Naeva-To Fight a Monster

Chapter 4

"They can heal naturally here, without worrying about infection," Radley noted aloud. "As long as bone injuries are set beforehand, time heals everything here."

Valerian nodded slowly. "Who should we ask first?"

The young farmhand on the left, who sported a heavily casted leg, raised his hand. "You're the order from Nettin, right? I'll answer your questions; I'm not busy."

Radley glanced at Valerian and gave a slight nod he knew would be taken to mean stand guard. While his cousin stepped out, Radley approached the boy. Though he looked the age for it, the boy didn't sport any acne.

Silently wondering if that was also prevented by the curative field, Radley knelt by the boy's bed and said, "Hello. My cousin and I are here to investigate—and potentially stop—the golem attacks. What's your name?"

"I'm Cirel Finn, Mister Beck," the boy said, looking ecstatic to see him. "I'm fourteen."

Radley nodded. "I suppose you know who I am, then?"

"You're Radley Beck, the Aquarius master," Cirel said excitedly. "I've been a fan of your order for ages. You inspired me to learn how to fight!"

"Learn how to...?" Now Radley was confused. Kind of interesting that he didn't bring up the phoenix. "But... aren't you a farmhand, Cirel?"

The boy scratched his head. "Well, sort of. I help around every now and then, but I work under the craftsman, Mr. Tyrsch. I've gotten pretty good with tools over the last few years."

Smiling at Cirel's enthusiasm, Radley asked, "So, did you see the golem? When it attacked?"

Cirel's smile fell. "Yeah. I did. I was training with Mr. Tyrsch—that's him and his wife over there—when it attacked. It came out of nowhere, hitting Mrs. Tyrsch in her knee. I could hear the crunch across the yard.

"Mr. Tyrsch grabbed his sledgehammer, the one he uses if he needs to get rid of mortar or clear out a bad project. He managed to crack its torso with a good swing, but the golem hit him harder. It got his back and his arm before I got to it. I gave it another crack before it hit me twice, doing this to my leg. Then it left. I want to say I scared it off, but I think it just... got bored. It didn't feel like killing us, but it liked messing people up. Almost like it's trying to make us..."

An uncomfortable silence ensued as the implication settled into their heads.

"Weaker," Radley finished.

"Yeah," Cirel said quietly. "It doesn't fight like any monster I've warded off before, Mr. Beck. It fought like a trained brawler instead of a wild animal, but it could still use its shape to its advantage. It snuck up on us. I've never heard of a golem even trying to do that."

"Well," Radley said, reaching into his jacket pocket, "the good news is, you won't have to be stuck here much longer." He pulled out a string of a dozen crimson vials he'd prepared the other day. He deftly untied one from the string and offered it to Cirel. "Drink this. It'll help."

The doctor took notice and stood up. "Now hold on, I can't have you giving him foreign medicine! He could get sick."

"Don't worry, I've already tested this," Radley said softly as Cirel drank. To emphasize the point, he took a vial and drank it himself. "Comes in handy. Here, give two of these to the Tyrsch patients."

The doctor looked at him skeptically before taking the vials he'd offered. "Who are you, exactly?"

"I'm part of an order west of here, looking into the golem attacks," Radley answered.

Cirel's toes, sticking out of the cast, twitched. He was watching his leg intently. "Uh, Dr. Arzt? My leg doesn't hurt anymore."

Arzt scowled before grabbing a tool and carefully cracking the cast open. Cirel flexed his leg muscles and grinned. Arzt looked up at Radley, who nodded. The doctor bustled over to the other two patients, who were watching curiously. Less than a minute later, they were both stretching their limbs as well.

"I'm afraid to ask, but what did you give them?" Dr. Arzt asked as he handed the empty vials back to Radley, who returned them to the thread in his bag.

Radley grinned. "It's mostly raspberry juice."

"That's what it tasted like," Cirel said, standing up.

Arzt scowled. "Did you kill a Virgo? Grew a healing raspberry bush?"

Radley's grin disappeared. The Virgo Zodiac was incredibly rare, and far more dangerous than people thought. They were just as beautiful as Erin, but they behaved more like a nymph or a siren. They were herbivores, but they took disturbing pleasure in killing those they lured in with their music.

While they had the power to augment plants and calm the distraught, Radley had never felt any urge to let anyone kill them. Their power, in those who didn't reject it, would curse its wielder. Radley didn't know how the curse worked, but ever since a friend in grade school had killed himself after killing a Virgo, he'd been terrified of them.

"No," Radley said firmly. "I avoid those. I killed a phoenix a while ago; each vial contains three of my tears."

The doctor's nose wrinkled. "Creative. I would have preferred caladrius breath, but seeing as this is all we have..."

"I purified it to make sure I didn't hurt anyone," Radley clarified. "I even ran it by Nettin's healers. They certified me to make and use these vials a few weeks ago."

The doctor didn't reply to this. He simply turned away and moved to check on Mr. Tyrsch's leg; Mrs. Tyrsch was already unwrapping her own splint.

"This doesn't make sense," Radley decided. "How did something as big as a golem sneak up on you, and why did it primarily hit your legs? Usually they just let their weight do the talking."

Cirel glanced at him, looking confused. "Wait, did I not mention the other weird part? The golem was—"

The wall blew in with a deafening crash. The impact's cause was revealed to be Valerian, unconscious even as he tumbled across the floor. In the rising dust of the demolished wall, a figure approached, silhouetted against the setting sun."

"All of you, get out through the back door," Radley breathed, stepping between the figure and Valerian. "I'll hold it off."

Although how he and Valerian would get out of this alive was beyond him.