That left Jack. I stumbled to her side and rolled her off Angelique’s corpse. A quick initial examination told me little. Her blood-soaked tunic made it impossible to find the injury. I tore it open, ripping it from the neck to the bottom. If I had qualms about exposing her long-held secrets, I suppressed them. One of my earliest lessons had been that hesitation could cost a life.
She’d been speared just above the armpit. Blood flowed from her wound in uneven spurts, a bright red gout, then a trickle, then another gout.
Bright red blood in time with her heartbeat means an arterial bleed. Survival time without intervention depends on location and severity but can generally be measured in minutes. As a first step, stanch the blood flow by applying pressure.
With nothing to use as a disinfectant, I slid two fingers into the wound and pressed. The blood slowed and then stopped.
So far, so good. Now what? I needed proper equipment to manage more than that.
Jack’s eyes cracked open. I was surprised she was conscious. The rate of bleeding suggested the artery had been nicked instead of severed, but even so, she’d been lucky to remain alive for so long. She must have had the stamina of a mule.
“What are you doing, witch?” she asked.
“Sorcer—” I stopped. It wasn’t worth it. “I’m keeping you from bleeding to death.”
“With a spell?”
“With my fingers.”
“Will that work?”
“Maybe. Call it fifty-fifty?”
“Oh.” She did nothing but breathe for a few moments, then added, “Thank you.” Her eyelids drifted closed.
The dust had mostly cleared. I wasn’t sure if anyone was looking in our direction, and I couldn’t afford to turn around to check. Too much movement and I might let up on the pressure. She’d lost far too much blood already.
I was about to cry for help when a figure stumbled up to us. I risked a glance upward, worried it might be a monster that had somehow survived the battle.
Gervase stared at Angelique’s corpse, a complicated expression crossing his face before he schooled it into stillness. His eyes then went to Jack, and he reddened as he took in her torn garments, averting his gaze for a moment before bringing it back. I didn’t find the blood-soaked torso of a hemorrhaging patient particularly arousing myself, but Tailliz has some odd notions about feminine modesty.
He dropped to his knees at Jack’s side and took her hand. The engagement ring she had never removed lay gleaming on her finger.
“Don’t jostle her!” I snarled.
He ignored me. “Jack,” he said. “Jacqueline. I love you. I have always loved you. Now that the kingdom is safe from…from my sister, I will accept no other as my bride, and, uh…” His voice trailed off, his eyes finding mine, acknowledging my presence at last.
“Let’s sort that out later,” I said. “Fetch mea—”
Jack snapped awake. “I stay on as general, too.”
Gervase blinked. “What?”
“She’s not in any condition to talk,” I told him. “Really, you need to—”
“Queen and general,” Jack growled, sounding more irritated than anything else. “The soldiers will follow me. I saved the kingdom.”
Gervase sat back on his heels, her hand still held in his own. His lips were pursed in consideration. “The council of nobles will have a fit.”
“They can bite my arse,” Jack said. “Let them protest to their troops. See how far they get.”
“The lion—”
“Important as this conversation might be,” I said tightly, “I am currently preventing her blood from leaving her bodyusing only my hands.” Was this the third inappropriately timed heart-to-heart of the day? Although to be fair, I’d been responsible for the ones I’d had with Gervase and Jonquil. “None of this will matter unless someone can bring me—”
A vast dark shadow passed over us, cutting off the sunlight. The dragon alighted, so close we were dimly reflected in its gleaming scales. Seawater cascaded off it. It flapped its wings to dry them, spraying all of us with a shower of droplets.
On its back was my entire family. Jonquil had rescued Calla, Liam, and Gnoflwhogir from the waves. Calla had so many wet, shivering animals clinging to her that she resembled a haystack made of damp fur. The rest were soaked to the skin, and they looked much the worse for wear from a staggering variety of cuts, bruises, and burns.
