Chapter 26. Put Back Together

Healer Mardibold pushed past the Thain. Seizing Ferdi’s shoulder, he spoke urgently. ‘Ferdi! Are you with us?’

Ferdi blinked and said blearily, ‘O there you are, Mardi. For once I’m glad to see you.’

Mardi exchanged worried glances with the Thain, and Pippin called over his shoulder, ‘Fetch Woodruff! Make haste!’

Samwise swooped upon little Goldi. From the blood they’d followed, he didn’t think the tiny lass ought to be there when Mardi began his examination.

 ‘But I not done,’ Goldi objected, but then she brightened. ‘Is it time for the pic-a-nic?’

Sam seized on this idea. ‘Picnic, yes! Ellie and Fro will take you on a picnic,’ he said, turning towards the door.

Goldi squirmed, turning in her father’s arms to wave over his shoulder. ‘Bye-bye, Ferdi!’ she called cheerily. ‘Bye-bye!’

Pippin had already turned up the lamp and brought it over. Mardi stripped away the blanket, eliciting a protest from Ferdi. ‘Cold,’ the head of escort mumbled, grabbing feebly at the retreating soft warmth.

 ‘Steady, lad,’ Mardi said automatically. He looked first at the bloody leg, pulling away enough of the makeshift bandage to get an idea of damages. Next he fished a clean handkerchief from his pocket and laid it on the wound.

 ‘What can I do?’ Pippin asked, hovering.

Mardi took his hand and placed it over the source of the heaviest bleeding. ‘Press here,’ he said. ‘Firm pressure, now.’

 ‘Hurts,’ Ferdi protested.

Mardi placed his hand on the Thain’s and bore down. ‘I know, lad,’ he said to Ferdi. ‘What needs must be, endure must we.’

 ‘Devote your time to healing,’ Ferdi mumbled. ‘Your poetry is sadly lacking.’

 ‘It was not of my making,’ Mardi said with dignity. Now that Pippin was applying pressure to the leg, he rapidly completed his examination. ‘Does this hurt?’ he said, gently touching the bruised ribs.

 ‘Of course it hurts,’ Ferdi said. ‘What did you expect?’

 ‘Where else are you injured?’ Mardi said, paying no heed to rhetorical questions.

  ‘Bow arm,’ Ferdi said, gesturing vaguely. ‘And my pony fell upon me and squashed me as flat as a spider when a lass has finished screeching and taken action.’

 ‘Your pony fell upon you?’ Mardi said in dismay.

 ‘Aye, rolled me out like pastry for a pie,’ Ferdi said, ‘but ‘twasn’t her fault. She lost her footing in the furrows.’

Mardi looked to the Thain. ‘He’s out of his head,’ he said.

Ferdi half sat up and Mardi had to push him down again. ‘ ‘s truth!’ he protested.

 ‘Of course it is,’ Mardi soothed, then to the hovering hobbits he added, ‘Come, let us take him to the infirmary. He needs more than I can do for him here.’

With three hobbits on a side, they picked up the coverlet that he lay upon and brought him as swiftly as they could to the infirmary. Pippin maintained his hold on Ferdi’s leg.

Woodruff met them halfway to the infirmary, asking quick questions that Mardi answered in the incomprehensible language that healers use amongst themselves. ‘Speak clearly,’ Ferdi complained, trying to raise his head. ‘I want to know if I’m dying or not!’

 ‘You’re not dying!’ Pippin said grimly.

 ‘When did you become a healer?’ Ferdi demanded.

 ‘You’re not dying,’ Woodruff snapped. ‘Now lie down!’

 ‘That’s better,’ Ferdi grumbled, reassured to have a genuine healer abusing... er... caring for him.

They laid him down upon a table and eased the coverlet from under him. ‘Steady on,’ Woodruff said with a hand on Ferdi’s shoulder.

 ‘Cold,’ he mumbled, his head moving restlessly back and forth. ‘So cold... please...’

 ‘Warmed blankets!’ Woodruff snapped, and soon Ferdi was wrapped neatly in heated wool, all but the bloody leg, with hot flannel-wrapped bricks tucked around him.

 ‘Stay with us, Ferdi,’ Mardi said, forcing cheeriness into his voice. Assistants were rapidly assembling the necessary materials and soon one held a basin in place while another rolled Ferdi onto his stomach and pulled the injured leg free of the table, holding it suspended over the basin.

As Woodruff and Mardibold hastily washed up, an assistant emptied a jar of boiled water over the leg. Blood, dirt and water ran down into the basin. Woodruff stepped in with a threaded needle whilst Mardi pulled the edges of the wound back. The bleeder was quickly tied off, and then Woodruff stepped back and gestured to the assistants waiting with more water.

 ‘Again,’ Woodruff said, and again the wound was washed, and yet a fourth and fifth jar were dumped while Woodruff rotated the leg to ensure the most thorough cleansing. When the healer was satisfied, the basin was emptied for the last time and held under the leg to catch the remaining water that was draining.

 ‘Now we get down to business,’ Woodruff murmured. She nodded to her assistants, who began to unwrap the blankets from parts of Ferdi, cutting away his torn and filthy clothing, washing him with warm water, drying him well and wrapping him up again. They ignored his complaints, of course, and stayed out of Woodruff’s and Mardi’s way as the healers worked over the leg.

Diamond entered the infirmary. ‘I heard that Ferdi was found,’ she said, and stopped to see the operation proceeding.

Pippin moved from his observation point and hugged his wife. ‘Alive and well,’ he said.

 ‘I beg to differ,’ came Ferdi’s muffled voice.

Diamond couldn’t help laughing. She bent close to Ferdi’s head and said, ‘What’s your favourite meal, Ferdi? I’m going to order it from the kitchens right now!’

 ‘Liver and onions,’ Woodruff said firmly, not looking up from her work.

 ‘I hate liver!’ Ferdi protested.

 ‘Nevertheless, that is what you’ll be eating over the next few days,’ Woodruff said. Looking to Diamond, she added, ‘A nice steak-and-kidney pie would not go amiss.’

 ‘That’s more like it,’ Ferdi said.

 ‘I meant for myself,’ Woodruff said, but she smiled as she looked back down at her handiwork. She had trimmed away loose scraps of flesh and skin, shaped the wound as best she could, and loosely stitched the opening to allow for drainage. ‘However, I think we can arrange the same for you... if you eat the liver first, that is, and drink all the liquid I prescribe for you.’

Mardi placed a clean dressing on the wound and bandaged the leg loosely. ‘There we are,’ he said.

The washers were working on Ferdi’s torso now, and Diamond kissed her husband and made a hasty exit, saying, ‘I’ll order dinner.’

Woodruff probed the bruises on Ferdi’s ribs, saying, ‘Does that hurt?’

As the assistants rolled Ferdi onto his side, he blinked in Pippin’s direction. ‘Why do healers always ask that?’ he said plaintively. ‘I told them it hurt, already, and it has not ceased from hurting...’

Mardi was examining the bow arm, having carefully removed the leather brace with its toothmarks sunk deep. ‘Powerful jaws, that one had,’ he remarked conversationally. ‘I do believe he would have crushed the bone, had the brace not been there.’

 ‘And what am I to do for shooting?’ Ferdi grumbled. ‘He crushed the brace!’

 ‘Have Hally make you another,’ Pippin soothed. ‘I’ll send a quick post rider to Woody End right away to tell him of your mishap, and to ask your sister to come.’

 ‘No,’ Ferdi said unexpectedly. ‘Don’t worry Rosemary! Why, the way the Tooks talk she’ll be setting out to bury me!’

 ‘I’ll have Diamond compose the message,’ Pippin said in the same calming tones.

 ‘All clean and dry!’ Woodruff announced, sounding pleased. The assistants had finished their washing and drying and had swaddled Ferdi in clean, freshly warmed blankets.

 ‘Cold,’ Ferdi complained again.

 ‘I have just the thing for you, Master Ferdibrand,’ Woodruff said, taking the steaming mug an assistant was extending. ‘A nice hot drink will warm you nicely, and more where that came from.’

 ‘None of your potions now,’ Ferdi said truculently as they sat him up.

 ‘It’s broth,’ Woodruff said, ‘rich, hot, broth. Drink it down now, before I change my mind and order you a double portion of liver and no steak-and-kidney pie.’

 ‘Can’t you do something?’ Ferdi appealed to Pippin.

Pippin patted his cousin’s blanketed shoulder. ‘I’m that sorry, Ferdi,’ he said. ‘She’s the healer, you know, and I’m only Thain.’

***

Thanks to Lyllyn at HASA for her invaluable medical advice.