So it was with a troubled heart that Weysh flew to the offices of Montpierre’s Healer, Veronique, but he did his best to remain optimistic. She was quite in demand, and it would normally have been a few moonturns before he could see her, but after hearing the nature of his injury she’d decided to bring him in as soon as possible, and even then it took a good three weeks. Weysh wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or anxious about her urgency.

She kept her offices in a three-story townhouse in the upper-class district of Empress Way. The main floor was manned by a pale and pointy-nosed clerk who directed him to fly up to the rooftop and wait for the healer there.

She clearly had experience with dragons. The rooftop was paved in the same soft mixture as the roads of Sir Lamontanya, and surrounded by a simple wrought-iron fence. Weysh lounged in dragon, waiting. At last a short, plump woman of perhaps sixty years emerged from the rooftop door. Her crisp, gray Healer’s robes were accented by a white stole that drooped over her shoulders, denoting her as the highest order of Healer Magus. Weysh rose and bowed to her.

Her blue eyes were sharp and assessing as she examined his nose. She had him sniff a few vials and shone a light up his nostrils, looking for Watcher only knew what. Though Weysh worried he might accidentally sneeze and roast her, she went about her examination fearlessly.

She had him change to a man and sniff the same vials, asking him if he could smell or feel anything, which he could not. The way she clucked and hummed at his answers did not fill him with confidence.

“Yes, it seems both of your bodies are affected,” she said. “This is often the case with nerve damage or injuries to the brain in dragonkind. It’s one of the biggest blows to the theory that the dragon body is a separate entity hidden away in otherspace.

“I won’t mince words, Messer Nolan: the damage is quite extensive. I’ve only come across two cases similar to this in all my time as a healer. I can prescribe you a sniffing potion I came up with. It’s infused with old magic, spells completely in San-Uramaik. It will stimulate the nerve endings in your nose, encouraging them to regenerate. I should have it ready for you in the next two days. Sniff it for five minutes in the morning and again at night, both in human and dragon.”

“And that will repair my sense of smell?”

The healer clucked her tongue at him again in a motherly way. “I hope so, but it will never quite be what it was, I’m afraid. We’re attempting to bring the dead back to life, after all.”