chapter 4
If It's Dinsday, This Must Be Castle Town
Chapter Four: The Hylian Patient
Link and I pulled the wagon to a halt outside the bar and Ashei, who had been crouched between the two prone figures to try to keep them from moving too much, vaulted to the ground and dashed inside to alert Telma. The doctor had said Shad's injuries were less severe; I thought we ought to carry Auru prone, maybe on a flat board, but the younger man I gathered gently into my arms.
He looked so...young. Fragile. Fleetingly I remembered the awkward child he'd been, and how he'd only marginally outgrown the awkwardness with each passing year. In his case, though, it was an endearing quirk rather than an uncomfortable one. Where would the Resistance have been without his carefully documented research, his maps? Auru and I were fighters of old; Ashei was an up and comer; but Shad was, in a very real sense, in a class by himself. No one could have contributed to our work, or to Link's success, in the same way that he did. Something in his pallid face called my own Colin to mind, and I shook my head firmly.
"We're not losing you," I muttered. "Either of you."
The door banged open again, and the motherly form of the tavern owner was silhouetted in the frame. "Get him inside, Rusl, honey," she said. "Ashei'll show you the room -- oh, what were they thinking?" She put a brief hand to Shad's face. "He doesn't look too bad, really...Ashei made it sound like they were dying. Poor lamb is scared out of her wits, I don't know when I've seen her carry on so."
"Doc Borville said Auru took the brunt of it," Link said. He was removing the wagon's detachable sides. "Once we get them settled, we need spring water for them both, and they have to stay quiet."
I left them talking, Telma fussing anxiously over Auru, and made my way carefully through the eerie quiet of the bar. It was a typically slow hour, but even those customers who were on hand weren't saying much. Several of them craned their necks, trying to get a glimpse of the wounded scholar; I ignored them and headed for the stairs.
Ashei was on the landing. "Up here. Telma told me to settle them in the really good rooms, yeah? Oh, Thrice, Rusl, he looks bad."
"Easy, Ash," I said. "Just show me where." I couldn't help thinking that if Shad was awake to see the way Ashei was fluttering around me (albeit in an uneasy and clanking fashion) in her anxiety over him, he'd consider it worth every bit of injury and more besides. With her help I laid him out on a bed, then left her to watch him while I returned to Link.
With considerable more difficulty, we maneuvered Auru up the same stairs and into the room across the hall from Shad's. "I'll go and get the spring water," I told the others. "Maybe you should see if you can, um, clean them off a little? Auru especially -- all that brick dust is making him grayer than usual." The smiles that answered me were thin, but appreciative of the attempt at levity.
~Z~
By the time I returned with two barrels of water from the sacred spring, Auru was resting comfortably and Telma had mopped all the dust from his face. She got a bit of the water into him, a few spoonfuls only, but it was enough to make us all hold our breath in anxiety.
For a moment or two, nothing happened. He lay so still, so unbearably still, that as the seconds ticked by I began to fear it was all too late. But then there was a tiny shift, a little groan, and his eyes opened the smallest crack.
"W...well," he said presently, his voice ragged and weak, "what are...you...all staring at?"
"Auru, honey," said Telma with weary affection, "don't scare me like that, all right? My nerves can't take it."
Thinking a discreet exit was in order, if the expression in her eyes was any indication, I left the room and crossed the hall to administer the identical treatment to Shad. There was a single chair in that room, and it was filled with the slight figure of the lady knight, who drummed her fingers restlessly on the arm and shifted position every thirty seconds or so.
"Stupid," she muttered. "What was he trying to prove? Idiot."
"Don't be too hard on him, Ash," I said, moving to spoon the spring water into Shad's mouth as Telma had done to Auru.
"Too hard on him! I ought to slap some sense into him, yeah?" Her voice was rough with the effort to bury her anxiety under annoyance, her eyes clinging to his face as the water dribbled past his chalky lips.
"Well, think about it," I told her. "Who's Shad's best friend in the world?"
With a trace of pride, she replied, "Me."
"And second only to you are Auru, and Link, and Telma and myself. Now, except for Telma -- who is the only mother either of you have known for years -- we're all fighters."
"Yeah?"
I wiped water from Shad's chin and looked at her. "I'm starting to think that Shad's not as convinced of his own worth as he is of ours. I think he was trying to be more like us."
She stared at me. "That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard," she said finally.
"It's just a theory."
"And it doesn't wash, yeah? He doesn't need to fight. He's fine like he is."
"Mm...much obliged," slurred a new voice, and we both looked down at Shad. His expression was one of drowsy unconcern. "There's...a great deal...of excitement...but..."
"Oh, shut up, yeah?" said Ashei crossly; she seemed annoyed at having been caught paying him the backward compliment. "You talk too much."
"Yeah," he agreed, eyes sliding closed, "I do."
She made an immediate shift from irritable to uneasy. "He's asleep again. Is that supposed to happen?"
"I think so. Dr. Borville said they both need rest. I'm going to go check on Auru, but I'll be back."
~Z~
By the end of my weekend visit, both Auru and Shad had improved enough that I didn't feel overly guilty about going back to Ordon on schedule. I proposed a quicker return than I normally would have made to Castle Town, an offer of which everyone seemed to approve.
"You could visit Coro's bird Trill, on the outskirts of Faron," Link suggested, "and bring back a potion for each of these layabouts. Get them back on their feet quicker."
"Now, Link," Telma scolded him, "you shouldn't say such things. You know perfectly well it's no trouble for me to have them here where I can keep an eye on them!" We were in Auru's room for the conversation, and she was fluffing his pillow as she spoke. Her patient watched her with an expression of amused regard.
"In all seriousness, old friend," he said, turning to me, "a potion would definitely not go amiss. Old bones heal slowly, you know, and I don't want to inconvenience Telma any longer than I must."
"Inconvenience! Auru, honey, how could you ever be an inconvenience?"
Link rolled his eyes goodnaturedly and, meeting my own, nodded toward the door, indicating that we leave them to argue it out in private. I needed to say goodbye to Shad and Ashei anyway, so I started to follow him across the hall, but he halted in the doorway.
"Well, now," said the Prince, quietly.
I moved to where I could look over his shoulder, and stifled a chuckle. Shad was asleep, again; Dr. Borville, on a grudging return visit, had said this was to be expected. Auru had taken the worst of the damage, in his efforts to protect Shad, but the scholar's body was slighter and less accustomed to injury, and his prolonged naps would allow him to heal less painfully.
Ashei was likewise asleep, curled in a tight ball on the uncomfortable wooden chair. Her knees were drawn up to her chest, her arms folded atop them to form a pillow for her head. As Link stepped into the room, however, she jolted awake and almost leaped to her feet, eyes wide and wary. Her stance was defensive, as though she feared the wall which had caused so much harm to her friends was somehow coming back to finish the job. She relaxed her guard when she saw it was only us.
"Suppose you're heading home, yeah?" she asked, overly casual.
"I can see both patients are being left in good hands, so yes, I thought I should go back to Ordon." I smiled slightly.
"Telma's the nursemaid, not me," she mumbled. "I'm just the one getting stuck reading to him, yeah? Whenever he's awake he wants his books, and until he gets new specs he can't see past the end of his own nose. Can't take that puppy-dog look of his, so I have to muddle my way through Sky Writing."
"I'm sure he appreciates that," I offered.
"I know I do," added Link, "since I'd probably have to do it if you didn't."
Ashei snorted. "Yeah, uh, no offense, Highness," she drawled, "but I think I'd laugh myself sick watching you try to pronounce these words. I've been listening to him natter about the Oocca a lot longer than you have, yeah? I'm used to it."
"Allow me to translate that," Shad broke in, sounding drowsy but coherent. "I believe that's Ashei's way of saying she wouldn't let you take her occupation from her."
"How long have you been awake?" she asked him accusingly.
"Long enough to hear that I have been allegedly making use of the puppy face."
"Allegedly nothing!"
"Any similarities between myself and a juvenile member of the canine species have been completely unintentional, I assure you."
Ashei huffed, turning to me. "You see what I have to put up with?"
"Like I said," I replied, laughing, "both patients are being left in good hands."