A while later, as Hannon and I were preparing to leave to meet the others from Wyvern, Claudile beckoned to me. “Finley, I wanted to get your exceptional opinion on this elixir.”
I ignored the sarcastic dig.
She led me to the backyard and stopped beside a simmering pot, the steam curling up into the sky, carrying with it a spicy-sweet fragrance. A spoon and a smattering of ingredients lay on a table beside the hanging pot, and she picked up the spoon and dipped it into the contents.
“What do you think about this?” She handed me the spoon with the liquid pooling inside it.
I watched her for a moment, wondering if she’d give me any clues as to what it was for. No. Apparently this was some sort of test.
I didn’t really care what these people thought of me—if they thought I was good with the plants and elixirs or not—but I did love a challenge, particularly this challenge. I knew what she was asking me. She wanted me to guess what they’d made and, if I could, come up with a way to make it better. Improving formulas was something I’d always had to do on my own—it was exhilarating to do it with others.
I smelled the brew before touching it to my lips. It took me a moment to identify each of the flavors in the symphony of taste, then another to categorize them. I thought for a long moment, running through what each ingredient was good for. There were a few possibilities, but none perfectly matched.
I grunted softly and shook my head. That was frustrating.
The only thing I did know was that the balance was off. The taste was much too tart. It nearly scratched the back of my throat as it went down. A large cup of this would likely start a countdown, at the end of which I’d need to sprint to the washroom. More than that in a twenty-four-hour period? Forget it.
“A petal of calla lily, one and a half max, would stop the raging diarrhea this probably causes.” I gave her back the spoon.
Hannon smirked and shaved another chunk off the wood he’d been handling. Claudile studied me for a long moment, as did Ami, standing on the other side of the backyard.
“Calla lily negates the best effects of everlass,” Claudile finally said. “It deadens it. It’s best used to temper the effects of the crowded plant.”
I tilted my head at her. “Oh yeah? I didn’t know that about the crowded plant. I’m still learning. Huh. That’ll be incredibly useful.” I looked at Hannon.
“You wouldn’t have needed it with the sickness we were facing,” Hannon said. “But I’m sure that’ll be helpful if you need to do something other than poison someone in the future.”
I barked out a laugh, thinking of the officers.
“You’ve given the crowded plant to people without knowing the risks?” Ami’s voice dripped with disapproval.
“All due respect, ma’am,” Hannon said, his tone calm. “You clearly don’t understand the kind of life we were living. Finley cured a kingdom. The serum might have killed people, but what was the alternative? To let them die slowly? And it worked. She cured them, starting with our father. I administered the elixir myself, and I knew the risks. She only uses that plant if the alternative is dire—”
“It’s fine, Hannon,” I murmured. “I get why she’s asking. It would have been reckless if they weren’t about to die anyway.”
“Why were they about to die?” Gunduin asked, sitting in a chair in the corner. “What do you mean she cured a kingdom?”
Everyone ignored him, and I picked my conversation with Claudile back up.
“Calla lily negates the effects of the everlass, sure, but only when too much is used or it’s with other base-type ingredients. Everlass runs a bit acidic, so too much base will deaden it. But given how acidic this elixir tastes, one petal for a pot this size will cut down on the acid without affecting the elixir too much. It’ll still do the job…though I don’t recognize this concoction. What are you trying to do?”
“You can’t tell from—”
“Severe joint ache caused by age,” Ami cut in. “A patient in the infirmary suffers from habitual joint ache when he flies too much. He doesn’t want to deal with the side effects of our healing elixir, though.”
“Raging diarrhea, yeah. I don’t blame him.” I nodded, resting my hands on my hips. “Well, the calla lily will certainly help, but I have a great remedy for arthritis that has no side effects. It’ll help the joint pain, no problem. The symptoms are basically the same, right? I ran into the diarrhea problem as well, but it wasn’t an option for me to ignore it. People barely had enough food—they couldn’t afford to lose it that way.”
“Show me,” Ami said, coming over.
I got to work, finding most of the things I needed in her well-stocked and -maintained garden and the rest in the wood. It was an arduous concoction; one needed to pound certain things, grind others, and mix them in a way that the ingredients all harmonized together. Thankfully, Ami and Claudile were great help, needing very little instruction. Gunduin and Hannon helped when needed or asked, both of them working peacefully with us until a large pot was set above the fire to simmer slowly.
“I don’t see how this will work,” Claudile said, looking down into the murky liquid. “No one is going to want to drink that.”
I held up a finger as a shape caught my attention out of the corner of my eye. Micah stepped in close to the side fence, having just left the road. I was late for my sword training with Tamara, and he’d clearly wanted to make sure I was okay.
I ignored him for a moment. “The trick is to simmer it very lightly. If it boils, it’s ruined. In fact, if it even brushes up against a boil, it won’t work nearly as well. You need to keep it on very low heat for three hours, give or take. The murkiness will clear, and the water will turn a lovely lavender color and smell really nice. Take it off the heat then, let it cool, and then serve it. Don’t serve it hot, though, or else it’ll have a punch of sourness and people will bitch. I mean, it’ll still work, but people who ache all the time are already cranky as all hell. It’s easy to push them over the edge. Then they yell at Hannon.”
“It’s not pleasant,” Hannon murmured.
Ami quirked a brow.
I smiled. “I’m not good with people. Hannon administers the elixirs. I couldn’t be arsed. He helped a guy down the way from our house and…well, I could hear the yelling from my backyard.”
“Old man Fortety is miserable at the best of times,” Hannon grumbled. “I still hold a grudge that you sent me down with that elixir, knowing it was too hot.”
I laughed; I couldn’t help it. It had been a dick move, but sometimes I liked seeing Hannon get all riled up.
“Finley, it’s time to head back to the others,” Micah said, checking me over. “You have a gash on your arm.” His eyes flashed menace as he glanced at Ami. An annoying little flutter tickled my belly, something that had happened a couple of times in his presence at the demons’ castle, and more often these last few days. “You’re pushing her too hard. From now on, she’ll practice with the other newly shifted. It’s a better place for her to learn.”
“All due respect, alpha,” Ami replied, “but she is pushing herself. She nearly has the hang of that updraft. We showed her once. She chooses to go back, over and over, trying to best it. What would you have us do, fight her to keep her away?”