As she—
“Ariel?”
She blinked at Valteri’s soft call. Fierce pain ripped through her body, twining around her heart as if it would devour the organ and leave her every bit as dead as the child before her.
How could anything hurt this much? How?
Valteri reached out and wiped away the one tear that had escaped her control and fled down her cheek to chill the skin there.
“Be strong, milady,” he said gently. “These men need you.”
Men need you. Those words hung like a whisper in the clouds of her mind. Phantom ghosts, taunting her with images she couldn’t quite make out.
It was important that she remember. She knew it with every fiber of her being.
“Milady?”
Valteri’s voice broke through her haze. He was right, she must help the rest. They were in agony and that was much more important than chasing after the ghosts she couldn’t catch. She’d have time to deal with that later.
For now, she needed to focus on the living.
Pushing herself up from the cold ground, Ariel made her way toward the next man who needed urgent care.
With the help of Valteri and several others, she spent the next few hours setting bones and applying poultices. Her stomach churned in painful knots with each beat of her heart until she feared she’d go mad from the stench of blood, and the sight of grisly injuries, some of which she knew were mortal.
She wasn’t sure how she knew, but she could tell exactly which of the men would live.
And who was going to die.
Still, she tended them, offering them whatever solace she could.
And while she went through the routine of tending the hopeless, those were the hardest to help, because she knew it was a lie. They were doomed and there was nothing she could do for them, other than try to ease their final hours as best she could.
It hurt so much to watch them die.
Why wasthisso familiar to her?
Over and over, she kept seeing herself walking among the dying. Being aloof.
Why would I not care?
“Here.” Valteri stopped her as she reached to bandage another gaping wound. “I’ll finish this one. You should take a moment and rest yourself.”
In spite of her need to stay and help as many as she could, Ariel nodded and dutifully handed him her poultice.
Honestly, she needed the break. And while he probably did, too, she was feeling a bit selfish and had to take it.
If only for a moment.
Grateful to him, she patted his arm and rose.
Valteri watched her leave, a strange lump tightening his throat at the way she moved. So graceful and elegant even while covered in blood. All through the afternoon, he’d been amazed by her fortitude and control.
By the fact that she hadn’t flinched no matter how grisly the injury.
Honestly, he hadn’t expected much when she’d first offered to come along. Most noblewomen would have retched and been useless in such a situation.
Too good to get their hands dirty with the blood of common men.
