First Comes The One Who Wanders by Lynette S. Jones Page A

mother as gently as he could. "It depends on how you respond to it. It could just kill you, or it could make you go mad, or it could cloud your thoughts until you are lost from this world. Mother and I aren't strong enough healers to determine which path you will likely take. We can only slow the effects until we can reach someone who can. It would have been easier if you'd told us you'd been hurt immediately."
    "I didn't want to be a bother." Leilas rubbed her eyes. "It seems like I haven’t done anything right since we decided to leave Dirth. Because of my weakness we couldn’t escape through the Echoes. Because we had to go through town, Jayram was alerted to the fact that we left and followed us using my weakness to trail us. I used enough magic in fighting to alert every dark crafter in the region and now I've put you in danger by becoming a liability." Turning her face from the others in the cave, she continued. "I think you should just leave me here and get yourselves to safety. I should be safe enough here, and if I get better, I'll follow you to Menas."
    "Don't be ridiculous," her mother scolded her. "I wouldn't leave you here anymore than you were willing to leave me in Dirth. We'll do our best to slow the poison and then we'll get to Menas as quickly as we can."
    "I gave my word that I'd watch over you. I have a duty to stay with you. If you stay, I stay as well," Joshuas sided with her mother.
    "Because you gave your word to Master Manchu that you would protect me?"
    "I've always kept my word."
    Leilas smiled wearily. Joshuas wondered what was going on inside her head and was tempted to probe, but he refrained. He'd learned over the centuries to appreciate the privacy of the mind. It wasn't always pleasant to walk inside another's thoughts. He'd noticed that Leilas didn’t often venture into other's minds, either. Perhaps it was because of the time she'd spent in the Echoes.
    "Do what you have to do. I'll try not to be any more trouble on the way to Menas. Once we get there, you won't have to worry about me anymore." She turned to face Joshuas. "And since I won't become a master, I couldn’t possibly be the Chidra and so you're free of your responsibility to look after me."
    Joshuas frowned at her dismissal. "We can discuss that in Menas."
    "Or not," retorted Leilas quietly as her mother began to wash her wounds.
    Joshuas moved behind his young charge and watched helplessly as she bit her lip to keep back the protests of pain. He knew once Daina started probing with the knife he'd be needed to hold Leilas. He'd been in a few other situations where a crafter had suffered such a wound. It hadn't been pleasant. Brenth was busy etching a circle with talc that had mysteriously appeared from somewhere on his person. At each midpoint he drew a small circle and then he placed a smaller circle within the larger circle. That was where they'd place Leilas as the ritual began.
    In essence, it was a warding, to keep the evil from consuming its victim, the stronger the healer, the better the warding. With two healers performing the ritual it could be very effective. But Leilas needed more than a warding. He knew that and so did Daina and Brenth. She needed a real healer who could go in and cleanse the evil from her mind and soul. With luck, Deidra still made her home in Menas. She was the most powerful healer in Preterlandis. If luck was against them, she would have gone to her home in the hills. But he'd find her and take Leilas to her, no matter what her condition, provided the poison didn't kill her.
    "Are you ready?" asked Daina of them all as she placed the knife against the first of the punctures.
    Leilas nodded and closed her eyes. "Whenever you are," she answered her mother's question. Joshuas placed his hands lightly on Leilas' shoulders as his answer. He and Daina had done this before, a very long time ago. That time, they hadn't been able to save their patient.
    Looking back on it now, he supposed it was fate. If