Page 205 of The Black Witch

“He’s nice.”

When it happens, it’s so fast I don’t have time to react. There’s a loud crack, a high-pitched shriek and a sickeningthump.

And then the screaming begins.

I drop my book bag and leap toward her small form, crumpled on the ground in front of me. She’s fallen from the top of the tree, all the way down to land on the sharp end of a hoe that lies at the base of the tree. It’s so dark, I can’t make out much, but Icansee that her right leg is very broken and that blood gushes from the wound.

“Oh, Ancient One,” I breathe, my heart racing as Fern writhes and screams at the top of her lungs. Panicked, I look wildly around for help and see Yvan running toward us from the livestock barns.

“She fell. From the top of the tree. She fell on the hoe. She’s bleeding. Her leg’s broken.” My words come out in a tangled rush as he kneels down and takes quick stock of the situation. His head darts around. Fern isn’t supposed to be here. If anyone finds her here...

“Keep her quiet!” he orders.

“How?”

“Justdo it!”

I sit down behind Fern, grab her head and cover her mouth firmly, her screams quickly and effectively muffled, and start to feel immediately sick to my stomach at having to do this. Her little body bucks and tenses against me as her hands claw at my arms and at the air. I try harder to restrain her. Yvan pulls up her pant leg and I can make out a shard of bone sticking clear out of her leg.

“Elloren,” Yvan orders me sharply. “Hold her steady.”

I keep one hand wrapped around Fern’s head and covering her mouth, and grasp her arms with the other. Yvan takes her leg in his hands and feels around with dexterous fingers. Then, out of the blue, he jerks her leg back into position. Fern convulses and she moans with terror and pain.

“What are you doing?”I cry, wildly confused.

Now he’s grabbing the newly straightened leg with both hands, completely covering the wound. He closes his eyes, as if in meditation, and holds the leg steady.

“Yvan!” I cry. “Why are you doing this? We need a real physician! Right now!”

But Fern’s screaming begins to lessen, and her muscles go slack, her arms falling limply to her sides. She whimpers softly, and then even that begins to subside. Yvan stays where he is, eyes closed as if he’s concentrating all his energy on her leg.

Fern is quietly trembling now, and I see the familiar figure of her grandmother hurrying over to us.

Fernyllia drops the scrap buckets in her arms when she catches sight of her granddaughter lying on the ground.

Yvan opens his eyes and looks over at me. “Release her, Elloren,” he says.

Wildly unsure, I take my hands off the child and sit back, Fern’s head limp in my lap.

Fern sniffles, her body still trembling, but she doesn’t seem to be in pain anymore.

Yvan takes his hands slowly off her leg. The blood on his hands, on Fern’s leg and her clothing looks like splashes of ink in the darkness. Incredibly, Fern pulls her leg in and holds out her hands to her grandmother. I sit back and stare at her, unable to believe my eyes.

How can it be?The bone—it was sticking clear through her leg!

Yvan steps back as Fernyllia takes Fern into her arms and hugs her tightly.

“My precious girl,” Fernyllia says as she kisses her granddaughter’s head. “What happened?”

“I fell out of the tree,” Fern sobs, “and Yvan fixed my leg. But ithurt.”

“It was just a scrape,” Yvan tells Fernyllia.

What?

Did we just witness the same scene? I saw the odd angle of her leg, the bone sticking through it. And her blood is everywhere. Proof that I’m not mistaken.

Yvan takes in my wildly incredulous stare and looks back at me, his face harsh, as if willing me to remain silent. I glance pointedly at his hands, at the bloodstains all over his lap. I know that there are healers who can fix such extreme breaks over a span of a few months, but I’ve never heard of anything like this.

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