A Dawn of Onyx (The Sacred Stones, #1)(19)

A small ripple of relief trickled over me. I had been anticipating a menacing general or soldier. Someone like Bert, whom I might have to heal quickly or risk death. This man was clearly not a threat.

And the sight of his mottled leg was a tonic to my racing heart and clenched jaw. Healing, in any capacity, calmed me. It was bizarrely exactly what I needed.

“What do you have going on there?” I leaned down to take a peek. The veins in his lower leg bulged angrily against his skin.

“I was out gathering firewood for the soldiers that have taken up residence within the castle gates. You can just tell by the morning’s clouds that it’s about to be a mighty cold evening. Walked through what must’ve been a bramble bush, and next thing I know my leg looks like an eggplant.” He grimaced as I lifted his leg and placed it in my lap.

Good news was that this was a simple case of bramble poisoning. Completely treatable and fairly easy to do. Bad news was that draining the poison was agonizing, and I feared even this sturdy man might not be up for the experience.

I smiled at him evenly. “I can help you, sir, but I must warn you, it’s fairly painful.”

“Call me Owen. Are you the new healer? Our last one died on the battlefield just a few miles from here. Heard she took an arrow through the eye socket.” Owen gave me a bright look that said he thought this was a fun fact.

“Yes, well,” I said, cringing at the mental image. “I’m Arwen.”

“A beautiful name!”

I smiled despite myself.

I was tired. Exhausted, really. And no amount of sweet, mustached men would crumble the mountain of fear that had erupted in my soul at being here. But I couldn’t go back in time. All I could do was try to take care of myself, and to do that, I needed to take care of Owen and his purple leg. Maybe if I did a decent enough job, someone might let me sleep in an actual bed.

“All right, Owen. Hold on tight.”

“Do your worst,” he said, cheeks rounding in merriment. Owen was an odd fellow, but it seemed I had met the one decent person in the keep.

Owen laid down and I got to work with my salves and tweezers. When he shut his eyes against the pain, I pulled the poison through my fingertips, watching as his veins became less and less swollen. His face turned a red that rivaled his mustache as he strained through the discomfort. I worked swiftly and finished before he could ask me to stop.

“I’d try to keep off it for a few hours and drink a lot of water today.”

Owen looked at me with disbelief. “I didn’t know poison could be extracted so fast. We’re lucky to have you.”

I smiled and helped him hobble out, giving Barney a little wave through the open door.

Back inside, I looked through the books, scrolls, potions, and strange bottled creatures that adorned the apothecary walls. I devoured all the new information—so many ways to fix and mend and cure that I had never learned with Nora. Maybe something would spark an idea of how to escape from this place. I had more freedom than I would have expected as a prisoner, and with that came opportunity; I just needed a day or two to plan something that could actually work.

But after a few hours, the day started to crawl toward sundown. The minutes were like hours, the hours like lifetimes.

The reality of my situation had dawned on me around hour three, and I had been obsessing over it for the remainder of my sentence in the apothecary. I hadn’t found anything of use to aid my escape, and every window, every door that I could see, was either locked or guarded. Not to mention my Barney-shaped shadow that I didn’t think I was likely to shake anytime soon.

But even more difficult than breaking out of the castle would be surviving in the woods beyond. Even if somehow, I beat those odds, I still had no idea how to navigate the enormity of Onyx. I was unskilled, weak, and uneducated on anything related to this kingdom. Completely unprepared for a life without the safety of my family. And where were they? Had they made it to Garnet? If so, what city? What village?

I slumped down behind the counter. Was it even worth fighting my fate?

But then I thought of Ryder. Of his strength.

He was everything I wasn’t. Creative where I was practical, outgoing where I was shy. Brave, charismatic, popular, and adored by everyone. I was sure half the people I had grown up with wouldn’t know my face from any other chocolate-haired Amber girl. He was the sun, and everyone circled around him, enchanted by his light. Which meant I was like some far-off planet, shrouded in a lonely expanse of space. Or maybe a lone meteor, trying with all its might to work its way into orbit.

But mostly, he was unbelievably brave.

And I was not. I had been crippled by fear my whole life.

But maybe I could pretend. Pretend I had his courage, heroism, and confidence, and see how far that got me. I was not as naturally daring as Ryder, but I was not ready to roll over and admit defeat just yet, either.

I stood up and hunted for anything that might be useful on my long and likely dangerous journey. Ointments and medical supplies from the drawers and cupboards around me, a sharp pair of shears, and some edible plants. I stuffed everything that I could into my skirt pockets. After, I looked for anything that would give me a sense of how or when to leave this place without being caught by the guards, but nothing jumped out.

As the sun set, I cleaned up for the day and thought of how to ask Barney to allow me to wander the castle so I could look for less frequented doorways, paths, or gates. Stopping to fix an off-kilter jar, I barely saw the mass of fiery-red hair that came barreling in and plowed right into me. My heart leapt from the shock as I grasped clumsily at the shelf behind me, and we both caught a few falling baubles that I had dislodged.