We waited until Menolly returned with Iris.
“Let’s see,” Iris said, examining my knees. “I don’t sense any poison, but you’re lucky. Any deeper and you’d have a mess on your hands, given your muscles. You’d probably need a hospital. Anyway, I can stitch these up, but you need to take it easy. And I do mean easy,” she said, giving me a long stare.
I promised as she brought out a needle and threaded it. That made me queasier than watching Menolly feed on the redcap. I turned my head.
“Do you want some ginger-ale and crackers to settle your stomach?” Lukia asked.
I nodded, trying to avoid watching Iris work on my legs. “Please.”
Lukia brought me a can of soda and a packet of crackers. She placed them on the table next to me, and I focused on watching the crackers instead of Iris. “What is it about saltines?” I asked. “They settle my stomach like little else. Except for Mother’s biscuits. Remember those? They were always so good.”
“I remember,” Camille said. “I wish she had written down the recipe because I couldn’t find it anywhere. But you’re right—saltines have a similar effect.”
Iris began to clean my wounds. “This is going to sting a little.” She pressed the saturated gauze to my knee, and I jerked.
“Youch!” I tried to sit still, but it was nearly impossible. “It feels like you just about cauterized my skin!”
“I know, but this will help numb it just a little so I can stitch it up,” Iris said. “It’s a disinfectant.” She waited a moment, then went in for a second pass.
“Is it safe?” Camille asked. “You know we can’t use most human meds.”
Those of us who were half-human couldn’t always use human-based medicines, so we had our own, but Iris reassured us.
“It’s safe,” Iris said. “Here, hold on to this.” She handed me a broom from the corner. “Squeeze it while I sew up these wounds.”
I took the broom and rested it across my thighs, holding tight as Iris began to sew up the gashes. Whatever she had washed my knees with was starting to numb my skin, which helped, but I still closed my eyes and gritted my teeth in order not to yell. The pain wasn’t overwhelming, but it stung like a bitch.
After a couple of minutes, Iris said, “You can let go now. I’m done. I’ll just cover these with a nonstick bandage for now.”
As I opened my eyes, she began wrapping nonstick bandages over the cuts, first sprinkling an antibiotic powder on them. Lukia, who was sitting nearby, let out a sigh.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
I nodded. “I’ll be fine in no time. But I don’t want a repeat match. What do we do now?”
“We break the statue that was on our property, for one thing,” Menolly said. “And we go hunting for any redcaps that might still be around. I don’t think that the ones on Lukia’s property are the same ones who left our little care package the other day. Lukia, is your property confined to the back and front yards?”
She nodded. “I only have the double lot. Can you recommend wards to scare off any that might be in the thicket behind my back fence?”
“Redcaps are frightened by owls, for one thing. If you set up owl boxes in the backyard, that might be enough. Though I’m not sure how you would go about finding owls to take up residence on such short notice,” Iris said.
“Are there any owl shifters nearby who might be able to suggest something?” Lukia asked.
“That’s a good question. I’ll ask around,” Camille said.
I slipped into the sweatpants that Iris had brought from my dresser. They were loose enough so they wouldn’t rub against my knees. “I suppose we’d better go. I hope we got all of them,” I said. “Tomorrow I’ll come back and we’ll go through your yard and do our best to make it as inhospitable as possible…for the redcaps.”
Lukia thanked us, then saw us to the door. As we headed out to the car, I glanced up at the sky. The snow had stopped, and the stars were out, though they seemed far fewer and brighter over Earthside than back home in Otherworld. Light pollution, no doubt.
“You all right?” Camille asked me as we stood by the car, staring overhead. The air was so crisp it hurt my nose, and yet…and yet…even though we’d just been in a bloody fight, there was something incredibly beautiful about the night.
I nodded. “I’m just thinking that, in the midst of worry, beauty still can shine through.”
“That it can,” she said, gazing up at the stars. “That it can.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
That night, we smashed the statue that had shown up on our doorstep. Then, Menolly offered to go hunting through the thicket.
