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there were too many to count when her head felt so awful. She drank something that took the pain away and made her smile at the handsome young men in their glittery uniforms. There were confusing conversations, and finally a sled. Eventually a bed, and then some hot honeyed wine that took care of everything. She curled up safe and slept.
    Her head felt stuffed with wool when she fin ally woke up. "What happened?" She asked, blinking in the painfully bright light. "Junk!" She struggled to get out from under the blankets.
    Her mother appeared, and helped her sit up. "Junk is just fine. Now sit up and let me see your eyes." She peered closely at them, covering and uncovering them, and finally sighing with relief.
    "You'll be fine."
    Rustle thought about the Young Bloods, but it all seemed very distant and fuzzy. "Did I get them all?" she asked. "Kill them? I don't seem to be thinking very well, right now."
    "Lady Gisele said you might be a bit sleepy until the inside of your head finishes healing."
    Rustle felt a sinking sensation. "Lady Gisele? That wasn't that wine? I don't want . . . "
    "Yes, that wine. You were bleeding inside your skull, causing more damage. I had to dose you. I spoke to Lady Gisele at length, and she assures me that you will not get pregnant this month, since you ovulated four days ago."
    "Oh, good." She tentatively touched her hea d. "I'm all full of wool. I killed some of them, didn't I?"
    "Two. Four are rather seriously damaged, and two fled. They were too stupid to even remove the rope they brought you down with, and the king is very, very angry. I don't know what he'll do to them, nor do I really care. I'm taking you home right now."
    "Good. I know what they say about rape as a way to advance a witches power, but I really don't recommend it." She frowned then and reached for power.
    "Oh no you don't. Not for ten days. Gisele's orders. She say's you're properly ripped up, top worse than bottom."
    "My brain cannot possibly be as sore . . . err, I mean, that part I did all by myself."
    "Cracked your skull yourself?" her mother snorted. "You had to do a wh ole lot of heavy hauling after you hit your head, and so you need to let that new channel of yours heal. I mean it, Rustle. Don't hurt your brain any worse than it is already."
    She nodded reluctantly, and subsided.
    By noon they were on their way in a well sprung carriage. They took the corridor to the Wizard's Tower, where the rest of her anxious family swamped her with love and care, and quite a bit of anger.
    Her father didn't seem to want to stop hugging her, and glared at Havi when he congratulated her on killing two men. "And the four you zapped, old gods, I hear they're drooling idiots, wearing diapers. Good job."
    "Behave." Dad picked her up and carried her to his own wagon, a gaudy Traveler's rig with two pintos pulling it. The back was half filled with a thick mattress, and despite her protests that she'd laid down long enough already, she laid down and let herself be tucked in like she was a little girl again.
    She could feel Havi worrying, he'd always been able to read her, follow her magic when she worked it. She tried to tone down any broadcasting she might be doing.
    Instead of going home, Dad drove on into the village.
    Quick footsteps preceded the arrive of  her grandmother and great-grandmother, then Lady Gisele and a renewal of worried and embarrassing enquiries. It was under their formidable observation that she was allowed to draw a bit of power, and then channel it away.
    Answer breathed a sigh of relief. "You've not taken any permanent harm, Rustle. But you do need to take everything slowly and carefully for the next month or so."
    Relieved, all around, they finally returned home, three quarters of the way back to the tower , and up a steep hill. Rustle retreated to bed and slept. She slept a great deal over the next two weeks, and started worrying.
    "You will not get pregnant this month."
    Could anything be more infuriating than