Luceo Non Uro || Outlander

Chapter 23

"Help me! Milady!"

"There's Fergus," Brianna breathed a sigh of relief, but we all knew the worst was yet to come.

My eyes wet with tears at the raw pain I heard in my husband's voice.

Claire rushed out of her surgery to meet them, and I followed. Jamie was slumped over Fergus' shoulder. He was struggling desperately against Jamie's dead weight. Ian and Roger raced from where they had been waiting to help him, but Claire got to him first and immediately began checking his vitals. I took some of Daddy's weight from Fergus and helped carry his limp body into the surgery. Ian and Roger took over to lift him onto the operating table he had built with his own hands just months earlier. 

Fergus was shaking. His palms were slick with sweat. "Will he be alright?" Claire met his wild gaze, her own eyes widened with fear. Her practiced, steady hands did not betray her though as she went to work inspecting the wound on Da's leg. A black wound where the snake's fangs had pierced his skin stood dark against the inflamed and swollen skin of his thigh. Red streaks extended up his leg in both direction. His blood was poisoned. As Claire pressed into the wound, Jamie paled and looked as if he were about to be sick. Fergus looked the same.

"Alright, out ye get. Can't have ye adding to our patient list," I steered him away from the surgery door. He craned his neck to look at Daddy until he could not see him anymore.

"You sit, and drink this." I pressed a cup of water into his hand.

He unscrewed the cap to his flask and poured a healthy dram into the cup. He then downed the cup in one gulp. It seemed to steady him, but the concern was unmistakable. Daddy was in a bad way. It was a miracle they made it down from the mountains.

"How was he on the ride back?"

He shrugged. "Said it was a smoother journey than Roger's stretcher. Said his arse hurts from being dragged across the forest floor." Daddy cried out in pain. Fergus made to stand, swaying slightly on his feet.

"Sit," I barked, forcing him back down onto the chair. "Let me take over. I will let ye know if his condition changes."

I took a bolt of fabric outside and dipped it into the cool water of the well. Daddy winced as I placed it on his forehead. With a weak hand, he raised it so that it did not block his eyes. I had never seen a living person resemble a corpse as much as Da did in that moment.

"Marsali," Claire motioned for me to join her outside of the surgery.

"What'll we do? Is there anything you can give him?"

"I'm going to need you to get everyone to look for some maggots... to eat the dead flesh. It should help to stave off infection."

"Tell me, is it bad?"

"Yes."

"Can ye cut it out?"

"No, the venom's in his blood. He'll have to fight it. I can make an onion poultice that should help clean the wound. I'll give him some of the penicillin broth. Though... I'm not sure how potent it'll be if I give it to him orally."

"Dam yer needle be broken. Roger said Jamie was vomiting. That seems to have stopped. And Fergus said he was making snide remarks about the sled Roger made. Those are good signs."