It wasn’t Pearl.When he swung the door open, he found Palmer standing in the hallway.His hair looked like he’d run his fingers through it most of the afternoon, and there was a worried expression on his face.Rune barely had time to step aside when Palmer pushed past him, walking into the room only to start pacing as soon as he was inside.
This didn’t look good.“Palmer?”Rune asked, knowing he didn’t need to say the words for Palmer to know what he was asking.
Palmer ran his hand through his hair, making it stick up even more.“I was poisoning them,” he declared.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about, but you’re worrying me.”
“Youshouldbe worried.I was poisoning my patients.Granted, I didn’t know that I was, and I didn’t do it on purpose, and most of the blame isn’t on me but on the people who wereactuallypoisoning them, but I made them worse.”
“I think you need to sit down and tell me what’s going on in more detail before I freak out.”
Palmer shook his head, and while Rune wasn’t sure what part of that sentence it was in response to, he found out soon enough.
“I can’t sit down.I have to go back to the infirmary, but I wanted to tell you what happened.Someoneispoisoning your siblings.I was trying to help, obviously, but the treatment I gave them made them worse because it interacts with the poison they were given.”
That was a lot of information.Rune had suspected most of it, but he still needed to wrap his mind around it.
He wanted to sit on the couch.Someone was poisoning his siblings.Someone was hurting them on purpose.Who would hurt Twig?He was little more than a kid, and he’d never hurt anyone.Why would anyone try to kill him?“But you know now,” Rune said.“You can fix things.”
Palmer dropped onto the couch next to Rune and sighed.“I can, and I will.I’ve already started.I went straight to the infirmary when I left the meeting and gave Twig the new treatment.I also had someone contact Yorga and Ash so that they’ll come to the infirmary as soon as possible.”
“That’s good.”
“It is, but I hate what happened.I made them worse.”
“You couldn’t have known someone was poisoning them.Even if you had, it could have been anything.Are you sure what’s going on?”
“The healer I met with is pretty sure.She said it could be something else, but the new treatment will tell us that.Between the symptoms and the way Twig and Yorga reacted to my initial treatment, though, she’s pretty sure it’s wolfsbane.”
“Have you ever used wolfsbane?”
“Never.I’ve never even seen a case of poisoning by wolfsbane.”
“Then you really couldn’t have known, Palmer.You did everything right.”
But Palmer still didn’t look happy.“Making Twig and Yorga worse is making me look incompetent.Worse than that, it could’ve seriously hurt them.I would never have forgiven myself if something had happened to them because of me.And before you say it, yes, I know that this is all on the poisoner, whoever they are, but still.It’s almost like they did this on purpose to make me look like I didn’t know what I was doing.”
That made Rune angry.Palmer would never have hurt anyone on purpose, but more than that, he’d made it his mission to help people.Instead, he’d ended up hurting them, and even though it hadn’t been on purpose, he was going to blame himself.He already was.
“Maybe they did do it on purpose,” he offered.
Palmer frowned.“What do you mean?”
“Well, Pearl is unhappy with your presence here.Killian keeps insisting that you’re a good doctor and that having you here will benefit us, but if an outsider was looking at the situation, they’d think that you made things worse.Maybe that was what Pearl was aiming for.”
Palmer looked bewildered at that thought.“Would she really go this far to make me look bad?”
“I don’t think it’s about you as much as it’s about Killian.He decided to have you here, working on dragons.If something happened because of you, it would put him in a bad light, too.”Rune hated that Pearl was doing this to Palmer.He wasn’t sure how to fix it or even if there was anything he could do to fix it, but hecouldcomfort Palmer.
He reached out and grabbed Palmer by the shoulder, pulling him into a hug.Palmer made a small surprised sound, but he came easily, allowing Rune to wrap his arms around him.He even hugged back, hooking an arm around Rune’s waist awkwardly.It was only when Rune felt Palmer’s hand on his back that he realized how inappropriate this was.He quickly let go, putting more space between them.
“I’m really sorry about that.”
Palmer watched him for a moment.Rune wanted to scream.He hoped that Palmer wasn’t going to go straight to Killian to ask him to get Rune away from him or something.He needed to stick around to ensure his siblings would be okay, but he also didn’t want to have to give up his time with Palmer.He enjoyed the work they were doing together, even though he really wasn’t doing much.
Palmer shook his head.“It’s fine.I actually think I needed that.”
Rune swallowed.“Really?”
