The Mages' Winter of Death: The Healers of Glastamear: Volume Two by Charles Williamson Read Free Book Online

with Diana before he left to deliver supplies. He would be gone at least a month. They had a joyous time together, and as Michael was leaving their apartment, Diana said, “My love, my blood is now two weeks late. I don’t know for certain, but I may have good news for you when you return next month.”
    “My darling Diana, I’ll keep in contact through mage thought-talk every evening, and when I can, I’ll fly to you at night.”
    After a final kiss, Michael left with the four Oxbow brothers who wore their full sets of enchanted armor. The brothers had spent many hours each day, since they arrived in Southport aboard the Silver Trident , practicing the use of their two-handed swords and learning other fighting techniques from Jim Neville, a master swordsman as well as a healer. Jim had taught Michael swordsmanship while they were apprentices together at the home of the master healer William of Hearthshire Town, and during those years they studied together, Michael had helped Jim with his healer training.
    Although Michael wore no armor, he proudly wore strapped across his back the bejeweled elf-sword he had found at Snow Troll Fiord. Its transparent stones sparkled in the morning sunlight and its rubies glowed with their wine-dark glow. Its hilt was the sort of showy sword a vain young merchant prince might carry, but inside the sheath was a true elf blade, a blade which would never grow dull and was sharper than any sword made by man.
    They walked to the stables of Timothy Son-of-Timothy’s. Michael mounted his large stallion Black Dash, and the Oxbow brothers mounted the fine warhorses, which Michael had recently purchased for them. They took Jim Neville’s horse along to deliver to Swamp Ford. They trotted their mounts across the causeway to the staging area for the caravan on the northbound road, and everyone got moving within an hour of the scheduled departure time.
    The main road north was the stone-paved Southport/Northport Royal Route, one of the best and most traveled roads in Glastamear. The Wagons made good time, but Michael and the brothers galloped ahead to exercise their horses and put some distance between themselves and the clatter of the wagon wheels on the stone highway. They were the first to reach the guards at the Green Mountain Pass.
    Michael presented the guards with the document from Governor Talton that permitted the transportation of the relief goods north to the towns of Broken Arrow, Marigold Meadows, Swamp Ford, Oxbow Narrows, and Azure Falls. Of course the guard had been expecting them for two weeks, but the senior guard examined the documents and gave the official permission to proceed.
    After the formalities, Michael asked the senior guard, “What are the conditions on the other side of the pass?”
    “At last official count there were four hundred seventy-seven living souls, but we lose a few every cold night and more arrive every afternoon. I estimate there are about four hundred and ninety. They hunt and gather food, but in winter, it’s scarce in these mountains and most have exhausted what food they began their journey with. There’s a lot of hunger, and all of us are glad you found a way to get them to a refugee camp without infecting the rest of the province, Perry be praised. I hate my assignment to keep them out. About half of them are children. They often cry from the cold and hunger.”
    Michael and the Oxbow brothers were a rather intimidating group. While Michael was in his ostentatious merchant finery with a jeweled sword on his back, the Oxbow Brothers were four large armored men on warhorses, a scary group. The refugees drew back in fear. Jacob and Robert were also healers, and all three casted fever search . At least ten of the nearby refugees showed the red glow of fever. Michael saw one feverish woman draw away in fear to hide behind a tree. It was that instant that he realized how foolish he’d been. He recognized her as a washwoman who had regularly come to