Alan collapsed beside him, but Amaris didn’t have time to deal with anything other than physical wounds.
She turned to the door in anticipation of her next patient, but there was no one. She should’ve felt relieved, but the knot within her stomach tightened. Returning to her first patient, she assessed the bandage. His eyes fluttered open, and she obliged him with a glass of kusu for the pain and his anxious nerves. The pallor of his skin worried her, but Magoria seemed given to quick healing. Maybe he’d be back on his feet in a matter of days.
Without a wound to wrap, bleeding to control, or a patient’s hand to hold, her nerves took over. She grabbed the mystique journal Pricilla had graciously brought down and rifled through the contents. She’d briefly read about an herb with coagulation properties and its ability to deal with blood loss.
Fade chicory.Ground leaves into a powder substance. Coagulation properties to staunch heavy bleeding.
She raced for the table of herbs and found numerous jars alreadyground into powder. “Pricilla, make sure a jar of this goes into the baskets.”
“Already on it,” Pricilla called back, offering a wink as she filled a basket.
Another explosion shook the building, sending Amaris into a crouched ball. A few others followed suit, but Alan paid no heed to the quaking, as if he had no doubt the structure would hold. Amaris had her doubts as the chandelier swayed above their heads, threatening to rain more candles on them.
The garden doors remained open, but not a single soul stood on the threshold. There had to be more injured. Too many screams filled the empty void. Amaris grabbed a satchel and filled it with squares of cloth, belts, and a dozen rolls of linen. She rechecked the security of her knife, taking a deep breath as her fingers ran across the ribbed hilt. No one paid her any attention until she was at the doors.
“Amaris, no!” Pricilla shouted after her.
Amaris wrapped her hands around the strap of her satchel and took off through the doors. She drowned out the cries behind her, knowing they wouldn’t dare chase after her, not with what she was running into.
Chapter 38
Amaris
Lanterns swung asthe wind picked up, and the fires within hissed and extinguished as the beginnings of a storm filled the sky. The first drop was gentle, then a stream of rain poured over Luana Bay.
Clinks and gunshots rang through the air as blades clashed and pistols were fired. Amaris slipped through the smoke of gunfire billowing in a lazy cloud around the gardens, obscuring herself. She didn’t allow herself to stop and think. If she did, she feared she’d turn back.
She waited for someone to burst through a shrub or come barreling down one of the garden paths, but it was eerily empty. She’d heard the whispers when she’d run through the manor.Deavopan? Bazrath? Deavonian Accord?None of which she knew the meaning of. It wasn’t until she slid to a crouch behind the half stone wall circling the gardens that she allowed her mind a moment to consider.How will I even know who Luana’s soldiers are versus the enemy?She doubted anyone had had time to change into their uniforms.
The reek of iron filled her nostrils. Poking her head around the wall, the chaos of the battlefield unraveled around her. Navy tunics with swashes ofred scattered the grounds, breaking past the defenses. Amaris immediately spotted what was likely the Luana forces—the men and women dressed in fine attire. The hems of dresses were ripped, and coats and vests were thrown to the ground. Duels broke out, and cries were silenced with the slash of a blade. Soon enough, bodies would begin to scatter across the grounds.
Her eyes scanned the terrain. Not twenty yards away, a woman in a black tunic lay in the grass. She was still alive, her chest moving erratically with rapid breaths. Amaris stayed low, moving into a crawl through the mud and long grass. The soldier’s breath grew shallow when Amaris reached her. She fought the voice in her head shouting that she wouldn’t make it. The soldier would live if she had anything to say about it.
“Where are you injured?” she whispered as best she could over the sound of battle and the thundering overhead.
“My leg,” the soldier cried hoarsely.
Amaris slipped a finger over her lips, her eyes wandering to the fighting around them. She needed to be quiet, or they’d both end up dead. The soldier nodded, crinkling the hood spilling around her auburn locks. With only a few remaining lanterns scattered in the night to guide her, Amaris followed the woman’s leg down to her foot, at least where her footshould’vebeen. All that was left was a bloody stump with frayed tendons.
“What’s your name?” Amaris whispered as she pulled a belt from her satchel and secured it around the soldier’s thigh.
“Ediva.” She winced but bit down on her screams as Amaris tugged against the leather.
“Stay here. I’ll find someone to bring you inside.”
“Don’t leave me,” Ediva begged, fear in her eyes, not of death, but to be alone when the end came.
More people were out there who needed her help.
“I can’t,” Amaris muttered.
Before Ediva could latch on to her shirt, Amaris rolled away and crawled deeper into the chaos. After getting out of her earshot, she bit her sleeve,forcing back the tears. She couldn’t think about her. All she could do was tag, treat, and move on. She shouldn’t have asked for her name. She’d never left a patient before, always seeing their care to the end, but not tonight.
Amaris froze as a fight broke out with a navy-dressed soldier charging up the slope. The ring of metal through her ears sent her teeth chattering as he met his opponent, a woman with her teeth bared and blood spilling down her bare shins where she’d torn her skirt. Amaris kept moving, looking for someone else to help.
They’d practiced mass casualty events when she’d been in school. The goal had been to save as many as possible but to know one’s limitations. Amaris had tried saving everyone then, but tonight she was the only mystique for miles. It had to be her.
A man lying sprawled out in the grass caught her eye. He was face down, but she watched his chest rise. She got him on his side, turning him onto his back. She let out a small yelp and fell back. His navy tunic was sliced down the center, with blood smeared into the fabric.
