Kingdom of Sea and Stone (Crown of Coral and Pearl #2) - Mara Rutherford Page 0,68
“I’m not an expert in horse healing, but I promise I will check on the animals. First, however, we need to remove that arrow.”
He was young, with shaggy brown hair and a crooked nose, and he seemed as intimidated by Adriel as I had been when we first met. “Yes, miss. Er, ma’am?”
Adriel arched an eyebrow as she reached for a knife. “Call me Adriel. I’m going to need to cut off your breeches. Nor, I need boiled water and clean linens. I don’t think the wound is deep, but we’ll need to keep it well wrapped to prevent infection.”
I watched in awe as she worked methodically, maintaining perfect composure even as she pulled the arrow out of the man’s flesh. He was remarkably stoic, but the arrow was designed to inflict damage on the way in and out. When I saw sweat breaking out on his forehead as Adriel doused the wound in alcohol and used a knife to widen the opening in his flesh, I held out my hand. He gripped it so hard I worried he might shatter the bones, but I could tell it helped to have something else to focus on.
Afterward, when the wound had been cleaned and the soldier rested, we went to check on the injured horses. Adriel cleaned their scrapes and placed a salve on their wounds.
“What is it made of?” I asked.
She handed me the small pot so I could smell it. It had a strong herbal scent. “Calendula flower, for pain and swelling. It helps prevent infection, too. Comfrey, to stop the bleeding and aid the healing. Beeswax to bind it.”
I studied her for a few minutes. She had a calming effect on the horses, I noticed. They lowered their noses to the ground as she ran her hands over their muscles, checking for soreness. When she’d finished, I followed her to the stream, where she rinsed off her hands and instruments.
“Adriel,” I said, coming to sit beside her on a rock. “What you’re doing—healing, I mean—it isn’t magic, is it?”
She glanced at me as she dried off her knives. “No, Nor. It isn’t.”
“Then why do the Galethians call you a witch?”
“Not everything I do is healing, although the vast majority of it is. You’ve seen the spells in that book of blood magic. That goes far beyond herbs and flowers.”
“But you said you don’t do blood magic.”
She pushed her dark hair off her face and leaned back against the rock. “I said I don’t like to do it.”
“Then you know how?”
She turned to face me, her eyes glittering in the moonlight. “I can’t help you if you don’t tell me what you’re dealing with, Nor.”
I nodded and reached for one of her clean blades. “I think it would be easier if I show you.”
20
“What are you doing?” Adriel grabbed for the blade, trying to stop me, but I had already stepped out of her reach.
“Don’t worry,” I said as I dragged the blade slowly across my forearm, doing my best not to wince at the sharp bite of pain. For the span of several heartbeats, I saw Ceren’s face, just like I had the time I caught my hand on the splinter, but it was gone before I could make out where he was or what he was doing.
“Nor!” Adriel reached for one of her clean cloths and grabbed my arm, clamping the cloth onto the wound. “What were you thinking?”
I shook my head to clear it. If it wasn’t just drinking my blood that brought about the visions—if I really could bring them on myself by bleeding—then I might have more control in this situation than I’d thought. “I’m fine,” I said to Adriel. “Go ahead and remove the cloth.”
“I have to staunch the bleeding. Honestly, I would never have considered taking you on as an apprentice if I’d known how careless you are.”
I placed my hand over hers until she looked up at me. “You were going to make me your apprentice?”
She shook her head in annoyance. “I had considered it, yes. But now...”
Gently, I pushed her hand aside. As the cloth moved, it wiped the blood away, revealing my already healed arm.
Her eyes flashed to mine. “What is this?”
I shrugged, unable to keep the lopsided grin from tugging at the corners of my mouth. “Magic.”
“How?” She pulled my arm closer, struggling to see in the dark.
“I’ll tell you everything. But first I need to know something.”
She nodded, eyes still wide with surprise and fascination. “All right.”