Chapter 99: What Grayhook Kept

"Carrick’s dead," Severin said. "We left him on the boards. Leo asked for men to bring him up."

Elspeth turned toward the rescuer coming up the path. "Any sign of the man who went over?"

"Not yet. They’re watching from the rocks."

She asked about the boats and waited while he caught his breath. He had no news of anyone else missing.

Severin counted them aloud, starting with the fisherman Crowther had brought back dead, then the man who had died after they carried him out of the refuge. The sailor at the landing made three. Carrick and Jonah brought it to five, with the man washed overboard still missing.

"Six," Elspeth said. "Unless they find him alive."

She sent the rescuer to bring dry bedding. When Severin tried to move aside, his knee gave beneath him. He caught the frame with his right hand and stayed there while the man squeezed past.

Across the clinic, the split-lip fisherman coughed into a cloth. Elspeth went back to him. She raised his shoulders, waited for the coughing to stop and settled him again. Sarah remained beside Jonah.

Leo brought a stool to the doorway. "Sit down."

Severin lowered himself onto it. The wet dressing had stuck between his torn left fingers. He worked his right thumb beneath its edge.

"Leave that," Leo said. "We’ll change it properly."

Severin let go and rested the hand on his thigh.

A woman carried in a bowl of warm broth. Severin needed her to leave it on a crate beside him; his right hand shook too much to hold it. When he could manage the spoon, he ate, listening for the men returning with Carrick.

They came before the light failed, carrying the boards through the clinic door. The Grayhook worker from the junction walked behind them with Carrick’s instrument roll and the lamp. He told Leo that they had used the upper rock and kept clear of the fouled landing.

Severin stood when they passed him. Blood had soaked the blanket beneath Carrick’s side. One boot protruded from the covering, its heel scraping the doorpost as the carriers turned.

Elspeth met a woman at the door after they had set Carrick down. "Eleanor. He’s here."

Eleanor went straight to the boards. "Let me see him."

One of the carriers folded the cloth back. She touched Carrick’s cheek, then bent to lift the blanket away from the blood at his collar.

"Leave that," Elspeth said softly. "We’ll get him clean."

"I’ve brought his shirt."

Eleanor held the shirt against herself. The collar was folded inside the bundle, and she kept trying to pull it free without letting the rest unfold.

Severin moved toward her. Elspeth took the bundle first and led her behind the screen beside the boards. He sat again.

Later, someone changed the dressings on his forearm. He woke once while the cloth was being loosened and again when Leo made him drink.

Armin lay on bedding near the wall, his coat open, with a woman sitting beside him. Rafael had been given the bench nearest the door. He kept a basin within reach.

By morning Severin could make it to the washbasin, stopping with his hand against the wall. His fingers still answered slowly when he tried to undo his collar. He left it open.

Ruth sat at the worktable with clean cloth spread in front of her. Her left forearm rested on folded padding. Pale branching lines showed above the dressing, continuing beneath it toward the hand.

She tried to hold a strip while cutting it with her right hand. The left fingers slipped, and the cloth twisted between the blades. She set the scissors down and pressed the strip flat with the side of her hand. A tremor shifted it again.

Severin stopped beside the table. "Want me to hold it?"

"Along here."

She pointed with the closed scissors. He held the cloth flat with his right hand while she cut. The pressure hurt his burned forearm, and he let go when she finished.

Ruth picked up the first piece with her right hand. The left stayed on its padding.

"Carrick always made me cut these ahead. Said I’d waste half the dressing trying to tear it straight."

She laid the piece beside the others. Severin waited for her to say more.

"Hold the next one."

They worked until there was a small stack. Ruth had him fetch the case book from the shelf, then checked the injured fisherman’s entry against Elspeth’s account of the night.

When the fisherman called for Carrick, she went to his bedding and told him the doctor was dead. She stayed until he stopped crying, then returned to the table.

Sarah put Jonah’s boots on the table, then lowered his folded clothes from her good arm. She asked for something to wrap them in.

Ruth pushed the remaining cloth toward her. "Take that."

Sarah tried to spread it with both hands, then drew back her bandaged wrist. Severin held one end while she laid the clothes inside.

"He’d been meaning to mend that heel," she said.

One boot tipped against his sleeve. He set it upright.

"Do the children know?"

"They think he’s coming home when the rain stops."

She drew the cloth around the bundle, leaving the boots out. "I have to go."

Miriam was waiting near Jonah’s bedding. Sarah spoke to her quietly before leaving. Severin heard her ask that nothing be done until she came back.

"We’ll wait," Miriam said.

"The Keeper had him once already," an older man said by the door.

Sarah stopped with her hand on the latch. "We had him home for months. You saw him."

The man looked toward Miriam. "Leave her be," Miriam said.

Sarah took the wrapped clothes. Elspeth found someone to carry the boots and walk with her, then returned to Ruth’s table and asked which patients could be moved.

Ruth marked two entries. For a third she left the pencil resting on the page.

"I’d have asked him about this one."

Leo came in while Elspeth was arranging who would stay with the wounded. She made room for him at the table but kept her hand over the list.

"You’re taking Finch?"

"Once Frank says we can leave."

"And the next man who comes in with his chest crushed? We’ve got Ruth, with that hand, and no doctor."

Severin looked at the strip he had held for Ruth. Several more still needed cutting.

"I’ll ask for a doctor at Westwatch," Leo said.

Elspeth pushed the case book toward him. "Tell them before they decide we’ve all been put right. I know why you cut it. We still have to live here."

Leo read the entries she showed him. He wrote down what she asked for without promising when it would arrive. Ruth returned to the fisherman’s bedding. The man had begun coughing again, and Elspeth followed with clean cloth.

When Ruth could leave the patient, they went into Carrick’s office. She separated the papers needed for continuing care from the refuge observations, checking the copies before she let Leo take them.

The private folio went with the evidence. She looked once more at the ordinary ledger where Carrick had removed the follow-up page, then put it back on its shelf.

Ruth went back to her patients. Leo closed the office door and put Carrick’s damaged medical and alchemical text beside the private folio.

Severin checked his copied preservation symbol against the field book, then placed the comparison page with the other papers. He closed the book while Leo stacked the pages for wrapping.

Leo tried to draw the wrapping tight with his left hand. His fingers lost their grip. He used his right, trapping the cord beneath the packet, and let Severin hold it while he made the knot.

"About Armin," he said.

Severin kept the cord down. "He helped us get out."

"Yes. He did."

Leo pulled the knot tight.

"I thought I could keep an eye on him."

"I needed to know before I put him to work."

Severin let go of the cord. Armin had needed help getting upright that morning.

"I should have told you."

Leo put the packet in his case. He told Severin that Armin would travel beside him, and that he would arrange medical care at Westwatch before asking the Order’s healers to take over. Severin carried the field book out with him.

Frank sent word after midday. The swell had fallen enough for him to bring the cutter inside the harbor approach. She could make Westwatch with the hull patch holding, but the damaged steering still needed room for every turn.

Crowther met the carrying party at the harbor and checked the lashings around Finch’s board before taking him out on the first trip.

Finch lay beneath blankets, the covering flattened beyond his amputated leg. He reached for the boat’s side when they lowered him, then let go at Crowther’s instruction. His breath escaped between his teeth.

Severin passed down the loose lashing from the quay, letting it run over his right hand until the sailors had enough to secure the board. He left the lifting to them.

When the boat returned, Rafael rose from beside a post and stepped aboard with Crowther holding his left arm.

Leo brought Armin down last. Armin tried to carry his own bag, but had to put it down halfway. Severin took it in his right hand and stopped once on the way to the boat.

The Vigilant Gale lay inside the harbor approach. A sailor worked below her rail beside the hull patch. A crewman had replaced a frayed line with fresh rope. He checked its fastening as the boat came in. Frank watched from above as they came alongside. Crowther passed Armin’s bag up before helping him to the ladder.

Severin went below and found Finch already settled for the passage. He came back up slowly, with one hand on the ladder.

The substitute helmsman was already at the wheel. Frank gave him the heading early and watched the bow answer. Crowther had men clear loose gear from the deck; another sailor went below to relieve the man tending the leak.

As the cutter came round, Severin saw islanders hauling a broken boat farther above the wash. Elspeth stood near them, speaking to the men at the line. Beyond the harbor, the refuge entrance remained dark.

He watched until the turn hid it behind the rocks. Leo came beside him with the secured case.

"At Westwatch, I want you to write down what you knew about Armin."

Severin turned from the rail. "That goes in the report?"

"Yes. Including why you kept quiet."