Hazel’s blue eyes flicked between the two knights before she gave a curt nod. “Alright then, I’ll get to work on that straight away,” she announced in a businesslike manner. With the news that Crow was still alive, she now wanted to get him back to their camp as fast as possible. The sooner he was able to move on his own, the sooner he could be safe among his friends and out of the hands of his enemies. After all, she was well aware of the bounty that was still on his head. The knights may have been willing to keep him from dying of his injuries, but that didn’t mean they weren’t going to turn him in to the king for that reward. She and the other thieves needed to get him away from them as quickly as they could, so he wouldn’t be hanged for his crimes.

She was just about to turn away to begin setting up her medicinal supplies, when Penelope spoke again to ask if she had anything to treat Crow’s pain. “That’s exactly why we need to get him out of your camp and back in ours,” the herbalist said with a bitter edge to her voice. This was why she despised physicians. While she was willing to treat anyone, no matter who they were or where they came from, noble healers were too prideful to properly care for a thief just because he was a lawbreaker. It made her sick.

“I do have some herbs in stock that will help with the pain,” she went on with a thoughtful frown. “Unfortunately, I have even less of those than I do of my regular herbs. At a guess, I’d say I can make three or four batches at the most.” She met Penelope’s gaze again. “Since there’s so little of it available, only give it to him if he’s in more pain than he can tolerate.”

“Do you need help with that medicine?” Rikki asked. Her formerly defeated gaze held new fire at the prospect of getting Crow back. “You’ve been teaching me a lot about herbs, so I bet I could do it while you work on the other one.”

“No,” Hazel shook her head. “The painkiller is made of hemlock, henbane, and poppy seeds, so I’ll be the one to make it.” She shot the thief an amused smirk. “If you remember, they’re all poisons, so I wouldn’t want you to prepare it incorrectly and accidentally kill him.”

Rikki paled and nodded her head vigorously, “I-I’ll go get the fire started instead then.” She hurried off with Alistair to begin setting up two separate pots for each medicine.

Hazel followed the female thief with her eyes, appreciative of her help. Over the course of her stay with the band of criminals, Rikki had become an eager and useful apprentice. The herbalist felt confident that she had learned enough to take over most of the preparations of the remedy for Crow’s illness while she focused on the painkiller that Penelope had requested. She turned back to the knights with a courteous dip of her head, “Thank you for coming all this way to tell us the news. It’s good to know Crow’s fate is far from what we believed.”

Straightening her posture, she gestured at the three thieves, who had already begun working on the medicine under Rikki’s guidance, “If you’d like to help, go ahead. I’m sure they would appreciate the extra hands.” She turned to collect the herbs she had stored away with their other supplies. “I’ll be putting together the medicine to numb his pain if you need me.”