Page 155 of A Tribute of Fire

There was no answer.

I screamed when his dagger finally broke through my skin’s surface, slowly plunging in through veins and nerves and muscle. White-hot pain radiated in my shoulder.

Then he twisted his blade, doing more damage.

Out of desperation I punched him in the face. His head reared back but he didn’t release the dagger. I was panicking, terror digging its sharp teeth into me. I punched him again and heard the sound of his nose breaking.

Still he didn’t let go and somehow managed to push the blade in farther.

He laughed as blood dripped down his face.

His laughter suddenly stopped and he gagged while the tip of his broadsword appeared through his throat.

I gasped and saw Io standing behind him.

She was the one who had plunged his own sword into the back of his neck.

My adrenaline crashed inside me, my fear fled, and now all I could focus on was the throbbing, shooting pain. The man slumped forward, nearly suffocating me. I tried to move but realized that he had pushed his dagger into me so hard that I was pinned into the wooden floor.

Io shoved at the man and he collapsed to the side and I could breathe again. Every breath I took made the pain radiate further and faster.

“What do I do? What do I do?” she asked, panicking.

I was about to tell her to go get a healer when she reached over and yanked the dagger out.

It was the worst possible thing she could have done.

Blood spurted from the wound, thick and hot.

I let out a moan.

My mind was frantically trying to recall what Demaratus had said about gushing wounds.

Stupid girl, you have to seal them shut!

I needed stitches or cauterizing. There was no time to sew me up. “You have to cauterize the wound,” I told Io.

The pain was somehow intensifying.

“What?”

“Get something metal. Stick it in the fire.” I wanted to tell her to get the knife that she’d pulled from my shoulder, but she ran over to Theano’s desk and grabbed the first thing she saw.

The seal Theano used for the wax on her letters. Io ran over to the fire and put the metal seal into the flames.

I was feeling so woozy and lightheaded. I just wanted to go to sleep. My eyelids began to drift shut.

Stupid girl, stay awake! It’s just blood. You have plenty—you can stand to lose some and still keep alert!

“Demaratus,” I whispered. I wished he were here. He would know what to do. He would save me.

“The seal is hot,” Io said. “Now what?”

Didn’t she work in the infirmary? “Bring it over here and press it against my wound.”

“What?” she exclaimed. “I can’t do that!”

“You have to,” I told her. It was getting harder and harder to hold on to my consciousness. “I can’t do it myself, and if I tried, I might faint. Make sure you seal the skin shut. Don’t stop, even if I scream. You have to stop the bleeding or I’ll die.”

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