An orderly stopped him outside the door.
"Please your Highness, the doctor hates to be disturbed when he's stitching."
He growled in impatience, but nevertheless moved down the hallway, and lit a cigar; waiting. It would do no good to piss off the old goat.
When the translucent geezer did finally appear, he sent the orderly scurrying, and motioned the irate ruler and his cloud of smoke to approach.
"Well?"
"I've stitched up the deepest areas on her back, the rest I really can't do much for. I had her on half-mushroom, but I've upped it to full-mushroom, now that I don't have to worry about things healing too fast."
"That severe?" The King raised an eyebrow.
"Neither any individual or combined injury was life threatening, but the bastards that did this knew how to make it hurt. Without any help it's a long and painful recovery. It will be easier for her and for us this way."
The old doctor paused for a moment and looked at the ceiling before continuing, "They left her head alone though."
The King looked passed the doctor and into the ward. All he could see was a mass of brown hair and a pale arm hooked up to the IV. The arm was covered in huge black and blue bruises.
He dropped his stogie and ground it out with his heel, his blood boiling, and abruptly turned and left with what only can be described as a roar.
xxx
He had found her as they had left her, lashed to a pole just on the border of his lands. He could still see her as he and the border patrol had come over the hill, broken and covered in her own blood. But the doctor was right, they had left her face alone save for a swollen and bleeding lip. They had known what they were doing, what and who they were attacking. It was all for the sake of sending a message.
He could still feel her small frame in his arms as he lifted her to the lakitu that had flown her back to the castle.
So small
So fragile
He longed to send an appropriate reply.
He slowed his pace, and sighed. No, he was a monarch, and he couldn't bring more suffering to his people.
He would have to hope that harming a Traveler would have its own consequences.
