Techromancy Scrolls: Adept by Erik Schubach Page A

away.
    He sounded mad as he continued, “My prior colleague was a lazy man. He only treated your symptoms instead of coming to a proper diagnosis. Just because a patient isn't a Lord or Lady, doesn't excuse this sort of incompetence.”
    But then he brightened. “Lucky for you, I finished my journeyman rotations in Castle Wexbury's infirmary to become a master healer, where they have come up with a new treatment that has been showing great success when coupled with the traditional treatments.”
    He dug around in his bag and came out with one familiar medicine, but then pulled out two others. He showed the brown glass bottle and said, “Take this as you always have.” Then he showed us a blue glass bottle of pills. “This will absorb the toxins produced by your body due to the Syndrome. Take one in the morning when you wake, one at noon and one when you go to sleep.”
    Then he showed us the red glass bottle. I had once asked why all the medicines had different color combinations of bottles and lids. It was because most of the people in the village could not read, so they color coded everything. He said, “This... this is new, it is an oral insulin supplement. It boosts your insulin levels so that your body can adsorb enough to stabilize your blood sugars.”
    He seemed happy with that and said. “Now, there is no cure for Wasting Syndrome. But these will stabilize you and prevent it from progressing. You should gain back most of your old vitality within a week or so. But you will be on these medicines the rest of your life. People we treated with these, increased their quality of life and live a relatively normal life span.”
    I was blinking through tears. Mother would not die? He saw the hope in all of our eyes then he cautioned, “Only if you respond to the treatment. One out of every thirty people do not respond. But I think those are pretty acceptable odds.”
    He finished up and gave me a script for her new medications and I blanched, they were almost twice the cost of the others. I'd have to step up my scavenging. But then I thought, if I really became Celeste's squire then it would be taken care of by the realm when we moved into our servant's quarters in the castle.
    I thanked him all the way to the door then followed him out to the buggy and said, “Doc, wait a moment please.” I ran to the coops and gathered as many eggs as I could that were laid during the day and I put them in one of our straw baskets and ran back out to the waiting man.
    I thrust the basket at him. “Here Doc, please accept this gift. We don't have much, but you gave us so much hope tonight.”
    He blinked at me and looked down at the eggs then slowly took the basket, studying me. Then he cocked his head. “Are these the blue eggs they serve in the castle proper?”
    I nodded and he beamed a smile that looked so nice on his face, it washed away the fatigue weighing down his features. “Yes sir. We trade them to the House of Lords there. And the Nobles along Lord's Way.”
    He smiled at that and inclined his head in thanks. “They are the most sought after eggs in Wexbury, so rich tasting, and the odd blue shells they say only come from a rare type of chicken.”
    He paused and looked back toward the house and murmured, “Margret.” Then he shook his head and looked at me. “Your mother looks so familiar but I just can't place her. Maybe from when she traded eggs at the castle.”
    I shrugged, to my knowledge, mother has never been to the castle proper. She avoids it. The only public places she would ever go are the church and the market. She spent more time trading to the farmers and proper herders outside the keep walls in Wexbury Minor. The small town on the horizon that was protected by the knights of the realm.
    They were the workers that kept the keep supplied with most of the meats, grains and vegetables. Us minor herders and gardeners like old man Warren, inside the walls, were few and far between. Not many had the space