“You’re still in worse shape.”
“Says who?” argued Tiny. “I could get up and whip your ass, if they’d let me out of this bed. There’s really no point in keeping me here. It’s just bruises.”
Will smiled. “It won’t even be that soon.” He summoned the second regeneration potion and offered it to his friend. “You’ll be right as rain after you take this.”
Tiny turned his head away. “How’s Janice? Give it to her.”
He sighed. “I already gave her one. She’s healing as we speak. This one is yours.”
The big warrior gave him a sincere look. “I don’t really need it, Will. Save it for an emergency. I’ll be fine.”
Will closed his eyes. “No, Tiny, you won’t. I don’t know what they told you, but you aren’t all right. You might not recover if you don’t take this. Your kidneys are bruised as badly, or maybe worse, than the rest of you. Take it.”
“They said I would be fine,” repeated the squire.
“They didn’t want to scare you.”
Tiny took the potion from Will’s hand. “What is this?”
“A regeneration potion. It will heal anything and everything, but only if you take it right after you get hurt.”
His friend looked at his leg again. “What about you? Do you have more?”
Growling with frustration, Will produced another vial. “This one’s for me. Are you happy?”
“Let me see you drink it,” insisted Tiny. “You heal that leg, then I’ll accept this one.”
“You’re an idiot,” snapped Will. “Fine.” With a grimace, he downed his potion. “Now you.”
Tiny followed suit, choking and gagging as the taste assaulted him. He managed to swallow it down, though. The pain in Will’s leg increased a moment later, followed by a sensation of heat. He watched in fascination as the swelling decreased, and he quickly removed the bandage. The edges of the skin knitted together before his eyes.
Meanwhile Tiny’s skin changed color as his bruises began disappearing. The warrior winced a few times as he experienced a variety of disparate pains, but his expression quickly turned to one of relief as the various aches vanished.
Looking down again, Will saw that his leg had finished healing. He tested it by bending his knees and then straightening up again. Everything worked perfectly, though he still had quite a bit of crusted blood stuck to his skin. “Feel like a bath?” he asked.
“More magic?” asked Tiny warily.
Will nodded.
“Sure. After the embarrassment of that nurse trying to bathe me earlier, anything has to be better.”
It took Will a few minutes to construct the spell, but once he was done he quickly turned it loose, allowing the magic to clean Tiny, himself, and a portion of the room that lay between them. As always, he felt immediately better, although the spell couldn’t do anything about his missing trouser leg. Glancing down, he studied the now-clean skin of his leg.
Fine silver lines traced where the wound had been and where his mother had been forced to cut while she was extracting the troll-let. Will frowned as he spotted the scars. Previously when he had used the potion there had been no trace of his injury left behind. But your leg was hurt more than half a day ago, he told himself. And Janice and Tiny were hurt almost two days ago.
He looked at Tiny anxiously, but he couldn’t see any sign of residual injury. But then, bruises didn’t leave scars. He hoped the big man’s kidneys had healed properly.
But Janice…
She’ll never forgive me, Will realized. No, I’ll never forgive myself. His sudden fear was dulled by a wave of fatigue that washed over him, a side effect of the regeneration potion. Looking over at Tiny, he saw the man’s eyes drooping.
“That potion really hits fast, huh?” said Tiny. “I thought I slept well, but I could go back to sleep right now.”
“Sleep,” Will encouraged him. “They’ll probably kick you out after you wake up and there’s nothing wrong with you.”
“What about you?”
“I’ll go home and take a nap.” Will patted Tiny’s shoulder and headed for the door. Outside the room, he saw Doctor Morris leaving Janice’s room. “How is she?”
The doctor smiled. “She’ll do well. Her eye is back and functioning properly.”
“Can I see her?”
The other man shook his head. “No. She’s asleep now. She was very clear that she didn’t want anyone to see her.”
Will repeated the words slowly. “Anyone to see her. How is…?”
“She’s different,” interrupted the doctor. “It was fortunate that her eye regenerated, but there are some pretty drastic differences in her appearance now.”
“Her mouth? Her lips?”
“She’ll have no trouble eating or drinking. Her cheek healed as well. Everything is perfectly functional. The changes are primarily aesthetic, and there’s some scar tissue, of course. She will probably be very self-conscious about her appearance for a period of time, so be patient with her.”
“I understand,” said Will, but he didn’t. He couldn’t. It wasn’t fair—it would never be fair. Stepping back, he turned and headed for the exit. The walls were closing in, and he felt as though he was suffocating. He needed air.
Outside the sun was warm and bright. It beamed down as though everything was right with the world. Spring was finally making its presence known. The air was fresh and blowing gently, carrying the scent of new leaves and vitality. The world was waking up again.
But it couldn’t touch the rock that had replaced his heart. Will felt cold and dead inside. The weariness brought on by the regeneration potion only enhanced his numbness. He started walking for home.
The journey was dreamlike, or rather nightmare-like, given his emotions, but he arrived before long and found that his house was abuzz with activity. No fewer than two carriages and one large wagon sat in the drive alongside his house. He recognized one of them as belonging to Mark Nerrow.
There were also a large number of men outside with tools and shovels. Will even spotted a pickaxe in one fellow’s hands. Are those the workers Blake hired? It seemed like too many, and what would they need a pickaxe for? Steeling himself, Will kept walking, and when he got closer he saw that the entry was partially blocked by several men who were mounting a new door in place.
One of the workers glanced at him as he approached. “Servant’s entrance is around back. This door won’t be usable for a while anyway.”