“He’s too stubborn to be taken out like this,” I told him, trying for a lighter tone and hoping it didn’t miss the mark. “He hasn’t made fun of me enough yet. That will be his motivation to heal.”
That made Callum smile, if only a little.
Maddox stirred on the cot, and his eyes fluttered open. “Callum. Are you… hurt?”
“No. I’m fine,” Callum said, kneeling beside him. “All thanks to you.”
“G-Good.” His eyes closed before he forced them open again. His ragged breaths caused mine to stutter in my chest. “Where’s the… boy? Is Evan s-safe?”
Even while gravely injured, he refused to think of me as an adult. The stubborn jerk-wad. And yet, I still went over and sat on the edge of his cot, my chest painfully tight and vision blurring. “Safe and right here to bug you.”
“There y-you are,” he said. My heart ached as he made a small sound, forehead scrunching.
“When will you stop calling meboy?” I brushed aside a strand of his bangs, that ache in my heart growing. “Keep it up and I’ll have to beat you up.”
Maddox’s smile was weak. Shaky. “I’d like to see t-that.” His eyes closed again. “You are much too… small.”
He lost consciousness.
“Can I do anything?” I asked Briar, eyes burning. “I don’t know much about medicine and don’t have a magical bone in my body to make special elixirs, but if you tell me what to do, I can help. Like get your supplies or whatever you need.”
“Me too,” Callum said.
Thane had entered the ward and was tending to a knight in a nearby cot. He and Briar were the only ones in the clinic.
Briar softly smiled despite his tired eyes. “Under normal circumstances, I don’t allow those without medical training to assist, but considering the current situation, I don’t have the luxury to refuse. Any help would be much appreciated.”
“Very much so,” Thane said, his voice a bit frail. His nerves were shot. “I’ve never…”
He didn’t need to finish his sentence for me to understand. He was probably fresh out of medical school—or whatever they called it in Bremloc—and hadn’t dealt with anything of that magnitude. Even experienced doctors would’ve been overwhelmed by that many patients at once, some of whom barely clung to life.
Briar didn’t allow us to do anything surgery related—for the best, as I would’ve probably accidently killed someone—but we helped grind herbs for healing salves, fetched more bindings for bandages when he needed them, and helped keep the medical wing clean. We then restocked the medical cabinet.
And I only got queasy by the blood twice, so I was pretty proud of that, considering I covered my eyes anytime blood and gore was shown in movies.
A few hours later, Briar told me and Callum to take a break and eat dinner. I realized I’d never even eaten lunch. The upset over the knights had squashed my appetite, but now that they were resting in their cots, that hunger surfaced again.
I whipped us up something in the small kitchen, making enough for Briar and Thane too. There was an abundance of rice, so I cooked some in a pot and pan-seared fish. What type of fish? Who knew. But it reminded me of cod. I wasn’t the best at cooking savory food; my specialty was desserts and pastries. I knew enough for it to be decent though.
“How are you holding up?” I asked Thane, handing him a plate.
“Better,” he answered, accepting the food. The panic in his brown eyes had lessened, which was good. “Thank you for the meal.”
“Was this your first day at the clinic?”
He shook his head. “My fifth. I graduated from the academy at the top of my class and was stationed here. It’s a highly competitive position, and I felt fortunate to earn it. But I didn’t expect anything like this.”
“This isn’t too common,” Callum told him. “The attack today took many of us by surprise. Not all days are like this one.”
Thane seemed relieved by that.
Briar didn’t join us for dinner. After working on the knights and bandaging them, he’d then busied himself by making elixirs. When he finally joined us, the sun had long since set, and moonlight shone through the tall windows.
“You may retire for the night,” he told Thane as he washed his hands and dried them off.
Thane nodded before saying good night to me and Callum. As he left, he seemed moments from collapsing. He’d probably be asleep before his head even hit his pillow.
“Thank you both for your help today,” Briar said.
