Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 90574 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 453(@200wpm)___ 362(@250wpm)___ 302(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90574 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 453(@200wpm)___ 362(@250wpm)___ 302(@300wpm)
Aliss walked to the bed.
Tears ran down the man’s face. “Please, he is our only grandson.” He raised his twisted fingers. “I cannot fight. He claimed he was a man and would fight in my stead.” He choked on the pain and cleared his voice. “Please save him.”
“I will do what I can.” She wished she could give them more hope, but she had learned that she could not keep death from claiming his victims.
Anna along with John ushered the couple out of the cottage.
Aliss went directly to the lad, and almost cried herself. He was a mere boy, perhaps thirteen years. His face was sweet and lovely, so like an innocent child’s, but he was no child. He had tasted battle; he was a man.
“I am dying,” James cried out in pain.
Aliss took his hand and he gripped it tightly. “Death has yet to claim you,” she said.
“I see him,” he whispered harshly and stretched his neck to stare in the corner. “He waits for me in the shadows.”
“And there he shall remain.”
“Do not let him take me. Please, I beg of you,” he said and tried to pull himself up.
Aliss tried to hold him down but he was frantic to escape death and sprang up in bed. The sudden movement was too much for the fresh wound and the pain struck James fast and furiously. He turned deathly pale and screamed as if he was being ripped asunder. Then in an instant he dropped back on the bed and was quickly plunged into the blessed peace of unconsciousness.
Now was the time to examine him, when he would feel no pain. With urgent fingers, Aliss gently moved the bloody blanket off him. “A stomach wound.”
“The worst kind,” Rogan said behind her.
He stood close to her. She could feel his breath on her neck and hear the helplessness in his voice.
“Leave me with him,” she ordered.
He placed a firm hand on her shoulder and squeezed before leaving her alone with the young lad.
Aliss realized soon enough that there was little hope for saving the boy and yet she felt compelled to fight death as hard as she could.
“Can I help?”
Aliss looked up to see Anna. “Blood does not make you squeamish?”
She shook her head. “Tell me what to do.”
Aliss obliged her and together they worked on young James.
Aliss felt healing was a privilege and she worked hard to give it the respect and attention it deserved. She spoke with learned healers and worked alongside women who through trial and error had learned the way.
One woman in particular had impressed her. She lived alone in the woods, her fair skin wrinkled with time but her mind as sharp as a young lass’s. Gretell was her name and she had taught Aliss things about healing that some might deem heretical.
She had sworn Aliss to secrecy and made her understand that she was not to pass the knowledge to another until she felt certain she could trust the woman with the wisdom.
Aliss called upon that knowledge now to help her save James. Gretell had dissected dead animals and had shown Aliss parts of the inner body. One thing she had taught her was that if no damage was done to the organs then she should stitch the wound and pray.
Her examination had shown her that James’s organs had not been wounded. While he had been slashed open, the sword had done no other damage. If she stitched him up, treated the wound with the salve Gretell had taught her to mix, and prayed no fever set in, then perhaps James would live.
It was a slim chance but one Aliss had to take.
“I am going to stitch him,” Aliss said.
Anna looked puzzled. “He is dying. His innards are exposed. No one survives that.” She pointed to the sword slash that had laid his stomach open. “It is too big to stitch. It will not stay closed and the pain will be too great for him.”
“True enough, but he is unconscious and will feel nothing.” Aliss rinsed her bloody hands in the bowl on the chest next to the bed. “Besides, I will not stand here helpless and watch him die a slow and horribly painful death. If you feel unable to assist me, I understand.”
Anna shook her head. “No, I will help. I have just never heard of a healer doing such a thing before.”
“I do all I can to heal,” Aliss said proudly. “I cannot stand by and simply let someone die without trying to save them, even if the situation appears hopeless.”
“I am glad you have come to heal us.”
“Something I have yet to do.”
“You will,” Anna said with certainty.
“Thank you for your confidence in me. It will help when we work on James.”
The two women worked side by side, Anna following Aliss’s every direction. It was well past dawn when Aliss finally finished and Anna ushered James’s grandparents back into the house.