A servant running past noticed the bleeding general and immediately ran in his direction. Her hands clung to her open mouth, and her eyes widened with the horror of the sight that presented itself before her.

- Your Grace! Oh, what should I do? – she was fussing around, making too much noise. - I’m going to call someone for help.

She almost said to him "don’t go anywhere," but because she scolded herself mentally, because he was already too injured to go anywhere.

- Just leave me alone, I’m fine. - he said softly. - Keep going about your daily business, ignoring me. Go, I’ll just lie here and rest.

The girl doubted and did not move for some time, but Milos’ subsequent growl made her jump on the spot and obey. She was new in this place and still too inexperienced to know how to behave in such situations, but decided not to argue, but just to inform the housekeeper about it out of harm’s way.

***

- Charles, send for the royal physician immediately and bring him to the Princess’ chambers afterwards. Immediately! - Dexter barked at the butler. - And get Mrs. Rose here.

He slammed the door after he had given the order and returned to Amanda’s bed, which lay neither alive nor dead. Her condition was causing him extreme anxiety, her body was burning in agony, she was muttering some incoherent nonsense and her wounds were still bleeding, despite the fact that Dexter continued to change the bandages one by one.

There was a knock on the door and the housekeeper immediately entered, carrying extra clean bandages in her hands.

- Your Grace, Charles told me what happened. Let me help the princess. - She went to the foot of the bed and placed the folded, pressed, snow–white fabrics on the far corner. – I’ll get some water, I need to treat the wounds before the healer comes.

She went to the bathroom and returned with a basin filled with cool water.

- I need you to help me take off her outer clothes.

In one motion, Dexter ripped Amanda’s outer dress in the middle, flipping the blood-soaked fabric down the sides of her body.

- What else can I do? - he asked.

- Remove the extra pillows from under her head, you need to minimize blood flow to the extremities. How did this even happen? – Mrs. Rose asked the Duke, trying to find a reason why she came back without a part of a limb.

- It shouldn’t concern you. – he only replied. – Just do what you have to do.

- She looks so pale and sluggish, it looks like she’s lost too much blood.

- The blood doesn’t stop. - He whispered almost desperately.

- Then let’s put an additional pressure bandage on and cover the injured leg with ice. - She advised, and the duke instantly disappeared from the room and returned a couple of minutes later with a huge bucket of crushed ice.

He spread a thick felt blanket under Amanda’s feet, suffering from her agonizing screams, and poured out all the ice nearby, carefully laying it on the surface of her injury.

Amanda twitched at the sudden change in temperature, but immediately weakened and drooped, feeling a pleasant coolness spreading through her body and quenching the flames that burned her inside.

Her confused consciousness did not allow her to understand the complexity of the situation, but she could occasionally catch snatches of Dexter’s phrases and it became easier for her that he was next to her at that moment.

Some time later, a doctor came who, with a cursory glance, assessed the front of the work with which he needed to deal. He put his bag, jingling glass bottles, on a chair next to the bed, and he sat down next to the princess, feeling her extremely weak pulse.

He performed the first diagnosis, which took no more than a minute.

- You did everything right. - He noted, noticing a mountain of ice on the injured leg. - Now, all of you leave the room and don’t come in until I call, no matter what you hear here.

The doctor’s confident and firm gaze indicated that Amanda was on the verge and every minute counted.

Dexter did not argue and turned around and left, advising the healer to cure Amanda, otherwise he would personally kill him.

He understood that his anger was unjustified, but he could not do anything, he just did not know where to put himself from grief.

- Mrs. Rose, I’ve been looking for you. - squeaked a young girl who was running as fast as she could... - There’s a general, he’s... he’s very wounded.

A heart-rending scream rang out behind the tightly closed door and the maid realized with horror that she had clung to the duke’s arm, having experienced genuine fear. She immediately came to her senses and let him go, bowing her head low and apologizing, but Dexter, as if she hadn’t even noticed it, all his attention was only with Amanda and nothing else mattered.

- Come with me, show me where you saw him? - The housekeeper took the girl with her.

The screams lasted for about half an hour and this time seemed like an eternity for Dexter, he felt a strong smell of blood, too much blood, as if it was pouring like a river, before the princess’ voice completely subsided and the silence cut his ears even more sharply than her screams, at least before that he knew that she was alive, and now he couldn’t even recognize her heartbeat.

His tightly clenched fists turned white and his hand jerked to grab the door handle, but at that moment the door opened and the healer stepped aside a little, inviting the duke to enter.

Never in his life had Dexter’s knees failed him as they did today, as if his legs were made of fragile springs that could break with one wrong move and he would collapse right there at the foot of the bed where his beloved woman lay, lifeless with a pale gray complexion. Her cheeks were sunken, her lips were dry and cracked, her skin was tight, sticking to Amanda’s already skinny physique.

Dexter’s lower lip twitched treacherously, as if it had a life of its own. He could not see Amanda in such a state, it was beyond his strength and he quickly looked away, closing his eyes with wet eyelashes.

- I had to bleed her to remove all the infected blood. – the doctor stated dryly. – I have already met with a similar manifestation of black magic, but at that time I could not save the patient, so I made this decision this time. If we had delayed, her internal organs would have burned alive. Her body is now in suspended animation.

- I cut off her foot. - Dexter said deliberately. - The golem swallowed her the moment I came to her rescue. Maybe this is the reason for her condition? In the golem.

- I doubt it, as far as I know, golems are not carriers of magic by themselves and all they are capable of is just to absorb the body. - The healer replied. – Most likely, she was wounded by someone earlier, there was a rather deep wound on her thigh. I treated and bandaged all the wounds. Unfortunately, she will not grow a new limb, and she will have to learn to live with this fact.

- And what to do next? She won’t always be like this, will she? - Dexter frowned, radiating indignation.

- She needs a complete transfusion of fresh blood from one donor. If you know someone who would like to become this donor, then we can start right now.

- I will become a donor. - The Duke blurted out without hesitation.