Chapter 8 #7
Ruth looked surprised, but he did not press the knight further. Instead, he sighed loudly and sat by the brazier to warm his hands.
“The knights we sent to patrol the walls have returned,” Ruth said. “It seems no monsters are lurking nearby. So I think it’s time for you to return to the castle, my lady.”
“W-What about you, R-Ruth?”
“I’m afraid I must spend the night here. Though we have stabilized their condition, some of the men might develop fevers as the night progresses. And once I’ve recovered my magic, I’ll be able to fully heal a few more people.”
Maxi hesitated briefly, conflicted. Though she was thoroughly drained and longed to sleep in her own bed, it did not seem right to return to the comfort of the castle while Ruth and the others remained here.
“P-Perhaps I should s-stay and—”
“You have done enough, I assure you.”
Maxi’s face hardened, and she wondered if Ruth found her presence a nuisance. As if he sensed her unease, Ruth smiled softly.
“If Sir Riftan finds out that you spent the night in this dilapidated cottage,” he said, “there will be hell to pay. I’ve already asked the knights to escort you back, so please get some rest. You don’t need to worry about us. In fact, we’ll sleep better knowing you’re out of harm’s way.”
“Allow me to escort you, my lady,” said Sir Elliot.
Maxi nodded, unable to protest further. If she was honest, she would be glad not to spend the night in the forest, surrounded by the stench of burning carcasses and the winter’s chill.
With half-feigned reluctance, she climbed into the carriage with two servants in tow.
When Sir Elliot arrived mounted on his horse, he signaled to the carriage driver, and together they departed.
As the carriage rattled along the forest path, Maxi breathed a sigh of relief.
Fatigue soon took over and, hugging her knees to her chest, she dozed off like a cat in front of the fireplace.
In her twenty-two years of life, this day had been the most exhausting.
—
Once she arrived at the castle, Maxi threw off her bloodstained clothes, took a bath, and then immediately climbed into bed. When she awoke the next morning, her whole body ached. Groaning, she rolled from one side to the other in an attempt to get comfortable again.
“Are you all right, my lady?” Ludis asked when she entered the room with some firewood.
Maxi nodded, forcing a smile, and crawled out of bed. Seeing her discomfort, Ludis swiftly summoned the other maidservants to prepare a warm bath. Maxi soaked until her muscles loosened, then dressed in a soft cotton chemise and a thick woolen dress.
“Why don’t you rest in your room today, my lady?” Ludis said as she dried Maxi’s hair with a towel and began to gently comb it. “It’s a cold wintry day outside.”
“I-I want t-to spend some t-time in the library. Th-There’s a book I’d l-like to read.”
“Then I’ll see to it that a fire is lit in the library immediately. It hasn’t been used since the sorcerer left yesterday morning, so it’s quite cold in there.”
After finishing with Maxi’s hair, Ludis left the room to prepare the library for her.
A maidservant brought Maxi breakfast, and she ate her fill of the creamy barley porridge before draping a thick robe around her shoulders and heading to the library.
The large room was already warm when she arrived.
Maxi threw the curtains open to let light in, then began browsing the bookshelves. She searched for a particular book, but it proved more difficult to locate than she had anticipated. Pulling out book after book, she checked their contents only to return them to their place, disappointed.
Should I wait and ask Ruth when he returns?
Maxi sank to the floor, defeated, after hours of combing through the library shelves. Just as she resolved to give up and ask Ruth, she noticed a messy pile of books stacked on the desk, and in that stack she recognized the book she had been looking for.
Smiling, Maxi stood and retrieved the book from the stack.
It was an illustrated apothecary’s reference of age-old remedies and medicinal herbs.
The lands surrounding Anatol were filled with monsters, so it was likely that yesterday’s events could occur again.
Maxi was determined to prepare herself by studying the art of healing.
Taking a seat near the window, Maxi began reading by the pale winter sunlight.
The book was difficult to understand, its language convoluted and obscure.
The illustrations had faded, and some of the remedies seemed dubious at best—sprinkling ash on bruises or soaking hair with raw eggs to cure fevers did not seem like reliable methods.
After flipping through the book’s contents, Maxi sighed and closed it, discouraged.
I’d feel better if Ruth wasn’t the only one capable of healing magic….
Maybe she could ask Riftan to hire another mage, or they could request the central church to send hierarchs to Anatol.
But mages were highly sought after by the nobles, who fiercely wielded their power and money to recruit the best sorcerers into their service.
Ruth had already told her that the central church in Osiriya would never waste a hierarch by sending them to a remote place like Anatol.
After a moment of deliberation, Maxi decided to continue her search. But even after scouring the library for an entire afternoon, she was unable to find anything useful. She returned to her room frustrated.
Ludis served her a lunch of crisply grilled goose meat, crepe with caramelized apples, and savory pumpkin soup. Maxi barely touched the food, engrossed in another book she got from the library. She doubted her efforts would bear any fruit, but she could not just do nothing.
Maxi stared into the fire, her mind wandering anxiously. Riftan liked her now, but there was no guarantee his affection would continue forever. The moment he realized she was not the charming duke’s daughter he believed her to be, his attachment to her could disappear like a mirage.
Maxi needed to become indispensable, she needed to be valuable for more reasons than just her noble lineage.
If she could be useful to Riftan in some way, even if it was small, he might allow her to remain by his side even after he grew tired of her.
Sighing, Maxi stopped frantically leafing through the book.
After staring at the cover for a moment, Maxi curled up in her chair and buried her face in her knees.
These moments of self-awareness overwhelmed her.
She could see her distorted thoughts as in a mirror, and her mind became a tumultuous storm of desperate contradictions.
She wished for Riftan to hold her in his arms, even as she plotted to make herself worth keeping.
Maxi had lived a life of loneliness, but in these moments her solitude consumed her.
—
The next day, Maxi discovered a book of ancient remedies tucked away in a corner of the library and spent the day reading the faded pages.
It was written in the ancient tongue, but Maxi had no trouble reading it until she began to encounter words she didn’t know.
Eventually, unfamiliar words were appearing so frequently that it became difficult to understand full passages.
As she read, Maxi carefully wrote a list of the words she did not know on a piece of parchment. Most of them seemed to be antiquated terms for body parts or archaic tools used for treatment. She searched for books on each of these subjects, and before long, gathered an enormous stack on the desk.
Quill in hand, Maxi scrunched her nose as she reviewed her growing list of terms. She frantically read anything that seemed even tangentially related to healing, but after hours of study, she still only understood half of the material.
Taking a deep breath, Maxi sighed and ran a hand through her hair, uncertain that she would be able to learn anything substantial this way.
When the door to the library swung open, Maxi turned, happy for the interruption.
“R-Ruth!” she said as the sorcerer strode into the room. “W-When did you r-return? Did you m-manage to t-treat everyone?”
“I returned last night,” Ruth said flatly. “And yes, everyone has been tended to.” He trudged over to his usual chair and was surprised to see the books lying open in front of Maxi. “Are you trying to learn medicine, my lady?” He picked up one of the books and raised an eyebrow.
Unsure of herself, Maxi mumbled her reply. “W-What happened a few days ago could h-happen again, so I th-thought I would p-prepare myself.” She watched Ruth anxiously, certain that he would scoff at her. But to her surprise, his face broke into a bright smile.
“A commendable effort.” He sounded sincere, if a little condescending, like one complimenting a small child. “Let me take a look. Did you start yesterday?”
He sat down across from Maxi and snatched up her heap of notes before she could protest. Maxi glowered at him as he examined her work. One day, she would chastise him for touching a lady’s possessions without her permission.
Ruth lowered the pages and looked at her with surprise. “You’re able to read the ancient tongue?”
“I-I learned it w-when I was young.”
Before Rosetta grew into a flawless young woman, the Duke of Croyso subjected Maxi to rigorous instruction, desperate to correct her impediment, but Maxi showed little improvement.
Eventually, Rosetta’s sharp intellect became apparent, and their father gave up on Maxi, freeing her from the ordeal of reciting poetry every month.
Maxi used to stay up all night memorizing those poems, but she had never been allowed to finish reciting any of them.
Her stutter had always ignited her father’s rage, and he would lash at her with his cane before she finished the first verse.
The terrible memory left Maxi feeling sick, and she quickly looked down to hide her face.
“I-I c-c-c—I am n-not f-fluent, though….”