Free Tearing The Shroud by JM Bray Page A

medicine...’ Coleman said, ‘Will I ever...be able to walk again?’
    ‘Walk?’ Sari asked.
    ‘Yes, these burns, I just wondered.’ He looked toward his covered body.
    ‘Oh, don’t tell me?’ Sari rounded on Jolie. ‘You haven’t explained it yet?’
    ‘Well, I didn’t have time.’
    ‘Time? What else was there?’ Sari looked at her with narrowed eyes.
    ‘He had more pressing issues on his mind. As his Healer, I felt it best to give him a well-rounded answer,’ Jolie said. She winked and blew him a kiss.
    He stifled a laugh, and Sari whipped her head back around. Jolie was completely composed.
    Sari threw up her hands. ‘If you weren’t so blasted good at what you do, you’d be back scrubbing pots in the scullery.’
    Jolie turned to him, speaking in an overly concerned voice, ‘So then, let’s get your questions answered. However, first, might we know your name? It makes conversation ever so much easier. Don’t you agree, Commander?’
    Sari rolled her eyes.
    ‘Coleman of Lomendel,’ he said. Though her presence put him at ease, he braced himself for the news.
    ‘Coleman, I’m the Mistress of Healing. Don’t worry about Commander Sari, she isn’t usually this tense.’
    Sari huffed.
    ‘You have nothing to worry about; you’re in remarkably good health. There are several deep wounds that will need to heal for a sevenday or so.’
    ‘But the burns — ’
    ‘Are not burns at all. It’s a medicinal poultice, mixed, applied, and allowed to harden around the injured person. It brings the herbs directly into contact with the body, and keeps the patient immobile so wounds or broken bones may mend properly.’
    ‘And the smell?’
    Jolie smiled. ‘That is an unfortunate part of the process. I’m sorry; it’s so common in our order that I sometimes forget it can be alarming to outsiders.’ She patted his forehead with a damp cloth. ‘You’re going to be fine. In fact, we can remove it today; enough time has passed.’
    His brow creased. ‘How long have I been here?’
    Sari came around to the other side of Colman’s bed and laid her hand on his encrusted shoulder. ‘You’ve been with us nearly a cycle,’ she told him.
    His eyes widened and his mind whirled, taking the room with it. He blinked, then closed his eyes. When he opened them the room had stopped spinning. ‘Twenty-nine days? It can’t be. It was just yesterday...’
    Jolie wiped his brow again. ‘It’s true, Coleman. We found you in the Refuge, near death from exhaustion and wounds. Truly, I’ve never seen someone so depleted of life energy. We readily sewed your wounds, but they healed slower than they should. Somehow you used all of what keeps us alive; every resource within you seemed to have been drawn out.’
    Sari asked, ‘Do you know how it happened?’
    Ignoring the question, he took a painful breath and asked, ‘Where am I?’
    ‘You are in the Cloister of Berdine. Near Hidden Falls,’ Sari told him.
    ‘But that’s a sevenday ride by horse from my station.’ His voice grew quiet.
    ‘I’m sorry. We didn’t find your mount. It must have been taken by the Kafla,’ she continued.
    ‘I didn’t have one,’ he said quietly.
    ‘But then, how did you come to be at the Refuge?’ Sari asked.
    ‘I ran.’

 
    The Matriarch
    ‘He what?’ The Matriarch looked up, her brows furrowed.
    The Matriarch, surprised. Jolie loved it when that happened.
    ‘He told us he ran,’ Sari raised a hand. ‘I know, it sounds impossible.’
    ‘From the ranges east of Callendel? On foot? While being pursued by the Kafla?’
    ‘After a long battle,’ Jolie said.
    ‘We have no reason to doubt him. What’s to gain from fabricating such a story?’ Sari looked at her.
    ‘It would explain his condition when we found him,’ Jolie said.
    The Matriarch put a hand to her chin. ‘How did he say he accomplished this feat?’
    Jolie continued, ‘He’s been with the Warriors of the Oaks since his apprentice age, perhaps ten