"How's she doing?" Raoul whispered.
"I drained myself on those villagers and the other men," Liam said tersely, his face pale. "I managed to slow the bleeding, but she's not going to live if we don't find another healer within the next few hours. We're going to lose a few of the others too. Where did those spidrens come from?"
Raoul shook his head, his eyes dead. "Stop healing her. You're about to pass out, and you're the only one strong enough to contact Jon and see where the nearest competent healer is."
Liam nodded. "Hold," he paused, struggling to breath. "Hold this down. Here on her stomach. Keep the pressure steady and constant," he said breathlessly. "Someone needs to keep doing it until the wound clots."
Raoul knelt and replaced Liam's hands with his own. Liam tried to get up, only to have his legs go out from under him. Korintha caught him and helped him over to the fire. As they turned, Liam heard Raoul whisper, "Come on Lady Knight, stay with us."
Liam looked at Korintha. "Will you start a fire for me?" he asked, struggling to keep his eyes open.
Korintha nodded and quickly gathered wood and started the fire. She helped Liam kneel again, and he poured the last of his magic into the fire. Before long, his father's face appeared in the fire.
"Liam! What happened?" Jon exclaimed.
Liam shook his head. "There were just so many spidrens. A second group came out of nowhere, attacked on the side. We're safe now, but we need healers. We're going to lose at least three of the villagers, four of the Own, two of the riders and Mindelan if we don't get a healers by nightfall."
"Alanna's on the road to the Swoop now. She should be within a few hours of you. I'll send her to you. Are you at the camp you reported from yesterday?"
Liam nodded.
"Alright. Just hang in there, son. Don't heal anymore. I can tell that you are already using your life force."
The fire went out, and Liam rocked back.
"Come on, Liam," Korintha whispered, leading him to a bedroll. She helped him onto it, and he fell asleep instantly.
He woke up to shouting. Horses and blurry figures were moving everywhere. He sat up and the world spun, then stilled into fuzzy lines. His shoulder throbbed. He realized it was Olivia next to him, pushing her hair out of her face as she leaned over the villagers to his right. He watched as she quickly checked all of them, then began healing the most injured. He heard a curse and looked over to see Alanna, her face and shirt covered in Kel's blood. Olivia sprinted over, pouring her magic into Kel. Once the flow of blood had stopped, she returned to the villagers. Liam watched through bleary eyes as she moved down the row of wounded commoners. She healed each one, gently moving them as necessary, compassion on her face as she pealed the spidrens' webs off the stubs left after the spidrens had removed their limbs and sealing their wounds shut with her own magic. Jasper joined her when she was finishing healing the third, whispering that all the soldiers were stable, but the Lady Knight was touch and go.
When they were finished, Olivia came and sat down next to Liam. She put her hand out and touched his neck, feeling his pulse.
Cursing, she forced Liam to put his head between his knees. "I can't believe you. You're heart is racing. How much training do you even have? Don't you dare answer me. Don't talk. You've drained half your life source. You silly boy."
Despite the harshness of her words, her voice was gentle. "Just regulate your breathing. I'm going to get you some water."
When she came back with water, she touched Liam's shoulder and he hissed in pain. "What?" she trailed off, inspecting his shoulder. "You're hurt. It looks like wood pieces are dug in here.
"A branch fell," Liam said blearily.
"And you didn't do anything about it. Wait here and try and drink some of that water."
Olivia came back with tweezers, cleaning fluid, cloth and scissors. "This is not going to be pleasant," she said, dragging over a box to sit on. She pulled him between her legs gently, carefully pulling out the larger pieces of wood.
"How much do you like this shirt?" Olivia asked.
"What?" Liam asked.
"Well, I was going to cut the fabric away to get to the smaller splinters, but I know how much you love clothing, so I thought I'd give you the option of taking your shirt off."
Liam managed to turn around and glare at her. "You are such a pain."
Olivia laughed softly and began cutting his shirt. She peeled off the portion carefully, holding him steady when his arm jerked automatically. She pulled out the rest of the splinters then deftly swabbed him with cleaning solution, calling him a baby when he hissed in pain. She healed up the worst of the cuts and wrapped his shoulder in a bandage.
"Why are you so mean to me?" he mumbled.
"Because it's good for you," Olivia replied. "How are you feeling?"
"Awful. The world won't stay still."
"Unsurprising. Even healers with lots of training would be left reeling after what you did. Plus, you lost a decent amount of blood from that big splinter, since you refused to do anything about it promptly."
"I forgot."
Olivia made a disapproving noise, then got up. "Put your head between your knees and try to stay awake. I'm going to make you some tea that will help you feel better if you can keep it down. Mind you that's a big if."
"Anything," Liam said, following her orders.
A few minutes later, she came back with a noxious smelling tea. "Try to drink this," she said, holding the tea to his lips. Once he drank it, she said, "Good boy."
Liam growled slightly at her words, and she laughed.
"How do you feel now?" she asked.
Instead of answering, Liam leaned over to the side and puked up everything in his stomach. Olivia winced and rubbed his back. "I'm sorry, ohmi," she whispered.
Once he'd rinsed his mouth out, he asked, "What does ohmi mean?"
Olivia helped him lay down again and kissed him on the temple. "It means dear one. Now go to sleep."
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I'm kind of just making up words for the K'miri language....I couldn't really think of what else to do, since I wanted to use it and I'm pretty sure Tamora Pierce didn't tell us any of it.
Review!