Terra Incognita

38

Two wards were now pristine, sweet smelling, and empty. The orderlies were disappointed to discover that all their fine work was to be spoiled by the installation of patients before the governor had a chance to admire it. The pharmacy table was also a model of good order. Instead of a mess, it held a tray. On the tray was a bowl of some sort of broth, bread, a wine cup, and a small jug.

“Doctor Thessalus’s lunch, sir,” announced Gambax.

Ruso dipped a finger in the lukewarm broth. “Tastes all right,” he observed, “but it’s not very hot.”

“It’s been here some time, sir.”

Ruso took a sip from the water jug and examined the bread before suggesting, “Next time, perhaps you could wait for me before you have it served up.”

Gambax said “Yes, sir” with such studied neutrality that Ruso wanted to stomp on his toe. Instead he took a sip from the cup, and the sour taste of watered army wine took him back for a moment to the legion and his relatively innocent days at Deva. “That’s fine,” he said, replacing the cup. “Let’s round up somebody to sit with him and head over there.”

Thessalus was perched on the edge of the couch. Judging from the way he fixed his gaze on the tray, he was hungry. As he reached up to take it, Ruso noticed his hands were unsteady.

“My meals delivered by three men,” Thessalus observed, looking up at them. “And a guard outside the door. I was never worth so much attention before.”

“Gambax has come with your meal as you asked,” explained Ruso. “I’ve tasted your food and I promise you there’s absolutely nothing in it that shouldn’t be. This man will keep you company for a while and I’ll come and see you later.”

“Why? Are you afraid I shall be lonely?”

“No,” said Ruso, noting Thessalus’s eagerness as he reached for the wine cup. ‘I want to talk to you without the medicine clouding your brain.”

Ruso leaned his elbows on the freshly scrubbed wood of the operating table, lifted a bronze clamp from his case, and slid the clip idly up and down, feeling the faint jolt as it bumped in and out of the grooves on the handles. Metellus was supposed to be delivering Tilla to the infirmary after he had finished with her. How long could an identity parade take?

He needed to talk to Metellus anyway. Now that the word was out about Thessalus’s confession and the native had been arrested and questioned-if only briefly-he was not sure what version of the truth he was supposed to know. And what version of the truth everyone else was supposed to know, and whether they were different. He snapped the jaws of the clamp together and scowled.

If only he had kept his mouth shut, he would never have gotten involved in this.

Ruso placed the tip of his little finger in between the jaws of the clamp and winced as he slid the clip into the groove. The trouble was, despite his fortuitous discovery of the truth about the murdered bar girls in Deva-something for which he had received no credit at all-he really was not very good at this sort of thing. Moreover, he didn’t like it. He certainly didn’t like Metellus. What the hell was that man doing with Tilla? How long could it possibly take her to look at a few suspects, announce that she didn’t recognize any of them-as she undoubtedly would-and then be escorted across to the infirmary? And why had he clipped this painful thing onto the end of his finger?

Someone was knocking on the door. He slid off the clamp, put it back in his case, and said, “Yes?” hoping to see Tilla. He would explain why he had not been allowed to warn her about the identity parade. He would make it up to her by buying her a meal at Susanna’s. He would sit with her in public. What did it matter? They were only here for a few days.

The disappointment that was Gambax stepped in and consulted the writing tablet he was carrying as if it lent authority to what he had come to say. “Twenty-two-and-a-half denarii, sir.”

“Ah,” said Ruso, not sure what Gambax was talking about but hoping not to have to admit it.

“Doctor Thessalus usually lets me have the money right away, sir,” said Gambax, still not explaining what the money was for.

“Twenty-two-and-a-half?” repeated Ruso, hoping to elicit more information.

“Yes, sir. That includes my costs for processing the herbs delivered by the woman Veldicca.”

Evidently it was something to do with the clinic. “Perhaps you could give me a breakdown of the figures?”

Gambax looked as though he had just asked for something outrageously complicated. “Doctor Thessalus never asks for a breakdown, sir.”

“I’m new here,” said Ruso, conceding defeat. “And frankly, I haven’t a clue why you’re asking me for money.”

“The cost of the clinic medicines, sir.”

Ruso looked at Gambax’s face and tried to detect some sign of humor or deceit, but failed. The man who gave up his time to run a free clinic and took his staff out on their birthdays had evidently reached heights of generosity that Ruso could barely imagine. “Does Doctor Thessalus pay for all the medicines himself?”

“Oh no, sir.” The corners of Gambax’s mouth began to twitch. “You did remember to charge everybody, didn’t you?”

A glum realization began to dawn. No wonder he had been so popular. While he had been behind the screens, word had spread around the market that the new doctor was handing out army medical supplies for free.

“Twenty-two-and-a-half sounds about right,” he agreed, unstringing his purse and spilling its contents onto the operating table. He had paid Lydia’s rent. Now he had inadvertently made a donation to the ailing civilians of Coria.

It was another dilemma for those bright young minds.

A man gives money to a deserving cause by mistake. Is he in any way morally superior to a man who gives nothing?

“Thank you, sir,” said Gambax, scooping the money off the desk with one sweep of his hand and sending it clattering into a wooden box. “I’ll write you a receipt from the pharmacy.”

After he had gone, it occurred to Ruso that a more suspicious man might accuse Gambax of deliberately leaving him in the dark and sending a bandager who did not know the routine.

He got up. He was going to find out what Metellus was still doing with Tilla.