and he had a concussion on top of everything else.
“Damn,” I muttered. “Sergeant, I’m going to need a half hour or so just to
get him stable enough to move, and even then we’ll need a stretcher. You said
there are some other serious cases too?”
“Yes sir. The worst is Dorgen, he got bit by a wolf and survived
somehow. Then there’s a stab wound from that giant’s spear, and a lot of bad
gashes and broken bones.”
“I see. Figure a couple of hours for me to get them ready to move, then.
Avilla’s making wolf steak for everyone, so at least we’ll be well fed. We’ll
set out as soon as everyone’s eaten.”
“Yes, sir. I hope we have that long. Not much left to stop another attack
with those damned deserters gone.”
“Can’t be helped, sergeant. Maybe you could arm some of the peasants?”
He considered that. “Better than nothing, I suppose. I’ll see to it.”
He turned to go.
The woman who had spoken before tentatively put her hand on my arm.
“You can save him, my lord?”
“I think so. If the monsters leave us alone long enough.”
She blinked back tears. “Bless you, milord!”
One of the others, a pretty girl who might have been fourteen, smiled
happily. “See, Vasha? I knew we shouldn’t give up.”
“It’s a good thing you didn’t,” I told them. “He wouldn’t have lasted this
long otherwise. But I’d better get to work now.”
It was an exhausting two hours. My amulet might recharge my mana, but
working magic continuously for long periods was still a strain. The knowledge
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that I didn’t have the time or energy to fully heal any of my patients was an
added complication, because it meant that I couldn’t just flood them with
healing energy and let it do what it wanted. Instead I had to focus in on specific
trouble spots, forcing the magic to heal only what I wanted it to and leave
everything else alone.
Shifting Captain Rain’s broken ribs back into place and fixing his
damaged lungs took most of the time I’d estimated. Then I had to deal with the
shock, blood loss and hypothermia, all of which were systemic issues that
were almost impossible to touch without half my energy flow bleeding off into
his other injuries. At least the concussion wasn’t a bad one. I had a headache
by the time I was done, and it wasn’t as solid a job as I would have liked.
“Keep him warm, and try to get a little water into him if he wakes up,” I
directed. “And be very careful when you move him. I’ve got his ribs back in
place but they aren’t properly healed. They’ll snap like twigs if they take a
blow.”
“We’ll treat him like spun glass, milord,” Vasha assured me gratefully.
I left them to it, and Cerise led me off to the next patient. Apparently she’d
been making herself useful getting the triage organized while I was busy.
“Is she his wife or something?” I wondered once we were out of earshot.
“Concubine,” Cerise corrected. “I think she’s a favorite camp follower he
decided to take on permanently, or something like that. The others are peasant
girls she picked out for him from the refugees,”
I stopped dead. “Wait, what? The little redhead can’t be over fourteen.”
“Yeah, so? What else is a girl who’s lost her family going to do to try to
make sure someone takes care of her?”
I took a deep breath, and reminded myself this wasn’t America. Fourteen
was barely young enough to cause gossip in most cultures, and the idea that
there’s something wrong with trading sex for protection is a modern invention.
But it still didn’t feel right.
“As long as they’re doing it voluntarily,” I grumbled.
Cerise shrugged. “Doesn’t look like any of them have been beaten lately.
What more can you ask for?”
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I shook my head sadly. Then we reached my next patient, and it was time
to focus on healing again.
None of the others were as bad off as the captain, but they were pretty
bad. By the time I was reasonably confident none of them going to suddenly
drop dead on us I was exhausted again, and my headache had grown to near-
migraine proportions. Only three really critical cases, but a dozen others had
needed bones set or bleeding stopped before they could hope to move any
distance.
Finally I stepped back from setting a broken leg, and someone held a plate
full of sizzling meat under my nose.
“That’s the last of them, Daniel,” Avilla was saying. “Please, rest for a
minute, and eat something.”
I blinked stupidly at her for a moment, and realized that if I was having
this much trouble focusing I probably wasn’t good for much. “Ok.”
I found an overturned crate to sit on, and reached for the plate. But Avilla
deftly avoided my hands.
“Nope! We’re doing this right for you, so I need to hold the plate.
Cerise?”
The slender witch swept her dark hair back into a ponytail with a few deft
movements, and drew her daggers again. “Ready. The old Artemic-style ritual,
right?”
The blonde nodded happily. “Right. I was surprised Daniel wanted to
share with everyone, but I suppose they’ll need the strength. Ok, I’m ready.”
She closed her eyes, and started chanting under her breath. Cerise cut off
a bit of the steak, speared it on the tip of a dagger, and held it up to my lips.
I frowned, and opened my mouth to ask what they were up to. But Cerise
just shoved the meat in with a smile.
“Eat,” she ordered. “We know what we’re doing.”
Well, hell. I was hungry enough to eat a horse, and I was learning to trust
them. I ate.
The slab of meat Avilla had brought me was huge, but she’d somehow
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managed to sear it to medium-rare perfection with nothing to work with but a
campfire. It was a bit chewy and didn’t taste much like beef, but I didn’t really
care. By the time I was done my headache was receding, and I was starting to
feel marginally human again.
“Thanks. I needed that.”
Avilla smiled. “I’m glad you liked it. That’s the last of the heart, of
course, but I expect we’ll be having wolf flank for a week.”
“At least it’s cold enough to keep the meat from spoiling,” I pointed out.
“So, what was that spell you were doing?”
Cerise gave her a smug look. “Told you.”
Avilla flushed in embarrassment. “Oh, you! I’m sorry, I thought you
knew. A little magic to claim the strength of a fallen foe by eating its heart.
Usually it just restores vitality and gives you a little temporary extra strength,
but with a felwolf I thought we might get a more lasting effect. So, you weren’t
trying to make the refugees cold resistant?”
“Um, no, I had no idea you could do that kind of thing,” I admitted. “But
it’s not a bad idea. They’re going to need all the help they can get to survive
this trip.”
“That’s why I didn’t say anything when I figured it out,” Cerise put in.
“Normally I’d complain that you should explain things like that in
advance, but I suppose I was pretty busy,” I mused. “Ugh, what a morning.
How are you two doing?”
“A little bruised from the fight, but I’m mostly healed already.”
“Same here,” Avilla agreed. “I think you took most of that felwolf’s
weight when it stepped on us. But we need to get you out of those filthy clothes