Chapter 157: A Willing Patient

The medical facility sat near the center of the compound. It smelled of vinegar and mint, comfrey and boiled roots; the kind of smell that reminded Orion a bit of his mother.

Lamps swung gently from beams. Curtains on the curtained beds rustled now and again as healers moved about with the small efficiency of people whose days were full of other people’s hurts.

Orion pushed the door open and the room froze. For one ridiculous, breathless second it looked as though someone had tied a taut wire through the middle of the place and stopped the world.

Rita, who was mid-bind on a child’s scraped knee, blinked as if she’d just laid eyes on a ghost.

The strip of linen sagged, then slipped from her fingers. "Alpha?" she said, and the question came out like a hiccup. "Alpha Orion?"

He gave a half smile meant to ease the moment. "Evening, Rita. Don’t look so scandalized."

Her mouth worked. "We weren’t..." She swallowed. "We weren’t expecting...you."

"Healers never expect anything," Marta said from the back, where she was sorting salves into jars.

She pinned a look at Orion that was equal parts amusement and disbelief. "You here on official business or did you get lost looking for someone?"

Orion stepped fully inside and shut the door behind him. The warmth hit him like a wool blanket. "Not lost," he replied. "I’m here for treatment."

"For treatment?" Marta asked him.

"Yes."

"Like? What kind of treatment?" Marta asked him.

"Um...I’m supposed to come for treatment due to the Trihydra bite. I’m supposed to change my dressing." He told her.

Marta’s laugh was a short, bright bark. "You’re joking." 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

"I’m not."

Her eyes went wide enough to be comical. "No. No way. The Alpha...Orion came here because he wants treatment? Is the moon goddess joking right now?"

"I’m pretty sure this isn’t a joke especially not by the moon goddess." Orion told her.

"Are you having a fever? Is that it? Orion did Daniel send you here?" Marta asked him.

Orion shook his head. "I’m here on my own."

Immediately the words slipped out of his mouth, Marta turned to Rita, "check his temperature." She ordered.

"What’s going on?" Orion asked with a frown as he noticed Rita moving urgently.

"I’m trying to check if you’re dying or not." Marta told him.

Orion lifted a hand. "Calm down. I’m not dying."

"If you say so," Rita muttered, but she moved.

The apprentices fumbled forward in a practiced scramble, boots squeaking on the floor. A basin found its way under a stool; a cloth was dampened, then wrung out.

"You really came here of your own accord?" Marta asked him. "You can be honest with me. Did Daniel force you here?"

"No one forced me," Orion said. "I chose to be here."

That sentence was like a sudden crack of thunder. The apprentices used it for a moment like a joke and then hid behind rollicking smiles because the absurdity of it made them giddy.

Marta’s mouth formed a little O. "You did not," she said. "You could not have. The last time we tried to dress your wound you attempted to recruit the salve as an assassin."

He gave a rueful shrug. "I was younger. Less patient with needles."

Marta placed her hand over Orion’s head to measure up his temperature then ordered that he takes off his clothes.

He unfastened his tunic and eased it off, rolling the cloth up and placing it on a bench. The room quieted into the business of looking closely. Marta moved with the light-footed certainty of someone used to heavy things: she came to him with practiced hands, palms that smelled faintly of oil and lime, fingers that had driven steel and now would drive balm. Her gaze flicked to the scars and the darker threads of healed venom on his shoulder and thigh.

"Your temperature is fine and your pulse is steady." Marta told him.

"I told you I was okay." Orion told her.

"You really came here of your own free will?" Marta asked him in surprise.

Orion chuckled lightly. "Yes, I did."

Marta was Lysander’s assistant at the medical facility and since Lysander was not available since he was spending more time with Brynhild and checking up on her, Marta was in charge now.

Marta’s hands moved efficiently, checking the old dressings Lysander had last applied. She bent, examined the shoulder, the place black veins had flared before, and murmured under her breath. "Looks cleaner."

"I think it’s healing right." Orion told her.

Marta nodded. "It is. I’m surprised you still have the dressing on you too. Take a sit." She told him.

He sat on the low stool while apprentices scrambled to find fresh bandages and boiling pots. Marta barked orders at the apprentices.

Marta softened as she worked. "When he first carried you in after the Trihydra... I thought the wound would take you. It’s good to see it closing." Her fingers were tidy, not over-gentle, the way of someone using care as a tool rather than an indulgence. She unwrapped what remained of the coarse bandage from his shoulder and then from his thigh, murmuring assessments as she saw the tissue beneath. The black veins had faded to pale threads and the flesh glowed a healthy color. "Healing faster than I expected."

"I’m sure that’s due to my good genes." Orion said with a smirk.

Marta gave him an eyeroll in reply as she changed the dressing on his shoulder then moved to the one on his leg. Orion made sure the mating mark on his back was covered, making sure that only the part where the injury was, was exposed.

When Marta was done he thanked her and told her that she’ll be seeing more of him to which she gawked at him in surprise. Orion chuckled as he walked out of the facility.

The sun had disappeared and the moon was already taking it’s place in the darkened sky. He was almost done for the day. Almost, because he still had one place or rather one more person to see.