His Cure For Magic (Book 2) by M.R. Forbes Page A

Wilem had never felt the weight of it.
    Now he struggled to drag himself out from underneath.

CHAPTER TEN
    Eryn

    Eryn climbed the stairs to the third floor of Waverly's. Her room was at the end of the long hallway across from Silas. Her grandfather had insisted on the smallest rooms in the most desolate area, intent on drawing as little attention as possible, and she had no reason to disagree with his reasoning. The third floor was quiet. Only a few of the rooms were occupied, as most patrons didn't enjoy carrying their packs and saddlebags up and down three flights of steps.  
    She blinked her eyes and tried to will herself to be tired. After they had returned from their meeting with Davin, Silas had insisted they do their best to get some sleep. They would have five days to rest and regroup while the King of Hearts arranged for everything Silas had requested in order to attempt to free Varrow City's former Head Librarian from captivity.
    Silas didn't want her to come along. She could see that much in his eyes. He knew there was no way around it, and he knew they might need her power, her magic to win the day. If they were going to free one person from the ore mines, Silas had insisted, they were going to free them all.
    The thought didn't scare her. It excited her. They had spent months in search of a direction to move in, and a means to begin to bring about his downfall. The cure was important, because she was limited in her greatest strength until they could discover its origins and give her and all of the other Cursed the same advantage the Mediators had.  
    Elling would never have fallen.
    She fought against the sadness that continued to threaten her. So many lives had been ended because of them, after they had worked so hard to save them instead. She missed her friends from the theater. She missed her family.
    Finding him was even more important, which is why they were so eager to learn more about the Dark. He didn't want anyone there. What was he hiding? Davin had a journal from that place. He had some of the answers. They were risking their lives and the future of every Cursed in the Empire that Saretta could lead them to the rest.
    Eryn put her ear to Silas' door, trying to hear if he was awake. He seemed to be able to sleep through anything, his age and experience keeping his nerves calm and his mind centered no matter what their future held. She had tried to use the meditation practices he had taught her - the breathing and the muscle exercises - but she had spent two hours in her room with her heart racing along with her mind, and had finally given up.
    Then she had knocked over Wilem.  
    She laughed at the thought. The poor boy had been beside himself. Eryn had always been only half of a girl, mixing her time in the kitchen with her mother and the other half at the forge with her father. Having anyone so flustered by her appearance was a strange experience for her.
    She liked it.
    She pushed open the door to her room and slipped inside. It was a mirror image of Silas' quarters. A single lit torch burned next to the door, casting enough light into the room to navigate. A small pallet with a soft feather mattress sat in the corner, with a bar to hang a pack or saddlebags in front of it. A few empty shelves hung from wood slatted walls, and a tiny cutout behind a red curtain hid a small dais where she could relieve her bladder without having to slog outside. A small mirror hung from the back of the door, and she looked at herself when she closed it.
    A year on the road with Silas had done wonders for her physical appearance. Her once almost bald head had regrown a shoulder-length wave of light brown hair. Her thin but childish face had shed some of its fat and become more angled and mature. Her chest had increased in size to something not too big, but hinting at female adulthood, and her arms and legs had become even more toned and muscled than she had ever seen on any of the girls in her village.  
    It's a