Chapter 2

When Silas saw the situation, he packed all his things, plus his mother’s potion boards (ingredient formulas) for various potions burned onto a thin shake, that he slipped into his sack. Borgal watched lest he take anything of value, which he already had. Silas left with his sister and spent the night at her house. In the morning, she took him aside after her husband left. “Silas, you could have done nothing, Father killed her by bringing that fool physicker to care for her. You must leave this barony, as Father will poison things here and to those around us. There is one place that may give you a place, Across the river, in the once great county of Amberly the countess has been beset by bad advice and more. Borgal I think came from there, ousted by the countess for killing her husband the count. Go there, and hopefully you can redeem your reputation, as Mother gave us both the best education she could. I will help as I can, but you cannot stay here. Silas nodded, as Sylvana made sense. He packed his things and left, crossing the bridge and heading to Amberly town. He arrived in late afternoon and asked a pretty young girl if there was a wise person in the area, she shook her head no, but pointed, “his cabin is that way, he died and the parade of fools started, my father says. Are you trying to be such?” Silas smiled at her, “No, I am a wise person, I am trained but need to practice some under an older wise person, I think. “ She shrugged, “If you can help us, you will be welcome. Even now the count has died of their ministrations.”

Silas went in the direction she had pointed and soon found the cottage the old wiseman had used. He looked inside and knew it had been closed up a good while. He started cleaning it and put a fire in the fireplace. He threw the old bedding away and had the spoiled herbs out with the bed when he heard a horse. It obviously was hurt from its gait, and he went outside. to greet a better dressed farmer leading a horse with a nasty infection and other issues he could not be sure of “She is very sick, has no one seen to her?” The man nodded “Just the stupid physicker who gave her some medicine which has all but killed her.” Silas closed his eyes and shook his head. “Let me see what I can do, she is very sick and likely poisoned as well.” The farmer nodded “so what will your charge be?” Silas looked at him “Nothing, I have done nothing. If by God’s grace I can save her, we can talk when we know if she can still be of use.” The man’s head cocked to the side slightly and he nodded. “Tie her here and I’ll get poultices made and something to clear her gut ... come back when you can tomorrow and we can assess her progress, if any.’ The man nodded again “How do I know you won’t steal her?” Silas snorted and looked at the man “Why would I want to be hung for stealing a horse on death’s door?” The man smiled “Good point, until tomorrow.”

Silas went to work, he filled a large bucket with water and placed it in front of the horse, then made a mixture of sweet grasses, a chopped apple and as mild a purge as he dared use. Once the horse had downed that he went back and started making a poultice to pull the infection from the wound. It was getting dark, so he found and lit a lamp, then located two others, one of which he put out by the horse, which was now drinking water, Silas knew she would drink a lot of water and make a huge mess behind herself. He was getting ready for a long night. The poultice was hard to apply as the horse’s leg was so inflamed and tender, but he eventually managed to bandage it on. He made supper out of the food he had brought with him, grabbed his blanket and found a place near the horse on the porch where he could see things. Around midnight the purge took effect, and the horse released a large stinking mess, followed shortly by more. He threw the blanket off and went looking for a shovel, which he found in an outbuilding. He then went to work shoveling the mess away from the horse and the cabin. He checked the horse over and it seemed to be holding its own. He looked at the poultice and it seemed to have drawn a lot of the infection off. It was hard to see in the light of the lantern, but he figured a fresh one would help, so he went in and prepared another one. He removed the first poultice and washed the leg with clean boiled water. It did look better to him, so he applied the new poultice and discarded the old one with the horse dung. Then he grabbed his blanket, looked at the moon that was getting low in the sky and tried get a bit more sleep.