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“My lady does you the honor of applying her own magics,” Garrin told the man, who was wide eyed and apprehensive.
“Readings about what I’d expect,” she said. “Blood pressure sky high, mild infection beginning to take hold, fever…” The medkit recommended the proper medinjects, a painkiller and a broad spectrum antibiotic. Dianora loaded the modules into the tool and paused for a moment to run the disinfecting ray over her hands. “This won’t hurt,” she assured the soldier, laying her hand over his on the woven blanket. "My uh magics will relieve the pain for the night so you can sleep and begin to heal. I only want to boost the effects of what the healers have done for you.”
“Go ahead, my lady,” the patient said with an effort at good cheer. “As bad as I feel right now, nothing would worsen the situation.”
“Hopefully this will help.” She administered the inject, popped the now empty module out, stowing it in the proper spot in the medkit for disposal later and was ready to move on.
“Thank you for your service and may the gods keep you,” Garrin said to his liegeman before he escorted her to the next bed.
Dianora was exhausted by the time she left the last patient. The first men she’d treated were already sleeping peacefully. She regretted her inability to help the two amputees, both of whom had lost an arm but even at home in her own time access to a rejuve resonance generator was restricted to military personnel. Her basic supplies were still plentiful, thanks to the Archaeology Service’s tendency to over plan for emergencies and she believed she’d done some good.
“You have a nice way with you,” Alsaccia said to Dianora as the couple left the ward. “The men were comforted. And of course your presence and praise, my lord, raised the morale more than I could measure, which is important in the healing process.”
“I’ll expect daily reports on their progress,” Garrin answered.
Dianora was silent as she walked away from the infirmary. She hoped to do so much good here but facing a room full of seriously wounded men forced her to accept yet again she was in the midst of a civilization quite unlike her own and she was only one person, despite her vast store of knowledge.
“Are you all right?” Garrin asked at length. “I know you’re unaccustomed to the toll a war takes on good men.”
“Re-evaluating my overly ambitious ideas about how much help I can provide.” She forced herself to project confidence and positivity as his expression conveyed his concern for her. “In the near future can we talk about what I can do and where the greatest needs are?”
“First we must win the war and defeat the Craadil or all of this is for nothing,” he said. “Discussion of the future and what one can do must wait. Fortunately our next engagement tonight will bring the war closer to an end.”
“Dinner with your men?”
“Strategizing with my inner council,” was his mild correction. “Including you.”
CHAPTER SIX
Dianora expected a grand banquet hall but the room where she and Garrin eventually arrived was a small dining room and the five men awaiting them were grim faced. After the saluting and the introductions, including a welcome to her from Bakuln, who she inferred was Garrin’s right hand man and had been in the dungeons with him, dinner was served and the servants withdrew.
“Can someone give me the short version of how this war with the Craadil began?” she asked as Garrin carved the roast and plates were passed down the table. She noted how he gave her the most succulent pieces from close to the bone. Garrin wasted no opportunity to show her she was cared for, which warmed her, given the strange situation she’d catapulted herself into with the ring’s help. “I’m afraid in my time, my realm as you call it, the details are sketchy at best.”
“Three ships arrived on my coast,” Garrin said, tearing off a hunk of the crusty bread and putting it on her plate. “The passengers claimed to be the only survivors of a great disaster on their own continent, far across the Storm Sea and begged for asylum.”
“The captains also burned their ships,” Bakuln added, handing her the butter crock. “Stating they wished to show their intent to remain as loyal citizens in our land.”
“Were there women and children in the group?” Dianora asked.
The men exchanged glances and Garrin shook his head. “A prescient question, my lady. No there were not, which also made us suspicious. Who flees a collapse of society without saving their families?” There was a murmur of agreement from the other men. “After the Craadil surrendered all their arms I granted them conditional amnesty and a chunk of good land, with hunting, fishing and farming possibilities. But of course they wanted more, much more.”
“We heard of raids on neighboring towns,” Bakuln said. “Despite the patrols I’d established at Garrin’s orders, the Craadil were able to carry out their depredations.”
“Unbeknownst to me, their leader was also plotting with one of my own against me.” Garrin’s tone was bleak.
“Fedorr,” said the man to the right of Dianora, speaking with such venom the name could have been a curse.
“He used to be a part of this council,” Garrin said, fist clenched. “So of course he was privy to all the plans.”
“What we didn’t know was a fourth ship had stayed out of sight offshore and then once the Craadil settlement was established, this vessel resupplied the enemy with weapons and more men.” Bakuln seemed reluctant to admit the cleverness of the ruse.
“You can no doubt guess the rest,” Garrin said to Dianora. “I was betrayed in my own castle by one I trusted, a man who was my heir since I have no children but who was impatient to take the throne, even if he was to be a puppet of the Craadil. When you arrived the first time and found us immured in the dungeons, their plot was this close to succeeding.” He held his fingers a half inch apart. “We were all to die in the morning.”
Dianora pondered the information. The question of what had destroyed the Argorn civilization, leading to the extinction of all sentient beings on the planet remained an unanswered enigma but she could see how a downward spiral would have begun once Garrin was dead.
“Now, I need to understand more about your fire weapon,” Garrin said with renewed energy, as if he’d brushed away all the past events. “Even the Craadil couldn’t stand against it today.”
“Actually I have two,” she said. “I brought an extra one for you.”
