An Affinity For Fire

47. Heleonne

There was only so much coddling Leo could take from the physician.

"You have to rest, my Lord," the old woman who'd treated him insisted, waving a spoonful of broth in his face. "Here, lie down and have some nice, warm breakfast."

Even when putting aside the fact that he despised being spoken to like a toddler, lying down was the last thing Leo wanted to do. He'd spent the night alternating between herb-induced sleep and tossing and turning on top of one of the tables in the infirmary that the servants had covered with a sheet and called a bed. Most of those who had been injured in the fire had been allowed to leave as soon as they had received treatment.

But then, most of them hadn't had their heart stop.

Leo couldn't recall most of what had happened. His memory was splattered with bursts of unconsciousness, brought on by a combination of pain and lack of air. The moments he could remember were a nonsensical blur of movement and shouting. He'd had to rely on stories from the others in the infirmary to figure out how in all Hells he hadn't been burned to a crisp, since the last solid memory he had was of curling up in a ball on the ground, surrounded by fire.

"I don't need rest," he argued, swatting the woman's pestering hand aside, "I need to speak to my friends." Pushing past the aching of his limbs, he stood and limped towards the door.

"Wouldn't My Lord at least like to dress first?" the woman called after him.

He stopped, glancing down at himself. He was clad almost entirely in bandages, which seemed excessive, since they had told him most of his burns were mild and probably wouldn't even leave long-term scarring. Strictly speaking, he could leave as he was, since he was pretty much fully covered. Still, it was neither a conventional look nor a flattering one. With a sigh, he pulled a cotton robe from a hook on the wall. "May I borrow this?"

The heavy wrinkles in the physician's brow deepened. "Well, yes, but surely I can get you something more-"

"This will be fine, thank you," he said, pulling the sleaves over stiff arms, fastening the garment at his waist and leaving.

After some searching, Leo found Clover on the floor of the library, surrounded by open books, with one particularly large one spread over her crossed legs. When she noticed him, she leapt up, leaving the book to tumble to the carpeted floor.

"Leo!"

He tried not to yelp when she threw her arms around his singed body.

"Ah, sorry," she said, noticing his squirms and pulling back. "How bad is it?"

"Much better than it could have been," he answered. "I honestly cannot tell you how grateful I am for what you did."

"Well, I'll be expecting a very expensive gift as a show of appreciation," she said with a smirk. "Although, in fairness, it's Calio and Bryn you should be thanking. All I did was carry the bloody wolf. But I'm sure you'll have time for formal thanks later. Right now, I need your help figuring out what we do about the Merith situation."

"Of course," Ceo said, wincing as he crouched to sit among the open books. "Looks like you've been busy. Any breakthroughs?"

"Nothing that seems helpful," she admitted, dropping herself down beside him. "This one," she held up a flimsy, leatherbound book, "has all the medical records from cases she worked on in Dormis. They stop over a hundred years ago." Leo flicked through the pages as she opened another one. "This one goes on about her time in Ortus, around the time she was last seen. She treated King Rowan the Third's wife, Heather. She cured her infertility in exchange for him outlawing the hunting of red deer."

"Queen Heather. Tarragon's great-grandmother, right?"

"Great-great," she corrected. "Mine too, actually."

He nodded. "So, you guys can't hunt red deer?"

She laughed bitterly. "Oh, no, we can. He removed the ban as soon as Heather gave birth."

Leo's brow furrowed. "Why would he do that?"

"Other than to be a prick? According to the book, he didn't believe the children were his. She had twins; a girl called Rosemary and a boy called Fern. Both blond." She rolled her eyes. "Apparently, being an Ortusian mother of fair-haired children has never been popular. Still, considering I'm directly descended from Fern, that offers an explanation for my hair that doesn't involve adultery."

As happy as he was for Clover, Leo's stomach tightened. "I don't understand. Who was the twins' father if it wasn't Rowan?"

Clover shrugged. "No idea. It says here, Rowan guessed that Merith figured out he was the infertile one, not Heather, and instead of healing him, she decided it was easier to convince Heather to sleep with someone else."

Leo shook his head. "But that would mean she can't heal infertility."

Clover frowned, seeming to glean what was concerning him. "Hey, don't let it get to you. It's probably just the baseless accusation of a paranoid old man. And even if it's true, it doesn't mean she can't, it just means she didn't have to in that one case. Anyway, there's no point in worrying about what she can or can't do if we can't even find her. Let's focus on that problem first, shall we?"

He chewed his lip, forcing back the nagging concern, and sighed. "You're right. So, what do we do?"

With a flitting of her green eyes, she surveyed his bandage-covered skin. "You need to get those burns checked again, and if the bandages can come off, have a bath and get dressed. I'll keep reading until Tarry gets back."

"Gets back? where is he?"

"Helping to find all the half-breeds," she said with a grimace. "A lot of the horses have been found, since they didn't get very far, but the half-breeds can run further, and they're less bothered by the cold. They're all over the place."

"Well, with him busy," Leo argued, "Surely I should be doing even more to help find Merith."

Clover fixed him with a stubborn glare. "With him busy, you have even less reason to feel guilty about taking the day off, since it's not just you. And all I'm doing is reading, which you can't exactly help me with, unless you want to be my personal page-turner."

"That's a fair point," he conceded, "but just for today. Tomorrow, we get back to actively searching." he pushed himself off the floor, glancing around at the massive, ancient books. "Have... fun."

She pulled a face it his dirty bandages. "You too."

With a pained but grateful smile, he left her to her reading.