A Betrayal of Storms by Ben Alderson

Chapter 16

Briar's chest rasped as though it was filled with water. An awful, slick gargling sound rattled its way out her open mouth which was kept ajar at all times. The sound scratched at my skin, turning my empty stomach into knots. Her lips were as pale as her skin, crusted with the remains of a sticky, green substance that stained the corners. No matter how many times Althea cleared the residue, it only came back.

Althea sat upon a seat beside Briar, dirtied cloth clutched in shaking hands.

Briar was in a deep slumber, uninterrupted, for she did not wake when the rattling became a hacking cough that convulsed her short body in the bed. Althea would spring forward, hands holding Briar down at her shoulders. Only when the fit would cease did she release her hold, reluctantly.

"I fear she does not have long left," Althea admitted, voice almost void of all emotion as though she was entirely dry of it. I could see from the bloodshot haze that overwhelmed the whites of her eyes, and the red tip at the end of her nose, that she had likely spilled every tear imaginable.

"How long do they give her?" Erix asked from beyond my shoulder, his close presence welcomed as we stood watch over Briar. It had not taken much persisting for Erix to take me to see her. As soon as Lady Kelsey had dismissed herself, he was waiting beyond the door and hardly said a word when I had asked to be taken.

It was seemingly easy to force the command into my tone, as though it was natural. Had that unlocked itself with the lack of iron wrapped around my wrist? Only another of my mother's traits making itself known?

The infirmary was modest in size. We found it nestled in one of the many winding corridors of the manor. As we stepped inside the intense brightness of the decoration had me wincing. The walls and floor were pure white, which gave the impression we stood within a never-ending box.

There were many beds set up along a wall, but only Briar's was occupied.

Besides Briar and Althea, who had hardly regarded us when we entered, the room was almost empty. There was the occasional appearance of a healer who was dressed in cream and brown garments, with a creased apron tied around her stomach.

"It is impossible to know, nor can I bear the thought of putting a time limit on her life," Althea said, all without taking her eyes off Briar. "Each healer I call upon says another outcome than the one before. I was tired of their careless comments, so I dismissed most of them."

I looked to the older woman, grey hair hidden beneath the shawl, as she shuffled loudly from one side of the room to the other, fussing over bottles and packages of dried herbs. What had made her so special to stay? I wondered. Perhaps her answer had been less morbid than the other healers Althea had mentioned.

"Do they know what poison was in the food?" I asked, feeling awkwardly out of place in my training leathers in such a sterile room.

I knew little of poison but could see from Briar that it attacked her lungs. I had once seen a boy drown as he showed off to us all, swimming further out across the dark lake that was a short walk from Grove. Turned out he was a shit swimmer as he was being modest about his talents. It was my own father who dragged him out, just before his skin had turned blue;

another moment and he would have died.

The noise Briar made was similar to that of the sound the boy made as he coughed up the dirty water of the lake whilst gasping for breath. It was as if she drowned from the inside, lungs filled with the liquid that seeped from the corners of her mouth.

Althea dropped the cloth to her lap and reached a hand for Briar's. "Tugwort, at least that is the most common guess. And that is all it is. A guess. It would explain why they cannot heal her. Instead I am to just sit back and watch her lungs fill until she finally stops breathing."