Gistrid had been poisoned.
While the implications of that poured through Brynn’s head, she tried to focus.Where to start with healing?
For all her experience treating ailments and injuries, Brynn had little experience with poison.Most people didn’t have the chance to seek a sorceress’s help at all.
Should she start with the liver and work outwards toward the heart and lungs or start with the heart and lungs and work inward toward the liver?Brynn’s mother would have known.
Shoving that thought down, Brynn decided to start with the most damaged organ.Livers were generally resilient, and this one had put up a valiant fight, but it was losing.
Brynn channeled power into Gistrid’s abdomen, careful so as not to overwhelm her body with power.Assuming Gistrid had been poisoned days ago, the poison should be mostly out of her body by now, even if its effects remained.But what if it wasn’t?Would healing the organ trap the remaining poison inside?Brynn didn’t know that, either, but if she did nothing, Gistrid was going to die.
“Esa.”
“Yes, lady?”Esa stepped forward, Guin in her arms.
Brynn gestured to Lena.“Can you watch my dog?”
Lena hesitated but took Guin from Esa.
Guin licked Lena’s cheek once, signaling her acceptance of the situation.
Lena flinched as if startled but stroked the puppy all the same.
“What should I do?”Esa crouched beside Brynn, eyes wide with worry.She too must see the advanced state of damage in Gistrid’s body.
“We’re going to start with her liver.I’ll direct the healing, but I may need you to channel more power into me.”
It was how they usually did things when the work was too complex for Esa’s skill.The young sorceress rested her hand on Brynn’s shoulder and power trickled into Brynn.With an extra source ofka, Brynn began to work.
Bodies wanted to be whole.They were meant to survive.Even in their battered state, Gistrid’s organs soaked up the healing power.Focusing, Brynn was careful to channel her power slowly enough that Gistrid’s body could soak it up.
Poison, unlike infections, could not be made stronger withka.Assuming Brynn was right about it being poison and assuming she was right about it already being outside Gistrid’s body, there shouldn’t be any harm to giving her more power.
Brynn did her best to guide her healing spells, but organs were complex.She preferred to let the body guide the healing whenever possible.
Power poured from Brynn and into Gistrid.The liver remained swollen, but it was not so tangled, and Brynn no longer felt the broken fissures.
Moving onto Gistrid’s heart and lungs, Brynn worked to strengthen those as well.
Gistrid exhaled a sharp breath, her eyes flying open.
Her handmaidens leaned over her, flocking to her side with concern.The eldest, who appeared to be the senior, asked a question.
Gistrid answered, shaking as Brynn continued to work.
The extra fluid in Gistrid’s body would need to be expelled on its own when she made water, but Brynn felt the rest of her body sliding into wholeness.
Gistrid sat up, trembling and still yellowed, but alert.She pulled up her sleeve.The bruises remained—bruises were always last to heal—but even they had faded.She turned to Brynn and uttered something low.Brynn didn’t need a translator to know it was gratitude.
Gistrid’s nearest handmaiden let off a cry of relief and a collective sigh seemed to go through them all.
The senior of the servants smoothed back Gistrid’s hair in an almost motherly way.From the age of that servant, Brynn had to wonder if she had been Gistrid’s nursemaid or had some other history with the girl.
Gistrid asked Brynn a question.
Lena spoke.“Lady Gistrid asks what ailed her.”
Now came the difficult part.Brynn didn’t know what to say besides the truth.“You were poisoned, lady.”
