Phoenix and Ashes by Mercedes Lackey Read Free Book Online Page A

were well behind the lines, out of reach of the
guns and the gas. That was the lot of the PBI—the “Poor Bloody
Infantry,” upon whose lines in the trenches the pilots looked down in
remote pity, chattering and clattering through the sky.
    Or
we do just before Archie gets us, or the Huns shoot us down
—Reggie
amended,
and then the first sight of that azure-winged Fokker interposed
itself between him and the ward, and the shaking began—
    He
clawed at his bedside table for a glass of water, the paper the lads had
brought him, anything to distract himself. But then, before he could go into a
full-blown attack, something altogether out of the ordinary distracted him.
Because, coming towards him down the aisle between the beds, accompanied by his
usual medico, Dr. Walter Boyes, was another doctor, but this time it was
someone he recognized.
    “Captain
Fenyx—” Boyes began, quietly, so as not to disturb West, who had
subsided into a morphine-assisted sleep, “—I believe you already
know my colleague.”
    “I
should say so!” he exclaimed, sitting up straight. He had never been so
pathetically glad to see anyone in his life. “Doctor Scott! Maya! I had
no idea you were on the military wards!”
    “I’m
not,” the handsome, dark-haired, dark-eyed woman said, with a smile. Her
exotic beauty was more than enough to make even the stark white hospital coat
and severe black skirt look out-of-the-ordinary. “Good heavens, Reggie,
can you see the War Department unbending enough for that? Now, if I were
unmarried and prepared to volunteer for Malta, they would take me, and they
might
even allow me to practice in Belgium or France, but here? Oh, they
would
accept me as a VAD aide, of course. But because I’m married, they
won’t take me any other way. Heaven forfend that Peter might have to
supervise the household once in a while.”
    “Well—when
you put it that way—” He shrugged. The War Department was full of
idiots, everyone knew that. Unfortunately, they were the idiots in charge. Maya
Scott and her fellow female doctors, few though they were, would have made a
big difference to the wounded. And if they were worried about the morals of the
patients being corrupted, or even those of the other military doctors,
wouldn’t a married doctor be “safer” rather than more
dangerous? “But why are you here, then? Surely not just for me?”
    “Entirely
just for you; I’ve been sent by a higher power.” A little smile
curved her lips, suggesting that this was a joke. “Walter is a friend of
mine; he worked in our charity clinics before the war,” she continued.
“I didn’t know you were here until Lady Virginia got hold of me two
days ago; she gave me your doctor’s name, and that was when I went
hunting for him and you.”
    Ah,
that explained “higher power.” His godmother was a force of nature.
    “I
would have been here sooner, but until I got hold of Walter, I wouldn’t
have been allowed near you.” It was her turn to shrug. “I’m a
female, not your relative, your fiancée, nor a nurse, you see. Never
mind that I’m a doctor; evidently it is expected that you would
immediately corrupt my morals, or I yours. Fortunately, Walter has made all
smooth.
He
is allowed to bring in anyone he likes as a consulting
physician, so long as I don’t expect to be paid.”
    In
the course of that exchange, Reggie and Maya communicated something more,
wordlessly. A lift of an eyebrow on Reggie’s part towards Dr.
Boyes—
does he know
? The tiniest shake of the head from Maya,
confirming his initial impression—
no
. So, Doctor Walter was
neither an Elemental Mage himself, nor was he among the few who were not Mages
that nevertheless knew of the existence of Mages and magic.
    Doctor
Maya, however,
was
an Elemental Mage. In fact, she was an Earth
Master.
    “Walter,
can the patient leave his bed?” she asked in the next moment.
“I’d like to talk to him privately.”
    “I
don’t want him to put weight on