Azeneth jerked me up at the sound of a branch snapping behind us. It took me an embarrassing second to realize she had stepped on it herself. I was still looking for the next enemy when she started lowering me.
“We need to rest,” she admitted.
There was still blood on her neck. We moved away from the stream, between heather-covered slopes and gray rock faces, with the wind whistling overhead. Azeneth stopped to listen at every bend and walked slowly, trying not to bend the knee she had landed on. After watching her fight, those unsteady steps worried me almost as much as the wound.
She found a hollow beneath an overhang, brushed some branches away from the entrance, and tossed a stone inside. Then she bent down to inspect the ground.
“No burrows, bones, or tracks,” she murmured. “Seems quiet.”
She turned me so I could look inside. We waited a moment, and when nothing moved, she sat against the rock and left me beside her knee. From there, I could make out the hillside and part of the path. The rocks screened us from the stream side; at least I wouldn’t have to keep watch in every direction while she tended her wounds.
From her belt bag, she took a case containing bandages, cloths, and a jar of salve. I had imagined something more like a glowing potion, but I would settle for anything that eased her pain. Azeneth arranged everything on her lap and began unscrewing the jar. She paused to look at her fingers with a pained expression, and I had to stay there, unable to hold even the lid for her.
She cleaned the cut with a damp cloth. Her lips tightened as she touched it, and then she rolled up a sleeve, revealing a bruised wrist.
“Did they do that when they captured you?”
“The shackles,” she replied, spreading on the salve.
She tried holding a bandage between her teeth, but it slipped. She had to catch it on her skirt before it fell, and I held back some advice that wouldn’t be much use without a hand to go with it. I waited until she had it again before asking the question that had been on my mind since the fight.
“How did they manage to capture you when you’re the Demon Queen?”
Her fingers went still. I worried that I had sounded critical; I hadn’t meant it that way, though I still couldn’t understand how she had ended up on the run alone with a sword she didn’t even know how to use.
“They set a trap for me…”
I listened closely, expecting an explanation involving forbidden magic or something equally terrible.
“One of my maids went to buy a map showing a safe route for transporting our wine,” she explained. “The seller passed the route and cargo details to the attackers. I heard the guards talking about dividing up the bottles and paying him his share.”
She lowered her gaze to the jar. I tried to piece together what she had told me and how she had ended up in the carriage.
“Were you inside the carriage?”
“Hiding.”
“Why?”
“Because I didn’t want anyone to see me opening the bottles.”
I took a moment to answer. I had been imagining an ambush designed to defeat the Demon Queen, and now I needed to start by finding out what had happened with the wine.
“Couldn’t you have tasted it before the carriage left?”
“I did!” She smoothed the bandage on her lap. “I was going to try a little and get out, but by the time I noticed, we were already on our way.”
She lifted her chin a little.
“The journey could have spoiled it. Someone had to keep an eye on the quality.”
“How much did you drink?”
“Enough to fall asleep.”
“During the journey?”
“During the attack, too!”
The wind stirred the branches at the entrance while I tried to imagine the attackers finding her asleep among her bottles. I looked at the bruise on her wrist again. The explanation was much less solemn than I had expected, but the shackles had been real.
“When I woke up, I was in a cell,” she continued, starting to bandage her wrist. “I demanded they release me and explained who I was.”
“And what did they do?”
“Brought more guards!”
I wished I could pat her shoulder. I wasn’t sure announcing that she was the Demon Queen had been the best way to ask them to let her go, but I didn’t want to point that out while she was trying to cover the marks left by her shackles.
“One fell asleep beside the bars after drinking our wine. He had the keys on his belt and a bottle at his feet. I reached through the bars to unhook the keyring, but it jingled and he opened an eye.”
“What did you do?”
“I told him I was his relief and he could keep sleeping.”
Azeneth imitated a drowsy mumble:
“‘Thanks, pal. Don’t wake the captain.’”
After facing an awake guard, I had no objections to the method. She kept wrapping the bandage while telling me how she had unlocked her shackles and the cell. There were still two others guarding the storeroom where they had left her bag.
“I hid behind some barrels and rolled the bottle toward the stairs,” she said.
“You took his bottle, too?”
“I was going to keep it, but they both ran to stop it from breaking. I went in while they were distracted.”
She caught one end of the bandage as it slipped down her skirt and adjusted it with her fingers.
“I found my bag, heard footsteps, and left through a service door before they came back.”
“And your staff?”
Her hands stopped again.
“I forgot it… I didn’t remember until I was outside…” she admitted, pressing the jar against her skirt. “It was leaning right beside the bag!”
I wanted to find something to say that wouldn’t make things worse. Not long ago, I’d had a spear aimed at my eye; I couldn’t be sure I would have remembered to pick everything up in her place.
“Well… At least you got away.”
Azeneth smiled at me and brought the cloth back to the cut on her neck. A soft, wet squelch at the entrance interrupted our conversation.
Three green blobs advanced between the stones. Each was the size of a jug and translucent, like tinted jelly, with a small dark orb floating inside. They stretched over a rocky step, then bunched up again below it, leaving a glistening trail on the grass.
“Green slimes,” Azeneth explained. “They’re used to make basic healing remedies.”
My attention went straight to the cloth she was still holding beside her neck.
“Could they help with your injuries?”
The first compressed itself and sprang at her face.
“Later,” she replied, grabbing me.
She brought me across her body. The slime struck my blade with a wet smack that jolted her freshly bandaged wrist.
[Durability: 96/100]
A window appeared above the trembling jelly.
[Green Slime]
[Level: 1]
[Health: 5/5]
[Attack: 2]
[Defense: 0]
“Aim for the center!”
Azeneth swung, but the slime flattened against the ground and I passed over it. Another struck her ankle, making her whimper. She tried kicking it away and nearly lost a boot; I watched the movement, afraid we would both end up on the ground.
“Please don’t fall!”
“I’m doing my best!”
The first swelled again. This time, Azeneth aimed my point at the dark orb and pierced it. The blob lost its shape and spilled over the grass.
[Experience gained: 20]
[Experience: 60/100]
The other two jumped almost together. Azeneth raised me to block one, and the second grazed her shoulder.
[Durability: 95/100]
Her next swing cut a branch and showered us with leaves.
“Lower,” I urged. “Wait for it to land.”
Azeneth stepped back, tightened her grip, and swept me across the grass when one landed in front of her boots. My edge split its orb.
[Experience gained: 20]
[Experience: 80/100]
The last one struck her shin. She fell onto her backside without letting go, both hands on my grip, while the slime gathered itself to jump again. I didn’t want her to have to try getting up before defending herself.
“Point forward!”
She aimed me just as the creature leaped. Its own momentum impaled it, splattering us with jelly all the way to my guard. Azeneth stayed motionless, a green droplet sliding down her nose.
“I think we hit it this time,” she whispered.
[Experience gained: 20]
[Level: 1 → 2]
[Skill acquired: Usurpation I]
[A splendid debut!] the system announced in my mind. [Analyzing the last enemy defeated…]
[Skill gained: Healing I]
I looked at Azeneth’s loose bandage. I was still trying to understand what had just appeared when another window unfolded.
[Permanent bonus: Maximum Durability +25]
[Maximum Durability: 125]
[Healing I: 1 mana restores 5 Durability to you or 5 Health to your wielder.]
[Requirement for Healing II: Defeat 10 more green slimes.]
[Progress: 0/10]
I reread the part about my wielder. I had spent our rest watching her struggle with a bandage, wishing I could do more than talk, and now I had a skill that could help her. Before I could get too excited, I remembered the bond we still hadn’t formed.
Can I heal her even if we don’t have a bond? I asked the system, keeping my eye on her neck.
[Of course, as long as she’s holding you! Medical care comes with the sword!]
I had twenty points of mana, and Azeneth was still holding my grip. I’d close that cut first and take care of repairing my blade afterward. Though perhaps I should first ask her not to celebrate my new level with a bottle.