Son of the Shadows. Juliet Marillier

       Chapter Four

      I kept a brave face, but under it I was petrified with fear. I, the girl who wanted nothing more than to stay at home and tend her herb patch, I, the girl who loved above all to exchange tales with her family of an evening after supper, instructing fierce strangers on how to hack off a dying man’s limb and cauterise the wound with hot iron. I, the daughter of Sevenwaters, alone in the lair of the Painted Man and his band of feral killers; for it had become blindingly clear to me that these must be the very outlaws Eamonn had told of. I, Liadan, making bargains with a man who – what was it Eamonn had said? That he carried out his missions without pride or commitment? I wasn’t sure, now, that this description was accurate. I thought both qualities were present, though not perhaps in the way Eamonn would have defined them. The man was singularly unpleasant, there was no doubting that. But why had he agreed to what I proposed, if he thought me so misguided?

      I pondered this as I told Dog to make ready a brazier just outside, and to keep the heat up. And to get a broad dagger ready; red hot, if he could. Gull fetched the other things that were needed. In particular, a small bowl of warm water and a very sharp knife with a toothed edge. Snake brought more lanterns and stood them around the rock shelter. Meanwhile I sat by the smith, Evan, and tried to talk to him. He slipped in and out of awareness, one moment speaking nonsense in his fever, then suddenly back with us, staring up at me in a blend of hope and terror. I tried to tell him, during these brief lucid moments, what would happen.

      ‘… your arm is beyond saving … to save your life, we must cut off your arm … I will put you to sleep, as well as I can, but you’ll probably still feel it. It will be very bad for a while … try to keep still. Trust me. I know what I’m doing …’ There was no telling if he understood me, or believed me. I wasn’t sure if I believed myself. Outside, there were sounds of quiet, orderly activity. Horses being attended to. Buckets clanking. Weapons being sharpened. Not much talk.

      ‘We’re ready,’ said Gull.

      I had taken a small sponge from the deepest corner of my pack, and this had been soaking in the little bowl for a time, not too long. Gull sniffed.

      ‘That takes me back a long way. Reminds me of my mother’s potions. Pretty strong stuff. Mulberry, henbane; juice of hops; mandrake? Now where would a good little lass like you learn how to make up a draught like that? As soon kill a man as cure him, that would.’

      ‘That’s why we need the vinegar,’ I told him, eyeing him curiously. Did a man with no past have a mother? ‘The herbs are dried into the sponge. Very useful when you’re on the road. You know a bit about these things, then?’

      ‘Most of it I’ve long forgotten. It’s women’s work.’

      ‘It could be useful to learn it again. For men who take such risks, it seems you have few resources to deal with your injuries.’

      ‘It doesn’t happen much,’ said Dog. ‘We’re the best. Mostly, we come out untouched. This, this was an accident, pure and simple.’

      ‘His own fault,’ agreed Gull. ‘Besides, you heard the Chief. We’ve got our way of dealing with it. No passengers in this team.’

      I shivered. ‘You have done this yourselves? Slit a man’s throat, sooner than try to save him?’

      Dog narrowed his yellow eyes at me. ‘Different world. Couldn’t expect you to understand. No place in the team, if you’re hurt so bad you can’t do your work. No place to go outside the team. Chief’s right. Ask any of us. All of us. Put us in Evan’s place, and we’d be begging for the knife.’

      I thought about this as I coaxed the smith to swallow a few drops squeezed from the little sponge.

      ‘That doesn’t make sense,’ I said. ‘Maybe it’s part of the code, whatever that is. But then, why did you try to save this man’s life against your chief’s orders? Why not just finish it, as he would have done?’

      They seemed reluctant to answer. I pressed the sponge in my hand, and a little more of the highly toxic mixture dribbled into Evan’s mouth. His eyelids closed. At last Gull spoke in an undertone.

      ‘Different, you see. Evan’s a smith, not a fighter. Got a trade. Got a chance of a life outside, once he saves enough to take himself away. Right away, it’d have to be; Armorica, Gaul, across the sea. He’s got a woman, waiting for him in Britain; he can up and go, as soon as he has the silver for bribes to secure safe passage. There’s a price on his head, like all of us. Still, he’s got that hope.’

      ‘Couldn’t tell the Chief that,’ said Snake in a murmur. ‘It was hard enough work, begging a couple of days for him. Hope you can do miracles, healer girl. You’ll need one.’

      ‘My name’s Liadan,’ I said without thinking. ‘You can call me that, it’ll be easier for all of us. Now, we’d better get started. Who’s doing the cutting?’

      Gull looked at Dog, and Snake looked at Dog, and Dog eyed the lethal, toothed knife.

      ‘Looks like it’ll have to be me,’ he said.

      ‘Size and strength aren’t all of it,’ I cautioned. ‘You’ll need very good control as well. The cut must be neat and quick. And he’ll scream. This potion may be strong, but it’s not as strong as that.’

      ‘I’ll do it.’

      Nobody had heard the Chief coming. It seemed that, good as his men were, he was better. I hoped he had not been listening for long. His cold grey eyes swept once around the area, and then he stalked over and helped himself to the knife. Dog wore an expression of acute relief.

      ‘You don’t escape so lightly,’ I told him. ‘You seem to be the biggest, so you’d better hold onto his shoulders. Keep your hands well away from where the – from where this man is cutting. You two, take his legs. He may look unconscious, but he’ll feel the pain of this, and its aftermath. When I tell you, you must use all your weight to hold him.’

      They moved into position, well drilled in obeying orders.

      ‘Have you ever done this before?’ I asked the man with the knife.

      ‘Precisely this, no. You are about to instruct me, no doubt.’

      I made a quick decision not to lose my temper, however arrogant his manner.

      ‘I’ll take you through it step by step. When we start, you must do as I tell you straight away. It will be much easier if you give me a name to use. I will not call you Chief.’

      ‘Use what you will,’ he said, brows raised. ‘We have no names here, save those you have heard.’

      ‘There are tales about a man named