Beveny introduced himself and asked for Penda to join him. A nicety which pleased Tenna and gave her a very good opinion of the journeyman. The consultation was conducted right there in the main hall since the injuries were to visible portions of her body. And the other runners were genuinely interested in knowing the worst of her condition and offered suggestions: most of them knowledgeable as to which herbs should be used and how efficacious they had been on such and such an occasion. Beveny kept a grin on his face as if he was well used to runner chaffering. As he probably was.
‘I think this one, and the two on your leg, may still have slivers in them,’ Beveny said at length. ‘Nothing a poultice won’t draw out overnight, I’m sure.’
There were approving nods and wise smiles from the audience. Poultices were then discussed again and at length and the appropriate one decided on. During this part of the consultation, Tenna was installed in a comfortable, padded chair, a long stool affair attached to the front of it so her legs could stretch out. She’d never been fussed over so much in her life but it was a runner thing: she’d seen her mother and father take the same personal care of any one arriving at their station with an injury. But to be the centre of so much attention – and at Fort Station – was embarrassing in the extreme for Tenna and she kept trying to discount the urgency of such minor wounds. She did offer her packet of her mother’s poultice and three of the runners remarked favourably on Cesila’s famous poultice but hers was clearly for bruises, not infections, so the healer told her to keep it for emergencies.
‘Which I hope you won’t have, of course,’ he said, smiling at her as he mixed – with the hot water Penda fetched – an aromatic concoction which everyone now in the room had to approve.
Keenly aware that she must be properly modest and forbearing, as well as brave, Tenna braced herself for the treatment. Hot poultices, however therapeutic, could be somewhat uncomfortable. Then the mixture was ready. With deft fingers, Healer Beveny deposited neat blobs, no larger than his thumbnail, on the sore spots. He must have judged the heat just right because none was too hot. He made sure to position the patches right over each blob before securing them with bandage strips which Penda produced. Tenna felt each of the ten hot spots but the sensation was not all that unpleasant.
‘I’ll check tomorrow, Tenna, but I don’t think we have to worry about any of them,’ Beveny said with such conviction that Tenna was relieved.
‘Nor do you, here at Fort Station with the Healer Hall a stretch away,’ said Torlo and courteously saw Beveny to the door and watched a polite few moments until the healer was halfway to his Hall.
‘Nice fella,’ he said to anyone listening and smiled at Tenna. ‘Ah, here’s the food.’
Evidently that meal had been held up for her to be treated because now Penda led in the drudge carrying the roast platter with others behind him, laden with large bowls of steaming food.
‘Rosa,’ she said, pointing to one of the female runners, ‘get the board. Spacia, grab a fork and spoon for Tenna. She’s not to move. Grolly, her glass is empty . . .’ and, as she directed the others to serve the injured runner, she herself carved fine slices from the roasted ribs of herdbeast. ‘The rest of you, get on line.’
Tenna’s embarrassment returned, waited on as she was by Rosa and Spacia, who cheerfully performed their assigned tasks. Always she had been the one to help, so this situation was quite novel. Of course it was also a runner thing, to be cosseted in need, but she’d never been the recipient before.
Two more batches of runners arrived in from south and east. When they came back from bathing, they had to be told all about Haligon’s forcing Tenna off the trace and how she had sticklebush punctures that were severe enough to require a healer. She got the distinct impression that almost everyone had had a run-in, or knew someone who had, with this infamous Haligon. Eventually the tale had been told to everyone and the conversation changed to talk of the Gather three days hence.