Chapter 42

Desire slept alone that night and before it was probable, she cried herself to sleep. She didn’t know she'd miss Sylvester that much after he had left. The feeling of not knowing where he was or how he was doing wrecked her into pieces. She promised herself she’ll stay with Fei or Lady Nor at night till Sylvester returns home.

Chang and Sandra kept her company during the following three days prior to the arrival of Sylvester Ho. Fang had managed to keep off Desire after the court lady’s eye was there to watch her every step and movement. Desire cooked during the morning and afternoon and by evening she went to the healer’s place to continue her lessons.

Her teacher had told her she was a fast learner and he had ensured to teach her new and many things and also wrote some down in his big book that he gave to Desire.

Fei had also managed to leave her room and came out looking pale and fragile the day after Sylvester left. Even though all she did while indoors was eat, Food was still the first thing she requested when she got to the kitchen. Even though everyone laughed at her, they were all still glad that she was back on her feet.

Three days after Sylvester Ho left, a really loud sound was heard a stone's throw from the mansion, sending everyone into a state of panic. The head of the Knights sent three of his men to check what was happening outside of their walls.

Desire and every other person in the mansion waited all day for the men sent to return. The loud, sharp sound didn’t stop and it went on for hours. Cassandra held on to Desire all through as the little girl was scared of what was happening.

Desire swallowed hard at her gut feeling. Even though she didn’t know what that sound was, she knew the war had begun but decided to keep quiet and not say anything to avoid putting everyone in a bad state of mind.

By the time the knights returned, the loud sound was already nearer to their gates, they could hear it clearly. The knights that had been sent rode in with their horses, one wounded, one dead and the last one was unhurt.

Everyone screamed out as they watched the soldier that was unhurt drag the body of the dead soldier into the house and another person helped the injured one into the house.

“Secure the gates! Secure the gates!!” The head of knights kept on shouting. The soldiers all ran out to secure the gate with barricades and every possible item they could lay their hands on.

“Someone should get the healer” The safe soldier screamed out hoping they could help his friend out, to keep him from dying.

“The healer went to get herbs during the day, he’s outside the gate” The court lady screamed out, everyone panicked.

Though scared to her core, Desire moved closer to the dying soldier and tried inspecting his wounds.

“I can try to heal him but I don’t have the necessary things. Can someone go to the healer’s house and get me the black box that’s under his big table? A red cloth is wrapped around it. Everything I’ll need is inside” The other soldier nodded, opened the front door and ran towards The healers house.

“Fei, get me some warm water in a bowl. Sandra, I need a piece of cloth, something thick enough that I can use to stop his bleeding. Lady Nor, I need some lint as well and a tiny piece of cloth long enough to wrap around his arm”

Everyone stood still, with surprise on their faces, looking at Desire as if she had two heads.

“Hurry if you don’t want him to die” she yelled at them, sending everyone back to their senses as they scrambled off to get what she had requested.

“Lady Fang, get me one of those lamps that you’re using, it’s getting dark” Desire requested, sending Fang out of her reverie. She nodded without an argument and went up to her room to get the lamp.

“What was it, an arrow?” Desire asked the soldier who had gone with the injured man.

“No! I haven’t seen anything like it in my life, it is long, black and has a tiny mouth. The man pointed it at him and a loud sound came out of it, then, he held his arm and fell to the ground. I think something came out of it and went into his arm” He explained, still shaking from the fear.

Lady Fang came back with the lamp and Desire placed it closer to the man, she laid beside him on the floor and used a razor from the brought black box to cut off the man’s cloth. She inspected the man’s hand and saw something stuck in it. She reasoned that if an arrow needed to be removed then sure this needs to be removed as well but it wasn’t possible to just remove it like an arrow.

She searched through the box and saw a knife smaller than a regular knife, so she brought it out and first dropped it in the hot water that was placed beside her.

“Someone should hold him down” She called out and two soldiers held him down.

“You have to be strong through it all. I’m going to cut you open so as to bring this strange object out of your arm as that is the only way to stop the bleeding, so clench your teeth together and breathe through the pain” The injured soldier nodded and did as Desire had said.

Fei moved closer to observe what Desire was about to do. She knew she wanted to be a healer and turning away like the rest wouldn’t help.

Desire dropped the suture equipment into the water as well to make sure it was ready by the time she was done.

“Fei, do you still remember how to make a suture?” Desire asked and Fei nodded.

“Once I start cutting him up, remove these equipment from the water and get it ready for use” she requested.

Desire took the knife and slightly, cut the wound open at two sides to be able to remove the strange thing that was in his arm. By the time she finished cutting, the man was bleeding twice as normal but Desire was successful enough to remove the strange object. She used the piece of cloth that Sandra had brought to remove some of the blood.

Desire added the ointment and herb that would stop the bleeding. She held on for a minute to see both the ointment and herb perform its wonder before collecting the suture equipment from Fei and started stitching him up. The man cried at the first stitch, not able to hold the pain any longer.

By the time Desire stopped, he was too tired to say a word.

“Lady Nor, can you please make him some of your green tea to help him regain his strength?” Desire asked and the old lady nodded, ran into the kitchen to prepare one for the soldier.

All the used equipment was dropped into hot water before Desire and Fei went on to clean their hands. The soldier was transferred to one of their rooms in the mansion while the rest watched Desire in awe.

“We don’t even know if the master is dead or alive” One of the maids cried out, sending Desire back to reality. Her foot got rooted at a spot but she kept on changing in her head that he was fine.

‘Sylvester has to be fine, he can’t possibly get hurt. He wouldn’t do that to me’