“Yes?” he asked, his voice wavering though he did not look very old.
“My friend here is very ill and I was told I could find a healer here?”
The man looked past her and clearly saw the state Jonathan was in. The suspicion on his face dissolved into a hearty smile.
“Of course, miss. Lead your horses through. I’d hop down though, low ceilings.” He pointed upwards and he shuffled to get out of the way.
Valerie got down from Manon and led the horses through the narrow passageway. They must have been traveling under the outer walls as the walls looked like they were made from a similar rock. Soon there was another gate, which the man pushed open and then closed once they were through.
“Just wait here a moment, I’ll fetch some brothers to help you.” He nodded and disappeared.
He had left Valerie in a wide courtyard with hitching posts and piles of hay. There were two horses and she could see a cart hidden behind a small structure that seemed to house chickens. Most of the chickens were fluttering around the yard, making strange little noises.
By the mention of ‘brothers’, Valerie assumed they had indeed found whatever monastic sect Francis had spoken of. She hoped they had the library with stories of the wizard which would guide them to him. She waited for a few moments, feeling Jonathan’s time slipping by. She had started to get very panicked and was about to call for someone, but the man returned with three others. Valerie did not pay them much attention as she started undoing the ropes that held Jonathan to Perry’s saddle.
“These are the brothers Idwyl, Raulin and Gabriel–” she heard the man start, but he was interrupted by a cough, then continued, “Ah, yes. I am Brother Bernard. We are the Dravon Monastic Sect of the Wise One.”
“I wish you would not introduce me as a brother, Bernard,” one of the others said. “I’m only here as your healer while I help you train another.”
Knowing the healer was there made Valerie want to get Jonathan down as quickly as possible. However in her haste, she fumbled with the ropes. A soft, kind hand was placed on her own. She turned and found herself looking into the most beautiful brown eyes she had ever seen, full of mirth and kindness. She coughed nervously and pulled her hand away.
“Let me help.” It was the healer who had spoken before. “I’m Gabriel Lave, the healer here…for now,” he said as he finished untying the ropes.
Despite being no taller than Jonathan, Gabriel easily and gently pulled him from the saddle and lay him on a stretcher the others must have brought. The men who must have been Idwyl and Raulin picked up the stretcher and started taking it away. Valerie stood in the courtyard, not sure what to do. Gabriel smiled pleasantly and put a hand on her arm.
“Bernard, will you make sure someone sees to our guests’ horses while we go and see to the young man, please?”
Bernard smiled and Valerie let herself be led away by Gabriel. He took her through a passage in the outer wall, down some stairs and into a large room. The room had a high table, on which Jonathan had been placed, and was garlanded with what Valerie thought were drying herbs. There was a desk with a candle and covered in papers. There were bookshelves along almost all the wall space. At the back, there was a curtain that seemed to cross the whole of the room. Peeking out from behind it, she saw the foot of a bed and a wardrobe. She assumed that was where Gabriel slept. She blushed slightly at the thought, though was not sure why.
Gabriel directed her to a seat and bade her wait.
The room was well lit, so Valerie studied him while he cut away Jonathan’s shirt – Valerie could not help but be reminded they needed new clothes – and inspected his wound.
Gabriel was a reasonably tall young man, probably mid-twenties at the oldest. He had a thick crop of messy brown hair and was clean shaven. She noticed this part the most because of his chiselled jawline. His skin had an olive hue to it and she wondered if he spent much time outside, though could not think why he would have much call for it.
As he worked, his jaw clenched and his brow furrowed. Valerie was not sure who she wanted to comfort more; him or Jonathan.
Stop it, you’re being silly, she told herself, shaking her head and taking her eyes away from Gabriel’s face.
“Miss…um?”
“Valerie,” she answered instantly, then cursed. They were probably supposed to be using fake names.
“Miss Valerie.” Gabriel smiled.
Valerie thought seeing his smile might have made up for her leaking her real name.
No, it doesn’t, she chastised herself.
“And the patient is?”
Valerie thought she may as well tell him. “Jonathan.”
“Your husband?”
Valerie blushed and shook her head. “No, merely my friend. More like a big brother really. He was my father’s ward before he came of age.”
“I see.” Gabriel smiled and Valerie could not help but smile back. “Do you know what happened, Miss Valerie?”
She nodded, standing up and coming closer. “I think it was the fight against the brigands in Clade.”
“You think?” he asked, an amused smile on his face. His eyes sparkled.
“Yes. I think it’s the same wound as then. But, it might have been the pirates or the trolls,” she said, trying to recall when this wound appeared so not thinking about hiding their adventures. Jonathan had had a similar wound after Clade, but it had not seemed so deep then.
Gabriel’s eyes almost popped out of his head with surprise. “Brigands, pirates and trolls? What have you two been doing?”
“Travelling,” she replied and he nodded, not asking anymore questions on that subject.
“Can you talk me through these fights?”
Valerie recounted how he had saved her in Clade, how he had gone off to fight the pirate archers on the river and killed the trolls.
“Though that was suspicious. They looked like they had been killed with fire.”
Gabriel looked her up and down, taking in the slightly muddy yellow dress she was wearing.
“And what were you doing during all these fights?”
Valerie stared at him for a moment, not quite sure what he meant. But then she remembered she was a girl, wearing a dress – her sword was on Manon’s saddle – who probably looked like she had no idea what was happening with her stupid wide eyes.
Get a grip, she told herself sternly.
“I was fighting too,” she replied, finally.
“You were?”
“I will have you know, sir, that I was trained as a knight. I am just as skilled as any man. I don’t know my damage report for Clade, but I killed four pirates and did a fair amount of damage to that troll before I was flung on my backside,” she finished, taking a deep breath. She realised her finger was pointing at him and she dropped it hurriedly. She then also realised she had said ‘backside’ and blushed again.
Gabriel smiled a crooked smile that made Valerie’s heart flutter a little bit.
“Is that so, Miss Valerie?” She nodded, and he continued, “So in summary, you have been in at least three fights, from which he could have sustained this injury. Which does explain why he has so many bruises and cuts. And you as well, now that I look properly. Some healer I am…” he said softly, as though talking to himself. He shook his head. “Right, back to the current patient. I’ll look at you after we save this man’s life.”
He looked down and Valerie followed his gaze. She was standing on the opposite side of the table as Gabriel. Jonathan lay between them, bleached of all colour. His chest rose and fell haphazardly, as though he could not breathe properly. The wound on his abdomen gaped open and Valerie had certainly not imagined it, the edges were tinged green.
She gasped, unable to stop her hand flying to her mouth. Then her heart lurched as she thought how she had wasted time defending herself when Gabriel should have been tending to Jonathan.
“It looks like he was gutted with a poisoned
blade. Without knowing what the poison was, I can only try something general. A good clean, a poultice, stiches and a bandage.” He seemed to be talking to himself again. Idwyl and Raulin were gone, and Valerie had no idea.
Gabriel muttered to himself and Valerie caught words she thought were herbs and maybe other ingredients. He set some water to heat on a cauldron in the middle of the room. He rummaged through shelves and cabinets Valerie had not really paid attention to and brought them to a smaller table at the end of the table on which Jonathan lay. Gabriel worked quickly, but to Valerie it still felt like an age.
Gabriel added something to the hot water and began cleaning out the wound. Jonathan, though unconscious, grimaced and wriggled a little.
“Can you hold his arms down for me? I need his torso as still as possible. Plus I don’t want to get hit by a flailing arm…” Gabriel smiled, but did not look up, as Valerie did as he asked. “Ta.”
Gabriel leaned in close and cleaned the wound some more. Valerie was quite impressed with his attention to detail. She tried hard not to fixate on his hands, but she had trouble not doing that and trying to watch what he was doing at the same time.
Gabriel put the hot water down and threw some ingredients in a pestle, much too fast for Valerie to even have pretended to know what they were. He ground them up until they made a thick, chunky-looking paste. This he smeared into Jonathan’s wound, leaving a little left in the pestle.
“For after,” he said. “Hold him as tight as you can if he starts to move. I’ll do my best with this, but he’ll likely scar.”
“That will make two of us.” She smiled as he looked up, seeming to see the bandage on her head for the first time. He nodded, seeming to file the information away, and went back to his work.
Then came the stitches. Gabriel worked fast and he worked precisely. Valerie did not know much about stitches, but she thought his were small and tight and neat. Which must be a good thing? When the stitches were finished, Gabriel smoothed some more of the poultice on and bandaged Jonathan up as best he could. It seemed to Valerie that he must be very strong to be able to manoeuvre Jonathan about in order to wrap the bandage around his body.
Gabriel finally stood straight and stretched his back.
“That’s the best I can do for now,” he said. “Come and sit down and I’ll take a look at you.”
Valerie did as he asked and he gently removed the bandage from her temple.
He sucked in a breath. “God, that would have hurt.”
“Is it bad? I haven’t really looked at.”
“Let’s just say it makes me think you’re a very strong woman.” He smiled warmly at her, his eyes looking into hers. She blinked and looked away.
“It’s nothing. I was unconscious for a night and Jonathan seems to know his way around medicine.”
“If he tended to you, yes. Though, I don’t know why he didn’t use any of it on himself. These stitchers aren’t bad, but I do fear you will have a scar when it’s healed.”
Valerie smiled, her hand reaching for her temple. She gave a short laugh, recalling something Jonathan had said. “Jonathan thinks it will hurt my chances of finding a husband.”
Gabriel grinned. “I doubt that very much. You’re still very beautiful, and I can think of no man who would want a helpless wife.”
Valerie laughed. “I can.”
“Shame on them, then. It would be wonderful to have a wife who could not only take care of herself, but me as well.”
“You would be the only one.”
He looked at her, his face serious and his eyes glinting. “No. I promise you I am not.”
They stared at each other a moment longer, then he cleared his throat and looked away.
“What other injuries did you sustain?”
“Jonathan said my ribs were cracked. But I think that’s all, other than some bumps and bruises and the odd scrape.”
He nodded, thoughtful. “This will be awkward, but I would like to look at your ribs, if you don’t mind.”
She hesitated, then slowly nodded and stood up.
“If you go behind the curtain, you can wrap some cloth around your chest and waist.” He passed her some clean pieces of cloth.
She pulled the curtain closed and slowly got undressed. It felt strange to be in such a situation with a stranger, so she asked him more about himself.
“You’re very young to be a healer, aren’t you?”
“I’m twenty-two, but I suppose so, yes,” he answered. “My parents were both healers so I grew up around it. I knew more than most full healers by the time I was thirteen, so my parents never thought there was a point in me going through a proper apprenticeship. They would have expected me out on my own by now.”
“They would have?” Valerie asked, making sure the cloth pieces were secure.
“They both died in the war, deciding to tend to the wounded soldiers on the battlefield. I–” He stopped when he saw her.
It was the first time he had looked truly awkward since she had met him. It was quite a different sight to the calm, confidence he had presented earlier. He smiled and brushed his hand through his hair, not quite looking at her.
“All right. Well, if you’ll come and lie on this table for me, please,” he said, coughing a little.
He had set up another table like the one on which Jonathan was lying. She walked to it, her arms self-consciously wrapping around her belly. Now she was in the light, she could see how blemished her skin looked. She could not remember looking this badly bruised in all her years of training.
He helped her get up onto the table, more guiding her than actually touching her. He smiled at her and she lay down, her arms still draped over her bare midriff.
“It certainly looks like you’ve been fighting,” Gabriel said, peering at her cuts and bruises intently.
“I would say I’ve had worse, but I’m not sure that I have.” Valerie had tried to think of something witty to say and, after that, felt she had failed miserably.
“I wouldn’t like to see the others.”
“What others?” She wondered who he meant.
“The ones you beat.”
“Oh…” She almost breathed more easily, until he prodded a particularly sore bruise and she flinched. “Well, most of them ended up dead…”
She still didn’t know how she felt about killing people…or trolls…but she was glad that she and Jonathan had made it through the fights alive… Well, almost alive.
“Killing is not as glorious as they train you to believe, is it?”
Valerie smiled sadly. “I don’t know if they ever really told us it was glorious.” She winced as he tested her knee joints. “But they never really explained the horror of it. And they went through the war, they should know.”
Gabriel nodded. “I expect it wasn’t something they ever thought you would actually see.”
“If we weren’t to ever see it, what would we be doing as knights? Surely if we were patrolling and had to defend ourselves, people might die?”
Gabriel shook his head. “That is not for me to know. I can only conjecture that they hoped you would not ever need to be in a true life or death battle. Sadly, it seems more and more likely.”
He looked at her torso pointedly and cleared his throat. She smiled self-consciously and let her arms fall to her sides.
“What was Jonathan’s diagnosis?”
“Of what? My ribs?” she asked and Gabriel nodded. “He said they were likely cracked. Why? What is actually wrong with them?”
“Probably just as he says. What is he? Your bodyguard?”
Valerie snorted. “No, just a lifelong friend. He’s trained as a minstrel.”
“Are you sure? It sounds like he has an awful lot more skills than a mere minstrel needs…” Gabriel looked back at Jonathan over his shoulder.
Valerie laughed, her ribs ached a little. “No, I’m sure. He plays and sings very well. I’ll make him play for
you…” She trailed off, looking over at him. If he ever gets better, she finished to herself.
“What did you mean before? That being in a life and death fight seems more and more likely?” she asked after the silence had gone on for too long. She also needed to take her mind off the poking of her ribs.
Gabriel did not look up. “Have you not heard? Reports are coming from the north that a huge army is gathering.”
Valerie was shocked. Makar was up north. Makar the vile, villainous, treacherous man who was responsible for the last war. If he had not put a whole lot of stories into other people’s heads… Well, it seemed more like magic than real persuasion. Valerie knew little about the exact cause of the war, but she knew enough to know Makar was not a good man by any stretch of the imagination.
“Surely someone’s going to check?”
Gabriel shrugged then turned away and started collecting some ingredients. “That’s not my job nor my business, but I’d think those stuffy Mors would do something about it, even if the Veramans won’t.”
“They won’t?”
“That’s the rumour going around. I never can be sure though. The brothers here are all a bit crazy, and the rest of Dravon is much the same. If there is a crackpot theory or rumour going around, you can bet you’ll find it in Dravon!” he chuckled. “This may sting a bit.”
He dabbed an ointment over most of her skin. And it did sting. It stung and it tingled, and it felt like it was burrowing into her skin. She gritted her teeth and bore it, not wanting him to think her weak.
“Bigger men than you have writhed around in pain after I used that on them.” He smiled, helping her to sit up.
It felt like hundreds of tiny spears were pricking her skin.
“What is that?”
“It’s an ointment that invigorates the body. It helps with healing. Sort of kick starts the process,” he replied. “I’d suggest we apply it at least once a day, and you will be feeling better in no time.” He gestured with his head to the bandage at her temple. “Well, except maybe that. I won’t put this stuff on that. We’ll have to keep a poultice on that. I’ll mix one up now and then put a clean bandage on it.”
Valiant Valerie (Ballad of Valerie of Mor #1) Page 18