Page 23 of The Dragon Ring
Should I curtsey? Bow? What?
“May I present my brother, Cei of Tintagel.”
The red-haired fish warrior bowed, and when he straightened, I saw he was finding something about this funny. Blue eyes sparkled with mirth. I couldn’t for the life of me see what it might be.
“Shall we go inside out of this rain?” Merlin said, nodding to the two guards, and they stepped aside.
The hearth fire now blazed, and torches flamed brightly on several pillars in the Hall. After the grey rain outside, the interior glowed with warm light. Arthur thumped his shield down on the nearest table, and having undone the clasp on his wet cloak, threw that down on top of it, revealing his heavy, ring mail shirt.
“We well and truly walloped them,” he said, unbuckling his sword belt.
Merlin took the sword and laid it on the table. “How many were there?”
“Two keels of raiders. They’d burnt a fishing village to the ground and loaded the young women into their boats when we came on them.”
Cei helped him pull the mail shirt over his head, leaving him standing in a sandy-brown quilted tunic and close-fitting leather braccae.
Arthur gave Merlin a grin. “Their ships were still drawn up on the sands. We attacked as they tried to launch them.”
He began to help his brother out of his armor.
“And the women? Did you manage to save them?” Merlin’s eyes were on the bandaged hand. There was dried blood encrusted on it.
Cei nodded. He was a big man even without his armor, raw boned with a square-jawed face and high cheek bones. Beside him, both Arthur and Merlin looked slight, which they weren’t. “We got ’em all. And a fair number of the raiders– but we took no prisoners. Not worth it. We put ’em all to the sword as they’d done to the men of the fishing village.”
They were casually talking about killing people, and it meant nothing because it wasn’t real. I should be feeling something. Men had died. Probably women and children, too, at least on the British side. Yet I felt nothing.
Merlin’s brow furrowed. “And the ships?”
Arthur answered this time. “They managed to get one of them into the surf, so we sent fire arrows after it. Their sails burnt, but they put the fires out and rowed away with what men they had left. The other one we burnt on the beach.”
“Any casualties?”
Arthur’s face clouded. “Many, amongst the villagers, and a couple of our men wounded. None dead.”
“Your hand?”
Arthur glanced down at it as though seeing it for the first time. “Oh that. It’s nothing. I’ll get Tinwaun to take a look at it later.”
Merlin frowned. “What did you put on it?”
“A poultice of sage leaves Bedwyr had in his pouch.”
That didn’t sound ideal. The bandage looked anything but clean, the outer part grey and wet, the edges crusted with dried blood. It needed to be taken off as soon as possible and the wound dressed properly. But dare I say so? Neither Arthur nor Cei had so much as glanced at me once we’d entered the Hall and they’d started telling Merlin how their expedition had gone. It was as though I didn’t exist, which was ironic, as most of my father’s academic friends had been convinced it was they who had never existed.
I took a deep breath. “That bandage is dirty. Infection can get in even the smallest of cuts if they’re not kept clean. You need to change it and wash out the wound with something antiseptic.”
The three men stared at me as though at a dog that had suddenly gained the power of speech.
“Bedwyr saw to it,” Arthur said, “it should be fine.” There was a glint of amusement in his solemn dark eyes, as though surprised I had a voice. They were going to have to learn I wasn’t like the women they knew.
“Well, I don’t think it will be,” I said, feeling as though I was getting onto home ground because the library where I worked had recently sent me on a fairly extensive first aid course. “Let me take a look at it.”
Our eyes met, and I held his gaze. His weren’t actually black but a dark brown, flecked with gold. Silence stretched between us before he sat down on the bench and held out the offending hand. Ignoring Cei and Merlin, I settled beside him and took a sniff at the bandage. It wasn’t a pleasant sight but at least it didn’t smell infected.
“I need hot water and clean cloths and spirits– something stronger than wine if you have it.” I paused. “And honey.” My parents had been very keen on alternative medicines, and I’d grown up being doctored with natural everything. Honey would be a good antibiotic substitute.
At a nod from Arthur, Merlin departed through the open double doors.
