Chapter Thirteen

Baisan and I slowly lowered Castin onto his pile of blankets. Despite how gentle we were being, my heart was racing. I was sure Baisan felt the same. Worse, even. Castin was his best friend, and now he... I let the thought trail off as I crouched down next to our injured brother. Baisan stalked off as soon as we put him down, to pace anxiously in the corner. I distracted myself by looking over the binding on Castin's waist. It was well done, still tightly in place. I barely took notice of Kassia kneeling beside me, but then I tore my gaze from Castin to look at her.

"The girl who was with us?" she asked quietly.

"Stria," I replied.

Kassia looked over at the two girls. "Stria," she called out, breaking the near perfect silence. Stria flinched and looked over at us. Her eyes were red from crying, but she had managed to stop the tears. Kassia motioned for her to join us, and she did.

"What?" Stria asked shakily, clearly holding back more tears.

I was aware of Baisan staring at us from across the room, and Ninavi wrapping her cloak around herself as if it would protect her from what was happening. Kassia reached across Castin to take Stria's hand.

"He's special to you," Kassia said gently. "So you will be able to reach him best. We want him to wake up, so you should talk to him. Remind him that we're here for him and draw him away from Siour's chariot." Siour, the god of darkness and death. I couldn't help but wince at the sound of his name.

Stria nodded solemnly and pulled her hand away from Kassia to pick up Castin's. She paused nervously before beginning to talk. It felt awkward sitting there, listening to the personal things she was telling him. I didn't know how to help, but then Baisan hissed my name. As quietly as possible I got to my feet—somehow making too much noise seemed disrespectful—and joined Baisan in his corner.

"Do you think he'll make it?" he asked in a whisper.

I shrugged. "I think if he wakes up, he'll survive."

Baisan nodded. "When the others get back with the bandages, I'd like you to go out and try to find some sort of medicine that will be useful. I trust your judgment more than theirs."

"I'll do my best."

"I know," Baisan said quietly. "Who is she?"

"Her name's Kassia, she helped me fight off Arow. You know how he doesn't like being outnumbered. She wrapped Castin's wound too."

"She did a good job, she might know something about medicine," Baisan said. We both knew it was a faint hope, but at least it was something. "Take her with you. But don't believe everything she says until we know who she is."

That was common sense, but I didn't say anything. Baisan was worried and of course he was going to overthink things. Instead, I nodded. "Of course."

Noise at the entrance to our home startled all of us, and we all glanced at the door. Leker burst in, his arms wrapped around a bundle of clean bandages. Orrun followed him a moment later. Both were panting, as if they had run the whole way.

"We got the best ones we could find," Leker explained with a quick glance towards Baisan and me. Then he went over to the others and dropped the bandages near them. "Are they good?"

Kassia nodded. "Yes, they're perfect. Can you get me some water so I can clean his wound?"

Leker nodded and ran out of the room, just as Orrun approached us and handed over the pouch of money. Baisan put it into my hand. It felt distinctly lighter than it had before, but it was still a large sum of money for us. I slipped it under my cloak.

"I'll wait until she's given Castin a new bandage?" I formed it as a question, even though I knew the answer. Baisan nodded.

Using the water Leker returned with, Kassia cleaned out Castin's cut. Ninavi moved forward to help the other two girls, whereas Leker, after putting down the small bowl of water, had backed up to stand with us near the wall. We didn't want to get in the way. When Kassia finished cleaning, she wrapped one of the new bandages around the cut. As she was tying it off, Stria gasped.

"Castin?" she asked.

"Did he do something?" Baisan broke away from the rest of us to join the girls near Castin. After a brief hesitation, I followed, but the younger boys stayed behind.

"I thought he moaned," Stria said quietly.

"He might have," Kassia said, her voice gentle.

Baisan crouched beside Stria and put his hand on her shoulder. "Stria, that's good, if you heard him moan. That means he felt the bandage getting tied, and it's a good sign if he felt it." He glanced up at me and nodded towards the door, then lowered his voice and continued to talk to Stria. She didn't look away from Castin, but his words seemed to be calming her down.

I nudged Kassia and when she looked at me, I motioned for her to follow. I walked out of the room and waited outside for her to catch up. It was still light out; the sun was just beginning to fall behind the cliffs. A moment later, Kassia appeared at my side. The slight wind picked at her dark hair and I let myself be distracted by it, because it was easier than worrying about Castin.

She broke the silence. "How is your arm?"

"Fine," I replied, after having to remember what she was talking about. "It was nothing, just a scratch."

"So then, why did you bring me out here, Finn?"

I was startled by her use of my name because I couldn't remember telling her what it was. "Finagale," I said as if I was correcting her, not really sure why. I almost never told people my full name.

"Oh." Kassia drew out the word a little and nodded. "Fancy name for a street boy, isn't it? But that's not what the others call you, so I don't think I will either. Why did you bring me out here?"

"Baisan wants me to find some medicine for Castin. We thought you might have some ideas."

Kassia looked thoughtful for a moment. "Yes, I know some things that might help. I got a better look at it once I'd cleaned it. It's pretty deep, so I think it should be stitched. Then it would need to be kept clean, so it doesn't go bad. There's a paste that would help protect it from infections. If we do all that, he should recover. That said..." she paused and looked at me. "I might be wrong, and anyway, I don't think we can find the paste down here. It's more of a Teltan thing."

"That's not a problem."

Kassia glanced at me quizzically. "How is that not a problem?"

"We can just sneak into the upper city," I said. "Can you climb?"

She nodded.

"Wait, stop," I grabbed Kassia's arm just before she walked out onto the marketplace court. I pulled her back into the shadows of the building, which had only grown as we'd made our way into the upper city.

"What?" Kassia shook off my arm. "There was no one looking."

"I can't just walk around looking like this." I gestured down at myself. "We might as well tell them all that we're Natives." Under my cloak, I was still wearing the darker clothing that I had used to look like a Telt earlier. I untied it and tossed it into the corner of the alley. Kassia's clothing was fine, a light green tunic and dark pants that looked clean enough for a merchant.

She crossed her arms, looking annoyed. "Don't look at me like that."

"Like what? I was just wondering whether or not you look rich." I pulled my hair tie out from one of my pockets and tied my hair back, hating the way it felt. "Let me talk, I've done this before." For all I knew, she might also have experience lying, but it wasn't exactly the right moment to test her.

"Fine."

I peered around the edge of the alley. When I couldn't see anyone looking in our direction, I walked out and started down the street, doing my best to look like I belonged. Kassia kept pace beside me, but hung back just slightly, letting me lead the way. We were going to a building that I knew from eavesdropping was called an apothecary. Before pushing open the heavy door and entering, I reached back to take Kassia's hand. She flinched and tried to pull away from me.

"You're my sister," I told her quietly, and I felt her relax. Then, taking a deep breath to calm my nerves, I pushed open the door and walked in, tugging Kassia in with me.

The owner was leaning over a table in the back, and he glanced up at the sound of movement. The room was lined with shelves covered in various bottles and boxes, but I ignored all of them and approached the man. The air smelt strongly of odd dried herbs, making my head ache a little. "Excuse me, sir?" I asked timidly, stepping up to the table.

"Yes?"

"One of our father's guards got hurt while training." Luckily, the nervousness I was feeling fit the character I was trying to portray perfectly, so little acting was involved. "Our father sent us to buy something that would keep the cut from going bad while it healed."

The man looked us over, no doubt taking in every aspect of how we looked. He turned around and walked back to one of his shelves, motioning for us to follow him. I pulled Kassia over as the man reached up and picked a small jar from the shelf, which he then put on the counter in front of me. "This is the most expensive salve I have that protects wounds from infections. It almost always works."

"Do you have anything less expensive?" I asked.

"Yes," he picked up another jar, which was nearly identical to the first except for the label on the lid. "This will help protect the wound, but if it's bad, the salve might not be able to do much."

I reached out for the second jar, knocking a wooden box with my elbow as I did. It dropped to the floor and the side of it cracked, spilling out the leaves of a dried plant. "I'm sorry," I yelped, startled by the sound.

The man narrowed his eyes, and then crouched to start picking up the leaves. Kassia slipped her hand from mine and knelt beside him, scooping up some leaves and dropping them into the box. While they were distracted, I pulled the lid from the jar I was holding and tentatively smelled whatever it contained.

A moment later, Kassia and the man stood back up. "Sorry," I repeated. "I'll take this one." I held up the jar in my hand. "I'm sure his cut won't need much protection. And can we also have a needle and string for sewing it?"

The man rummaged through a drawer and handed Kassia a folded piece of leather held closed with a button. "Thirty-five siyas," he said.

I took out the coin pouch and carefully counted out the right amount of money before handing it over to the man. "Thank you very much. Come on, Kassia." I took her hand again and led her from the apothecary.

Neither of us spoke until we had ducked back into the alley where I had left my cloak. I was putting it on when I noticed her looking at me. "What?"

"What did you do?" she asked. "You didn't knock that over by accident."

I couldn't help but smile as I carefully tucked the little jar away in my cloak. "I switched the lids."

"So we got the more expensive salve," Kassia said.

I nodded.

"You know that some person will now buy the weaker one and think they're safe?"

I shook my head. "They smell different. The owner will notice when he sells it, but we'll be long gone by then."

Kassia stared at me a moment longer, then nodded slowly. "You're good."