“I’m fine. He was bitten when he tried to protect me, so it’s only right that I tend to him myself,” the young knight replied stubbornly, snatching the pail back and walking over to the cot. After soaking a towel in the bucket, he began gently wiping the unconscious man’s face. A faint moan escaped the injured knight’s lips.
Sir Remus watched with a hardened expression, then turned to Maxi. With an urgent edge to his voice, he said, “You must hurry, my lady. His arm may be permanentlydamaged if the poison spreads any further.”
“I shall t-try.”
She moved the candle closer to the injury. She had seen werewolf bites before, but this was different. The fang marks sank as deep as if they had been hammered with a pike. An awful stench rose from the wound. The flesh of his forearm was purpled and swollen like an overstuffed sausage.
Can I really heal him?
As she positioned a trembling hand over the wound, she tried to recall the magic rune Ruth had taught her. Detoxification consumed less mana than healing, but it involved more complex calculations. She had to make her mana flow along a path she had never used before, and it proved more difficult to control than she had anticipated. She drew the rune incorrectly twice.
The knights watched silently, their faces growing anxious as she struggled.
“Is it too difficult to heal him?”
“A-Allow me to…try again,” Maxi mumbled in a whisper, an intense flush coloring her face.
Guilt flooded her. How nice it would have been if she had practiced detoxification magic instead of wallowing in self-pity all this time. If she lost this young man now, the knights would never trust her again.
Maxi swiped at the beads of sweat on her forehead and mustered her mana for the last time. Thankfully, a haze of blue light appeared and enveloped the young knight’s arm. It spiraled and curved in intricate patterns as it flowed along the rune, Maxi’s magic now pouring into his body and neutralizing the poison in his blood.
The magic was working.
The color of the knight’s arm soon returned to normal, and the swelling gradually subsided.
“I-It’s done,” Maxi said with a sigh of relief.
The murky energy completely dissipated, and she slowly pulled her hand back. Gabel leaned over with the candle to inspect the quickly healing wound. Satisfied, he proceeded to draw back the curtains. Maxi squinted into the bright light that streamed into the room.
“He doesn’t seem bothered by the sunlight. The poison must be gone.”
“Even so, I th-think we should give him more detoxicants…since there could still be trace amounts of poison left in his body. Could someone boil the herbs?”
“Allow me, my lady,” said the young knight who had brought in the water. He had been fretting beside the cot throughout the healing, but he now placed some mandrago leaves and other herbs into a kettle and hung it over the brazier to boil.
Maxi sat by the window to catch her breath as they waited for the tea. It had been a while since she had last used magic, and while she still felt tired, she was nowhere near as dizzy as when she had entirely depleted her mana. She carefully gauged the remaining mana in her body and, after deciding that she still had a safe amount, cast healing magic on the injured knight’s wound.
The others looked relieved as the bite marks on the man’s forearm disappeared.
“Thank you for helping us, my lady. You should also have some mandrago tea. Its roots are good for restoring mana.”
“Th-Thank you.”
“It is us who should be thanking you, my lady. Thank youfor saving our comrade’s life.”
Maxi’s face flushed at Gabel’s sincere gratitude. Her inner monologue had been nothing but self-deprecation lately, and his words felt like a rainfall after a long drought.
Taking a sip of the steaming tea, Maxi bashfully muttered, “I am glad…th-that I was able to help.”
“Your help was everything, my lady. He would have lost the use of his arm if not for you. With Ruth out of the castle, it was a miracle that you also had knowledge of such magic.” Gabel suddenly frowned and glared at the young knight who was boiling the tea. “You should have searched for a healer instead of returning to the castle right away.”
The young knight, dripping with perspiration as he stirred the kettle, lowered his eyes in shame. “We entered Anatol through the western gate, so we thought it best to head straight to the castle instead of taking the long way down the hill to the village. And besides, he was the one who insisted that we return right away. I’d wager even he didn’t know that he was this badly poisoned. But more importantly, we did not want to waste any time in delivering the latest news to the commander.”
“The latest news?” asked Gabel.
The young knight paused, gathering his thoughts before speaking. “I am sure you are both aware that Lord Calypse sent us to Livadon to gather information. We spent the last winter there investigating the migration of the monsters.”
“And were you able to learn anything?”
