Blood Moon Read Free

practicing for several years now,
learned the secrets of the herbs when I was but a child in truth.
What have you to lose by allowing me to see to the child’s
hurts?”
    Reluctantly, the woman loosened her
grip on the infant. Aslyn whipped her cloak from her shoulders,
folded it and laid it upon the snow, then took the baby and laid it
carefully on her cloak. “What happened?” she asked as she checked
the child’s injuries, noting with a great deal of concern that,
while the child still breathed, its heartbeat was faint.
    A sob tore from the woman’s throat. “A
beast attacked us. It was not good day … still too dark to see
clearly. I scarcely caught a glimpse of it, but I think it was a
wolf.”
    Fear clutched Aslyn’s heart. She felt
the blood drain from her face in a dizzying rush. “A wolf, you say?
The child’s not been bitten. I can see no signs.”
    The woman shook her head. “Nay! It
attacked the ox. The poor thing was terrorized and bolted, crashing
the cart. I tried to shield the baby, but she was ripped from my
arms when we struck the boulder and flew from the cart.”
    Aslyn nodded, checking the child’s head
carefully with her fingers. A knot the size of a goose egg had
risen on the baby’s forehead, but she could not detect any other
injuries to the head. She carefully rolled the baby onto its side
and ran her fingertips along its spine, checking each tiny
vertebra. They seemed intact. She could not detect any notable
breaks, at any rate. Until, or unless, the baby awoke, she could
not be sure the child had not injured her spine or neck.
    She sat back and glanced around. She
hated to expose the child to the elements, even to check her
injuries, but she saw no hope for it. There was no shelter. She
looked at the woman, who seemed more in possession of herself now.
“Gather close and spread your cloak so as to block the wind as much
as possible. I must undress the baby to examine her and I don’t
want her to catch a chill.”
    The girl child woke as Aslyn unwrapped
its swaddling and removed its gown. The child’s mother made an
abortive movement to gather it into her arms once more, but Aslyn
forestalled her. “No. It will cause her no harm to cry. She should
not be moved again, however, until I have determined if she has
broken any bones. The crying is a good sign. Such strong, lusty
wails could mean she is not so badly injured as you
thought.”
    It could also mean she was in terrible
pain, but Aslyn didn’t voice those thoughts aloud. She closed her
mind to that anxiety and concentrated on the task at hand. Bruising
had already begun to develop. She counted a half a dozen that
looked fresh enough to be the results of the crash. Except for the
knot on the baby’s head, however, none seemed swollen, nor could
she detect any other areas that had swollen, indicating deeper
injury. The child’s frantic wriggling seemed to belie the
possibility of broken bones.
    Aslyn dressed the child once more and
carefully wrapped her. She smiled faintly as she handed the wailing
child to its mother. “I do not believe she has sustained lasting
hurt. You must watch her closely throughout the day, however.” She
removed her pouch and carefully spread it upon the cloak, examining
the herbs in the tiny bundles inside and selecting small portions
of several. These she bundled together in a small scrap of cloth.
“If she appears dazed or confused, sleepy when she should not be—in
any way not her usual self, powder these herbs, take one fourth of
them and feed them to her in a cup of tea or warmed milk. I do not
believe you will need it, but it is better to be safe than
sorry.”
    The woman nodded and took the pouch.
“This is for…?”
    “Swelling. If her brain has been
bruised, it could swell and … cause her to be very ill. These herbs
are known to reduce swelling and should help. But do not give her
anything at all unless she seems strange to you. It is not a good
idea to give medicine where it is not