Avalon

Chapter 5

MARIAN

By the time they'd gotten her to the infirmary, Marian had already managed to work off Eiddwen's chest plate. She ripped the woman's beige shirt, pressing a cloth made of the fabric of her robes into the oozing wound around the dagger which is still lodged in her abdomen. It was beginning to bleed through the cracks in her fingers by the time one of the Knights had noticed them. It was the spear-wielding Knight from before that had sparred with Eiddwen. Upon seeing them, she'd called out to the other Knights – and several had come to help carry Eiddwen back to the Choir.

Huddled in the middle, Marian was thinking only that she had to press harder on Eiddwen's wound, but doesn't in concern for the dagger. She would heal the Knight-Commander behind closed doors, where she could be kept stable and warm. The Knights pushed through the crowds of curious onlookers, hurrying them to the infirmary.

By the time they'd arrived, they rested her upon one of the clean bedrolls at Marian's demand. They don't linger long, stepping away to watch in a circle as Marian peels the cloth away.

"That's the first wound she's ever sustained in combat," one of the Knights whispers to another.

The wound leaks lightly as the bundle of cloth moves away, and Marian winces when she realizes that the dagger is serrated. She cries out for more cloths, but the Knights look at one another with doe-like stupidity.

"Move!" the Mother's voice shouts from the door of the infirmary. "Give her space! She can't rightly work with an audience!"

Pushing through the wall of soldiers, Sister Elise comes with cloths in hand. She also has Marian's medical kit folded up in her other hand. She places them at the side of Eiddwen's thigh, and Marian reaches across to grab one of the cloths. Elise sits on the other side of the Knight, glancing down at the dagger protruding from the woman's abdomen.

"I have to pull it out," Marian informs her.

Elise nods, resting her hands lightly on Eiddwen's bare belly and her shoulder.

Hovering over the woman, Marian takes the dagger's hilt in hand and delicately pulls it from the woman's flesh. It moves easily out, but bleeds as soon as the blade is removed from her gut. Molding the cloth in her hand over the woman's wound, she bears down on it and hands the dagger over to Elise.

"It was poisoned," she informs, quickly taking her hand away once Elise takes the dagger. She pushes down into Eiddwen's side, bowing her head. "Bring it to a herbalist if you can. She needs an antidote."

Elise leaves, and Marian's focus narrows to the woman in her care. Furrowing her brow, she looks up at Eiddwen's face and her lips purse with fear. She rests calmly, chapped lips parting to breathe, and her brow is relaxed – as though she'd never been stabbed at all. Her bronze skin grows more pale with every passing second.

Glancing down at the cloth, Marian's heart twists when she sees the woman's blood already beginning to stain through the fabric. Her fingers tremble as it seeps up against her skin. Pulling the fabric from her wound, Marian lays her bare hands on the injury. She channels her mana, opens her conduit as wide as she can, the surface of her hands rippling like water. As her mana touches Eiddwen's abdomen, something light electricity crackles up the channels of her power. Her spell shatters along the length of Marian's channel, and it feels like glass piercing through her flesh from the inside all the way up to her mind. Recoiling with a yelp, Marian drops her pounding skull into her hands, gasping as white hot agony shoots up to her head from her spine and arms.