The Song of Loss

Chapter Fourteen - Songs of Death

Laceflowers were all over the Versosen Woods Darcy called home. Everyone knew about the intense healing properties of their leaves and the heavy sedatives that could be made from their petals. Giving someone a bouquet of laceflowers was seen as a promise for protection from the giver to the recipient.

The Famris made chains of them to lay across every surface during their spring festival, the Seed Celebration. They handed each other single blossoms in a promise to protect their community as a whole. Azariah had given her mother a full garland when he took her into their home, and another the day he asked her to marry him.

Since the second gift, the flowers had always meant so much more than just protection to Darcy. One day she would find someone to give her own bouquet of laceflowers to.

Naturally she was flustered when Percy held up a fistful of the creamy yellow blossoms. Their roots dangled from the long stems. Dirt sprinkled over her lap from where he held them in front of her face.

"Let me see your hands, these will help with the blisters," he told her. The cut on his hand was already wrapped in a cloth filled with the leaves.

Of course it wasn't just the flowers that had Darcy in a daze. She could still see the pirates as they calmly walked in time to Krea's singing until they were fully submerged in the waters of the Sleeping River. Whether they could still hear the magical notes or not they never came back up for air. When Captain Danny spoke up, Darcy begged for them to stop.

They tied him to a tree instead once they reached the shore.

The others were celebrating while they set-up camp. Not only did they have a boat but they hadn't paid a single coin for it. Traveling from the Sleeping River into its calmer sister stream the Starfall River would keep them from having to cross through the Violet Fields. It would also cut several days off their journey. The captain was the only remaining problem.

As soon as the boat had been successfully docked, Kasi and Katta ran off into the trees. A small woods surrounded the eastern half of the river's path. The vicious current kept most animals from attempting to make the place their home, but it didn't scare them away entirely. A nouyip had little to fear though, and so Darcy hadn't tried to stop them.

Percy separated the leaves to squeeze out the drops of oil inside. There were only a couple drops in each leaf and it was the most inefficient way to use them. Most healers used a carrier oil to soak the leaves in. It lowered the potency but when combined with other herbs it still worked incredibly well. Boiling the dry leaves into a tea was even more effective than just ripping them.

The oil tingled on the blisters forming and numbed them. Darcy sighed in relief. "Thanks, makes it really hard to do anything I like when my hands are out of commission," she said. The natural antiseptics in the leaves would keep things clean while the lysine would speed up the healing. Percy had even promised to add a bit of magic to the mix once he felt up to it.

Since his hand was still injured from the deep cut, he wasn't looking at much detailed work in his near future. He sat at Darcy's feet with an arm thrown over her knees. "My pleasure, dear bard. I can't have your hands hurting if I expect you to write songs about my glorious deeds."

Darcy snorted and took one of the flowers he'd dropped. The levees were velvety soft. "What glorious deeds?" she asked. Fresh oil fell from the leaves she squeezed over his hand. It would not feel as delightfully cooling on an open wound.

As expected, Percy winced and tried to pull away. The oil settled and worked on numbing the shallow cut. "I think saving your life on several occasions consists of glorious deeds," he said through clenched teeth. "And I plan to continue saving you at any opportunity that presents itself."