* * *
When I had the strength to crack open the eyelids nature seemed to be intent on welding together, it was to find Quartermaster Ibrahim sitting at my side.
“Wharr?”
“Yeah, I wouldn’t try talking yet.” Ibrahim put aside whatever it was that he was sewing and picked up a glass of water from beside his chair. His hand helped me raise my head so I could sip and then take a full mouthful. But he would only let me have a mouthful at a time.
“Better?” he asked as he removed the glass and eased my head back down.
“Thank you.” My voice still cracked but I got the words out.
“No worries, lad. Hold on.” Ibrahim stood and went to the main door. I heard soft words exchanged but couldn’t pindown whose voice that had been. Heard the door open and shut, though. Then Ibrahim came back and helped me drink again.
“Why are you here?” I asked.
“We’ve all been here,” Ibrahim said. “Taking turns to watch you and Fin.”
I pushed myself up. The pain in my head throbbed. “Where is Fin?”
“Right now, he’s in school,” Ibrahim told me easily. “He woke up two days ago. “You, however, need more recovery time. Apparently all that healing is no good for you. Now lie back down.”
He didn’t have to give me much of a shove. He made me drink regularly, though, and my headache quickly abated. “We’ll get you all hydrated again, and then you can start eating. Not too much at first, you’ll need to build yourself up slowly.”
I nodded. I’d never had any interest in being a healer, despite my magic, but I knew the basics of care.
It wasn’t that long until I heard the door open and Flight Captain Shi appeared at my bedroom door. He paused a moment, took a breath and then stepped to the foot of the bed.
“Flight Sergeant Segast. You are awake at last.”
“Yes, sir.” I pushed myself up and slid back. Ibrahim moved the pillows behind me and then left the room, closing the door. I rested against the pillows, feeling as weak as a newly hatched dragon.
He stood there a while longer, just watching me. “That is good,” he said at last.
“Yes, sir.”
“Stable Master Eustace is gone.”
I don’t think I had heard Shi so stilted before.
“Fin is recovered. There’s little scarring on his back. You did a good job.”
I wasn’t sure what to make of this. “Thank you, sir.”
His eyeline rose to the wall above my bed. If he saw something in the unrelenting grey there, I didn’t know what it was. “I have received an official response to your transfer request,” he said. Only then did he look at me. “It has been denied.”
I was disappointed. Not surprised, but disappointed. I’d have to wait at least another year before making the request again. “I see. Did they give a reason for that?”
“They never give reasons,” Shi pointed out. And he was right, your copy of the request just got returned with a big read ‘DECLINED’ stamped on it.
“In your … repose,” he said carefully, “you spoke of punishment.”
I kept my silence, all too aware of what he, or rather, I would have been referring to.
“Is that how you see your posting here? As punishment?”
I let my eyes fall to my own lap. “I served in Pasaocea for six, nearly seven years. It was only when I said something that the Dragonlord didn’t like that that changed.”
“I see.” The Flight Captain nodded. “You do not wish to be here.”
