Basilisk Eyes

Chapter 45: Council

The bench had been righted and Aminah was helped to a seated position. When Harry shook out his staff to leave with the others who weren't injured, Healer Jordan gently guided him back, muttering that she needed to take a look at his back. Gemma's small warm hand slipped inside of his and she led him to a bench to sit down while they waited their turn.

Healer Jordan had summoned glasses of water for everyone who stayed behind as well as a tent that was equipped with healing supplies, camp beds, and a curtain so everyone was able to get out of the wind.

Harry wondered why they didn't all just travel to the healing offices in the Center, but didn't voice his concerns. Healer Jordan and another healer that Harry didn't know performed diagnostics on everyone and started working on Mei and Tony first, then Aminah. Gemma helped him find a camp bed out of the wind and then Healer Jordan attended to her bruises.

Harry laid down on the bed and listened to the quiet snippets of conversation between the healers learning that Mei and Tony had sustained burns and cuts. He wasn't sure how. Aminah seemed to be recovering—she was talking with Gemma—allowing Gemma to write into her hand on her uninjured arm.

Harry drifted off to sleep while he waited for his turn—the camp bed was more comfortable than he realized a camp bed could be. When Healer Jordan gently shook him to wake him, Harry was grateful that the area no longer smelled like burnt fish.

She spent a little more time with Harry than he expected and had to ask Gemma to give him some privacy. Gemma had caught a glimpse of his back apparently and was very concerned and Healer Jordan had to be quite firm with her.

She had healed his other bruises in addition to the new ones. He gingerly pressed his fingers to his face where he had run into a door again that week and it was no longer tender. He felt better than he'd felt in over a month which made him feel a little giddy. He hadn't really noticed how achy he was until the pain was gone. She had made small noises when she was working with him that made him think that she wasn't done with him. And that made him nervous.

"Harry, I want you to drink this potion. It will help you heal faster," Healer Jordan said pressing a small vial into his hand.

"What is it?" Harry asked, sniffing it.

"It's a nutritional supplement."

He took a sip and found that it was delicious and eagerly downed the rest. He wanted to lie down on the camp bed again... with the potion warming his belly and the relief from his aches and pains, he felt like he could sleep for a year. He laid down again and was surprised when Gemma was pushing against his shoulder nudging him awake.

"What is it?" he asked groggily.

Gemma took his hand and wrote, "T-I-M-E" space "T-O" space "G-E-T" space "U-P."

Harry rubbed his eyes and realized that his glasses weren't on his face. He moved his hand through the air by the camp bed hoping to find a table. Gemma wrote a question mark on his hand.

"Do you know where my glasses are?" he asked.

She reached over him to the other side of the camp bed and he heard his metal frames being dragged across a wood surface.

"Thanks," he said as he put them on.

She pulled on his hand urging him to stand up. He followed reluctantly—wishing he could sleep more. It sounded like Healer Jordan was asking everyone to gather. When he left the tent enclosure, he heard a pop of magic and felt a whoosh of wind and realized that it had been magicked away.

Healer Jordan invited the five roommates to sit on tree stumps in a close circle in the center of the amphitheater. This time they were not all squinched onto one bench. Gemma guided Harry to one and he heard Healer Jordan helping Aminah find another. Gemma sat next to Harry on his left side, she was close enough that she could lean close and touch his arm. Tony sat on the tree stump next to him.