“Oh.” I paused. “Uh, can you . . . ?”

“Can I?”

“Fix it?”

“Of course.” Anne sounded surprised. “Did you think I couldn’t?”

“Okay.”

“When you were stabbed in the casino it was with a sword, and it was a stomach rupture,” Anne said. I felt her hand on my side; she was touching the skin around the wound, but it didn’t hurt. Soft green light glowed at the edge of my vision as Anne started to weave her spell. “That was hard. The thicker the blade and the more tearing it causes, the worse it is to treat—the really bad ones are the ones where the blade’s serrated or where it was twisted and pulled out. Air blades are easy. They’re nearly flat, and they’re so sharp they’re like surgical knives. Plus they just dissolve in the wound . . . Move your arm up.”

I did. “Would you have trouble with injuries like that?”

“Like what?”

“Where the blade’s serrated or twisted.”

“Well, no. But it takes longer.”

I couldn’t feel anything on my side. Anne was still using her magic, but I couldn’t tell what she was doing. “Is there anything you can’t heal?”

“Not really.” Anne’s voice was absentminded. “I always think of it like a flame. As long as there’s a spark left, you can build it up . . . There. Done.”

I looked down in surprise. The ugly gash in my side was gone. Blood was still crusted over it, but underneath the skin was clean and unbroken; I couldn’t even see where I’d been hurt. “Wow,” I said. “I didn’t feel anything.”

“I had the signals from your local nerves turned off.”

“Don’t you have to worry about a patient suddenly getting up when you do that?”

“Actually, I was controlling your movements as well.”

“Oh.”

“You just didn’t notice because you weren’t fighting it. Could you get up and move around?”

I did. I felt a little light-headed, but no more. “Looks good,” Anne said. She didn’t wait for me to tell her how it felt; she probably knew better than I did. “Oh, and you had some bruises and sprains, so I fixed those too. Some were from today and a couple looked like you did them yesterday evening. You didn’t get attacked twice, did you?”

“No, the first time was a sparring match.” I worked my arm; it felt good as new. “Are all life mages this good at healing, or is it just you?”

Anne smiled. “I’ve had a lot of practice. Is there any food in the house?”

| | | | | | | | |

I showered and changed my clothes. I felt really good; I must have been carrying a bunch of minor injuries that I hadn’t noticed until Anne fixed them. By the time I stepped out of the shower I could smell something very appetising coming from the kitchen and my stomach growled. “Wow,” I said as I walked in. “Smells good.”