Any time I wasn’t spending activelyworking with the horde with their various medical issues, I was researching the medications that Jenkins had everyone on. I was tempted to ask one of the Alphas to force him to give me access to his records so I could seeexactlywhat he was giving each patient, but I had a sneaking suspicion that would be more trouble than it was worth. After all, I had the pill bottles. I could deduce a lot from that.
The ingredient list on all the pill bottles that the horde had given me was extensive. I’d probably been reading for hours, casually snacking on some of the sour candy that Orsen or Greylen kept putting in my desk, when a fact about one of the medications caught my attention.
Alquins is a synthesized form of Daucus Carota that offers increased potency and ease of storage.
The former was an ingredient in the multivitamin Jenkins had been prescribing for the women to boost their fertility for years, and I wasn’t entirely familiar with it.
Now,Daucus Carota, on the other hand, sounded familiar. Grabbing one of the journals, I started flicking through the pages.
Kiki wasn’t big on using formal names for herbs and plants she used in her healing, but if she knew them, she added them to the journals. I had spent hours poring over all her journals, night after night, trying to memorize as much as I could. They were all I had left of Kiki, of her vast knowledge. While I was grateful for the limited time I’d had with her and for what I learned, I could have used years more just to scratch the surface of her wisdom.
After licking my finger, I quickly flicked through the pages, glancing at various diagrams, painted in delicate watercolors, until I found a familiar white floral.
Queen Ann’s Lace. Otherwise known as Daucus Carota.
My heart sank.
Shit.
That flower, when brewed properly along with a few other herbs, had one well-known use: a contraceptive.
A dry laugh escaped me, bitter and somehow not surprised, as I pinched the bridge of my nose.
The horde’s crackpot doctorhad been giving the women multivitamins to help boost their fertility, vitamins that, in hisinfinitewisdom, contained an ingredient that very much didnothelp someone get pregnant.
What an idiot! He didn’t even bother to do his research! Or maybe he had, but thought he knew better.
He was damaging the horde almost beyond repair. I didn’t fully understand advanced, compound, and synthesized medications, but I knew enough to understand that nothing good would come from giving dragons medications commonly used as contraceptives, among the host of other things he’d been prescribing them.
Angered, I slammed the journal shut, pushed away from my desk, and got up, pacing around my little office. This was bad, and it went over my “pay grade.” I was avisitinghealer. What wasIsupposed to do about this?
I was torn. While I didn’t want to rock the boat and cause an even larger disruption than I already had, this was bad. Really bad. The errors weren’t isolated. Jenkins would continue to cause widespread harm to the horde if I did nothing.
But what are you going to do, Rowan? Just… what?
Unable to stay in the clinic with my own thoughts, I made my way to the den. After walking up the stairs and into the building, I made a beeline to the kitchen, nodding politely at any dragons who greeted me along the way.
My head spun with my discovery, my stomach tied up in knots, and my replies were curt, but I didn’t have it in me to be any friendlier, particularly when I was technically keeping something important from everyone.
I had information that would rattle the entire horde, and I had no idea how to go about telling people. Who first? One of the Alphas?
Griffin! He had known me the longest, and he knew firsthand just how good a healer I was. He would listen to me.
“Rowan!” Ma greeted me warmly as I strode into the kitchen, standing over a large pot, stirring it slowly. “Dinner will be ready soon, but I’ve got several snacks and small plates ready to go if you’re hungry and need to get back to work.”
I shook my head, my chest pinching. “No. I’m not hungry. Do you know where Griff is?”
The dining hall was already filling, but I hadn’t seen him in there when I hadglanced over there on my way into the building.
Ma paused, running her intent gaze overme. “Rowan?” she asked, putting down the ladle and turning to me. “Griffin has taken some of the young ones exploring. The teenagers were getting into mischief. They should be back soon, but… what’s wrong?”
“I just… I think…”
“Rowan.” Greylen’s smooth voice hit me a moment before his hand reached out from behind, gently resting on my lower back. “Is everything okay?” his brow was furrowed. I was probably radiating stress, and he knew something was off, but being the polite dragon he was, he asked instead of demanding.
He was growing on me… just like the majority of his clanmates.
I sighed and took a deep breath, giving up on the composure I was forcing.
