“If you find the pain gets worse, try some willow bark tea. I don’t think it’s bad enough to need more opium, but the hospital’s open until nine o’clock tonight, if you need to come back.”
“I’ll be fine,” he said again.
“Fair enough. Wait here, and I’ll see where your escort got to. Rumour has it she’s become quite the celebrity around here.” Gosta disappeared out the door, leaving Nalyx snarling in her wake.Hewas the warrior here. He was the one who killed demons and risked his life to keep the city safe.Heshould be the celebrity.
But despite his irritation, he couldn’t manage to muster much in the way of anger for Gantalla’s role today. Gods above, she’d actually brought a little boy back from the dead. He’d never seen anything like that before in his life.
A few minutes later, the door opened again, and Gantalla stepped through. She smiled as she saw him, and he noted she was looking tired, but excited. “Hey. How are you feeling?” she asked.
“Great. Looking forward to getting back to the festival tonight. I suppose you’ll be on your way now?” Did he sound bitter? He didn’t mean to.
“Actually, I need to stay here for a while,” she said. “The doctors want me to teach them how to do what I did for that boy. They’re calling it the heart restarter. They want all the nurses to learn it, too.” She looked bashfully pleased about the idea.
“Looks like we’ve messed up your plans to leave town, then.”
Gantalla blushed. “Yes, well… It’s all for a good cause, I suppose.”
He felt the urge to snarl at her, but managed to bite it back. “Right. Well, then…”
“I’ll come back to the festival tonight,” she said, though she sounded hesitant about it. “I mean, if you want me to…”
Fuck. Gantalla had done nothing wrong, and there was no reason to be taking his irritation out on her. “Sorry,” he said, feeling like an ass. “I’m just frustrated. Not being able to use my hands.” He held up his new bandages, grateful for the excuse to explain his bad mood.
Gantalla nodded, though he wasn’t entirely sure she bought his excuse. “Okay, then. I’ll see you tonight.”
CHAPTER TEN
By the time six o’clock came around, Gantalla was exhausted. She’d spent the better part of the afternoon demonstrating the heart restarter to the hospital staff, using a wadded up bundle of blankets as her ‘patient’, and then they’d all practiced giving breaths into a water skin. Gantalla had been at pains to point out – more than once – that the technique didn’t work all the time. The heart had to have stopped very recently, and if there were other injuries or a severe loss of blood, the likelihood of the method working fell dramatically. Nonetheless, the doctors had all been very impressed, calling it the greatest advancement in medical treatment for a decade or more.
She’d felt a slight unease early in the afternoon, realising that her plans to leave town had been cancelled for yet another day, but all things considered, she couldn’t feel too upset about it. A five year old boy was alive because of her, and his mother had thanked her profusely, before finally being allowed to take her son home with her – with a strict warning to watch what he put in his mouth from now on.
Tired but happy, Gantalla was about to leave the hospital and head back to the festival when one of the nurses stopped her.
“Gantalla? Wait a moment. I have something for you.” Gantalla turned around. On the whole, the nurses had seemed friendly. The older ones could be a little severe, while the youngest were still nervous over their role in treating patients, but they’d been practical and honest – a welcome change from the silliness of the serving women at the festival.
“What is it?” she asked the nurse rushing after her – a middle-aged woman named Henrietta. Her brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail and she wore a plain brown shirt and trousers, much like most of the nurses here.
“Doctor Samuel asked me to give you this.” Henrietta held out a small pouch. Gantalla took it, tugging open the drawstring to look inside. But she was stunned as she poured the contents into her hand and realised it contained ten small coins.
“That’s the standard wage for a day’s work for the nurses,” Henrietta said.
Gantalla’s jaw dropped. “You want to pay me? But I’m not a nurse. I don’t have any training. I didn’t even see any patients.”
“You saved a boy’s life,” Henrietta said with a smile. “I think that’s worth a few coins, don’t you?”
Gantalla couldn’t wipe the grin off her face. “Thank you.” Money. Coins of her own, with which she could buy more clothes, or food, or whatever else she saw fit. “Thank you so much.”
“We’d be more than happy to have you back again, if you’re interested. Gladys is going to have her baby soon, so we’ll have a place for a new nurse. And everyone thinks you’d do well here.”
Gantalla didn’t quite know what to say to that. She’d been planning on leaving early in the morning…
But perhaps if she could get regular work at the hospital, she wouldn’t even need to leave? The original problem had been that she needed to earn money. And if she could stay in town, but avoid the need to sell her body to any of the warriors, that solved the problem, didn’t it?
“I’ll think about it,” she said, not willing to make any commitments without at least weighing up her options. “But it’s a tempting idea.”
Henrietta smiled. “Just let us know, whenever you decide. But you’d be most welcome.”
Gantalla let herself out, then crossed the road, heading for the town square. A job? Money? Dignity? It seemed almost too good to be true.
