The Silencing of Esteria

Chapter 9

Toland woke to find himself lopsidedly sprawled over Kinic's fireside chair with a painful crick in his neck.

He groaned and got to his feet, taking in the sight of his father and Kinic also asleep in chairs of their own.

Rubbing his neck, he wandered into the front room where the patients were kept. There, he found the man still unconscious and the girl asleep sat on the stool by the table, flopped forward so that her head was resting on his chest.

Awake she had seemed threatening and somewhat alien, almost feral, but asleep she seemed to be just any other girl, breathing softly on what he presumed was her father's chest.

Her hand was still clutching a handful of the man's shirt and as he looked over it he noticed the blood stain on her forearm.

He gently went up and pushed aside the cloth to reveal a deep wound exposing torn muscle and chipped bone.

His eyes widened as he examined it further, the cleanness of the slicing meant that this was done with a sharp implement, much sharper than a claw or tooth, and with a great deal of force. Surely this must have been immeasurably painful for her, but she had moved about like it hadn't been there at all. Not for the first time he wondered if she was entirely human.

Still, this needed attending too less it get infected. He gently tapped her on the shoulder to wake her and she bolted upright, standing with enough force to send the stool she was sitting on flying away and shattering against the wall.

Toland jerked back in horror, holding his hands up in an appeasing gesture.

"I'm sorry," he said as she looked about, as if struggling to remember where she was, "You have a wound on your arm. You could probably do with getting it bandaged before it gets infected. I'm sorry to startle you."

She looked down at her arm as if noticing the wound for the first time herself, then she seemed to relax.

"Sorry about your chair," she said and rolled up her sleeve so they could both get a better look at the wound.

Toland went to the water bucket to set the kettle boiling, only to find it empty.

"I just need to go get some water from the well," he said, then had a thought and ran back into the other room.

He returned with the blanket he had found over him this morning and handed it to her.

"Here, you must be cold."

"Its fine," she replied, "I don't feel the cold."

"Everyone feels the cold, even the Unishi feel the cold and they dive into frozen lakes."

She frowned but took the blanket and wrapped it around her.

"There is another stool just behind there if you want it, or there's a seat through that door by the fire. I'll be right back."

She nodded and he headed off to the well with the water bucket in hand.

It was strange seeing the well without old Shudlow around, his small shelter empty, but he quickly set the bucket in the pully and filled it, carefully trudging back to Kinic's house.

Once there he found the girl had found a new stool to sit on and had returned to her silent vigil over the man.

Toland put the water in the kettle and stoked up the fire underneath it, then found bandages and one of Kinics salves that fought infection.

He poured the hot water into a bowl, placed a clean cloth in the water and carried everything over to her side, pulling up a stool next to her.

"Here," he said, "Hold out your arm."