The Last Witch Princess

Chapter 9

 “Princess Aislyn, here are the things you required,” Greg said, snapping me from my self-doubt as I stared at the wound in disgust. The smell was horrible, and I was so close to running out the door and retching the meal I had eaten last night. This must have been their plan, to force me to eat the biggest meal I’ve ever eaten, then throw a dying rotting flesh man in front of me and force me to throw every bit of it up. 

    I shook my head and tried my best to smile my thanks at Greg, the only Assassin in here so far that I seemed to like. Ren didn’t seem all that bad either, especially with how kind he was to Ana, but the fact that he was the leader and kidnapping me was all his plan to begin with made him just as bad as the rest. “Thank you, Greg,” I whispered, coughing slightly to clear my throat from the bile. I licked my lips, they felt immensely dry as I started to place the items close to me. Ana had gotten me another stool and I placed the bowl of hot water on it. I made Ana hold the clean wraps and using the rag I started to peel away the dirty cloth, scrubbing his skin. After a few minutes, he passed out from the pain, and ignoring the tears streaming down my face from his horrified screams I continued to clean his infected skin. I stared down at his leg in horror, now finally clean, and got a good look at it. It was mangled, not just one cut but three as if the Beta slit the sword back and forth repeatedly. Maybe they hadn’t realized the extent of the wound in the heat of the moment, but this was beyond repair. Angry red skin puckered around the wound, dark red lines spiking from the wound letting me know the infection had entered his bloodstream. What’s more, when I took off his shoe and sock his toes were blue, indicating he’s been without blood flow for a while in his leg. No, there was no saving this leg, I needed to have it cut off, and even then there was little hope. If I had the knowledge and the skills of my magic, maybe I could have cured it to be how it was before, but I couldn’t do it. I tried, a purple glow emitting from my body as I placed my hands on the wound, but soon enough the glow faded, nothing changed.

    There was a healer in the palace, a common woman who knew an extensive amount of herbs and taking care of others. We allowed her to live with us as long as she made the royal family her priority before the commoners. I loved being with her, learning from her, and from time to time I went with her to help the commoners. Fortunately, I watched her cut off a limb before, with help of a strong man of course, and I watched her treat it afterward. The limb was a hand mangled from a fight with a bear shifter, but it was able to be healed fast because it was caught fast. This, this has been festering in dirty conditions for far too long, this I feared was more than I could do. But I had no choice, I had to do my best to cure it. 

    I squared my shoulders and turned to look at the boys, grim-faced. “The limb needs to come off. It’s in his bloodstream. There are things I require to do this.” I said. 

    “That’s useless then. A one-legged man is no use here. I’ll put him out of his misery.” Ren said sharply. I sucked in a deep breath, astonished. 

    “You would kill a man for an injury that could be cured?” I said to him. “As his wife and newborn are in there alone, you’d leave them alone? Greg said he was a good man and could make anything out of leather. He could still do that with one leg.” I snapped at him. 

    Jem glared at me, clearly not liking my tone with Ren. “Have you given a thought to what the man himself wants? To live but not be able to fight ever again, what we are, he would never be able to be.” Jem said. 

    I stood up, walking to him and staring up into his amber eyes, anger radiating through me. “You can’t just kill him as if he’s some deer or a rabbit, he’s a living breathing man and a good one by the sounds of it! He deserves a chance to live, to love his wife and his child, even father more children. He can smile and create things with his hands, he could have a future if you just give him a chance.” I whispered. 

    “You know nothing of our ways. I thought you could heal him, but he’s too far gone for your magic. Step aside and we’ll take care of him. It’s our way. We will be leaving soon, we can’t dally much longer princess. We have to bring you to the dragons.” Jem spits the words out, anger in his eyes. 

    “I won’t, I refuse,” I said, placing my hands on my hips. “He has a chance, it’s slim but I can try. Give me a chance, at least ten days to do things properly.” I said to him. 

    Ren sighed, staring over my head as I glared at Jem, most likely looking at Ana. He wanted to look good in front of her, I could tell, and allowing me to help the man would make him look better than him killing a good man for no reason. “You have five days, then we start packing up to leave. If he’s not healed by then, he gets left behind with the ones who won’t be coming with us. Is this enough?” Ren asked me. 

    I could see Jem glaring at me from the corner of my eye as I looked at Ren, and I gritted my teeth. “Ten days would be better but I’ll take what I can get. I need things to cut off his leg, and I’ll need a man’s strength to aid me, but after that, I can do the rest as long as I’m given the things I need.” I said to him. 

    “Anything you need, princess, I’ll do my best to find it. Thank you for trying to save my husband.” a voice said from the doorway. I looked up to see the wife standing there, the baby finished feeding and wrapped tightly in a soft blanket asleep. 

    I nodded at her. “Thank you. For now, I hope you leave, the screams will be loud and bad, you don’t want to hear those and it’ll wake the baby.” I said to her. She nodded and left, leaving her trust in me. My heart was pounding, fear racing through me. I wasn’t sure I could even do this, but here I was trying my best to convince everyone to give me a chance. Maybe if I could get him healthy enough I could heal him the rest of the way. It was my only plan. I quickly told the others what I needed and Jem disappeared, saying he needed to be elsewhere away from this folly. Ren offered to help because he didn’t feel like Greg could cut off his brother’s leg, and Greg tried his best to light the fire in the fireplace with shaking hands, to the point that I ended up lighting it myself with my magic after he stacked the logs. I told Ren to lay a sharp dagger against the fire and I had Greg bring me herbs to induce sleep. I tried my best to infuse some magic with the herbs, hoping it’ll help numb him as well as keep him asleep, but I knew the moment we started to cut he would feel most of it. I wasn’t ready for this, but I had to do what needed to be done. I tried to send Ana away but she politely refused, straightening her shoulders and telling me her place was by my side. Ren stared at her in admiration and I couldn’t help but see the blush on her face as she stole a glance at him. The man slipped in and out of consciousness and I tried my best to explain to him what I needed to do, but he wasn’t regaining enough for me to feel like he was understanding anything I was saying. 

    Ana opened some windows to let out the bad stale air, and outside I could see the sun was finally rising. I could hear birds chirping outside and the sounds of people waking up, the banging of metal on metal as close by someone was forging weapons. Children were laughing and a woman was shooing them away, most likely knowing what horrible noises were about to come from this house. “It’s ready,” Ren said as I pressed a rag to the sleeping herbs. I told Ana to slip the side of the rag into his mouth and let it dribble down his throat. I could tell it was working almost instantly, his face relaxing and he wasn’t waking again. At least for now, once Ren started to cut he’d be screaming. 

    “Greg, hold his shoulders and arms, I’ll hold this leg. Ren, you’ll have to be quick and precise with the knife. Have you ever done this before?” I asked him as we got to our positions. Ana was ready with a clean towel to press against the wound so he didn’t lose too much blood. I had already tied a tourniquet above where Ren was going to cut, to lessen the blood flow. 

    “Well, not exactly, princess. I’ve cut many men, but not a limb expecting to save a life.” He grunted out. I tried to keep my temper in as I showed him where to cut. I was going to cut the skin first and then he would cut the bone slightly higher up so I could sew the skin over the exposed bone. Maybe with enough craft, someone could make him a wooden thing to sit the stump on, but that would be a while from now. 

    I nodded at him once we were ready and I started to cut. The skin was easy, the man slept through that, but once Ren started to cut the bone, all of us were pressing down on him. Ana abandoned the towel on the stool to help me hold his leg, and Greg ended up laying on top of his whole upper body while Ren hacked at the bone. Fred’s screams were horrifying, to say the least. I hadn’t realized when he must have come back, but Jem ended up holding Fred’s arms to help Greg hold his brother’s upper body. The most startling thing was the fact that Ren’s face held no remorse as he cut, ignoring the jerks and thrashes of Fred’s body, the screams so loud and wild that it sounded like a wild animal being butchered alive. The fact that he was the leader of these assassins finally registered in my mind as I watched his calm expression, ignoring the screams as the horrible sawing noise of the knife on bone continued. Finally the last of the bone was sliced off and with a sickening snap, it fell. With shaking hands, I pulled his dead leg away. Ren looked at me with a calm face that reminded me too much of Jem. He was covered up to his elbows in blood and his shirt plastered with it but he didn’t even bat an eye at it. I told Ana to apply more of the sleeping drought to Fred and she did so, calming him down again. Once he was calm I tried to go fast, so he didn’t bleed out. We heated the blade again and placed it against the bone, the horrible smell making Ana Greg and myself gag. 

    The sound Fred made was horrifying and the men grabbed ahold of him again, lest he thrashed some more. Once finished I had Ana grab a pillow to elevate the wound above the heart and Fred fell unconscious again as I sewed his flesh together as neatly as I could, trying my best for a straight line. 

    Once finished I stepped back, my hands shaking as I stared at this poor man, whimpering in his sleep from the shooting pains in his remaining stump of a leg no doubt. Ren lifted him slightly to allow Greg to replace the blankets under him, and Ana readjusted the pillow to keep it elevated. I nodded at her to give him more sleeping drought and after a minute Ren left, called away from someone who required him. Greg went to get rid of the bloody things and Ana quietly cleaned the blood from him, applying a paste of healing herbs I mixed earlier to the wound and wrapping it in clean bandages. 

    I backed away until I was against the wall, feeling with a distant feeling the tears pouring down my cheeks now that the adrenaline was fading. With shaking hands I gripped my shirt tightly, feeling stuffy in the loose material. “Now that it’s over, are you happy you put him through that? His death would have been fast and painless. Now if he lives it’ll be a shadow of a life. If he dies, it’ll be a long painful crippled death.” He said. 

    I stared at him, my breathing coming out raspy. “I stand by my word, and when he heals he will be happy he’s alive, as will his wife-” my voice trailed away as I staggered forward, my vision spinning. I felt Jem’s strong arms grab my shoulders and I leaned heavily against him as he picked me up easily. “Sorry,” I mumbled foolishly as exhaustion overtook me. I clutched at his shirt with shaking hands as I tried to take deep breaths, to calm the panic. 

    “You need to rest and eat, I can tell this was the first time you’ve done anything like this before, princess. Let’s get you some food before someone impressed by your skills comes and tries to be too friendly with you. You’re to be given to Jackson, you wouldn’t want some poor sucker here falling for you. You’ll have enough on your conscience without that as well, especially if Fred dies after all that.” He said.

    I allowed him to carry me out of the house, tears burning down my eyes in anger. Anger at his words and his hard ways, anger at all of them for taking me away from my path. Anger at myself for not being strong enough as a witch to heal that poor man properly and making him go through so much pain. Anger at myself for not being strong enough. “What would a killer like you know about conscience?” I muttered to him. He glared down at me, choosing not to answer as he walked us to the tents.