managed to say, overwhelmed by unexpected uncertainty and nervous tension.

  Gerart took her hands and looked at her. His eyes were full of remorse.

  “Forgive me, I beg you.”

  “There’s nothing to forgive, Gerart. You did the right thing. I’ve always felt that.”

  “Every day and every night since that fateful day have been an unbearable torture for me, not knowing whether you were alive or dead.”

  “I’m alive, I survived. We both did. We must thank the Light.”

  “I knew you had to be alive, hope never left me. But I was eaten up by remorse. Guilt at having left you when you needed me most. Day after day, little by little, in a slow agony. Every day I told myself you were alive, and straight away the weight of guilt would fall on me so that I couldn’t breathe.”

  Aliana looked at the Prince and saw anxious, honest pain in his face. She had to make him understand that he had acted as he should, to give his soul rest.

  “You did your duty to the Kingdom, to the Crown, Gerart. With honor, as the Prince of Rogdon should. You ought to be proud of yourself instead of feeling guilty. I want the pain to end here today. You mustn’t regret your actions, since they were noble and correct. What’s more, if the situation were to repeat itself, I hope you’d behave in the same way, since that’s the honorable way, and I would expect nothing less of the Prince of Rogdon.”

  “No, I’d never do it again. I wouldn’t leave you. I’d stay with you. I’ll never leave you in the midst of danger again, never,” Gerart said, shaking his head energetically.

  Aliana put her hands on his cheeks and looked at him firmly. Gerart was the most honest and honorable man on the face of Rogdon, and Aliana did not want that to change in the slightest, least of all because of her. She would not permit it.

  “Yes, you’d let me go, just as you did then. You owe yourself to the Kingdom, and to your people, not to me.”

  Gerart tried to shake his head, but Aliana held it firmly so that he was unable to. Gradually his look softened until once again it was as Aliana remembered it. With a smile she took her hands away.

  “I’m really happy to see you safe and sound,” Gerart said, his face illuminated by the joy he felt.

  “I’m happy too, to see you in one piece,” joked Aliana, trying to lighten the mood.

  “I’ve longed for this moment, to see you again, to have you by my side. Every long anxious moment, since the day we were separated. And at last my wish is granted, just when I was beginning to think it might never happen. You’re here, and there are no limits to my happiness. When I lost you I made myself a promise which I must now fulfill.”

  At these words Aliana became deeply uneasy. Her heart skipped several beats, because she guessed what the Prince wanted to say.

  “Gerart…” she said, trying to dissuade him, although she knew she would not succeed.

  “Let me tell you how much you mean to me, Aliana. I must say this to you. I’ve waited too long to do it, and if I don’t, I know I’ll always regret it. I don’t expect anything, I don’t ask for anything, I only want you to listen.”

  “All right…” Aliana conceded.

  She looked at him and was entranced by his gentle, gallant presence. His blond hair, his intense blue eyes, that face whose classic beauty took her breath away, his broad shoulders… she was trapped anew. For an instant she had to hold back a sigh. The old feelings she had kept buried surfaced again, and there was no denying them in the Prince’s manly presence.

  “From the moment I set eyes on you when I woke up from my poisoning and thought you were a goddess, I fell in love with you, Aliana. The days we spent together only gave wings to that feeling and allowed it to soar higher. And that feeling has grown, unquenchable as a bonfire born of the spark from a flint. My heart belongs to you, Aliana. It’s yours forever, and here, tonight I give it to you. My wish is to be with you, today, tomorrow and forever. Whether we’re enjoying peace or caught amid the worst of wars. I want to be with you, because beside you I’ll overcome all obstacles and gain peace and prosperity for my people. You are my inspiration, my muse; you are my queen. I need you, I love you, Aliana.”

  The Healer was so overwhelmed by Gerart’s words that she almost took a step backwards. Those words, coming so genuinely from the bottom of his honest heart, had touched her soul. She felt flattered, moved, yet at the same time confused and divided within herself.

  “Gerart… you flatter me…”

  “That’s how I feel about you, and you know it’s as true as the moon which smiles upon us tonight.”

  “I know you expect an answer, that you want it, even though you’re not asking me. I’m no longer that young inexperienced innocent I was. I’ve seen much these past months, I’ve suffered greatly, and that’s made me open my eyes and mature fast. It’s the price you have to pay when you survive blood, when you suffer the pain of evil and survive to tell the tale. I’ve suffered, I’ve seen blood, I’ve tasted it on my lips, I’ve lost loved ones, I’ve killed… and I’ve grown. We live in a harsh and cruel world, and to survive we have t
o learn about pain. That’s why I can tell you tonight, with the moon for a witness, that my heart is divided. Divided by the feelings I have for you: strong ones, I admit, Gerart. But at the same time I also have strong feelings for my Order, for my Sisters and my duty as a Healer. Seeing them all today, being with Mother Sorundi, my heart is full of joy, of love. It’s something I can’t help, it’s my calling. Being able to save the great Mage Mirkos has opened my eyes to the importance of my Gift, and how much I can help people if I continue in the Order with my dear Sisters.” Aliana looked into Gerart’s eyes and with a great effort kept her gaze steady.

  She did not want the final division of her heart to be apparent to the Prince, the one which drew her to Komir; she would not mention this to Gerart, since it would only create pain and awkwardness. But, deep down she knew that in her heart there were strong feelings towards Komir. This was an impossible situation.

  “I understand what you’re telling me, and I respect it. I too have changed since the last time we saw each other. I too have seen much: the death and destruction which this senseless war has brought to our kingdom. Thousands of innocents have perished, and no matter how hard I tried I could not prevent it. My hands are soiled with enemy blood and my heart weeps for the nameless heroes fallen in the defense of Rogdon. I’ve learnt a lot; the doubts of the past plague my mind no longer. I know who I am and the decisions I must make, no matter how difficult they may be. I’m not that same naïve young prince, unsure of himself. And one day I’ll come out from beneath my father’s huge shadow. But that is no longer such a concern to me, nor does it create the insecurity it used to in me. If I’ve learned anything, it’s to be myself and to fight for my people. War, suffering, blood… they make us grow fast, Aliana. That’s why I want to put into words what my heart feels, now that I have the chance. Times are bad, and soon unfortunately they’ll get even worse. I might not survive, perhaps none of us will, which is all the more reason to tell you how much I love you. The decision is yours, my beautiful Aliana. Whenever you’re ready to make it, I’ll be here waiting for you. I offer you my heart and my kingdom, for I wish to make you my Queen and rule this nation with you by my side.”