Chapter 793: Familiar Faces
While Virve charged the defenders on the wall, Ollie dashed for the manor, clutching his wounded side and gritting his teeth in pain as he ran. The wound might not be life threatening, but it was serious and left unattended, he was sure it would become much worse.
"By bark and leaf, and sap that flows,
Restore my flesh as sweet life grows."
The words that slipped from Ollie’s lips as he ran were simple, and the healing they brought was rudimentary at best. The bleeding stopped as his skin and muscles knit back together, but the wound itself was still very tender, and if he pushed himself too hard, he could easily tear the flesh open again.
Heila could have done better, even with the little amount of time Ollie allowed himself to focus on healing, but he quickly shoved down thoughts about his own inadequacies to focus on the mission at hand. Once he reached the manor, he would need to be calm enough to project an air of confidence, or things could become complicated very quickly.
Entering the manor through a side door, Ollie’s feet carried him almost automatically in the direction of the kitchens and the servants’ wing of the manor. The stone walls of the Villa felt strangely warm, even on this cold, wintery morning, though after a few steps, he realized it wasn’t the Villa that was warm... it was his memories of the days spent here that were warm.
The work in the Villa had always been hard, and there were never enough hands to get all of the work done, but at the time, he’d always felt excited to be selected as one of the servants who would spend the warm months of the year in the secluded summer villa. In the Lothian Manor, he was one of dozens of kitchen boys, and the Master of Kitchens rarely let him do any real cooking, but out here, he’d been one of a few, and he felt like he could stretch and grow in this place.
Of course, the Summer Villa wasn’t very impressive compared to the grandeur of Lady Nyrielle’s ancient fortress, and he learned more in a single day in Georg’s kitchen than he might in an entire season in the Summer Villa. He couldn’t deny that he had grown far beyond this place, and it felt... smaller now. Almost quaint compared to the life he’d been living. But still, it was the place where his journey had truly begun, and even if it would be the last time he would ever walk these halls, he couldn’t deny that it felt... good to return, one last time.
As he rounded a corner, the sounds of scraping wood against stone filled the air, and Ollie blinked several times in surprise at the sight of two laborers and two maids struggling to drag one of the heavy banquet tables down the hall toward the manor’s main entrance.
"You there," Ollie said, drawing himself up to his full height and relaxing his shoulders, assuming a commanding posture that Thane had drilled him on almost as much as his lessons on fighting in armor. "Drop the table, barricading the doors won’t help you at all."