Chapter 29 #2
“She’s lived on the edge of the woods since childhood,” he told them. “They’ve only turned dark within the last couple of years.”
Kenet’s brows rose. “And yet she remained.”
“She didn’t have a choice.”
Daris’s gaze flicked to him, a concerned frown drawing his brows together. “That squatter’s village we skirted on the way in?”
He nodded and surprise crossed Daris’s face. Rowan was close enough to see clearly now, though she remained out of earshot.
Still, Daris lowered his voice. “What was she doing there?”
Casrian drew a steadying breath. He had to tell them. They’d figure it out eventually anyway. “Do you remember the witch from Jarn?”
Kenet stared at him. Daris’s frown deepened. “How could I forget? You almost abandoned the guard after.”
It had been impossible for him to see Jarn as anything but a failure. His mentor, Father Goran, had talked him into staying.
“Do you remember the daughter?”
Daris’s gaze shot back to Rowan and his skin paled. “Fuck.”
“The mother was blinded by infection, and they had nowhere to go. This is where they ended up.”
Daris lowered his voice as Rowan approached. “And she saved you?”
“Yes.”
There were still questions in Daris’s eyes, a scowl of distrust and disapproval on Kenet’s face.
But any further explanation would have to wait.
Rowan was there, looking anywhere but right at him.
He couldn’t blame her. He’d left in the middle of the most awkward conversation he’d ever had in his life.
He’d asked her to marry him. She’d basically told him to go fuck himself.
He held Copper while she inexpertly slid out of the saddle. He didn’t dare touch her to help her down. She looked up at him when she was steady on her feet.
“You’re not hurt.”
“No, but there’s someone I want you to look at,” he said, gesturing toward Sol.
She lowered her voice. “Are these your men?”
Her uncertainty tugged at his heart. Of course, she didn’t know who they were, tattered and rough as they looked at the moment.
And yet she’d still come to him. He didn’t like her uneasiness.
He understood her fear of the wild men and the familiars and the witch.
She shouldn’t be afraid of his men. Of him.
Untying her bag, he slung it over his shoulder and took her by the arm. “This is the lost patrol. I’ll introduce you later. Come on.”
He led her to Sol and watched her uneasiness fall away as she focused on the patient before her. Sol was pale and sweating. There was a gash just above his right hip. It didn’t look particularly deep, but it had to be painful. Lew had removed his shirt and was using it to stop the bleeding.
Sol was still conscious. He grimaced as Rowan pulled back the wadded shirt serving as a bandage and nodded tightly.
“Captain,” Sol said in a shaky voice. “Good to see you.”
Casrian crouched beside him, gripping his shoulder in support. “You as well. You’re in good hands. Rowan saved my life.”
Rowan looked at him, annoyed, like he was in her way. Or like she didn’t want him near her. It was probably that. What had happened in the woods… They had unfinished business, the two of them, but it would need to wait until later.
“Do you need anything?” he asked her.
“Clean bandages if anyone has them. Boiled water. I’ll need to sew him up but the needle will need to be cleansed first.”
He nodded and pulled away as she set to work, digging through her pack for supplies. He ordered the Cardis brothers to find wood and brought Rowan Asher’s kit, which Daris had tied to one of the remaining horses. They were missing three horses. He’d find out what had happened to them later.
Rowan looked delighted by Asher’s supplies.
Clean bandages, sharp scissors, a variety of salves and medicines.
Catgut and specially made needles. Casrian stared at the small stuffed horse Asher had purchased last week in the market as a gift to take home to his infant daughter.
Rowan pushed it aside without looking at it, but Casrian couldn’t stop seeing it even after he turned away and allowed Daris to draw him aside.
Daris led him as far away from Rowan as he could get and still keep an eye on her. “Did you take a head wound when you fell off your horse? A witch’s daughter? What were you thinking?”
“I was thinking that my patrol was dead if I didn’t find them before the witch did. Rowan has been nothing but helpful. She dragged me out of the woods when she found me bleeding out on the forest floor. She saved my life from a fever and she found your trail.”
Daris crossed his arms over his chest, stared hard at Rowan’s back.
“Jarn was a bad business. It speaks well of her that she was able to somehow forgive you enough to offer aid, but what happened there...” He shook his head.
“And she was so young. It had to leave a scar. You know the witch will exploit that even if the wound’s healed. ”
He didn’t tell Daris that the wound was still open.
Her mother was whole, damaged, but whole in spirit.
Rowan was still limping around. Not only that, but he’d hurt her again, accusing her of bewitching him when he knew it was a lie.
She wasn’t dangerous though, not to his men, or to him.
Only to herself, if he judged it correctly.
“We have to look for Asher,” Daris said. “But we can’t bring her anywhere near the witch. How far are we from her home? We can send someone back with her.”
“Four days’ ride, but we’ll need the horses.” He didn’t like the idea of sending her off without Copper. “I tried to send her back this morning, and she refused to go.”
Daris’s dark eyes widened. “And that didn’t disturb you?”