Page 35 of Bloom
“Why are you sedating him?” asked Jaime. “He’s already out.”
“He’s lost a lot of blood. If he wakes up, he’ll likely be agitated-”
“If he wakes up, he can tell us who attacked him, and I’ll make sure they’re found,” said Lord Monet. “I want the fuckers to hang, and I know he will too.”
Olivier corked the bottle. “Lord Monet, I understand. It’s best if he remains asleep for a while. When someone loses a lot of blood, the heart works harder to beat and keep what’s left flowing through his body. If you agitate him and force him toremember everything so soon after he comes around, minutes after the actual injury, his heart will only struggle more. I’m not risking it so quickly after he’s been healed.”
Lord Gautier shouted from across the clearing and jogged over while wearing a single glove. “There’s something on the horse’s back.”
“Eh?”
“They took off Mighty’s saddle, and there’s some sort of-” Lord Gautier grimaced and touched his forefinger and thumb together. The substance had a faint milky tint and was rather thin. “Mighty’s sweaty. A horse’s back doesn’t sweat like this. This is…”
Olivier leaned over. “You didn’t touch it with your bare hands, right?”
“No! Obviously not!”
“What is that?” demanded Lord Monet.
“This was under the blanket and saddle.” Lord Gautier held out his hand. “We couldn’t see it until it was removed. The entirety of her back is covered. Nobody knows what it is.”
Jaime held Aleric tighter. He hadn’t been attacked by common outlaws.
Olivier took Lord Gautier’s wrist to hold his hand still and brought his face close to smell the substance. “It barely has any odor. Whatever it is, I don’t recognize it. Perhaps it’s a form of sap.”
“The stableboy,” said Jaime. “The one taking care of the horses. He must know. If something was hidden under her blanket and saddle, it wasn't random outlaws. This was planned and not a stroke of bad luck.”
Outlaws taking the risk to rob a lone higher-up and hauling ass once they realized they wouldn’t succeed was one thing. Aleric’s attack combined with the back of Mighty smeared in a strange substance was another. She’d been panicking, whichhadn’t seemed too strange. A horse not intended for war might not do well when forced to run from actual danger.
Lord Monet’s face darkened. “Go to camp, find Andy, and don’t you dare let him leave.”
Jaime hadn’t paid much attention to the boy who’d looked to be about fourteen or fifteen. If someone had been working with a Castle employee…fuck…
The rest of the courtiers straggled back in. Clearly, someone had told Zacharie the gist of what happened, and he looked quite panicked at the sight of his brother when he guided his horse over.
“What are you doing to him?” he demanded as if Jaime was harming Aleric.
“I’m trying to keep him warm. He lost a lot of blood.”
Lord Monet wanted to know if anyone had seen other hunters around who weren’t a part of their party. Had they seen or heard anything? The answer was no. Not a single other hunter had been spotted, and nothing out of the ordinary had been noticed. Several had rabbits, evidence of their hunting, and nobody who’d come with a spear was missing their weapon.
Nobody knew what the substance was either, and it was agreed that it had made Mighty panic since Olivier said it could be a skin irritant. Nobody had seen Andy doing anything odd, but it wasn’t like they’d been paying attention to him earlier.
It was obvious the attack had been planned, and everyone whispered. One of those who’d gone into the forest found Aleric’s dropped sword. The rest came back, and no one had seen a thing out of the ordinary.
Olivier had brought a few things in his saddlebags on the off chance that something happened. He hadn’t brought any glass vials or containers, so he told a courtier to empty his waterskin. The medicine he’d sedated Aleric with was poured inside, andwith a glass bottle available, he used a knife to scrape off some of the mystery substance to collect.
Mighty had been calmed enough to stand, although she didn’t seem well. A couple of courtiers poured water over her back in an attempt to clean her. Jaime wasn’t sure if that would work since she looked pained despite not panicking.
Olivier returned while holding up the bottle to look at the milky fluid he’d scraped on the inside edge. “If it’s an irritant, it’s possible it reacts with sweat. That’s why Mighty was fine at first.”
The day was quite warm, and under the blanket and saddle, the horse would surely sweat a little. Aleric’s weight hadn’t helped with the poison being further ground into her back through her hair.
“So…someone was hoping Aleric’s horse would panic and throw him,” Jaime said in a low voice. “It’d be easier to deal with him if so.”
Olivier glanced at him and the courtiers around the clearing who couldn’t shut up for even a second. Zacharie didn’t look like such a brat as he stood by his Father and stared at the ground. “I’d think so, but keep any thoughts to yourself. We don’t know who’s responsible.”
Had Aleric meant to say another name? Or had he mixed up something in his head because he’d been on the verge of passing out? Damn it. They wouldn’t know until he woke up.
