Traitor (35 page)

It was all in their eyes. Some of them already had a glazed, faraway look—those were usually the ones who didn’t make it. The ones who stared back at me, even if they were terrified or in white-hot agony, had a better chance of surviving whatever had happened.

In this case, it was a surprise attack from the gray elf military. That much was easy to tell. The trademark barb-headed arrows were difficult to get out, and getting them out didn’t guarantee survival—not when the gray elves made it a habit to tip their weaponry in lethal poison. Sometimes, if we caught it early enough, we could counteract it.

But usually not.

By the end of the day, I was spattered with fresh blood from head to toe. My hair was a sweaty mess and kept getting in my eyes. My fingers ached from performing surgery after surgery, and my clothes were damp with sweat and blood. My ears were ringing with a high-pitched whine from listening to men scream and beg whatever deity was listening for help. I’d yet to see it do any of them any good, though.

My body was still twitching with adrenaline as I sank into a chair outside one of the surgery rooms to catch my breath. Of the twenty-two brought in, only twelve had survived. Seven were lost to the gray elf poison, two to internal bleeding, and three to wounds that had taken their lives before they’d ever gotten to our surgery table.

Our gray elf wouldn’t have to give up his spot in the surgery room after all.

Dad had ordered the bodies be wrapped in clean white sheets and taken out back. Our gray elf had been the one tasked with that chore because I certainly wasn’t strong enough to move the bodies of full-grown men. I didn’t think anything of it as I sent him on his way, which was rather dumb on my part.

Then I heard the sound of angry voices.

“Get your hands off him, you filthy sack of meat!” One of infantryman who had driven the wagon carrying his wounded comrades had cornered our gray elf near the back door. I could tell right away this was bad. The soldier was bowed up like an angry tomcat, fists clenched and teeth bared for a fight.

The gray elf didn’t seem afraid, though, even though the soldier was at least half a foot taller. He glared back at the infantryman, his back against the wall and his chest heaving in steady, deep breaths.

I knew a fight when I saw one, and we were seconds away from having a brawl in the hallway.

“Hey!” I yelled as I stormed towards them. I planted myself between them like a barrier. “There will be absolutely no fighting in my clinic! This man is helping us, which means he’s also helping
you
.”

The soldier gaped at me in shock. “He was handling the bodies of our dead, my brothers in combat that
his
people murdered! What sort of surgeon hires gray elves?” he snapped in a disgusted tone.

I narrowed my eyes. “The sort who gets twenty-two patients without a minute’s notice. Now if you please, sir, go back to the waiting area. I’ll bring you some tea and we can discuss this like civilized people.”

The only good thing about being a petite sixteen-year-old girl working in a place like this was that people were always surprised to see me here. I didn’t quite fit the typical stereotype of a surgeon or a surgeon’s assistant. Today, that was working to my advantage more than usual. The soldier was apparently so surprised he forgot all about the gray elf standing on the other side of me.

I pointed back down the hall. “If you please, sir. I’ll be right with you in a moment.”

The infantryman glanced me up and down, sizing me up one more time before he complied. I watched him stumble away, scratching the back of his head like he wasn’t sure what had just happened.

I let out a breath of relief. Crisis averted.

“Maybe you should wait outside until we get everyone settled in,” I suggested as I turned around. “I’m so sorry about that. These soldiers just came off the battlefront. I’m sure they’re all still a hot-blooded from combat.”

The gray elf was standing so close to me that we almost bumped noses. It startled me. I leaned back, instinctively putting a hand against his chest before I realized what I was doing. This time, however, he didn’t flinch or pull away.

His gaze traveled over me, moving so slowly I could have sworn I felt it tingling on my skin. I stood frozen, staring back and waiting for him to do or say something. Anything at all.

I didn’t realize he’d moved until I felt one of his fingers touch my cheek, combing a lock of my curly red hair away from my face. He seemed mystified by it. Or by me—I couldn’t tell which.

“You’re brave for so small a person,” he said.

I couldn’t decide if that was a compliment or an insult. I decided to be hopefully naïve and take it as a compliment.

“I have to be.” Not everyone was cut out to do what I did. Dealing with patients and their loved ones wasn’t for the faint of heart, especially when those patients were soldiers. Their tempers always ran close to the surface. Besides, I didn’t even think of it as being brave; I was only doing what was necessary.

“Holly!” My dad’s punishing voice startled me again.

I spun around and found him glaring at both of us. Oh no. I knew exactly what that must have looked like to him. My stomach swirled with panic.

“Come away from there and get back to work,” Dad growled. Then he turned his wrath onto the gray elf. “And you. I better not ever catch you touching my daughter again. I’d be happy to send you to the salt mines at Wolf’s Head before you could blink three times. Do we have an understanding, slave?”

I darted away before I could hear any more of the exchange. I didn’t think the gray elf would retaliate or say anything back. And I was totally embarrassed. I didn’t want to admit that I’d actually
liked
the way it felt when he touched me. More than that, I was upset and angry with my father because now he’d probably never do it again.

Two more infantrymen passed away before the week was out. The gray elf poison was too potent, and sometimes even my expert herbal remedies couldn’t rival it. The rest of our patients were on the mend, however, and things were looking better for them every day.

Despite my father’s reassurances that we would call for them if anything changed, a couple of the uninjured soldiers insisted on camping out in the hallway outside the examination rooms when they should have been waiting in the inn down the street.

Sure, I understood them wanting to keep vigil over their wounded comrades, but it was annoying to nearly trip over them every time I rounded a corner. And I always felt compelled to offer them food or tea while they waited. Anything to keep them calm and content.

Soon, though, food and drink weren’t enough to keep things amiable.

There was no hiding my gray elf helper—not when I needed his assistance changing bedding, feeding the patients, and measuring out medicines. And every time the soldiers saw him, the tension in the air became so thick you could practically taste it. Not that I didn’t understand their resentment; we were at war with the gray elves, after all. But still, he wasn’t a threat to them. He hadn’t even spoken to them.

In the end, though, that didn’t matter.

Dad was away again. He’d left to go on house calls while we had things under control at the clinic. It was late, well past midnight, and I’d finally finished final rounds, checking on all our patients. Everything was calm and quiet. Everyone had their medications and clean bandages, and was settled in for the night.

I took off my apron as I came out of the last examination room, carefully closing the door behind me. I was already thinking about the long, hot bath I’d most definitely earned. A bath and a bite or two of dinner was all I wanted before falling into bed.

Rounding the corner on my way to the kitchen, I nearly ran into one of the soldiers. He grabbed me by the shoulders to keep me from falling as I tripped over my own feet to get out of his way.

“Easy, miss,” he said. His words were kind, but I could tell by his tone that something was off.

And when he didn’t let me go, a cold pang of fear shot straight through my body.

“I-I’m fine. My apologies. I wasn’t paying attention.” I tried to move, to wriggle out of his grasp.

He squeezed me harder. “What’s the matter?”

“Please let me go. I need to get back to work,” I lied.

“Work? Right. Is that why you were undressing?” The look in his eyes was downright venomous. “Going to work on that gray elf slave? I’ve seen you skulking around with him. Heard the doc say he suspects you two are messing around, too. That’s pretty insulting, you know. Especially since you didn’t offer me or any of my men that same . . . courtesy.”

I balked. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, but that’s hardly any of your business, sir.”

“Feisty, aren’t you?” He grinned, showing his teeth like a snarling wolf. “Maybe you’d like to make things right, then? Why don’t you work on me tonight, instead?”

I swallowed. “My dad will be back any minute and when he gets here I’ll—”

“You’ll do nothing,” the soldier sneered. “Because he isn’t coming back. Not for a good long while, right? I’ve seen him come and go. He never gets back before dawn. And when he does, I’ll be sure to tell him what happened to his poor little girl when his gray elf slave suddenly turned on her.”

He squeezed my arms even harder—hard enough that there would definitely be a bruise to show for it. I fought wildly as he picked me up off my feet and slung me over his shoulder. I hit him anywhere I could, but it didn’t seem to faze him whatsoever.

Fear began to course through my veins as he lugged me around the corner and into one of the supply closets. It wasn’t a big space, barely large enough to fit both of us, but when he shut the door it was completely dark.

He started to tear at my clothes and I screamed as loud as I could. He clamped a hand over my mouth to silence me, and I bit down on the soft web of meat between his thumb and forefinger. I heard him curse. He grabbed a fistful of my hair and then—

The door burst open behind us with a loud crack.

The soldier turned.

Someone hit him—punched the soldier so hard across the nose I actually heard it break. He had no choice but to let me go, then.

As soon as I was free, I ducked around him and scrambled out of the closet as fast as I possibly could. I ran straight for whoever had saved me.

The gray elf caught me in his arms. He put a hand on the back of my head, carefully herding me behind him as the soldier started to come after both of us.

“Close your eyes,” the gray elf said quietly. I saw something in his expression that almost terrified me more than the soldier—
almost
.

This time, the predatory rage in his eyes wasn’t directed at me.

I obeyed. And while I didn’t actually see the fight, I definitely heard it. I heard them exchanging blows. I heard bones snapping and the sound of blood splattering on the floor. When it was over and everything became quiet, I was too afraid to open my eyes again, terrified to see who was left standing.

A warm hand cupped my face.

“P-please don’t hurt me,” I sobbed. I still hadn’t opened my eyes.

“I would not harm you,” a deep voice answered. It was the gray elf. I knew his calm tone right away.

Relief and the realization of what had almost happened to me swept through my body so suddenly my knees buckled. He caught me before I could hit the floor, and for a moment he stood very still, holding me against his chest. I could hear him whispering to me, gentle words in a beautiful, musical language I didn’t understand.

I started to feel calmer.

Behind us, the soldier who had attacked me was lying unconscious on the floor, bleeding profusely from his nose. One of his arms was twisted around in a position that told me it was most certainly broken—possibly in several places. I wasn’t in a hurry to fix it for him, though.

“My father will be back,” I started to worry out loud. “He’ll see what you did. He’ll never believe—!”

The gray elf pressed a finger against my lips and silenced me. “I will take care of it.”

“What? How can you?”

He didn’t answer. He lowered his finger and looked down at one of my arms. There were big bruises already forming where the soldier had grabbed me. “Are you hurt anywhere else?”

“No. I’m okay.” I blushed and looked away, trying to wipe my eyes as I pulled myself together. “Thanks to you.”

He nodded. “Good. Go upstairs. Do not come back down until morning.”

“What are you going to do with him?” I was almost too afraid to ask. “You aren’t going to kill him, are you?”

The gray elf smirked. He shook his head and pointed past me to the stairs. “Go on. Everything will be fine.”

Whatever he did with the unconscious soldier, I never found out. I didn’t necessarily want to know, though. As I settled into my bed, my hair still dripping wet from my bath, I curled into the fetal position and tried not to think about it.

It was hard. I was still scared out of my mind. Every sound made me tense up. My dad still wasn’t home, and I didn’t trust any of the soldiers in our clinic now. The only thing that kept me from spending the night hiding in my armoire was the knowledge that my gray elf savior was somewhere in the house as well. And he wasn’t going to let anyone hurt me.