I Am A Monster

I Am A Monster : Chapter 56

Chapter 56

I watch, frozen, as the king shakes his wife vigorously.
"Get her up to the hospital wing," I say, my voice hollow. "Now."
The king hooks his arms under Queen Arabella's own and hoists her up and a barely audible grunt; Steven grabs her by the feet, and the balding, gray-haired man comes forward and puts his hands under her back.
The queen thrashes in their arms, and, as we watch, a deep gash appears on her cheek. Her hairline is suddenly sticky with blood, and her fingers suddenly clench into fists, her skin white against her knuckles. A bit of foam dribbles down her mouth.
And then we're at the hospital wing, all three of the men panting audibly. I run forward and try the door.
"Locked!" I moan.
"Break it down!" orders the king, panting slightly, his face red from strain.
I back up, staring straight at the dark wooden door, and then I charge forwards.
The door is knocked off of its hinges; it falls to the floor with a huge slamming noise. I kick it aside, and the king lays his wife on a bed, who is getting another cut every few minutes.
"What is the commotion--? My god," breathes a nurse, who has just bustled out of a door at the end of the hall. Without questions, she runs straight to the queen. She feels her wrist for a second, then puts two fingers on her neck. "Jillian! GET SOME BANDAGES! BREAK'S OVER!"
A girl with reddish-brown hair in a long plait down her back bursts out from the same door that the first nurse did. Her eyes are a dark, forbidding brown, her face pale and thin. "What--? Oh." She sees Queen Arabella lying in the bed and momentarily freezes. Then she runs off.
Jillian, meanwhile, reaches into a bedside cabinet and pulls out a clear bottle full of thick pinkish-purple liquid. She yanks off the stopper and drops it onto the floor, dribbling a few drops into the queen's mouth. Then she pours a few drops onto the queen's head, and all of the other places where she has cuts and gashes.
"Magic?" asks the king.
"A potion of my own invention," Jillian replies. "I'm a magician. I was born with the powers."
"Your name doesn't happen to be Jillian Smith, does it?" he asks stiffly.
"Well, yeah," says Jillian cagily. "How did you--?"
"We need you to--"
"Not now!" I say, giving the king a look. "Jillian, is she going to be okay?"
"She's gonna be fine," replies Jillian, looking between me and the king with a slight frown on her face, probably wondering why I stopped him from saying something.
The king lets out a sigh of relief. "Really?" he asks weakly.
"Yeah." Jillian fingers a silver chain-link bracelet on her wrist before continuing. "The potion, once in her system, goes through her blood and keeps her from getting injuries for twenty-four hours.
"Wait, why can't you make more of this?" I ask. "I was in here before, and my mate, and it took a lot longer--my mate didn't even live.
"I'm the only one that can use it," she replies. "Only I have the power to remove the stopper, it's magic, it's so that an enemy can't get ahold of the potion. The bottle is Unbreakable, I put the charm on myself. Also, the supplies are very limited. And I only invented it a few days ago..."
I nod, trying to smile, but my cheek muscles don't seem to be working properly. "So...it makes her invincible?"
"Yeah."
"Do you think that someone can use it in a battle?" I ask Jillian. "Like, as a form of protection?"
"Oh, sure," she replies. "Easy as cake."
"And can it revive a person?"
She pauses. "How would I know the answer to that question?" she asks quietly.
"Um--I don't know," I answer, "I mean, I was just--just curious--you're the one who made that potion, so--"
"No," she said flatly. "I'm not going to use it for that purpose. Not for anyone."
"Why not?" I explode.
"Returning from the dead...it's unnatural. It's a very complicated branch of magic, Bree."
"How d'you know my name?" I demand.
"I'm a magician, I can see it in your head. Anyway, returning from the dead...well, they might turn out like something undead, like a zombie or something, more than a real human. Humans live and breathe and have emotions, and it would not be wise to drag them over the border between life and death; they may go insane. Literally. Also, they are at peace; I would never deny that for them."
"At peace? And what about us?"
"Trust me, if you bring them back to life, their soul will be destroyed, and their soul is the one granting them to heaven. It's like a key card. When they die, they will simply...waste away."
"How do you know that this'll happen?" I ask. "Have you seen it before?"
"One of my strongest powers is to see the future outcome of my magic," she replies smoothly.
"How--?" But my question gets stuck in my throat.
The queen's eyes flutter open. She looks, dazed, at the king. "She nearly...then she...suddenly...couldn't hurt me..."
"Sometimes they're a bit dazed," says Jillian unconcernedly. "Don't worry. It might take a few days at most. Just make sure she stays in her bed 'till that's happened."
"Thank you," says the king gratefully, hugging his wife. "What can I do for you?"
"Me?" asks Jillian, a note of surprise evident in her voice. "I work for you, Your Majesty."
"You saved my wife."
"No thank you, Your Majesty. I'm a magician, I have things given to me very easily."
"Anything," says the king.
Jillian takes a deep breath. "Well...what about a raid?" she inquires eagerly, interlocking her fingers.
"Erm--a raid?"
"Yeah," says Jillian, her eyes getting a dreamy, faraway look. "I've always wanted to be a raider."
"You could heal the raiders," suggests the king, but Jillian shakes her head.
"No, Your Majesty. I want to raid."
The king swallows. It's clear that he wasn't expecting this request, and that he's having trouble grasping the fact that he will lost his most valuable nurse. "And what about my wife? What if she has another--episode--again?"
"Well," says Jillian, "that can be arranged. We'll both take a bit of my potion so we'll be invisible for twenty-four hours, and then I'll go to battle and if she gets one of those episode-thingies, she'll be fine."
"Jillian," I blurt, "someone told me you were a grief counselor." The words slip out from between my lips and hover in the air awkwardly.
"Well...yes, I am," says Jillian, straightening her nurse's T-shirt and tightening her braid. "I'm many things, actually, but my main job is to be a nurse. To be honest, I really only figured out the grief thing a few days ago. Before that some of my patients went slightly mad...I need to round them up, I just found the antidote...." She undoes her braid, letting her wavy reddish-brown hair fall neatly around her shoulders.
"You seem to have figured out a lot of things lately," I note.
"Um--yes, actually, I have," she says thoughtfully.
"Why?"
"Well, for starters, I've been really exploring into my magic now. I used to be afraid, but my mate convinced me to give it a shot."
"Your mate?" I ask.
"Yes," she says defensively. "I have a mate."
I merely nod. She continues, sounding dissatisfied with me for asking such a rude question.
"Anyway, I realized that I was only tapping into my magic--sort of, I guess you would call it, caressing it. I needed to give it a good hard push."
"I see."
"Now," she says, looking past me and at the king, "Can I raid or not?"
The king squirms uncomfortably. "Okay..."
"Great." Jillian flashes him a smile, and then she disappears back into the door at the end of the hall, her reddish-brown hair flying behind her.