The woodsman hauled Exeres to his feet. “Hope you’re strong enough to run, lad. Try and keep up.”
Exeres looked down in time to see the Kiran Thall at his feet stuff something in his mouth under his tongue. The man’s eyes rolled back in his head, glazing over with pleasure. The sickly sweet smell hit Exeres in the face again.
Another dead man rose.
Exeres had no problem keeping up with the woodsman.
Chapter III
With a quick tug and pull, Exeres cinched the last of the cloth bandage, tying it off in a tiny knot with expert hands. He wiped his mouth on the back of his hand and smelled the pungent aroma of the juttleberry salve staining his fingers. After looking down at the man he had bandaged, he gave him a pat of encouragement and then rose and moved to the next pallet in the crowded common room, nearly wall to wall with pallets loaded with the injured of Castun. The next man was some sort of wagoneer with a serious gash across his belly. Exeres cupped his hand over the man’s forehead and felt the steady burn of a fever. This one probably wouldn’t make it through the night.
He heard her bootsteps approach and he felt her presence before her shadow fell over him.
“You haven’t stopped to eat anything,” she said.
Exeres rubbed the skin beneath the patch on his right eye. “I know.”
She came around him to meet his glance. Exeres looked up and tried to remember her name, but failed.
“I brought you a tray. Take a nibble now and then. Keep up your strength, Zerite.”
He looked up at her and saw compassion in her brown eyes. To nearly anyone else, she would have been fair. He realized that about people, but could not change what he saw. Others would see a young smile, dark hair, some steel beneath the softness. But to Exeres, she was as a maple tree in autumn, its leaves turning yellow or red before dropping lifeless to the earth. He could admire the splendour of its transition, but it was difficult looking at others who would die so soon—so young compared with the trees and mountains and rivers.
It was difficult to explain and he’d never done a good job at it. He could see Life magic seeping out of people with his blind eye. With humans, it seeped so quickly that it was watching a flower fade in moments. When he saw a Shae, he saw vibrancy and energy and life. Their magic seeped out ever so slowly. Compared to them, the trees were young.
“Why are you staring at me like that?” she asked, looking down at him, her eyes wary.
Realizing he had been staring, he shook his head and turned back to the fevered man. “I’m sorry. I suppose I’m more tired than I thought. Thank you for the help you’ve given this afternoon.”
“The sun set two hours ago, Exeres. Maybe you should rest.”
A discouraged smile twisted his mouth down. “Some of these won’t make it through the night if I stop now. I’ll keep going as long as I have strength.”
“Let me help you then.”
He shrugged and motioned for her to step around the pallet. This particular inn was the only one that still stood after the raid of the Kiran Thall on Castun. Smoke still lingered in the air, a scent that flavored every breath. The name of the inn also escaped his memory, but it was the place that Allavin Devers had brought him after they had escaped into the Shadows Wood. The memory of that moment still bothered him. The Kiran Thall had never dared attack a Zerite before. Why their sudden arrogance? What magic had twisted them so much?
“First, remove the rags from his belly…” Exeres said. He paused and sunk his head. “I’m sorry, but I’ve forgotten your name already.”
“Ticastasy. You’re part Shae, aren’t you?”
He nodded and watched the man flinch as she began stripping away the bloody rags he had used to stanch the wound. Exeres put pressure on the man’s elbow just so, and then touched his neck at a pressure point. The man slumped still.
Ticastasy stared. “How did you do that?”
He smiled. “The body is an amazing thing. I can revive him as well, if he would want that. Let me see the wound…goodness, that is ugly. A little deeper and he’d have spilled his entrails and never made it here. Throw those rags on the floor and dip your hands in that pail over there. Very good.”
While she went to the pail, Exeres withdrew some catgut thread and his stitching needle from his chirurgery packet and started suturing the wound.
Ticastasy returned, hands dripping.
“Don’t dry them. It will help cleanse while you work. Hold his skin tight for me. Like this.” He demonstrated for her and then waited as she mimicked what he had shown her. “Very good. Hold it tight while I go. You’re quite good, Ticamasy.”
“Ticastasy.”
“I’m sorry. I really am terrible with names. How did you know that I had Shae blood? Have you seen many come this way?”