Rights of Inheritance by Sandra Bard

Author:Sandra Bard [Bard, Sandra]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: M/M romance, fantasy, Asserting Rights
Publisher: Less Than Three Press, LLC
Published: 2014-03-11T16:00:00+00:00

chapter nine

"Well?" said Keiran impatiently as Myuri hovered over Gareth's still form. "What's wrong with him?" The skinny scribe collapsing in the middle of his performance had put a dent to his morning routine. He'd had to finish his act quickly so he could deal with it before it caused a commotion. A court official, no matter how minor, did not simply collapse without reason, not in the Lower District.

"He's got blood poisoning," Myuri said calmly.

Keiran frowned. "He was poisoned?" Perhaps Gareth was more important that he'd imagined if he was being poisoned. Poison was a subtle thing and for Gareth to have succumbed to such a—

"Not that sort of poisoning," Myuri said tartly as if reading his mind and Keiran looked up from his musing to see her cut away at the sleeve of the robe Gareth had been wearing. The arm underneath the sleeve was haphazardly bandaged from elbow to the wrist in an off-white material. The fingers, visible above the binding, were red and swollen, looking strangely fat, at odds with the rest of Gareth. Gareth's body was thin and pale, though the arms revealed more muscle than Keiran had expected. The bandage was cut away with the same deft skill and Keiran started to get to his feet, knowing Myuri would ask for a bowl of hot water next.

He braced expectantly as deft fingers parted the bandages, knowing that if there was a wound underneath, the material would be stuck to the surface. It was always a painful process, the act of removing a bandage from an open wound. What he didn't expect was for the bandage to slough off the arm with a wet sound. The only thing holding it in place had been the binding.

He flinched at the sight of the skin underneath. The cut Gareth had received from the assassin had festered into an open, yellow, pus dripping groove. The skin around the cut looked swollen and pushed apart and the middle looked …

Keiran had always had a strong constitution, but he couldn't help it, he gagged. He could see the muscles inside the cut, all orange reminding him strongly of undercooked meat and the smell of rotting meat that permeated the room made him cringe

"How can you sniff that?" Keiran said as Myuri leaned forward and inhaled deeply.

"I'm going to need that hot water," said Myuri, eyes fixed on the wound. "This is worse than I expected."

Keiran got to his feet quickly and walked to the doorway. He stopped and turned around. "Do I need to light a fire as well?" he asked. A fire to heat the knife and the metal to seal the blood vessels once a limb was severed from the body. He didn't enjoy it, but he'd handled a couple of amputations in his lifetime and most of the people had lived—especially when Myuri had actually wielded the knife and bone saw.

"Let's try to save this first," Myuri said distractedly. "Make sure the water is boiling and then cool it to a bearable temperature.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.