For a moment, Vishwajeet’s fists clenched, but he relaxed them, finger by finger, and refused to move from the doorway. The smile I had plastered on my face became a bit more natural as I heard the undercurrent of strain in his voice.
“I’m afraid the rani might be in denial about the severity of her close friend’s injury.” Vishwajeet put a hand on his chest. “I must insist that Parushi come to the infirmary.”
I straightened my shoulders and stood tall, arching my chin so I could look down at Vishwajeet. “You must what?”
It was a question, but I spoke each word as a sentence.
Vishwajeet cleared his throat. “I must... ask the rani to consider sending Parushi to the infirmary.”
“Thank you for your concern.” My words were as sweet as syrup. “I know you’re grateful for Parushi’s service, and I appreciate your distress. But Nallini is here, and we are thankful for her expertise in healing. She will take care of Parushi.”
Not even a fish could open its mouth quite so round as Vishwajeet did.
“Thank the Spirits you brought her to me,” I continued. “I’m sure she is more than capable of taking care of Parushi’s little cut, and we can leave the space in the infirmary open for those who need it more. I will let you know if that changes.”
I closed the door, giving Vishwajeet just enough time to get out of the way. Vishwajeet’s footsteps slapped down the hall as he left, and the others shuffled behind him. I started to head to Parushi’s quarters but stopped and looked back at the doors. Guided more by instinct than rationality, I took Parushi’s fallen sword and stuck the blade through the handles, and then I followed the speckled trail of blood to her room.
Chapter 36
“This isn’t working,” Nallini said, more to herself than anyone else as she smashed some pungent babchi seeds into a paste. She stood next to a small table that was filled with herbs, seeds, and Spirits knew what else clustered into small piles. There must have been some method to it all, though. She never hesitated as she reached from one ingredient to the next, adding them to the mortar with one hand while she ground with the other.
Parushi lay on the floor in the light of the room’s large window. Chaaya was desperately massaging Parushi’s abdomen, which had become blotchy and inflamed around the long, shallow wound that sliced her torso. Bright red lines webbed around the cut, and they extended farther and farther no matter how frantically Nallini flushed the injury and applied fresh paste. Parushi’s face was pale, and she winced with every touch, but she only let a few grunts of pain escape.
“There must be something more you can do.” I looked around, not sure of what I was seeking beyond inspiration, but there wasn’t much to be found in this simple, unadorned room. There were no plush carpets or pillows here, just modest, functional furniture. Beds, blankets, trunks, and Nallini’s little table, that was all.
I sat down and stared at Nallini. She appeared to be working as hard as she could, so I tried to silence the thought that Vishwajeet had sunk his hooks into her deeper than I’d realized?—that Parushi might pay the price for my mistake.
“There are many things I can do,” Nallini snapped back. “The question is what will be useful.”
She pulled containers out of her bulging bag: roots, insects, berries. Each one was inspected and cast aside with a mutter. The supposedly Spirits-blessed woman had no answers for Parushi.
“They must have done something to their weapons.” Nallini’s hands flew as she returned to work on her patient, pausing only to wipe the sweat off her brow with the back of her hand. “Poisoned them. But I can’t know the antidote unless I know the poison.”
“What poison might they have?” I mused. “Something from the sea?”
“Stonefish venom?” Chaaya suggested.
“For her sake, I hope not.” Nallini squinted at the wound. “And it doesn’t look right for that. Usually, there would be swelling but not the lines.”
Parushi squeezed my hands so tight I had to bite my tongue to avoid crying out in pain. I desperately tried to think of what those monsters could have used to coat their weapons. Something they might have easy access to.
I inhaled sharply. “Venom. What if they have venom, and they’re using it to coat their weapons? It’s a stretch but?—”
“It’s the best we’ve got,” Nallini said. “Do they resemble a particular type of snake?”
“Cobras. They have hooded heads like cobras.”
Nallini left Parushi’s side and seized her bag. She dumped the contents on the floor and spread them until she found what she was looking for and started smashing it into a paste. Yellow droplets shot into the air with each strike.
“Turmeric!” Chaaya recognized it instantly.
The crushed root stained Nallini’s hand orange when she scooped it up and spread it over Parushi’s cut. Parushi’s whole body stiffened, and she exhaled through pursed lips as she tensed, squeezing my hands and using them to pull the weight of her body up off the ground.
The pulsing red lines dulled, and Nallini let out a whoop of victory, then immediately set to grinding more of the turmeric. “Chaaya, keep massaging from the outer edges of the web inward, toward the cut,” Nallini said. “I want to try to push as much of the poison back toward the paste. I’ll need more turmeric, though. Once I get this next layer on, go get some more?—and fresh water too. Get it from the gardeners, not the infirmary. Find Ovya and tell her I’m asking for it.”
Chaaya continued massaging. The more she pushed on Parushi’s abdomen, the more the turmeric paste turned from bright orange to the color of clay. The darker areas were shiny and congealed in a way the fresh paste was not, and it formed little pouches that clumped together like mounds of worms. The flickering candlelight made them look eerily lifelike as they shone.
Parushi’s clenched teeth betrayed her pain even though she’d relaxed back down onto the ground. Her breathing became heavier, but it was a relief to see more color in her face.
