We kept moving through the wards, checking on patients in their beds. We changed leeches on a sickly man, picking up the now fattened insects and replacing them with new, clearing a blood infection from his body. I put a hand on his arm and sensed our treatment was doing more harm than good but, until they trusted me enough with the responsibility of my own patients, I could do little more.
And so the day wore on. Given no time to wash our hands between patients, covered in blood, or worse, we continued our rounds. Professor Ludlow followed, his arms crossed, and berated every choice we made until even Tergen, who knew him best, became rattled.
Two assistants brought in another patient as we were finishing up. This one suffered from a mishap with a musket. Ludlow pursed his lips, deciding who to task with helping the man, and finally chose me. With an eagerness I’d not shown all day, I leant over to inspect the injury. The lead ball was lodged deep in his upper thigh.
“What happened?” I asked the patient. He wouldn’t meet my gaze. “Did someone do this to you?”
“Don’t know what you mean,” he muttered. “Can you fix me already?”
He was the fourth man with a musket wound in as many days, and all the others just as reluctant to speak. “How did you get injured?” I persisted. He swore and told me to leave him alone if all I was going to do was ask stupid questions.
Thoroughly annoyed, I picked up the tweezers, wishing Ludlow would allow me to wash my hands, and probed the wound.
The man strained, his neck and jaw tight. I pushed a touch of healing into him to reduce his pain. He subsided far too quickly. From the corner of my eye, I saw Ludlow stare in suspicion. I dug into the flesh of his thigh until the tweezers grabbed the lead ball and pulled it out, dropping it into the metal bowl Shen held out for me.
I prepared the needle and thread, drawing them through his skin with my usual neat stitches. Ludlow inspected my work and gave a soft grunt when he could find nothing to criticise. A second later, I was proven wrong when he said, “Your job isna tae ask questions, Master Rougeulf. Neist time leave off from your inquisition. Especially when the patient dinna wish tae talk.”
When I got back to our dormitory on the fourth storey of the university building, the one closest to the hospice, I was livid. I ripped off my disgusting clothes, throwing them into the corner, and stalked naked towards the bathing area across the shared hallway, uncaring of who saw me. Shen beat me to it, God knows how, and was washing himself in a shallow tub, knees poking out the top.
I scrubbed at my bloodied hands with a stiff brush, using the water from a small basin, and then found a bath, filling it with a mix of hot and cold liquid until it was the right temperature.
“It makes me bloody shudder that does,” Shen told me. “No matter how many times I see your scar. You know that tingling feeling of horror that hits your nether regions whenever a fellow gets hit in the balls? That’s what it gives me.”
“Thanks for that vivid image,” I remarked drolly, scrubbing the brush up my arms, removing the last traces of blood and gore.
“How did you get it again?”
I swore, telling him where he could shove his questions, and the red-haired man laughed raucously. “God, even your swearing sounds posh! Gets me every time!”
Liquid slid over my head as I squashed down, legs and bottom half out, to wash my hair. Quickly running my fingers through it, I got most of the residue out and rubbed at my cheeks for good measure.
Loud splashes sounded as I sat back up, the water raining from the edge of the tub onto the stone floor. Shen was out, drying his tubby body. Large, brown freckles, like those on his face, covered his arms and shoulders even more thickly.
“Where to tonight, Rougeulf?”
“I told you not to call me that,” I snapped.
“God, who put you in such a foul mood?” A second later, his hooting laughter returning, he answered himself. “Wait, let me guess. That would be the pompous twit from Birne!”
Ignoring him as best I could, I kept washing until all the blood was gone, even those bits I still sometimes imagined were there.
“So, where to tonight, milord?”
Shen wouldn’t drop it. He never did. “I don’t know. Out drinking, I guess.”
He whooped, telling Tergen who just entered, “His royal lord is taking us out for drinks, Tergy! You keen?”
“Naw particularly,” Tergen answered in his rolling accent. “You Tellen dinna nou how tae hold your liquor. It’s embarrassin.” I looked up at that, half-way out of the tub, and caught his wink. Shen threw a sponge at him in retaliation. “Feck off!” Tergen retorted.
I laughed with Shen, never tiring of hearing Tergen’s funny way of swearing.
We waited for Tergen to get clean while we both pulled on fresh, white tunics. It was the unofficial uniform for all physicians, even those in training. Personally, I would have chosen black. It hid blood so much better.
Our dormitory was cold and draughty. Stone pavers, bare of warming rugs, covered the floor. The walls were stone as well. Six narrow pallets were spread out across the ground with small trunks beside them, as both tables and storage. The thin, grey blankets on our beds never kept us truly warm. I’d seen nicer accommodation for the city wardens, and they were known to be a hardened bunch.
Shen jumped on his meagre pallet, sitting crossed legged and spiking up his red hair until it stood on end. Three other students, triplets from Dunst, were doing their own thing on the other side of the dormitory. We exchanged civil nods when they realised where I looked.
They weren’t the friendliest of men. Identical in every way with blonde hair and grey eyes, so short they barely reached my shoulder, they possessed a stockiness that hid an immense strength. I’d seen one of them lift a comatose patient all by himself once and do it with ease.
Half the reason we didn’t talk much was because none of us could tell them apart, and when Shen started calling them all Dunst, they’d taken great offence.
I also suspected they were a little afraid of Tergen. I’d never known there could be another man built in the same way as Elron. Both massive and tall, bulging with muscles in their arms and legs, and in places I didn’t think a man was meant to have them. But where Elron kept his black hair in a single braid, Tergen put his long and lanky blonde strands in lots of tiny, but somehow still messy, braids. Even the scruff of his beard.
I picked up the bloody clothes beside my bed in the corner and took them to the laundry. By the time I returned, Tergen was dressed and ready to go.
“Dunst,” Shen said to the triplets in farewell.
I tried a little harder, looking in their direction and saying, “Hunt, Hank, Hart.” None of them smiled and, with a small shudder at those identical expressions of disdain, I hurried from the room.
Elron was waiting outside the university building, the third one of the row, wearing the blue leather of a soldier. Ludlow had refused to allow him to accompany me for any of my training and, with nothing else to do during the day, Elron had joined the soldiers up on the hill with Vallon. I only managed to get there myself on my days off. Sometimes not even then, depending on the whims of Ludlow.
We walked across the plaza to a local dive behind the main street, in a small side alley, one that was popular with the fishermen. It was also, as Shen liked to point out, the only bar he hadn’t been kicked out of yet. The establishment, in truth half house of ill-repute, was close to full. The fishermen stared as we entered and then returned to their drinks, preferring gambling, quiet conversation, and occasional loud outbursts of singing to talking to a bunch of young lads from the university.
Two women, busts hanging out of their dresses, stepped forward to greet us. They led our group to a cosy table near a fire. Shen pulled a girl into his lap, having a little fondle before she slapped at his hands and whispered the price for a bit of fun upstairs. He looked to
me and lifted his brows hopefully. “You up to covering me, Red?”
“Not a chance. But I will get the first round,” I offered.
The woman got up from Shen’s lap to get our drinks. The first round went down all too fast, as it always did. They conned me into buying the next one too.
“God, that was some nasty business today,” Shen commented, wiping at the froth on his mouth. At Elron’s raised brows, he explained, “Red cut off some fellow’s leg. You should have heard his screams. I can’t even imagine what it must have felt like.”
“Probably like getting your leg cut off,” Elron said with revulsion.
“There has to be a better way of treating that kind of infection,” I stated. “I didn’t become a physician just so I could go around hacking off people’s limbs. If I wanted to do that, I’d be a damn soldier!”
Tergen ran a finger down one of the scruffy braids on his chin. “What dui expect tae happen? You canna imagine his leg wud get better by wishin for it!”
“You ask me, Ludlow’s a hack. My patients will receive better treatment than that, I can assure you. Today, if it had been up to me …”
“You’d dui what? Just wave yon fairy wand and make it all go awee?” Tergen sometimes said the strangest things.
I wished I could tell him that there was another way, railing against, and not for the first time, the vow of secrecy I’d taken. “I’d certainly give better advice or instruction than him. Why does he have such a good reputation anyhow? You’ve known him the longest. What’s he done to deserve it?”
“You’ll see for yourself. He be puttin on a display soon in the small amphitheatre. Ther bin bringing in potential amputees from all over Tellenel and keepin them in the Arnil Wale hospice. Surprised ah’m he gave you tha patient today. Thought he’d winna keep them all for himself!”
“What do you mean by a display?”
“It’s somethin he’s done back in Birne. Nobles, or those rich enough tae pay the entry price, are given prime positions tae watch as he cuts off infected limbs, one after the other. The nobles love it, canna get enough of it!”
“Now that’s barbaric,” Shen commented, draining his tankard and letting out a loud belch. “Can’t wait to see it.”
“Dinna think tha weel be possible for us lowly students. But Red here, you’ll be righ tae get in. I heard your king himself is comin tae see it.”
I straightened, not daring to look at Elron. “Just King Edmund?”
“Ther a whole heap of them comin. Lords and ladies all.”
Nonchalantly, I asked, “Queen Anne?”
He shrugged. “Dinna think so, naw so far as ah’ve heard.”
Thoughtfully, I tipped the rest of the beer down my throat and waved for another round to the cheers of my friends. I warned it’d be the last of the night and they laughed as if I’d made some great joke.
“Tergen, what was that funny thing you said before, about those fairy wands? What is it? Some other way of saying …?” Shen grabbed at his crotch. “Cos, this is one wand the ladies like.”
He snorted. “You shites hae the damnedest gaps in your vocabulary. Tellt you what, when I goe here six months ago, I never imagined just how strange you lot wud be!”
“Huh?” Elron grunted, put out.
Tergen held up his hands to ward off Elron’s indignation. “Dinna take offence, big fellow. I blame your fecken peculiar religion and holy leaders. Scared you are tae learn from your neighbours. You, and I include Chartelyr in this, hae cut yourselves off completely. The rest of the continent hae trade and open borders. And ambassadors! Nou tha is naw somethin ah’ve heard since I arrived here.”
“So how did you get permission to get into Tellenel then?” Shen wanted to know.
“Dinna rightly nou. Ludlow said it wus a special request from tha abbot fellow. Came through aboot nine months ago. The rest is history. Tellt you what, comin through your border wus the weirdest thing ah’ve ever done. Forced we wus tae walk through this massive arch, though there wus nothin else aboot! And goin through it gave me the bleeding willies!”
“The what now?” I sputtered.
Tergen chuckled at our expressions. “Dinna worry yourselves aboot it, you ignorant shites!”
“At least we’re not fecken heathens,” Shen retorted, trying out one of Tergen’s swear words and quite liking it, if his big grin was anything to go by.
Soon after, he found enough coins to pay for a few hours of entertainment upstairs. We left him to it, striding into the alley. Tergen waved his goodbye, heading in a different direction to visit with a female companion.
“Is there a girl you can …” Elron began to ask, nudging his head at our departing friend. I said nothing and kept walking. “It’s been a while for you, Red.”
“I’m so happy you’re keeping tabs.”
“That’s not fair.”
I squashed down my annoyance, waving a hand towards the far beach. “Rosa is always asking after you. She’ll finish her shift soon. You should go visit her.” Rosa was a barmaid at the Broken Sail, and she’d had her eye on Elron for the last month.
“You know I can’t do that.”
“I’ve told you I can sense now when that woman sends her men after me. My scar isn’t hurting tonight. And even though I’ve taken part in few training drills of late, I still remember how to use these,” I reminded him, tapping the handle of my musket and then the hilt of my sword.
“You sound ridiculous. Suggesting your scar is like a sailor’s stiff knee, troubling you when the weather changes! Let’s not forget you’re basing it on one drunken encounter!”
“The man pulled a knife on me!”
“Perhaps he didn’t like the look of you.”
Upset he wouldn’t trust me on this, my entire posture stiffened. “That wasn’t it and you know it.”
He took in a deep breath, hearing the strain in my voice, and said, “This isn’t you, Red. I’ve never seen you this wound up.” I squeezed my eyes shut and lengthened my stride. He grabbed my arm and wheeled me back around. “Don’t walk away from this! You can’t keep everything bottled up the way you’ve been doing. Can’t you see? It’s killing you.”
I crossed my arms and sneered. “Don’t be so melodramatic, Elron.”
“Melodramatic?” he huffed, his concern turning to irritation.
“Yes. Melodramatic!” I accused. “Trust me when I tell you, I’m fine. Everything is fine!”
“Like hell it is.”
Exasperated, I told him, “You don’t understand the pressure I’m under.”
“Then talk to me about it. Get it off your chest.”
“I can’t.”
“It’s about the Queen, isn’t it?”
“No.”
“God dammit!” he burst out, whatever he saw in my face giving the answer. “You need to move on.” My hands, hidden within the folds of my arms, contracted tightly. “Move on, man!”
In a low voice, I said, “I am moving on.”
At a stalemate, we stared at each other.
Three drunken fishermen exited the bar behind us, their loud singing breaking our impasse, and we both relaxed almost imperceptibly.
With a contrite shake of my head, I suggested, “Go see Rosa.”
He started walking that way, recognising the futility of our argument. “If you’re sure.”
“I am.”
Despite knowing he expected me to head straight for my cold dormitory, I cut through the forecourt before the university, going into another bar.
Towards the rear, I spotted a patient who’d come into the hospice recently with a musket wound. Under the gentle persuasion of the coin I offered, he described the ruffian responsible for his injury in great detail: an ugly brute with a deep scar across his lip, balding hair and rotten teeth. The leader of a local gang, he was the one
strong-arming folk and shooting them if they didn’t do what he demanded. It was my intent to stop him.
He couldn’t be hard to find, not with such distinctive features. Still, I put a message out that I wanted to meet with him, not guessing the care with which he guarded his business, or how quickly he’d respond. On my way back to the university, in a narrow and dark alley between buildings, they found me.
I muttered a swear word as three men blocked my path. Two more stepped into the alley behind me, closing off any escape. Their leader gave a leering grin, twisting his scar grotesquely, as his trap came around me.
“I don’t want any trouble,” I told him. “Just to talk.”
“Talk? Well, well, any of you fellows fancy talking with him? Or should we show him what we do to people who stick their noses in my business?”
The light was dim, but it was enough to catch his hand reaching for the musket. I was ready, drawing mine a fraction quicker and training the weapon upon him without hesitation. With a well-aimed shot to the heart, using instincts rather than sight, I took him down. The acrid smell of ignited gunpowder lingered in the air as the man fell face first with a weighty thud onto the dirt.
The four remaining men, left standing in shocked silence at either end of the alley, scowled. I holstered the weapon and pulled out my sword and dagger, gaze moving back and forth between them. “Who wants to join him?”
They grabbed their muskets, and I dived to the dusty ground seconds before they fired, hearing the sharp whine above and then the sound of musket balls hitting flesh. An unhappy coincidence for them that they’d hit their own friends, but very fortunate for me. The wounded men fell with loud grunts and cries of agony.
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