Page 44 of Triadic

Ulbrecht wrapped his arms around Wren and snuggled into him, breathing out a huge exhalation.

"Did you ride through the night?" Wren asked, his tone concerned.

Ulbrecht hummed an affirmative, and they fell quiet as he drifted off tosleep.

Peter whimpered, and I turned to see that Corbi had rolled away, taking the blanket with him. I pulled the blanket back over and situated myself so Peter could cuddle into me. Trusting Wren that I could let go and be safe in the room with his new partner, I closed my eyes.

Chapter Twenty-Two: Corbi

I woke to find Peter had cuddled into Marit instead. Carefully I rose and moved quietly over to Igor, who was sitting at the door and peering out the slit window next to it. He nodded at my approach, and I explained I was going to listen to his shoulder.

I placed my ear right on the connection to the socket and asked him to slowly move through the physiotherapy exercises I'd given him.

As everyone else in the room slept quietly—including the new occupant, in whose arms Wren was dozing—I focused in on Igor's shoulder joint, trying to listen for what I would be able to see if I had access to the high medical technology of prior eras.

The muscles supporting his shoulder joint were strong, which was always good.

"One thing to look for is if the shoulder ever locks," I instructed softly. "You definitely have scarring from the stab wound, and likely bruising in the joint. But if you have a piece of torn cartilage flying around loose in the joint, then it can get lodged somewhere and cause it to lock."

"It has never locked," Igor answered, "just catches enough that it affects my swing."

"That's very good news. If there is a tear that hasn't detached yet, then stressing the shoulder could cause this to develop later."

Igor just looked at me, but I wondered if I didn't know what he was thinking. "I know you can't get around stressing it, because what you're doing is important, and I assume you don't intend to stop?" He was fighting to protect his homeland whose border faced raids, after all. Ignoring a raid could lead to an outright invasion.

He shook his head, determination in his eyes. "I guard Ulbrecht's back. I'm not leaving."

"He got that stab wound protecting me."

I jumped at the other man having come upon us, so large and yet I had not heard him. He knelt beside Igor, and I rose up on my knees, pivoting topics. "Here is how you can massage the scar tissue to encourage it to dissolve and reintegrate. The sharp pains could be from a deep scar—that would be the best option because then it has a chance to fade over time—but since they're recurring, unfortunately I suspect it to be a cartilage injury. They don't heal; you can only mitigate the effects."

Gently I pressed my fingertips around the scar, moving slowly and pushing several times in each place first. Small pulses, then going a little bit deeper and with more pressure, but ultimately never really digging in. This was one of the places where my abilities with the life force could help, but we simply didn't have the time. If it weren't winter and Igor could bathe in a cold stream, then at least I could send my life force into the scar tissue and see whether his responded by moving in more healthy ways rather than in response to his pain.

Large hands came up around mine, and I moved aside as Ulbrecht repeated my movements and pressed his fingertips around the scar. Igor's nostrils flared, which I knew now meant he was in pain, but he would not admit it.

"Wren wanted Igor to see you, Corbi," said the king.

I thought about that, but my abilities had limits, and what Igor's shoulder truly needed was time.

"It depends on the true nature of the injury, which I cannot see," I answered. "If it is a tear, then the only way to remove it would be via surgery, which I would never risk. The city-state of Vienna might still have imaging technology that's mentioned in our medical textbooks. I'd need to be able to see, and then have the resources for a safe and hygienic extraction of the bit of cartilage that was shorn off."

"I'll write a letter of passage for you to head east rather than west, then," he replied. "Even I haven't been inside the city walls. A delegate came out and signed the treaty on the edge of their lands."

It seemed rude to make a king sign documents outside, but I didn't voice that. The city-state was extremely secretive, and we'd all assumed it was because they had managed a higher standard of living compared to the rest of us. Confirming that would only spread envy rather than friendship.

I held out my hand. "My name is Corbi." He already knew, but it seemed impolite to not introduce myself.

He shook my hand and gave a genuine smile. "Ulbrecht."

Marit came up beside us and introduced himself. By then the rest of the party had woken, and bread and cheese was in the works for breakfast. I showed Awariye how to massage the scar tissue on Igor's shoulder while Ceridor and a very skittish and embarrassed Peter met Ulbrecht. Considering Peter was Helvetican, I didn't know why he was so insecure, but then he explained his home village was close to the border, and he'd heard all about Ulbrecht's rise before he wound up in the forest.

"Wren has told me you work at the clinic affiliated with the monastery," said Ulbrecht later to me, "but what would you need in order to consider moving to my capital? Igor is my best fighter and tasked with my crown should I and Sören fall. He is the younger generation, our future until Evelyn and Sören's sons are ready for the burden if they want it by the time they get older. I can send you to Vienna's borders with a letter, but I'd rather have you nearby to check him more regularly."

I hadn'tslept the greatest, on the hard floor of a castle ruin, so it took a moment for my tired brain to figure out that this was not only the high king of his lands, and that he was partnered to Wren, but that he also needed my services and was willing to negotiate.

I withdrew my hands from Igor's shoulder and slid them back into my sleeves so Ulbrecht could not see them shaking. I mustered a feeble fawn's courage and advocated for myself, something I was not accustomed to doing after the way I'd been treated in my life.

"I'd need accommodation in town and space where I can set up my own clinic and train students. Marit would need a job at your library. Peter is trained as a shopkeeper and would likely find work if you put a word in."