Lilith Blackwood's Arc

Chapter 6 of 21

The next morning, the creatures kept their promise. A goat lay in Lilith's yard, one leg twisted wrong beneath it. Blood matted its side. Behind it huddled a bird with a fever it could not fight, and a cat whose eye had swollen shut. Lilith knelt beside the goat. It cried at her touch. She pressed a cloth to the wound and did not know if that was right or wrong. She had letters that praised her kindness. She had no letters that taught her to set bone or draw poison from a cut. Inside the old apothecary, dusty jars still lined the shelves. Faded labels named tinctures and salves. Any one of them might heal the goat. Any one might kill it. Lilith held a bottle to the light. The liquid inside had gone brown. She could not read the smeared writing. Guessing would cost a life. A voice spoke from the doorway. "You're holding it upside down." Lilith turned. A gray-and-white cat sat on the sill, tail curled neat, a small medallion swinging at his throat. His amber eyes fixed on her the way they had since she was a child. Liko. He had known her before she could walk. He had never once been wrong. "Liko," she said. "The goat is dying. I don't know what to do." "Then ask." He leaped down and crossed to the shelves. "That is what I am for." He nosed a squat green jar. "This one. Boiled willow bark. It dulls pain and slows the swelling. The brown bottle you fancy is lye. It would burn her throat out." Lilith set the brown bottle down fast. She took the green jar. "And the leg?" "Splint it straight. Use two flat sticks and strips of cloth. Bind firm, not tight." Liko paced as he spoke, naming each step. "The bird needs warmth and water with honey. The cat's eye wants a warm compress, three times a day. None of this is magic. It is only knowing." Lilith worked as he taught. She cleaned the wound and packed it with the willow paste. She bound the leg between two flat sticks. Her hands shook, then steadied. By midday the goat breathed slow and calm. It slept. The bird drank. The cat's swollen eye began to open. Lilith sat back against the shelf. "I could have killed her." "But you didn't." Liko settled in her lap. "You know one healer now who cannot lie to you. Ask me before you guess. Always." She stroked his fur. The sanctuary held three living animals it might have held as three dead ones. She had learned she could mend a body, not just warm a room. But Liko was one cat, and he could not sit at every bedside. More would come, and worse. She would need to learn the jars herself, before the day came that she had to work alone.