Chapter 27:
LANGUAGE, n. The music with which we charm the serpents guarding another's treasure. - Ambrose Bierce
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A Few Hours Later
Current Year: 1259
"It's right! I'm sure of it!" Ciri whined out.
Mousesack and I were currently seeing to the princess's studies. I was currently seated in one of the doubtless rooms in the palace. The area was clearly renovated to act like a study for the young princess. There were a few chairs and desks in the vicinity and books littered a few of the shelves. All of them were tomes detailing history, politics, cultural understanding, and classic military tactics.
At the moment, we were going over segments on geography. I was making her write down geographical locations that she knew about within certain countries and testing her on the knowledge afterwards by removing the map from her gaze. She was doing alright, but she made a few mistakes here and there. However, when you run a kingdom, mistakes can be quite deadly.
"No." I said while shaking my head. "You wrote that 'the regions Aedirn has within its borders are numerous. They consist of Dyfne, Upper Aedirn, Lower Aedirn, and Moulderwood.' While this is true, you've forgotten about Dol Blathanna. Also, in your later recount of the cities within Aedirn, you left out Gulet."
As I reread the words she had written down on the parchment in front of me, Ciri laid her head straight down on the desk in frustration. I understand that geography is a pain, but she would need to learn this. Mousesack had already assigned me to help out with her studies, I'm not going to be an undutiful apprentice. Plus, he told me that he would get started on some introductions to magic later.
"I know it's a pain, princess, but you have to understand this." I spoke with a bit of sympathy. "Tell you what, I'll let you look at the map one more time for a few minutes and then I'll test you again. If you manage to remember and write down all the vassal states and provinces that Temeria possesses, I'll teach you some swordsmanship in the yard tomorrow."
Those words got Ciri's attention. She was still a bit unhappy about the extra work, but she did want to learn swordsmanship. Boys and girls from Cintra are required to learn how to fight, similar to how the elves do, but Ciri had not been formally trained in combat yet. I imagine it will excite her to finally get the chance to learn.
Ciri let out a big sigh and closed her eyes in resignation.
"Can you hand me the map, please?" Ciri asked with a tired tone.
I smiled and then handed the map back to her. I got up out of my wooden chair and left her alone for a moment to study.
I walked towards the door which was held open slightly. Mousesack stood within the peak, he had been watching the lesson the entire time and evaluating me. He patted my shoulder when I reached him and gave me a small smile.
"Excellent job, apprentice. You work well with her." Mousesack told me in a quiet tone, trying not to disturb the working princess. "Calanthe will be pleased. It's always been a bit difficult to convince her to try her hardest in learning these lessons."
"Thank you, Master. She will be studying for the next ten minutes or so. I will check on her in a bit, should we continue with our other tasks?" I questioned Mousesack, eager to get our duties underway so we could get to the fun stuff.
"It's Hierophant, not master." Mousesack corrected me for what must be the hundredth time while rubbing his eyes. "We can make our way to the infirmary. Let us see how good your alchemical knowledge really is."
"Of course." I said with a confident smile. Alchemy is something Is something I've put an incredible amount of time into.
We both left Ciri to her studies while we made our way to the infirmary. We travelled through the halls and down a couple of stairs to the first level of the keep. It took us around five minutes, but we reached our destination.
As soon as we entered the hallway leading to the infirmary, I smelt it. The overwhelming stench of blood entered my nostrils. It didn't exactly smell bad, but It had a very metallic scent. I also faintly smelt the minor stench of piss and fecal matter. It looks like some of the soldiers weren't able to control themselves after they were attacked.
"Now, try to keep it down once we head inside." Mousesack said while pulling me aside before we went through the door. "The knights are probably asleep, but they might be a bit jumpy Some of them also don't know we have a witcher in our midst, so be ready."
I nodded at Mousesack's words and entered through the heavy wooden door. Immediately, I noticed a few soldiers lying on top of some makeshift wooden gurney's. A couple of their shirts were off, covering their chest were some bandages. They were slightly soaked, blood was leaking through. A couple of them were coughing despite their not so lucid states. I imagine they were given a few painkillers already.
I immediately walked over to the patient who was closest to me and began inspecting his wounds. From his breathing, I could tell that he was passed out from exhaustion. That was good, I didn't want to be interrupted while I worked.
I undid the bandages that were covering his chest to get a better look. Several gashes outlined his upper torso. These wounds were not made by a sword, my best guess is that it was either a drowner or a ghoul. He had lost a lot of blood, but as long as the wounds were not infected, I didn't believe that these injuries would be fatal.
"What is your assessment?" Mousesack said from behind me. He probably already knew the best method for healing these men, but he wanted to test what I knew.
"Their wounds are severe, but nothing life threatening as long as they are treated soon. If you can bring me a few ingredients, I can make a balm that should be able to help accelerate the healing of the wounds. There will obviously be a scar, but nothing too serious." I stated while still inspecting the wounds on the man's chest.
"Very well, I will give you access to the supply of alchemical ingredients we have on hand. Finish within a reasonable amount of time so that we may leave to advise the queen." Mousesack replied and then went out into the hall for a moment.
I quickly got to work. I made my way over to one of the many cabinets inside the room and opened it. Inside, there were several jars filled with ingredients. They were clearly labeled in alphabetical order.
I grabbed what I needed from within the jars. Things like Celandine, Hemlock, Conynhaela, Knitbone, and a few other odds and ends. I immediately got to work. There was a mortar and pestle in the corner of the room. I Immediately walked over and began crushing up a few of my ingredients into a fine powdery dust. While I was doing that, I placed some of my ingredients into an 'alembic'; which is a sort of distilling apparatus. After a few minutes, a fine tree sap like substance was distilled into a cup. I took a glance at the quality of the sap like substance and deemed it to be adequate. I then poured my fine ground up herbs into the cup and began mixing. After a few seconds, the substance took on a vicious orange like tint.
I was finished, the balm was completed and was of a very decent quality. It was good enough for the ingredients I had on hand. Now, all I had to do was spread the substance onto the soldiers wounds and I would be done. I walked up to each individual knight and began to softly, and I can't express it enough softly, began slowly lathering the sap like substance onto each of their cuts. It would take a little while for it to come into effect, but they should be healed within two days time. That was pretty good ,considering I didn't make them a witcher potion or anything like that.
After I was done, I walked out into the hallway to see Mousesack reading a tome. I recognized it as soon as I saw the title on the front.
"Reading 'Tales of the Wild Hunt' are we, master? While, I might add, your student does all the heavy lifting?" I said with a mock distraught tone.
"Haha." Mousesack dryly laughed. "It's always good to give yourself a fright with these tales, is it not?"
"'Tis true, it is a good read." I replied. "I have finished my duties, the knights should be back to normal within a couple of days. What is next?"
Mousesack closed the book within his hands and got up off his feet.
"For now, the next task falls upon me. But, you may watch if you wish. It is time to give the queen council on several matters of importance." The druid stated.
"Alright, I shall join you. As long as the queen won't mind an extra set of ears listening in." I replied. I didn't exactly want to spend a lot of time with the queen, but I would do what I had to do.
"Excellent, let's go." Mousesack said and then then began walking down the hall. I joined him.
The queens chambers where she did most of her actual governing weren't too far away. We arrived at the luxurious door that separated royalty from the likes of us in just a mere few moments. It was fairly fancy with the symbol of a lion carved into it. It clearly referred to Calanthe's title as the 'Lioness of Cintra'. There were also some ravens that were surrounding it, the symbol of Calanthe's noble house.
Mousesack politely knocked on the door three times to let the queen know we had arrived. *kKnock Knock Knock*
"Come in." The tired voice of the lioness intoned from within.
Mousesack and both quickly stepped inside, he walked in first while I followed humbly behind him. We both had our hands clasped respectfully behind our backs.
"Mousesack and his apprentice, Harkon. Please take a seat, there are a few matters which we must attend to." The queen stated while gesturing towards the chairs.
Mousesack nodded and took the seat closed to the queen while I sat a bit farther away.
"What is on the agenda for today, my queen?" Mousesack promptly stated.
"Not an incredibly large matter, but one that is of significant importance." Calanthe said while pulling up a map that was rolled up nicely on her desk opening it up. Outline on it were several key positions that had red markers, indicating their significance.
"A bandit group calling themselves the 'heartfelt thieves' have amassed a significant amount of men in our vassal state of Attre. They've recently taken control of a fortress that was thought to be abandoned some time ago. Our scouts say that they've counted more sixty men at their base of operations, possibly more. The castle walls used to have a few gaping holes, but was recently patched up by them. I don't know where they got the materials to make such an important fix, but they've done it." Calanthe stated while pointing to the map where these so-called 'heartfelt thieves' were located.
"I see my queen, with enough preparation, I believe I could get the gates to the castle open. Either through an explosive spell, or the use of the mind arts to get one of their weaker men to open the gate for us." Mousesack stated while staring at the map before us
"Good." Calanthe stated. "After that, I believe a small force of knights should be able to take them out easily enough. They don't have any formal training and neither do they have well made armor to protect them."
"Of course, my queen." Mousesack replied. "We should be able to to set out within a few days and proceed with the objective."
While all this was happening, I was just listening quietly. I was content in just watching these two discuss whatever it is they had to discuss. However, a frown must have been present on my face. After a few moments the queen took notice of me.
"Do you have something to say, Harkon?" The queen asked while tapping her finger on the desk. "You look rather displeased at our efforts."
"Ah I apologize, my queen." I said while pausing for a moment. "It's just that… This tactic seems rather wasteful, wouldn't you say?"
The queens brows furrowed slightly. She was pondering what I meant by that statement.
"What do you mean by that? You have a strategy that you think would work better?" Calanthe asked with a rather sarcastic tone. She clearly thought I didn't have anything worth relaying on this matter.
"As a matter of fact, I do." I plainly responded while getting up and walking over to the map to get a better look. "Killing sixty or more men would be a waste. Why don't we show them a little Cintra hospitality?"
"Elaborate." The queen impatiently spoke.
"My queen, the bandits are clearly getting supplies from one of the surrounding towns in the area. They probably send out patrols in order to retrieve the food to bring back to their base." I pointed to one of the towns that was outline in the map. "How about Mousesack, being the capable alchemist that he is, poisons the food the villagers plan to give to the bandits with some sort of sleep or paralysis concoction."
"What will that accomplish?" The lioness asked while sitting up in her seat.
"Well your majesty, If we incapacitate all the bandits and manage to capture them, we can force them into servitude. Tell them that their crimes will be ignored as long as they agree to join our military. Separate them into different platoons of your soldier so that they don't have the chance to try anything with some of their former comrades. If this works out, you will have gained sixty or more soldiers at your disposal. Place them on the front lines against any of our other enemies, if you were so inclined." I finished my lengthy speech to the queen.
A few moments went by in silence while Calanthe considered what I had just told her. She looked at Mousesack for his approval. He didn't lean one way or the other, but I could tell he thought that it was a decent plan.
"This plan… does have some merit." Calanthe spoke while glancing into the air in deep thought. "In order to see it through, you and Mousesack will help coordinate with our knights. I hope that doesn't break your 'witcher code', but you were the one who thought of the plan in the first place. You will help see it completed."
"Don't worry, my queen." I replied with a blank stare. "My 'witcher code' evaporated into nothing when the school was destroyed."