Page 15 of The Lost Art of Finding Where You Belong (Lost Arts #2)

Perian was pretty sure some people never learned regardless, but he supposed you still needed to confront them. If this had happened to one of Perian’s friends, he would probably be first in line to call out the person who had done it.

By this point, the doctor had him sitting down, removed the towel, and ripped Perian’s sleeve completely.

He supposed that between the cut from the knife and the bloodstain, it might have been a lost cause, but he was going through shirts in a more permanent way than he’d expected while visiting the city.

“Oh, Nisal, with your magical skills of acquiring all.”

They looked amused, which almost covered the concern in their eyes. “Yes?”

“Could you acquire me some pen, ink, and paper? I think I’d better send for more shirts, or I’m going to have to start walking around shirtless soon.”

Bennan said, “Oh, Nisal, on behalf of all those who have no objection to looking at him while he is half naked, do you think you could not find the pen, ink, and paper?”

Nisal and Perian both burst into laughter and were scolded by the doctor.

“I am trying to tend to an injury. If you cannot behave, get out of my work room!”

Bennan looked comically cowed and waved on the way out, since he didn’t seem to want to risk further increasing the doctor’s ire.

“I’m on it,” Nisal said.

And then it was just Perian and the doctor, who was now cleaning the wound.

Perian kept trying to look at it, which meant moving his arm. The doctor shot him an exasperated look.

“Sorry, sorry,” Perian said, subsiding and trying to hold himself very still.

“Tonic first,” the doctor said, “and then it’s going to need stitches.”

“What?” Perian said, surprised. “Why?” He tried to peer at it again. “It’s not that big, is it?”

“It’s not that small, either. And the tip of the knife hit bone.”

“Wow,” he said, trying really hard not to move his arm again so he could see better.

The doctor looked amused. “It’s a good thing you’re not squeamish. I know several Warriors who would have already fainted by now.”

He huffed a laugh. “I don’t think it’s squeamishness, Doctor, more a lack of awareness. It didn’t occur to me it could be bad enough to need stitches.”

She eyed him. “Do you want to faint before or after I go get the tonic?”

Perian snorted. “Go ahead.”

She made him hold a clean bandage to the wound.

So maybe he wasn’t particularly squeamish.

He imagined most Warriors weren’t, either, but he appreciated her words.

Mindful of the fact that it apparently was a wound that required stitches, he didn’t remove the bandage and try to get a better look at it while she was gone.

Which was just as well, because it took her just a moment to grab the tonic.

He downed it, trying to figure out what it tasted like.

“Dittany?” he hazarded a guess because the doctor had already told him it had healing properties.

“That’s cheating, but yes.”

Well, she wasn’t wrong. He kept smacking his lips together and licking around his mouth, trying to re-taste it.

“Rosemary?”

“Yes.”

“Mint?”

“What kind?”

“Oh…”

And so, while she sewed up his arm, he tried to guess the ingredients in the tonic.

Needless to say, she did a better job with his arm.

Once it was stitched and cleaned, she let him take a look at it in the mirror.

It wasn’t more than six inches long, but he agreed that hitting bone was not a good thing.

He liked his bones untouched inside his body .

Neatly stitched like that, it didn’t look too bad at all, really. The tonic had helped a great deal with the pain, too, so it was just a faint sort of throb instead of a huge burning one.

Once he’d looked his fill, the doctor smeared salve over the wound and wrapped it.

“It needs to be changed morning and night, all right? More of the salve each time. And I want you taking tonic tonight and tomorrow. I’ll check it the day after tomorrow and update you.

The tonic and the salve can do wonders, but time is needed as well.

If it gets hot to the touch, or if you develop a fever or dizziness, you come back to me immediately.

Oh, and if you’re in a safe location and able, you could let it breathe for an hour or two in the evening before you put new salve on and rebandage it for sleeping. ”

“I’ll try to do that,” Perian agreed.

The doctor eyed him suspiciously. “Do I need to give Nisal the instructions as well?”

“No, no,” he hastened to assure her. “Morning and night, I promise. Checking for heat, fever, and dizziness. I just meant I wasn’t sure about airing it. I’ll do my best, I just… sometimes don’t know where my life is going.”

Her expression softened. “There is no shame in going with the flow or taking time to figure out what you want to do with your life.”

“Did you always know you wanted to be a doctor?” he asked.

She smiled. “Yes, actually. I was one of those children who was always bringing home injured animals and trying to fix them. If someone got hurt, I was the one who wanted to bandage them up and make them feel better.”

Perian smiled at her. “That’s nice.”

“It certainly gave me a focus,” she agreed. “But I know people who became doctors after a completely different childhood. And I know many leading very full lives without a vocation as definitive as mine. We all have to find our way in life. Especially when we are young. You have time, Perian.”

He nodded. Perhaps that was a part of his uneasiness here. He was surrounded by people with purpose, and it felt sometimes as though he was the only one who didn’t have one.

Well, his purpose right now was to see what could come of his relationship with Brannal. He couldn’t decide if that was all right even though it was different, or if it didn’t really count.

Because Nisal was very clever, they returned to the doctor’s with, instead of the supplies Perian had asked for, one of his shirts.

“I put the supplies in your rooms and thought you could use this.”

“You’re very smart,” he told them.

“I know,” they said with a grin.

They helped Perian put on his shirt since movement tugged at the stitches on his arm. It wasn’t terrible , but Nisal batted his hands out of the way.

“Seriously, do you want to tear the stitches the doctor literally just put in?”

Well, that did seem rude.

The doctor gave Perian more salve and tonic and bandages, which he couldn’t even protest taking now that he actively needed them.

Nisal insisted on carrying all of them since Perian was injured. After losing the shirt argument, Perian just acquiesced.

“Thank you, Doctor.”

“You’re very welcome, Perian,” the woman said with a smile. “I hope the next time I see you, it’s because you want to assist with making another vat of salve—while completely injury free.”

Perian grinned at her. “Me, too.”

He waved goodbye, and then he and Nisal headed back to Brannal’s rooms, where Nisal set down all the tonic, salves, and bandages on the table.

“Brannal is going to be so upset when he gets back,” they said.

Perian made a face and looked down at his arm. “Do you think it will be completely healed before then?”

The doctor had already told him it would take weeks to fully heal.

Nisal patted him on the shoulder. “Nice try.”

“But I’m sure it’s getting some of our extremely excellent salve, and that salve is better than all the other salves.”

Nisal grinned. “Oh, do you think that will make the difference?”

“I’m sure it will,” Perian said staunchly, because he could only hope.

He saw that the writing supplies were on the table, too.

“Oh, I had better write that letter before I have no clothing left.”

“You could just buy more,” Nisal pointed out .

“I know. But I don’t actually need more.

If I have perfectly good shirts at home, then why not send for those?

Plus, it will reassure my staff I’m not dead, and I’ll make sure that everything is fine at the estate.

Now that I think about it, I have no idea if I gave the hotel my direction.

They could be sending daily letters to the hotel to tell me the entire place has been destroyed in a storm. ”

Nisal snorted. “Yeah, maybe you should check on that.”

So Perian dashed off a letter to his housekeeper asking for another trunk with shirts, more clothes, and a few other of his belongings that he thought he might want here.

He soon had the letter signed, addressed, and sealed, and then Nisal held out their hand.

“Oh, do you dispatch mail, too?” he asked, though he honestly wasn’t surprised.

“I know everyone,” Nisal told him matter-of-factly.

Yeah, it wasn’t like Perian would have known who to give it to, so he happily handed it over.

“Thank you.”

“You’d better get going,” Nisal told him. “If the Princess has heard about this, you’ll need to show up promptly.”

Perian cursed and sprang to his feet.

“Wait, do I look like I was recently in a knife fight?”

They eyed him up and down. “No, it’s not so bad. Changing the shirt helped a lot. Grab a vest and coat, just in case. I’ll help you get them on.”

Perian did just that, and then Nisal handed him the blankets.

“Thanks again,” he told them. “I’m not sure how I could actually help, but if you need anything, please don’t hesitate to ask.”

They smiled at him. “I will, thank you.”

And then they were going their separate ways, Nisal presumably off to wherever letters were dispatched, and Perian to the kitchen, where his hopes that maybe Renny wouldn’t have heard any of this steadily diminished, because Alona, the friendly kitchen staff person who almost always brought him the basket, did so today while also asking if he was all right, heart-shaped face twisted in a look of concern.

Since Nisal had told him he looked all right, he was pretty sure this meant the rumor mill was working overtime.

“I’m fine, thank you. I’ve been to the doctor, she’s stitched me up, and I should be good as new in a few days.”

Or weeks.

“I’m glad,” Alona said as she held out the basket, her brown eyes still scanning him carefully.

He switched the blankets to his left arm and took the heavy basket in his right.

Perian smiled at her. “Thank you.”

Out in the garden, he didn’t recognize either of the Mage Warriors, but they eyed him with that “checking for injuries” look that told him they’d heard what had happened too. Fire and water.

Perian passed between the bushes and found that Renny was standing there with her hands already on her hips, just waiting for him.