Book of Water

Chapter 5

5

Rinaldo was dying.

No one said it out loud, but Jara knew. She had attended the dying before while caring for Rinaldo and Bradamante’s mother.

She knew the pallid cast to the skin. The dark bruising where blood pooled in the belly and limbs. The long silences between breaths, then a sudden gasp as the body remembered it wanted to live.

One of Orlando’s men had some experience as a healer. Bradamante allowed him to examine her brother, but when the man offered nothing more than a grimace and a shake of his head, Bradamante ordered him to leave. She had received her own training from Manat in how to treat battle wounds, so she did what she could.

But the damage was so great, her care meant very little. She set fractured bones and added padding around Rinaldo’s leg and disjointed hip, but she had no remedy for the trauma to his internal organs.

Finally she suspended her efforts. The greatest aid to Rinaldo’s comfort was that he remained unconscious. Bradamante and Jara sat on either side of him in the darkened tent, Jara fussing over him in ways she knew in her heart were useless, while Bradamante held her brother’s hand.

When Orlando visited as part of his tour of the other injured warriors, Bradamante gazed up at him with such intense hatred, Jara could practically feel the heat of it searing the air.

She understood. If only Orlando had believed Rinaldo and sent his warriors from the start…

Orlando said nothing to the two of them, but he did, for the first time in a year, finally meet Bradamante’s eyes. She did not look away. Orlando endured her gaze for a few long moments, then left the tent to continue on his rounds.

Jara saw a tear roll down Bradamante’s cheek.

Rinaldo was dying. There was nothing they could do.