and glared at Rex.
“Happy now? Can I go back out there?” Even as the words spewed out in
To his credit, he only nodded. “Let’s keep looking.”
More bodies rolled beneath my hands, more dead faces to haunt my dreams. Beside me, Rex was grim and silent, but I was glad to have him. With Tegan tirelessly treating patients and the men looking for their own friends and loved ones, I’d be alone otherwise. And without his calm determination, I might be screaming and tearing out my hair. We’d been searching for some time and it was starting to get dark when Gavin rushed at us.
The brat was so breathless he could barely talk, so the words juddered out in fits and starts. “Deuce, this way … please. Hurry.”
His urgency was contagious. I pushed to my feet and stumbled after him, the riverbank a mass of bodies, so much death. There were small forms, the Gulgur, and larger ones: Uroch wearing armbands, townsfolk with hoes beside them, and the fallen men of Company D. The stench was becoming dreadful. If we didn’t do something about the corpses, they’d poison the river, ruining the tranquil beauty I’d so admired. Rex ran behind me, steadier on his feet.
I hoped with all my heart for good news.
Ahead of us, Gavin led the way with the bloody banner still flying in the wind. The brat ran lopsided, but if he was capable of moving on his own, then he was low on the list of people Tegan needed to see. There were so many who wouldn’t last the night, maybe including Morrow. My own injuries cracked and stung as I churned the earth, trying to keep up.
When the boy stopped, he stood beside a lean figure sprawled upon the ground. And there was so much blood, so much, all over his face, that I was afraid to look closer. As I braced to scream, Fade opened his eyes.
Relief drowned me, and I lost my breath. “You promised you’d be on your feet.”
It took thirty-two stitches to put Fade back together. While Tegan sewed, I hovered and paced, shadowed by Rex, who seemed to think I might do something drastic. Mercifully, Fade passed out before she finished. Her eyes were bleak as she raised her head.
“This wound could be tricky.”
“Give me everything that Doc used on you. I’ll take care of him and fight the infection.”
Without another word of protest, as she had other patients to tend, Tegan handed me a collection of dried herbs and bottled remedies. I listened to her instructions, memorized them, and then turned to Rex. “I need your help getting him to Rosemere. We can’t stay here.”
In reply, my brother swung the man I loved up into his arms, and we left the medical tent, leaving Tegan to hover over Morrow and wait for the next soldier to be carried in. Gavin went with us, and I was eager to escape the smell of death. Flies were thick in the air, buzzing in the reeds and laying eggs in something I didn’t want to see. Rex shouted to a boatman; they were in constant motion, ferrying supplies and wounded back and forth across the water. I was desperate for the sanctuary Rosemere represented. Though there might not be any danger on the mainland, I needed to get away from the battlefield.
The fisherman came in response to Rex’s call. He couldn’t come all the way to shore, lest his boat founder, so we waded out, and I helped my brother lift Fade into the boat. Gavin clambered in on his own, the banner still in his hand. It looked more like a rag, smeared with mud and blood, but my symbol was still discernable in the center. Wearily I climbed aboard myself, and the man sailed us silently back to the Evergreen Isle. On the docks, the fishermen chattered about the battle and more volunteers had assembled to help with the wounded.
Our boatman went back out, along with two more, in case they were needed. Villagers peppered me with questions and I answered in a monotone, thinking only of getting Fade to safety. Just when I was about to lose my temper, Stone shouldered through the crowd, his handsome face lighting with relief when he saw me.
“I can take him,” Stone said, but my brother shook his head.
It must have been a matter of pride since Rex had to be as exhausted as I was. With Stone leading the way, I trudged to his cottage, where Thimble stood with Robin balanced on her hip. She stepped back and made room, her face creased with worry.
“How bad is it?” she asked. There was no answering that yet, so I kept quiet, and she turned her attention to Gavin and Rex, who seemed pleased by her care. “If you’d like to wash up out back, I’ll feed you, then you can rest in the loft.”
Stone carried Fade into Robin’s room; it was small, little more than a nook, but large enough for a narrow bed with a feather mattress. He laid him down and said, “Robin will be fine with us for a few nights. Do you need anything?”
“Some soap and water. Clean bandages.”
As he left, I stripped Fade out of his torn and ragged clothes. He had a number of less serious slashes on his shoulders and chest, none as serious as the wound on his side. My stomach clenched when I thought of Tegan pinching his muscle together and sewing tight, before stitching another layer in his skin. Stone returned with the supplies I’d requested and I washed Fade from head to toe. Mercifully, he was still unconscious.
It never occurred to me that he could die, even when his fever spiked later that night. He sweated and thrashed while I bathed him and plied him with the treatments Tegan had provided. There were special teas and poultices to draw out infection before it deepened. While I tended Fade, others buried the dead, burned the Freak corpses, and cleared the battlefield. I didn’t sleep much; a blanket on the floor beside his bed didn’t offer much comfort, but I had to be close enough to hold his hand. I was convinced as long as I didn’t let go of him, his fever would break and his body would heal. I might’ve been delusional by that point from lack of sleep and food, but there was no budging me. Thimble tried, but I snarled at her, and she backed out of the room.
On the third day, Thimble came to the doorway again. “How is he?”
“Better, I think. Have you heard anything about Morrow?”
“Tegan’s with him at the governor’s place. He nearly died in the night, but she opened one of his wounds and brought him back.”
“Multiple infections?” That explained why she hadn’t checked on us.
She nodded soberly. “Why didn’t you tell us about the battle, Deuce?”
“Because I knew you’d fight. So would Stone. You both feel like you need to make amends with me, and you have Robin to think about, which is more important than guilt.”
“Topside’s been good for you,” she said, smiling. “You’re smarter than you used to be.”
“I understand more how people think now. It doesn’t always make me happy.” I thought of Stalker when I said it, and melancholy twisted my heart.
Fade moaned then and I spooned some water down his throat. Thimble tiptoed out. Fade’s lips were dry and pale, his cheeks flagged with color. Knowing it would hurt him, I changed the dressing on his wound. It was seeping a little as Tegan had warned, but the poultices kept it from swelling up and turning red. I made more of the black goop and smeared it down the stitches; it didn’t look clean or healthy, but she’d promised that was what Doc Tuttle said had saved her life. And after it dried, it smelled horrible, like it was really drawing out the impurities. I washed it off and started all over again with the bandages.
My monthly started the next day, which Momma Oaks had told me meant I wasn’t breeding. That was a relief; and I made a mental note to ask her how to prevent brats when I saw her next. It wasn’t that I was against the idea, but I wanted us to be ready when we had our own. With him so hurt, it sure wasn’t the time.
Five days passed in more or less the same fashion, but that night, his fever broke. And when his eyes opened, they were clear as the night sky; and he knew me. I wasn’t even surprised, just overcome with love and satisfaction, as if my stubbornness had any impact on his health. His beautiful mouth curved into a smile.
“You look awful,” he whispered.
“Then we’re a matched set.”
“My side feels like somebody’s branded me with hot irons.”
