In The Village of Crows

S I X

It is a quiet day, which makes the screaming in the castle all that more jarring, especially after the Dark King's appearance yesterday.

"ALENIS!!" It's faint, but the voice strikes such fear into me that I'm on my feet instantly.

"Jaimie??" I carefully step down the steps at such a fast pace that would generally upset him, but seeing him bathed in blood and looking around wildly, I find it the least of my worries.

"Where's Father?"

"He's dead, Alenis! And I'm going to be too if you don't hurry up and help me." The news sickens me to my stomach, but adrenaline kicks in quickly, and I force down my thoughts and feelings to process later.

Gaurds near by heard the commotion and rush with me along to the medical wing. I slam a door open and send for a medic. In the meantime, I work on getting Jaimie's bloodstained shirt off.

My scissors glide through the fabric, white and pink and deep crimson. Deep gashes and cuts litter Jaimie's chest.

"Jaimie, how long ago were these?!" The infection has already set in.

"It doesn't matter, Alenis, just help me!" He says it with huge urging, such pleading that I stop for a second just to look at him. I see something I've never seen in his eyes before. Fear.

"Okay." I look down at his wounds, then to the door, praying the medic will burst in the door at any second. The sweat on Jaimie's forehead and the redness in his face tell me we don't have time to wait.

"Some of these are fresh," I comment, going for the antiseptic. "Where is the medic?!" I snap to the guard at the door who shrugs.

"Jaimie, I can't clean half of these! There's too much infection!" I carefully press some antiseptic doused cotton into his infected wounds. I move quickly the ones that look better and work on debreiding them, then cleaning. "I can stitch a few of these, but you didn't clean half of these and now they're infected."

"Alenis, I don't care!"

I narrow my eyes, dipping the needle in alcohol to sterilize it. I think about digging the needle in him a little harder than necessary.

I work carefully and quickly, stitching Jaimie's skin back together. After all the cleaned ones are stitched, I wrap bandages around them.

Jaimie hisses as I bring my attention back to the ones worse for wear. "You'll just have to keep cleaning these and pray to the gods you don't go into shock." I say, shaking my head as I do my best to clean up the jagged cuts in my brother's body. After I clean them to the best of my ability, I wrap them up too, leaving a little room to breathe.

And then the medic walks in.

I look down at my blood stained dress, then to him. "I called for you a while ago. You can tell him how much of an idiot he is. Everything else is done. Make sure he gets his dressings changed and that his infection doesn't increase."

I walk right past him and to my room and into the bathroom. I grab a fresh white towel from the vanity and stare at myself in the mirror. Jaimie's blood is all over my hands, my dress, even somehow my face.

I focus on getting Jaimie's blood off my hands, scrubbing and scrubbing. I look back in the mirror and hold gaze with myself. I stare and stare, body rigid, stuck in the middle of a motion.

"He's dead, Alenis!" It sticks in my head. He's dead. Not coming home. That leaves Jaimie in charge. Jaimie to be king. I assume there will be a coronation as soon as Jaime is able-bodied enough to make and appearance in front of the kingdom. I am reminded my clock is now ticking a little faster. Jaimie wastes no time in doing anything. The sooner I'm married off in a far away land, out of his hair, the better for him. I break my gaze with the mirror, snapping out of my disassociation enough to continue to wash Jaimie's blood off me.

It hits me that I have no clue what even happened. Adrenaline took over so fast I hadn't the sense to ask him. I finish cleaning myself up, then as I go to find Jaimie, my door swings open.

"Alenis," It's Fuller, heavily disheveled, eyes wild. "It was the Dark King. He's here, he's attacked the village. You have to leave! Go! Now!"