Chapter 44:

The horde of soldiers arrived by different side streets on to the main market plaza. Their general had instructed that should the attackers still be present, that they swarm the area by different strategic points. However, it was for not. The market place was nothing but an organized graveyard. They were astonished at the order of things despite the wails and despair of the inhabitants. The main road had been cleared to allow the arrival of carts pulled by horses. The city doctors and surgeons had arrived to mend those that could not be moved. The nearby weavers had supplied all they could in cotton for bandages. Young boys ran back and forth to the city wells to provide water to the wounded. Kara's students sprang into action and used their Small Science to aid those harder to heal. Healers, stopped the bleeding of those having lost a limb, avoiding a close call with death. Heartrenders, when they could, slowed bleeding until surgeons could sew wounds shut. Others took the terrible action in hand to euthanize those too far off to save.

Alexhander did not even order his soldiers to move. They had come to be appreciated by the city people and was fascinated to see that the ungifted welcomed them. Kara's initiative had been more fruitful than he had expected. He shook his head clear and ordered the others to secure the perimeter. He asked a nearby doctor wrapping a man's arm if he knew were Lady Kara might be. The old man's eyes were bright with tears, " Oh what horror we face today general. Those wounded that could bare to be moved are either in the city chapel taken in by our monks or in the herbologist shop with the Lady healer. May the Saints come to our aid! We were lucky the Lady was there when the explosions happened". Alexhander asked for Timofei to lead him to the shop and both men ran. It was difficult for them to get into the shop as the street was full of people waiting to know how their wounded were. Two moutain-side men with tatoos and large beards held the entrance. Alexhander learned that they were two brothers holding the nearby bar. They must have been expected. The brothers held the crowd as they were ushered in. The inside of the building was eerily quiet compared to the hassle at the door. Esfir and Anatol were already busy tending to those Kara oriented them towards. They looked shaken and kept staring at the healer. Alexhander could see her back but the windows has been shut and the darkness was thick. His hands shuddered and Timofei seemed tense. Both knew that they would find the woman they had searched for, changed. To what extent, they could only guess. Alexhander crept closer slowly, trying not to break the spell of calm that Kara must have fought to install. The patients were shoulder to shoulder but did not seem to complain. Some slept, others wept softly. All welcomed the Grisha with opened arms when they could finally be tended to. Alexhander barely saw them, his gaze fixed on the slim shoulders of the healer. His soul began to freeze as he perceived a bandage around her head. Luka who was facing Kara seemed to be stricken with a rare form of distress. Alexhander had guessed as to the young man's behavior that he was in love with her. The shadow summoner did not mind in this moment, as it meant the alkemist had seen to her while he needed to stay on the plaza and give orders. However, his fearful face stared at what he could not see of his lover. It frightened him. What would he discover if he called her name?

At last he was standing a breath away and crouched so that he was level with her. She was tending to a patient, unaware of the shadow summoner. As he placed a gentle hand on her shoulder she tensed and froze. Luka, Anatol and Esfir who looked at their general at that moment, seemed to try and give him a warning through their eyes. He could bear it no longer and whispered, " Kara, we are here. You are no longer alone". He felt her cave and a withheld cry bubbled from her lungs. She leaned to the side and back so that her head rested into his chest without him having time to see her face. He held her frightened and relieved at once. Whatever the pain or scar he would face it bravely. She deserved nothing less after everything she had managed in their absence. As he caressed her head and let her cry he implored, " Kara let me see you. I need to see that you are safe and whole". She whimpered, " I am safe but I am not sure I will ever be whole again". Alexhander wavered and held her even tighter. This time, his voice was commanding, " Show me". Since she still did not move, he place a finger under her chin and pushed upwards. What he discovered made him gasp. Her once clean golden hair was coated with blood and dust. A bandage had been clumsily wrapped about her head covering one eye. A gruesome black bruise covered the cheek below it. Her other eye seemed no better. The shadows and pain it held made Alexhander's heart ache. His eyes began to sting and he pressed his forehead against hers. No words could come to her aid. He knew it. He wanted to fix everything. The pain and horror would take months, maybe years to heal but he would be there. He would carry it for her if he could. He growled through tight lips at Anatol and Ania, " None of you have found a moment to heal her?". Ania looked nervous, " Moi General, she would not let us. She screams anytime one of us tries to touch her".

Alexhander's anger was palpable as he faced his lover. " Is this true, " his voice terribly cold. Kara's only eye ,once dazed, hardened. She stared back, " There is nothing they can do for me". The general shook his head exasperated, " You do not have to carry this wound. They can take it away and you will leave this place unmarked". Kara's face contorted into disgust and the shadow summoner shuddered. " Let your soldiers keep their Small Science for the people of Os Alta. I will bare this wound as others will". The shadow summoner saw there was no point arguing here. She was too tired, too wrecked by events of the day, too emotionally empty to follow reason. The general whispered against his lover's ear, " Let your students take over. You have done wonders. However you are spent and Yurii needs you. Come with me". Her body seemed to sag and she quivered, " Is he safe?". The general lifted her to her feet gently, " Come, you need a bath. You cannot see your son in this state. You'll frighten him". He did not dare to add, you frighten me.

He had sent Konstantin to report all they knew to the King. Word had spread through the city that three men from Shu Han had set themselves ablaze before triggering explosions. They had found only scraps of cloth and jewelry. Their flesh had been burnt to a crisp. Alexhander knew that this would trigger yet another war with a bordering country with which they had found unstable peace in the last two decades. After what they did to my soldiers, let this be revenge, he thought satisfied. He would plan the details of their march tomorrow. Today however, he would cradle his lover and cox her gently to the Banya. She needed him. Ravka could wait. The bathhouse was empty when they arrived. The servants were quickly showed the exit when Alexhander marched with Kara under his arm. She barely spoke, answering basic questions with yes or no. The shadow summoner had seen soldiers stricken by trauma and Kara was no different. He knew he had to be gentle and slow. He was able to strip her of her dirty torn clothes. He gently unwrapped her head and hissed at the caked blood over her eye. The wound was sticky with grime. A cool stone was stuck tight to her eyelid. Without a second thought, he undressed as well, placing his effects folded into one of the woven baskets in the changing room. He whispered gently to his lover and tugged her arm towards the main pool. The water was just the right temperature so that the healer sighed with relief as she entered. Alexhander kept her close, afraid that she might disappear in the wisps of vapor. He sat on one of the submerged steps and pulled her body against his. She sighed and rested her head against his shoulder. The shadow summoner found a clean hand towel by the pool and plunged into the water. As gently as he could, he began to remove the layers of dust, blood and sweat from her face. Apart from a wince and a moan, she bore the cleaning process with grace. At one point, the dark stone set over her eye fell away with a satisfying "plop" into the water of the bath. Once Alexhander had done her best to clean her face, he helped her lean back her head into the water to wash her hair. Only once she emerged did she look a little like herself.

One side of her face was still black, purple and blue. Her eye was still closed shut. The other half was still human, still the lover, the healer, the saint of a woman he admired. Her body was slightly better, even if her suspected a cracked rib and bruised knee. The last weeks of eating less and restless sleep had made her slim. Alexhander shuddered, her vulnerable mortality on full display. A part of him wanted to recoil, the fear of losing her being too great to bear. The other wanted to shackle his body around hers so that she may never be harmed again. He was frozen with conflicted feelings. Kara helped him decide by snuggling against him once they were wrapped and dry. They sat on a wooden bench, enjoying the dancing steam. Kara whispered, " They were not Shu". The general frowned, his mind not connecting with her meaning. She looked at him through her good eye, " The three men who did this, they were not from Shu Han". The Shadow summoner tugged a strand of her wet hair behind her ear, " Kara, all the people of the market plaza saw them. They were distinctively Shu". Kara shook her head, " You are not LISTENING". She seemed angry, her opened eye sheltering a fire. Alexhander felt more naked under her gaze than the fact that he only wore a towel around his waist. He hesitated, " what makes you think otherwise?". Kara explained all she had seen. How the men were impersonating their southern neighbors. How she had seen that they wore paint over their skin. The shadow summoner was perplexed. Why? To what end would Ravkan men dress as their worst enemies to attack their own capital? He looked at his lover and decided that she might be confused by the horror of recent events. He would ask her again tomorrow. As he passed a clean gown over her head and a warm coat she said again, " You are not LISTENING". He chuckled, " I can listen tomorrow. You need to see Yurii and then, you will eat. Then, I will look after you while you sleep". At first it seemed as if the healer would protest, but she could feel the exhaustion in her bones. Her mind was telling her it was urgent for him to understand and do something of the information she had shared. Her mouth and body could not however render the information palpable. She needed rest.

Yurii was shocked and relieved to see his foster mother. He kept on asking if she was going to lose her eye. Kara placed a gentle hand on his shoulder and honestly answered, " I do not know. We'll have to wait and give it time". Yurii proposed to tend to her but she shook her head. She nodded towards Alexhander waiting patiently by the door of her quarters. She looked at her son through one tired eye, " Yurii, I have to ask you you to stay with Soshi and her nephew for the night. I am too weak, too broken to be here for you. Can you do me that favor?". Yurii nodded bravely, even if he would have preferred to stay with her. Igor was asked to escort the young boy to the Queen's palace. Once her son had left the room, Ania and Timofei entered. Alexhander was looking at them solemnly, a silent exchange happening between them. Ania was wringing her hands in distress. " Are you feeling better Kara? Won't you let me tend to you?". Kara looked at Ania and curtly said "No". Timofei came closer to Kara, gently knocking his shoulder to hers, " why not leave her this way. I find it an improvement really. it's a more colorful complexion". Kara almost chuckled but her cracked rib made her cough instead. She stared at Alexhander who had not moved, " I don't need healing. It will fix itself on its own or it won't." Her lover stared back in silence, his profile slowly melting away to shadow. The air was palpable with darkness. Why was he angry?

Suddenly, Timofei held her firmly between crossed arms and she could not move. She tried her best to cry out and protest but the Tailor whispered against her ear, " please, I am doing this for you". She began to panic as Ania moved forward, rolling up the sleeves of her kefta. Kara whimpered and looked at Alexhander for help. He still did not move, his breath incredibly slow. She begged for him to put a stop to it but he only pressed his lips together. " My love, if you cannot be reasonable and let your friends help you, then we will do it in your best interest. Hate me if you want. You will thank us later". And with that, Ania began to call upon her Small Science. She would save her friend's eye. She knew she could. Her only concern was the sadness and hurt reflecting back at her.