Witchy Kingdom by D. J. Butler

Author:D. J. Butler [Butler, D. J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Fantasy, Historical, Epic, Alternative History
ISBN: 9781481484152
Google: eZvIvAEACAAJ
Publisher: Baen
Published: 2019-08-06T04:00:00+00:00

“I’s led to expect I’d git a dance.”

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Sister Serafina had to be helped onto the horse. She had to be wrapped in three blankets Calvin had brought, and rode up the mountain clutching a ceramic pot containing live coals from a fire to keep her warm. Calvin had to lead her horse—over the rougher parts of the terrain, he even had to dismount and walk beside her to be sure she didn’t fall off. Once they finally got up the draw to the meadows atop Calhoun Mountain, she had to be lifted off her horse onto Red Charlie’s porch.

But when she saw the Cahokian herald, no one had to tell her what to do. She knelt beside the Firstborn and examined him thoroughly.

Olanthes looked worse. Stripped of his clothing and long boots and bathed, he lay beside the fire on a pallet. An angry red wound gaped in his side—the flesh from his armpit to his hip was blistered, swollen, red, and oozing pus.

“I reckon the pus might be laudable.” Red Charlie coughed, probably to avoid gagging. Cal wanted to gag himself from the stench of Olanthes’s wound. “We didn’t squeeze him none, the pus jest came out on its own. Bearin’ away the agents of infection, that’s what they taught us in the Foresters.”

“Horseshit, boy.” Sister Serafina snorted. “Ain’t no laudable pus. Pus is pus, means he’s infected. That’s wet gangrene there, and he’s jest about on death’s own doorstep right now. Iffen his blood ain’t already poisoned, it will be come mornin’.”

“This rider come to me from my daughter Sarah,” Iron Andy said. “You tell us what you need to treat the feller, and you’ll git it.”

“Scaldin’ hot water, lots of it. Knives, and someone to heat the knives in the fire. Hard liquor for him to drink, iffen he wakes up, and to splash on the flesh, and on the blades. A bucket for the parings. Someone to hold him down iffen he moves.”

“The tools are all here,” Andy said. “You ain’t my first Circulator.”

“I’m your best, though.” She smiled at him, and Cal saw blue eyes clear as the noon sky flashing at his grandpa.

“True enough. I’ll heat the knives myself.” Several thin, sharp knives lay on a boiled cloth on a table beside the Cahokian. Iron Andy took one, wrapped its hilt in several layers of cotton blanket to protect his hand, and thrust the blade into the fire.

“We’ll hold him,” Polly said. Red Charlie nodded, and they positioned themselves near Olanthes’s head.

“I’ll need a Bible.” The Harvite looked around at Red Charlie, Polly, and Calvin. “And a reader.”

“We got a Bible,” Polly said. “But…” She looked at Red Charlie dubiously.

“I’ll do it,” Cal offered. Polly handed him the book, which was heavy, and which served Red Charlie mostly as a register for recording births, baptisms, weddings, and Masonic rites.

“You got a good, clear voice?” the Circulator asked him.

“I used to read for corn afore I got the New Light.” Cal shrugged. “It was clear enough for the farmers, I reckon.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.