Artemisia - Laurentus is injured

This scene comes later in the novel. I'm not exactly sure where yet, but it's definitely in there somewhere.


“Calliope! Calliope!”

Artemisia paused in her chore of planting the jasmine shrub to see who shouted her mother’s name across the inner courtyard. Quintus raced into view a second later, his dark hair plastered down with sweat and dirt.

“Calliope!” he shrieked again.

The sheer panic on his young face was enough to make her stomach lurch. She dropped the spade and ran to him just as her mother emerged from the kitchen.

“What is it, Quintus?” Mana demanded. Then she saw the boy’s face and her body went rigid.

Artemisia started toward her, but stopped when Mana waved at her to stay where she stood.

“Quintus?” Mana’s voice was even, but empty.

“It’s Laurentus, ma’am. He’s been injured. They’re bringing him home now.”

Mana opened her mouth but no sound came out. The usual pink tint of her cheeks blanched to ashen gray. Artemisia rushed forward. Just before Mana was safely in her grasp, an odd gurgle escaped her lips and she collapsed.

Without hesitation, she scooped her mother from the ground and started for home.

Artemisia stumbled into the house and laid her mother on the chaise in the corner. Her limbs trembled from the effort of carrying her home. Still struggling for breath, Artemisia hurried to her parents’ room. Two slaves she didn’t know were laying Papa on the bed.

He did not look like her strong, jovial father. Blood stained his abdomen and flowed down his left leg. A large wound on his cheek also flowed freely. His deep brown eyes were closed.

“Is he –?”

One of the men laid a hand on her shoulder. “No, he’s alive. The doctor has been sent for.”

Artemisia could only manage a nod in return. The man she’d always believed to be invincible lay before her, unconscious and bloodied. She felt like she were in someone else’s body. What she was seeing could not possible be true.

Soon after, the doctor arrived. Mana was fully recovered after a sniff of his ammonia salts. Then he put them both to work as his aides.

“Boil water. Tear rags. Hold this candle. Not that high!”

The list of orders and demands seemed endless, but she obeyed him as fast as she could.
The wound was deep and Artemisia averted her eyes as the doctor threaded a needle with horse hair. She started to lose her grip on the candle and felt Mana’s warm, rough fingers close over hers.

“Go and fetch more water for the pot, darling.”

She nodded and stumbled from the room.

“How bad is it?” Mana asked.

“It is difficult to say . . . missed his lung . . . .”

Artemisia heard no more as she grabbed the water bucket and raced to the well.

Finally the doctor announced he had done all he could do. He gave Mana a bottle of acetum and instructions for how to use it to clean Father’s wounds. He told them to change the bandages after each application and left.

Artemisia stood in the bedroom doorway. Mana sat by Father’s side holding his hand. The candlelight sparkled on her unshed tears. It bounced from her angular cheekbones and left shadows beneath her eyes. She leaned forward and kissed Father’s lips.

“I knew this would happen,” she whispered, her voice choked. “What are we to do without –”

Artemisia left them then. It was time to make supper.

------------------

The fire crackled and snapped beneath the cooking pot. Artemisia was almost numb to its heat as she stirred the porridge. A hand squeezed her shoulder and she jerked her arm back from the pot so quickly she almost spilled it onto the floor.

“Sorry, Arti.” Apollo squatted beside her. “Didn’t you hear me say your name when I came in?”

She looked at him and shook her head. “No,” she whispered and concentrated on stirring the porridge again.

“How’s Father?”

“I don’t know. He hasn’t awakened since they brought him home.”

“Mana?”

“By his side.” Artemisia looked at her twin again. “She’s very upset. Maybe you can sit with her until I’m finished here.”

He smiled, “Of course.”

As he started to rise, she grasped his hand. “How did this happen, ‘Pollo?” She felt the tears in her eyes.

He crouched and hugged her. “He’s going to be all right, Arti.”

She let herself sob into her brother’s shoulder. It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. The outcomes were already decided! Her father wasn’t supposed to die.

Apollo let her cry until she was finished and then went to see Mana and Father. Artemesia stirred the glop in the pot. While she’d allowed herself to be weak, the bottom had burned. It was going to take forever to clean up.