Cursor's Fury (Codex Alera #3)(26)

The little lonely pang went though him again. "I don't want to get over it."

"Way of the world, Calderon." Max reached down to slide Tavi's good arm over one of his broad shoulders and lifted him from the ground. Max helped him over to their camp's fire, where Magnus was pouring steaming water into a mostly full washbasin.

Twilight lingered for a long time in the Amaranth Vale, at least compared to Tavi's mountainous home. Every night, the trio had stopped traveling an hour before sundown, in order to give Tavi lessons in the use of Legion battle tactics and techniques. The lessons had been arduous, mostly practice exercises with a weighted rudius, and they'd left Tavi's arm too sore to move after the first couple of evenings. Max hadn't judged Tavi's arm ready to train until two weeks of exercises had hardened the muscles in it into sharp, heavy angles beneath the skin. Another week had served to frustrate Tavi thoroughly with the seemingly clumsy techniques he was being forced to learn-but he had to admit that he'd never been in better fighting condition.

Until Max had broken his wrist, at least.

Max eased Tavi down beside the basin, and Magnus guided the broken wrist down into the warm water. "You ever awake through a watercrafted healing, boy?"

"Lots of times," Tavi said. "My aunt had to see to me more than once."

"Good, good," Magnus approved. He paused for a moment, then closed his eyes and rested the palm of his hand lightly on the surface of the water. Tavi felt the liquid stir in a swift ripple, as though an unseen eel had darted through the water around his hand, then the warm numbness of the healing enveloped his hand.

The pain faded, and Tavi let out a groan of relief. He sagged forward, trying not to move his arm. He wasn't sure it was possible to fall asleep sitting up, and with both eyes slightly open, but he seemed to do so, because the next time he glanced up, night had fallen, and the aroma of stew filled the air.

"Right, then," Magnus said wearily, and withdrew his hand from the washbasin. "Try that."

Tavi drew his arm out of the tepid water of the washbasin and flexed his fingers. Soreness made the movement painful, but the swelling had all but vanished, and the throbbing pain had faded to a shadow of what it had been before.

"It's good," Tavi said quietly. "I didn't know you were a healer."

"Just an assistant healer during my stint in the Legions. But this kind of thing was fairly routine. It'll be tender. Eat as much as you can at dinner and keep it elevated tonight if you want to keep it from aching."

"I know," Tavi assured him. He rose and offered the healer his restored hand. Magnus smiled a bit whimsically and took it. Tavi helped him up, and they both went to the stewpot over the fire. Tavi was ravenous, as always after a healing. He wolfed down the first two bowls of stew without pausing, then scraped a third from the bottom of the pot and slowed down, soaking tough trailbread in the stew to soften it into edibility.

"Can I ask you something?" he said to Max.

"Sure," the big Antillan said.

"Why bother to teach me the technique?" Tavi asked. "I'll be serving as an officer, not fighting in the ranks."

"Never can tell," Max drawled. "But even if you never fight there, you need to know what it's about. How a legionare thinks, and why he acts as he does."

Tavi grunted.

"Plus, to play your part, you've got to be able to see when some fish is screwing it up."

"Fish?" Tavi asked.

"New recruit," Max clarified. "First couple of weeks they're always flailing around like landed fish instead of legionares. It's customary for experienced men to point out every mistake a fish makes in as humiliating a fashion as possible. And in the loudest voice manageable."