Chapter 23 #4
He winced at the cut he’d made to her beautiful hair, but that wasn’t what pained him the most. Large chunks of hair had been pulled right out of her scalp, and there were multiple bite marks on her back and neck.
When the knight approached, he glared at the man.
“Can you get me hot water, a clean towel, and some salve?”
Nodding, the knight departed, and Danik smiled and spoke calmly to the trembling woman. “There now, little lapochka. Try to be calm. It’s not so bad. Perhaps you can tell me a story while I tend to your wounds, eh? Maybe something to help me remember from before?”
Soon he began humming quietly, and she felt the stinging sensation of a warm cloth pressed against her neck. “I-I don’t heal like before, when the tiger was with me.”
“You healed as a tiger?”
“Yes. You took care of me then as well.”
He listened as she told him of meeting him for the first time when she’d been caught in a trap, and by the time she finished her story about her saving him from the wolves, Danik was finished cleaning her wounds.
Taking her still-trembling hands, he pressed a soft kiss on her palm and instructed, “I’d like you to rest away from the flock for a while.
” Glancing around at the meadow and then staring up at the large trees, he said to the knight, “Bring your comb.”
Danik took Veru’s hand and guided her to the tree line.
The flock followed them, hoping for another delicious serving of virgin hair.
Once he found a tree he was satisfied with, Danik began to climb, then held out a hand for Veru.
He settled her in the crook of a tree and then asked Polden to hand him the comb.
“Good,” Danik said. “Now, Polden, I’m going to need you to gather every dark and evil flower you can find as quickly as you can. I’ll loan you the mirror if you need it.”
“No need. I can travel in much the same way as my brother, but by using the noonday paths. What do you intend to do with the flowers?”
“I’m hoping to give Yuga a surprise she didn’t count on.”
“But your young lady . . . she’s in pain.”
“I know. I’m not planning to use her hair. I’ll use my own. Hurry back. Some of them are already sprouting wool.”
The red knight looked at Danik thoughtfully. “I see. You know I’d stay and offer up my own hair, but . . . well, I don’t think they’d be interested in mine.”
“It’s fine,” Danik said. “You find the flowers. I’ll take care of this.”
“Very well. Good luck to you, hunter.”
“And to you.”
The knight lifted his helmet to his head, and with a crack of red-and-orange lightning, he disappeared.
Veru’s head throbbed. Danik had instructed her to keep the cloth pressed to her scalp, but she couldn’t find a place to lean against the tree without it hurting awfully.
Finally, she turned her head enough to watch him work, and that at least distracted her.
He began combing his hair, and it grew longer and longer.
The sheep below began leaping into the air in an attempt to catch it in their mouths.
When it was sufficiently long, well below his feet, yet still above their reach, he’d use his knife to cut it off, hacking it off in great chunks and tossing his dirty-blond hair to the waiting beasts below, who leaped upon it like they were starving in winter and it was lifesaving hay.
Over and over, he’d comb and cut, comb and cut. An hour passed, then two, and three.
He paused to check on her, and his hair was long, past his shoulders and covering his face. She brushed it behind his ear. “There. Now I can see your eyes.”
“How do you feel?” he asked.
“Sore. Painful.”
Danik helped her lean forward and tried to gently check her wounds, but the cloth was now stuck to her scalp.
Instead, he took a bottle out of their bag.
“Here, drink. Eat something and rest. What you need is medicine.” He froze.
“Wait. We have the mirror. Why didn’t we think of this before?
Why don’t we simply use it to travel home?
Find your sister? Get all of us out of this place? Escape Yuga?”
“Do you think it could be that simple?” Veru asked.
“It couldn’t hurt to try.” Danik took the mirror from the bag and placed it on the tree limb. “Go ahead.”
Veru wet her lips. “Take me to the palace,” she said.
The mirror glimmered, then went black. After a moment, it cleared as if nothing had happened.
She tried again. “Take me to my sister,” Veru commanded.
Once again, it was the same result.
“That won’t work,” the red knight said as he approached the tree. “Until you are free of Yuga’s enchantment, you won’t be allowed to go anywhere she wouldn’t wish. Believe me—my brothers and I have tried.”
“Is there a way to get her medicine?”
“Yes, that much is possible. Take her to that young doctor friend of yours. He can help her, and you can return to help me shear the wool. Even now it grows.” He tossed a large bag at the base of the tree.
Awful-smelling and ugly flowers of every type spilled out.
“I brought the flowers you wanted: pitcher plant, cobra lily, ghost fungus, bleeding tooth, spider orchids, mask flowers, death root, fang ferns, Dracula vampiras, hooded skull dragons, Venus flytraps, witch hazel, octopus stinkhorn, corpse flowers, doll’s eyes, bat flowers, bladderwort, carrion flowers, spider mums, strangle tare, and devil’s walking stick. ”
“That’s . . . that’s great,” Danik said, eyeballing the strange flowers, most of which he’d never heard of or seen before.
“You take her to the doctor, and I’ll feed them the flowers.” He put his hand on Danik’s shoulder. “But I also gathered a special batch, just for the two of you. I’m going to section off a small group of them and give them these.”
He opened a small bag filled with the most beautiful flowers Veru had ever seen.
Her mother would have wept at such a sight.
Veru recognized lilies, tulips, peonies, and roses, but never had she seen such colors or smelled such fragrance.
Reaching into the bag, she stroked the delicate petals.
“They’re amazing!” she said to the knight.
“As I said, they are for you. When we shear these, we will bag the wool separately. Now take her. There is much work to be done.”
Danik told the mirror where he wanted to go, and in an instant they were at a small creek next to a little cottage.
He knocked on the door, and they were welcomed by the young family with the sickly daughter and their live-in physician.
Veru was settled in, fed, and while she was tended to, Danik disappeared.
It turned out that she needed stitches in the back of her head, but she was no stranger to pain.
The young mother even volunteered to try and style her badly shorn hair and gave her scarves to wear.
After a few days of rest, she began helping with the chores and wishing Danik would return.
Finally, after the removal of her stitches, she heard a neigh and the sound of thunder and lightning outside.
She got up to find the red knight and Danik, his hair still a bit too long, cut at his shoulders, but with a large, satisfied smile on his face.
“Is it done?” she asked expectantly.
“More importantly, how are you feeling?” he asked, reaching for her hand.
“I’m well. I’ve been taken very good care of,” she said loudly. “This family has done us a great service. We would do well to return the favor.”
“And we shall,” Danik said.
The father replied, “You’ve helped us more than enough in the time you’ve been here. You owe us nothing.”
“We’re just happy to see you well again, my lady,” the physician said.
“And back with your man,” added the mother.
“Yes,” Veru replied, surprised to feel the sting of a blush color her cheeks. “Well, thank you all.”
As they headed down the road, she asked, “Where’s the wool?”
“Back at the house,” Danik replied. “We used the spinning hatchel on it.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Nothing else worked,” the red knight replied. “That hatchel of yours did the trick. We’ve a lovely bolt of the blackest, magic fabric Yuga’s dark little heart could desire.”
“But we also have another bolt, a second one,” Danik said.
“And the house wanted us to hide it. The minute we finished it, another secret closet opened. When I placed it inside, a key fell out of the lock.” He reached into his pocket and showed it to her.
“I think we’re meant to take it with us when we leave. ”