“There is it!” Elizabeth exclaimed, pointing ahead. They hastened their steps and made their way closer to the mountain through the forest. The cave soon appeared before them. A dull, blue sigil floated mid-air, blocking the entirety of the cave entrance.

  “Right, what do we do now?” Victoria glanced at Alaric.

  “We mix the ash, water and someone’s blood. Do you want to try it?” He offered.

  The young woman reeled back. “I…” her gaze darted away as she clearly tried to find a reason.

  Alaric placed the bowl on the ground, then prompted Elizabeth to pour the water in. “Ava, do you have a small knife?” He took the knife the young woman offered, then pricked his finger, wincing and drawing out a couple of drops of blood. He let them fall into the ash and water mix before wiping his finger against his arm.

  A hand reached for his, and a soft, healing lift touched on his wound. Satisfied, Clara stepped back.

  With a twig, he mixed the concoction, then stood back up and approached the sigil. “I guess… I just throw it like this?” He was mostly talking to himself. He threw the contents of the bowl towards the sigil.

  Where the concoction touched the sigil, it began to melt. It took a few seconds for its form to dissolve, and the entirety of the spell to vanish.

  “It worked!” Victoria exclaimed. “All the mana just disappeared.”

  Alaric waved his hand where the sigil was, then turned around and smirked. “Now we can get to work.”

  “Finally!” Ava lifted her hand. A small shovel appeared in her hand. “Elizabeth and I prepared planters for the damn herbs. I want at least six healthy plants, so get to work!” She gave Avery, Sarah, Alaric, and Lochlan each a shovel.

  The cave could hardly be called so – it wasn’t deeper than four meters, and the floor was just dirt. At least a dozen small, green leafed plants grew inside, mostly near the back. The walls had some moss growing on them, and a couple of large, capped mushrooms had sprouted near the entrance.

  “Take the biggest six plants and harvest a couple dozen leaves off the others. We want the whole leaf, so cut them with a sharp knife, and make sure you don’t damage them.”

  The group got to work. Those with shovels started digging out the plants while the others carefully harvested the leaves, trying to damage the plants as little as possible. By the time they were done, the sun was halfway down the horizon. Satisfied, they hurried back.

  “Is there anything else we need to heal ourselves?” Ava asked, barely able to contain her excitement.

  “Water,” Alaric tried to remember what he read in the Witch’s book. “I think we boil the leaves, then crush them into a paste with water. It’s not a magical remedy, so it will take time to heal. Unless Clara’s healing can somehow speed that up.”

  They returned to the castle with plenty of sunlight to spare and immediately got to work. They set up in the makeshift hospital Harriet had made, and carefully prepared the cut leaves while Sarah, Elizabeth and Lochlan hurried to plant the herbs they unearthed. Avery left to find Jason, as his wound also remained.

  They boiled the leaves carefully, crushed them in a mortar, then slowly added water until its consistence was paste-like. By the time they were done, quite a crowd had gathered outside the hospital.

  “Please tell me that will fix me.” Reuban weakly chuckled, though he looked at the paste with pleading eyes.

  That’s the hope. Alaric tightened his jaw as Harriet undressed Reuban’s wound.

  The young man winced as she unwrapped the bandages. His fingers gripped the sheets, and he clenched his teeth. His breathing was sharp and shallow.

  The wound looked awful still, despite Clara’s best efforts to heal it. It was mangled and badly burnt. No wonder he couldn’t move his leg at all. Alaric couldn’t even imagine the pain.

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  “Let’s give it a try.” Harriet calmly spoke as she cleaned her hands, then carefully took some of the paste and gently applied it to Reuban’s wound. The young man grunted. She spread the paste over the wound slowly. “How does it feel?”

  “Warm.” Reuban breathed out. His furrowed brows relaxed just a little. “Doesn’t hurt as bad.”

  Clara sheepishly approached. “Maybe I can heal it now?” She asked, hovering her hands above the young man’s crushed knee. A golden light radiated from her palms as she focused. It was impossible to see if there was anything happening beneath the layer of paste.

  A few moments later, she pulled her hand away. “It’s working… but extremely slowly. I think we’ll need to give it some time. Maybe if the paste stays on for a while…”

  “Good idea.” Reuban tried to hide his disappointment rather unsuccessfully. “But it’s taking away most of the pain, so that’s good.”

  “That’s very good.” Harriet said with a smile. “Ava, my dear, give me your arm.” Ava’s arm wasn’t in as bad shape as Reuban’s knee, so the elderly woman easily covered the scars and burns with the paste, and rebandaged them.

  By then, most of the crowd had begun to scatter. Charles sent Clara and Ava to help with the replanting, then turned to look at Alaric as he removed his shirt and undid the bandages around his chest, covering his back.

  “I feel I have to warn you,” Harriet said softly as she took some more of the paste. “This will likely fix up all the burns from the Wyrdflame, but the brand… I don’t think that’ll heal. At all.”

  “It won’t.” Alaric grunted as she carefully spread the paste on his back. Waves of pain radiated every time she touched his back, though it slowly started to subside as more of the warm substance covered the wound. “But it doesn’t matter – the brand’s not what hurts.”

  “But it is a problem.” Charles piped up with a pale face. “We don’t know what it does.”

  “It marks me to be hunted. So… nothing different than usual, don’t you think?” Alaric smirked. “We’re all hunted. None of us can leave at night. Nothing changed.”

  Charles hesitated. “I sincerely hope you’re right.”

  Harriet cleaned her hands, then reapplied the bandages. “It would still take months to heal from a wound like this,” she said as she collected the old bandages and threw them in boiling clean water. “So don’t do anything reckless. Have Clara try and heal you tomorrow.”

  “What about me?” Reuban’s sad voice rang.

  “Your wound will take longer to heal and needs longer for the paste to work.” Harriet started explaining the reasons while Alaric and Charles left the makeshift hospital.

  ***

  “Good work.” Charles said with audible relief in his voice.

  “It’s thanks to Victoria and the others.”

  “I already thanked them for finding the herb. You dealt with the spell protecting it. So, good work.” He glanced at Alaric. “Robert wants to see you. He said you’d find him on the western wall.”

  “What for?” He raised his eyebrows. When the other man shrugged, he sighed, then nodded. “Alright then…” Hastening his steps, he headed to the stairs.

  The western wall was deserted aside from the older hunter. He was sitting on a bench, his rifle resting against the parapets behind him.

  “I hear the girls found the bloody plant. Are you all healed now?” He asked, glancing at Alaric as he walked up to him.

  “It’ll take some time, but we’ll all be fine. What’s going on?” He sat next to the hunter on the bench and rested his back against the parapets. “You didn’t just call me here to enjoy the weather.”

  Robert shook his head. “No. That lad Charles is focusing everything on water. Everyone is cutting the trees, then everyone will dig the waterway.” His brows furrowed, and forehead scrunched up. “It’s not right. We’ll starve before it’s finished.”

  Alaric scowled. “What do you mean? There are enough animals to hunt, aren’t there?

  Robert glared at him. “Not for long – we’re more crowded now. We need more than hunting animals. I used to be able to hunt a deer, and we’d barely finish it on the third day. Now it lasts two days at most, if we can find vegetables to add to the meal. It’s not easy to find deer every two days, lad. And rabbits won’t feed almost fifty people.”

  “What do you suggest?”

  Robert shrugged. “Honestly? I don’t know. Find more vegetables.” He made a vague gesture towards the forest stretching all the way to the western mountains. “Not everyone can cut trees, right? There’s got to be something edible somewhere in those woods.”

  “There is but finding it is the issue.” Despite the thick forest canopy, the plants beneath the trees were flourishing. It was a good thing, except that it was nearly impossible for the untrained eye to spot edible plants. “I’ll see what I can do.”

  Robert nodded, seemingly satisfied. “Good.”

  Alaric waited for a moment to see if the man had more to say. After a short while of silence, he stood up. “I’ll be going then.”

  Robert nodded and pulled his cap closer to his eyes. Was he going to sleep there? Alaric chuckled to himself, the headed back downstairs. His thoughts now occupied with the hunter’s words, he made his way to the study and pulled out one of the Witch’s herbology books.

  Like all the others, she had written this one herself as well. He had grown accustomed to her handwriting by now. He sat down and started turning the pages. There were a myriad of edible plants here, according to the Bloodrose Witch. She had detailed drawings of each one, though even with that it was going to take time and effort to find and harvest them.

  Still, it was possible. He pushed the book to his left and pulled a stack of yellowed papers to start copying the drawings.