Gralen stood near the wagons, muttering something low to the captain, who listened with the patience of a man who didn’t have better options. I didn’t like that, but I had no choice but to leave them to their whispering.
And Nicco… I didn’t look for him. I told myself there was no reason to. I didn’tneedto know where he was because it didn’t matter. Right now, he was just another man in this mess, and I had more important things to focus on.
I lasted three seconds before I turned my head to find him.
I told myself it was because I liked to know where the danger was. If I was honest, that wasn’t a lie. Something about him made me tense. Nervous.
He wasn’t near the others. He stood at the edge of the clearing, just beyond the reach of the wagon’s shadow, where the trees thickened again into the dark forest beyond.
He had his back to us and was facing outward, as if he were waiting for something to come out of it.
I frowned slightly, shifting my weight. He was keeping watch, even though it was still light enough to see clearly. I dragged my gaze away.
“Get some rest where you can,” I said, louder now, pulling attention back to me. “We move again before full dark.”
A few of them groaned at that. I ignored them all. Comfort wasn’t part of this. It was about survival.
I stepped back toward the fire that the soldier had started. Adjusting my cloak tighter around me as the cold began to settle in again, I braced myself for what came next.
“Let me see,” I murmured as I approached the one who still had his hands clenched around the other's thigh.
A deep, bloody gash ran along his thigh. The blood wasn’t flowing out quickly or eager to escape. It was slowly oozing.
I looked up at the captain, and he looked as grim as I felt. “It comes off,” he said calmly.
Baxley leaned over my shoulder. “Burn it.”
I nodded before he finished speaking. “We burn it. It’ll seal it, stop the bleeding, and he might not lose it.”
The captain looked between us like we were insane. “It’s too deep. He’ll get infected and?—”
“I can do it right,” I told him. “I’ve done it before.” I glanced at the soldier. “It’s going to hurt, though. Hopefully, you’ll pass out quickly.”
He swallowed hard. “What’s the other option?”
“Amputation.”
He looked ready to pass out as it was.
I tried to sound reassuring. “I can stop the bleeding. It might work, or it might not. Or we take it clean off. Then we stop the bleeding. It might work. It might not. Either way, we need to stop the bleeding.”
“You sound like the healers in the Verei Kahn,” he mumbled. “They’re blunt like you.”
Associating me with the Verei Kahn was the worst thing he could do, but I forced myself not to react.
“The difference is that they have the magic to heal you. I don’t.” I gestured to the soldier by the fire. “I have the fire going.” I drew my dagger. “I warm the blade, and then…” I tried to smile. “Pick.”
Baxley sniffed. “Why have you no healer with you?” he asked the captain. “None of your men are menders?”
Menders, the old term for the Chosen in the Verei Kahn who had the affinity for healing.
“We had one, but that monster just ate him,” the soldier whose leg I was hoping to save said with a scoff. “Irony. Right?”
“At least you have a sense of humor,” I murmured. “I’ll be right back.”
I’d stuck my smallest blade into the fire as it was being made, and now I sat back and waited a little bit longer as it heated. Movement beside me made me turn my head.
Nicco handed me a thin, long dagger. “Has a better reach for what you’re about to do.”
