Sita felt a sudden fury well up inside her. Every second they wasted arguing brought Sami closer to death.“You will allow meto help this boy!”she commanded. The air inside the infirmary vibrated with the strength of her voice, and the two men fell silent.
“Please,” she added softly.
Elyas narrowed his eyes, studying her with newfound intensity. “Who are you?” he whispered.
“Do you want me to answer the question, or do you want me to save Sami’s life?”
Elyas swallowed. Zev’s jaw tightened, but he said nothing more.
After a long moment, Elyas stepped back, allowing her passage to the injured boy.
Sita rushed to Sami’s side and fell to her knees before him. The wound looked bad, but then again, she’d brought Karim back from the dead. Why shouldn’t she be able to heal a broken leg?
Because I don’t know how this magic works yet, she thought.I have no talisman this time, and I cannot rely on divine intervention.She thought back to her years of lessons with her tutor, lessons that covered everything from religion to taxes to history, and medicine too. Her tutor didn’t go into depth about the wisdom of the priesthood, but she knew enough. And she’d witnessed the physician-priests treat injuries and illnesses of all kinds at the palace.Medicine is half method and half magic,” she remembered her tutor saying. “Sometimes only one is necessary, but you often need both.
Method and magic, Sita considered, then came up with a plan.
“I need more linens,” she said. “Plenty more. And half a dozen thin pieces of wood, about three hands’ breadths in length. If you don’t have any, cut down a tree and have the carpenter make them to those specifications. I also need your sharpest copper needle and some strong linen thread. Get them from the weavers. I’ve seen the girls using them. Are there any red poppies growing by your oasis?”
Elyas blinked rapidly, bewildered by Sita’s list of demands. “I believe so. Why?”
“Have someone gather the seeds of the blossom and boil them. Add some onions too. When it cools, bring the potion to me.”
It was then that Miri, Sami’s mother, and several others arrived with water and dismay. Elyas quickly repeated Sita’s commands while she took up a bandage and used it to apply steady pressure to the wound. Sami’s mother was crying, and Sita heard her ask Elyas, “You trust this stranger with my son? You think she can save him?”
Sita listened for the old man’s answer.
“I trust that the Lord has put her in our path for a reason,” Elyas said.
“A Khetaran?” said a man. “But they believe in false gods, sen. Why would the Lord bring one of them to us?”
Elyas shook his head. “I don’t know. But I feel great stirrings in my spirit telling me to trust this girl. I only hope they have not led me astray.”
The group seemed to accept this, and all departed to complete the tasks set out for them. Having managed to stanch the bleeding, Sita was using fresh water to clean the wound when Karim arrived.
He took in the scene before him and rubbed his stubbled face with one hand. “What are you doing, Sitamun?” he asked.
Sita faced him, her expression fierce and radiant with purpose. “What I should have done back in Thonis. What I neglected to do for too long.”
Karim’s eyes shone with an expression she was afraid to interpret. With a nod, he said, “I shall leave you to it.” Then he departed.
Alone with her patient, Sita put a hand on Sami’s chest and began rocking back and forth, chanting words that seemed tocome to her on the breeze, from the heavens to her lips. “You will be well,” she began. “You will survive this day, and you will walk through the streets with your people once more. You will run to your mother, and she will lay a thousand kisses upon your brow. The word is the deed.
“The word is the deed.
“The word is the deed.”
***
Sita remained by the boy’s side, tending to his wound until the sun dipped below the horizon. When the work was done, there was nothing to do but wait. Exhausted, she lay down on a rush mat beside her patient and closed her eyes.
Sleep didn’t come.
Instead, she listened to the women who had assisted her throughout the day talk outside.
“She moved the bone back into his body,” one woman said. “And then sewed the wound shut like a hole in a dress!”
“That sounds like torture. What of Sami? How did he bear it?”
