“Lady Kiva requires a healer,” Serafine called to Brynn, helping Kiva to her bed.
“I’ll see to that at once, Your Highness!” the maid replied, loud enough for them to hear. She didn’t reappear, though, and Serafine frowned in her direction.
“Please, Princess,” Kiva said, caring little about Brynn’s lack of etiquette. “You must be exhausted from your travels. Thank you for helping me back here, but Brynn can see to me now.” She needed Serafine to leave before the maid went for a healer, otherwise the princess might feel obligated to remain. “As your brother said, it looks worse than it is.”
Kiva was lying, and Serafine knew as much. But the princess only shifted uneasily and said, “Are you sure?”
“You’ve given me too much of your time already,” Kiva insisted.
It was obvious the princess wanted to stay, whether out of concern or because she herself wanted the company, but thankfully, she took the hint, and began to move toward the door.
“If you need me, please don’t hesitate to have your maid come and get me,” Serafine offered. She sent a dubious look toward the bathing chamber, clearly doubting Brynn’s competence, and murmured, “Or perhaps send someone else.”
Kiva almost smiled. “I will. Thank you.” She wanted to say how nice it was to have met her and that she hoped things worked out with Voshell, but she couldn’t risk showing her hand, so she only offered a quiet goodbye, breathing a sigh of relief when the door shut behind her.
“Is she gone?” Brynn asked quietly, peeking into the bedroom.
This time, it was Kiva who frowned, since she now realized the maid hadn’t been helping — she’d been hiding. Even from their short acquaintance, Kiva could tell Serafine was nothing like Navok, so there was no reason for Brynn to fear her. “What’s going on with you?”
The maid ignored the question and hurried over, her lips thinning as she took in the swelling on Kiva’s cheek, and a hiss leaving her as she examined Kiva’s shoulder.
“The burn goes deep,” Brynn said, easing Kiva’s dress away from the wound. The fire had hit her bare shoulder, so thankfully no fabric had melted into her skin.
“I know,” Kiva said, feeling every agonizing blister. She was shaking visibly now, and sweat dotted her forehead despite the bone-deep chill setting in as her adrenaline faded. But she couldn’t yield to what she was feeling; she was running out of time. Repeating Serafine’s request, she said, “Can you please go and find me a healer?”
She needed Brynn gone — now.
But the maid shook her head. “A healer can’t do much for a wound like this. Not in time for —” She broke off, but Kiva knew it was only to avoid mentioning the wedding.
“Please, Brynn,” Kiva begged. “It really hurts.” That part wasn’t a lie.
There was a furrow in the maid’s brow as she continued to inspect the burn, but then she seemed to come to a decision and ordered, “Lie down. On your stomach.”
“No, truly, I need you to go and —”
“Now, Kiva,” the maid said, her voice firm.
But it wasn’t just her tone that shocked Kiva — it was that she waved her hand and a glossy green plant appeared, growing straight out of the floor.
If Kiva hadn’t already been sitting on the bed, she would have stumbled backwards.
Brynn had earth magic.
“You’re an anomaly,” Kiva breathed. For seventeen years, she’d only ever heard whispers of anomalies, and now she’d encountered two in the space of an hour.
“Lie down,” Brynn said again, pointing to the bed.
Kiva was too stunned to do anything but obey, wincing as the move aggravated her shoulder. She was careful to press her uninjured cheek to the pillow, watching in awe as Brynn summoned another plant to appear alongside the first. Both were familiar to Kiva, but she’d only ever used one before.
The first was aloeweed, and Brynn quickly pulled a small blade from her apron and sliced open the green stalk until its gel-like sap began to ooze out.
“You need to use the redwort first,” Kiva said, indicating the second plant. “It’ll clean the wound.”
“It’ll also sting enough to make you wish for the everworld,” Brynn argued.
“If it gets infected, I may end up in the everworld.”
The maid lowered the aloeweed — reluctantly — and reached for the reddish plant, but then she cocked her head and waved her hand again. Two new flowering plants appeared beside the redwort, one having bright white petals with yellow tips, the other a startling shade of violet with red shoots sprouting from the center. Kiva had never seen either before.
“Milkmist,” Brynn said as she plucked one of the white flowers, causing Kiva to jerk in surprise. Her father had mentioned milkmist once, claiming it was incredibly rare and famous for its strong anesthetic properties.
Sure enough, the moment Brynn cut open the bulb and dribbled the sap onto Kiva’s shoulder, her pain vanished into numbness so complete that she moaned with relief.
“I could kiss you right now,” she murmured into her pillow, aware that she might actually stand a chance at escaping if the numbness remained long enough for her to sneak out of the castle.
The maid chuckled and proceeded to clean Kiva’s shoulder using the redwort. “Want to tell me what happened to you?”
“Not really,” Kiva answered, her trembles beginning to ease now that her pain had faded.
Brynn’s fingers paused. “I’ll rephrase. As the person currently helping you, I’d like you to tell me what happened.”
Kiva grumbled, “You’re very forceful for a maid.” When Brynn said nothing, and didn’t continue cleaning the wound, Kiva added, “Fine, but please hurry. I have . . . things to do.”
“What things?”
“Just — things,” Kiva said defensively, wishing the maid would act more maid-like.
Brynn’s voice was filled with humor as she said, “The time will pass quicker if you share what happened while I work.”
Kiva doubted that, but when Brynn recommenced cleaning her shoulder, she offered an overview of Navok’s demands in the throne room and how Serafine and Voshell had interrupted Xuru’s second attack, finishing with an offhanded mention about the tension she’d felt between the Mirraven king and the Caramor prince.
“Navok and Vosh are meeting in private?” Brynn asked as she smeared a liberal amount of aloeweed gel over the top of Kiva’s wound to make a soothing protective barrier. “Right now?”
“I guess so,” Kiva answered.
Brynn didn’t ask anything else as she shifted to dab aloeweed onto Kiva’s cheek, her silvery eyes narrowed with displeasure now that she had confirmation that the swelling was from Navok himself. She took off into the bathing chamber, returning with a tumbler half full of water. Only then did she reach for the purple flower, plucking some petals and shoots and dropping them into the liquid.
“Drink this,” she said.
Kiva tried to sit up, but Brynn placed a hand on her good shoulder and pressed her back onto the bed. “Stay down until the aloeweed sets. Just lift your head and drink it that way.”
“What is it?” Kiva asked as she took a tentative sip. It had a subtle floral taste, almost fruity.