“You were very brave today, Briar,” his mother said as they weeded the skyflower bed. Briar felt his face flush in embarrassment, thinking of how he had nearly peed in his pants.
He shook his head. “I was really scared.”
“That’s what brave is,” Dawn said. “When you’re scared, but keep your wits about you. Your father says you held up better than your brothers.”
“Really?” Briar asked.
“Really.” Dawn narrowed her eyes. “You stir trouble by tellin’ ’em I told you that, though, and it’ll be the strap.”
Briar swallowed. “I won’t tell anyone.”
Dawn laughed and put her arms around him, squeezing tightly. “Know you won’t, poppet. I’m so proud of you.”
“Mistress Dawn!” a call came, breaking the moment. Briar looked up to see Tami Bales running up the road. Tami was only a year older than Briar, but the Damaj children weren’t allowed to play with the Baleses since Tami’s father, Masen, called Relan a desert rat at the Solstice festival. Relan would have broken his arm if the other men hadn’t pulled them apart.
Tami’s dress was splattered with mud and red with blood. Briar knew bloodstains when he saw them. Any Herb Gatherer’s child did. Dawn ran out to meet the girl, and Tami collapsed in her arms, panting for breath. “Mistress…y-you have to save…”
“Who?” Dawn demanded. “Who’s been hurt? Corespawn it, girl, what’s happened?”
“Corelings,” Tami gasped.
“Creator,” Dawn drew a ward in the air. “Whose blood is this?” She pulled at the still-damp fabric of the girl’s dress.
“Maybell,” Tami said.
Dawn’s nose wrinkled. “The cow?”
Tami nodded. “Stuck her head over the pen, blocking one of the wardposts. Field demon clawed her neck. Pa says she’s gonna get demon fever and went for his axe. Please, you need to come or he’ll put her down.”
Dawn blew out a breath, shaking her head and chuckling. Tami looked ready to cry.
“I’m sorry girl,” Dawn said. “Don’t mean to belittle. I know stock feels like part of the family sometimes. You just had me thinking it was one of your brothers or sisters got cored. I’ll do what I can. Run and tell your pa to hold his stroke.”
Tami nodded and ran off as Dawn turned to Briar. “We’ll need sleep draught…”
“Skyflower and tampweed,” Briar nodded.
“Cut generously,” Dawn said. “Takes a lot more to put down a cow than a person. We’ll need hogroot poultices as well.”
Briar nodded. “I know what to get.” He ran off to gather the cuttings while his mother got her implements ready.
“You’ll have to wait a bit before your walk, poppet,” Dawn said as they headed down the road to Masen’s farm.
“It’s okay,” Briar said. “I want to help.”
They could hear Maybell’s bleats of pain long before they arrived. The heifer was lying on the dirt floor of the pen, neck wrapped in heavy cloth soaked through with blood. Masen Bales stood nearby, running his thumb along the edge of his axe. Tami and her siblings crowded around the cow protectively, though none were large enough to stop their father if he decided it was Maybell’s time.
“Thanks for coming, Gatherer,” Masen said. His eyes narrowed at the sight of Briar, and he spit some of the tobacco he was chewing. “I meant to put the animal down quick and sell her to the butcher, but the kids begged me to wait ’til you came.”
Dawn nodded, pushing through the crowd and lifting the cloth to look at the animal’s wounds, three deep grooves in Maybell’s thick neck. “It’s good you did. This ent too bad, if we can stave off the infection.” She turned to the crowd of children.
“I’ll need more cloth for bandages, buckets of clean water, and a boiling kettle.” The children looked at her blankly until she clapped her hands, making them all jump. “Now!”
As the children ran off, Briar laid out his mother’s tools and began crushing the herbs for the sleeping draught and poultices. Getting the animal to drink was difficult, but soon Maybell was fast asleep, and Dawn cleaned out the wounds and inserted a thin paste of crushed herbs before stitching them closed.
Tami stood next to Briar, horrified. Briar had seen his mother work before, but he knew how scary it must seem. He reached out, taking her hand, and she looked at him, smiling bravely in thanks as she squeezed tightly.
Masen had been watching Dawn work as well, but he glanced at Tami and did a double take, pointing his axe at Briar. “Ay, get your muddy hands off my daughter you little rat!”
Briar snatched his hand away in an instant. His mother stood, moving calmly between them as she wiped the blood from her hands. “Ent going to need that axe anymore, Masen, so I’d appreciate you not pointing it at my boy.”