“Thank you.” She lifted the cheese to her lips.
“So, the hardtack. I soaked it in beer and roasted it on the fire. It should be edible, and I’m happy to announce there were no weevils. I inspected it carefully.”
Seraphina couldn’t help but laugh. Leave it to Idris Gharbi to be obsessed with the smallest details.
“Aren’t you eating?”
“I am, in fact.”
He sat next to her, and she scooted over to make space for him. He had his own pan of food that he’d prepared separately.She dug into the cheese, speck, and roasted bread that tasted like malt and smoke.
“What do you have there?” she asked.
“Almost the same as you. I found some dried peas and cooked them in the kettle. Cheese, and hardtack soaked in hot water.”
She felt bad that she was eating better than him. But Idris wouldn’t touch pork even if he starved.
They ate in silence for a while. It was like the old days, and even though the food wasn’t as fancy as the lunches they’d shared at the academy, the hunger, the cold, and the misery of the place made it delicious.
“When can we get back on the road?” Seraphina asked.
“You need to heal first.”
“I can heal just as well in the back of the cart.”
“You don’t have an implanted relic anymore, so your system will have to do the job on its own,” he said. “The lattices will help, and I’ll give you medicine as well, but rest is the most important.”
“Sleep…”
“Yes.”
Seraphina shook her head and pushed the pan away. Idris sighed and jumped off the workbench, taking the pan with him, then returning with a wet cloth to wipe her greasy fingers. She snatched the cloth from him and did it herself. She wasn’t a child. Immediately after having the thought, she felt guilty. She knew Idris was treating her like he would any of his patients.
“We don’t have time to waste,” she said. “We need to reach the convent.”
“Seraphina, it’s hailing outside! It’s been hailing all night!”
“You… operated on me all night? It’s morning?”
She heard him sigh. “The surgery took four hours, then I let you sleep for a while, hoping you’d wake on your own. When you didn’t and it was getting dangerous, I used the smelling salts.”
“Idris, how long until I heal?”
“Hard to say. Your eyelids need to stay sewn shut for a few days to prevent dryness and movement of the eyes while the tissue heals. I will change the dressing regularly and clean the wounds to make sure they don’t get infected. I’m thinking after seven days, it might be safe to remove the sutures if absolutely nothing goes wrong.”
“No.” She leaned forward, wrapped her arms around her knees and started rocking back and forth. “No, that’s too long.”
“If you ask me, it’s not long enough.”
“Then you need to reimplant the atlas vertebra. It’s a greater relic, it will heal me within hours.”
Idris was quiet for a minute, watching her trying to deal with the onslaught of emotions. She could feel his eyes on her, wondering, judging.
“About that,” he said. “What does it do?”
“It makes one see in the dark. Without it, I wouldn’t have managed. Do you know how terrible it is to not see? To have no eyes?”
She felt his big, warm hand on her shoulder.
