After a moment, he scowled, but held out his arm. The wound was infected. The stitches were much too wide, and specks of dirt filled the spaces in between.

I looked up at the group when Shep and Dagan finished talking.

“Shep, will you get some Aleppo soap, some sikaru, and a cask of boiled water? Oh! And some clean linens?”

“I would, but we’re out of almost all of our supplies. I do have a little bit of soap, but no sikaru. And none of the tonics that Ummum would use on him. I can’t even help him with the pain.”

I sighed. “Well, what about your neighbors? Would they at least have some sikaru that we could use?”

“In the dead of night?” Dagan looked at me as if I’d grown two additional heads.

“Yes. If it means properly tending to him, we could surely wake someone up.” I rolled my eyes.

Shep shook his head. “Nobody has any. Trust me, I’ve looked. The Palace has confiscated most of the brew, and none of us have shekels to buy it at Assata’s Tavern.”

Frustrated, I sat back on my heels. “Dagan, I cannot heal him without sikaru to properly cleanse everything.”

Shep stood. “I can at least get you the rest of the stuff. I put a pot on the cookfire outside already. Ummum told me boiled water was important for treating wounds.”

Iltani held out her hand toward him. “And I’ll help.”

She grinned, and he assisted her up from the floor with a glint in his eyes.

Gods, this was not the time to flirt.

When they left, Dagan looked at me, confused. “Can’t you simply wash his arm with the soap?”

“Yes, but he needs to be restitched. I can’t sew him up without the sikaru, because the soap won’t kill all of the bad humors inside.”

“But look at it.” Dagan held out Rish’s wound. It did look garish and was obviously causing a lot of pain. “He’s hurting. And we can’t wait until we can get some more sikaru because the guardsmen will be returning at first light.”

“Well?” I sighed, thinking through the meager tinctures I had in my healing satchel. I took them out and sorted them by the candlelight. “I do have a little bit of myrrh oil. It isn’t a good enough alternative, though.” But then I brightened. “Why don’t we go to Laraak to get some brew? We have to go there to barter for more…you know…since your ummum’s things were taken.” I glanced at Dagan. “We could just take Rish with us tonight. Camp outside Laraak’s tents in the cart, and approach them in the morning for what I need.”

“You can’t take him tonight,” Shep said as he and Iltani toted in the water, linens, and a small cake of soap, both wearing secret grins on their faces. When this was over, I was going to have to talk to both of them about their complete inability to flirt at appropriate times.