would distract us both. It did.
“Do tell,” he said absently. At least he was speaking.
“Apparently we’re headed to a deserted island.” I rinsed the now bloody towel, before returning it to the wound. He was right: the cut was fairly shallow, but it had still bled a lot. The water became a sickening color. “They told me some sort of creature is there, and that it has eaten someone who carried something of value to them.”
At the mention of the monster Levent’s eyes widened a fraction, but he said nothing. I continued.
“They want you to go in and slay the thing, and they want me to heal anyone who gets hurt. I don’t think they included you in that concern, by the way.” I said it somewhat jokingly, but I was worried.
Despite all my misgivings, I was not going to just let this dragon-kin die. That would just be bad manners, I rationalized. After all, he had kept me from dying when he did not have to. Even though my banishment had immediately followed it, I still felt like I owed some kindness to him.
“How thoughtful of them,” he said sarcastically, more to himself than me.
I smirked grimly. “Exactly.”
I had removed most of the dried blood, though the wound looked far from healed. Upon releasing his fringe, the cut was covered enough to avoid attention. I doubted anyone would really check that I had not botched the job, anyway. Smiling a little with relief, I set the towel aside and sat back.
“I suppose I have to tell them I’m done, now,” I murmured. Levent nodded silently, and returned to his ‘unconscious’ position on the floor.
I rubbed my hands together, trying to get some warmth to return to my fingertips, then banged on the door with my fist. Rio was off the bench and opening it in just a few seconds.
“Did it work?” he asked. His face was alight, grinning like an excited child.
I nodded, acting as if I was exhausted from the healing that never happened. “I think so,” I said lamely, but Levent was already ‘waking up’.
“Oy! Some help over here!” the half-blood yelled out into the hallway and several other crewmen appeared out of nowhere.
Rio ran over to Levent and cut the bindings around his ankles, but neglected