It took three days and the help of a rather expensive healer before Eamond and the others were properly mended.
Vale and Lysandra had healed first — thanks to their sturdier constitutions and quick treatments — and while they could have returned to the orphanage right away, they had refused to leave Eamond behind.
They stayed, sharing awkward jokes and steady presences that helped chase away the worst of the nightmares.
Jake and Syd, whose wounds were lighter, had gone ahead to the orphanage to reassure everyone.
But Garret… Garret's scars were deeper than flesh. Even though the healer had done everything to mend the boy's body, nothing could erase the tremble in his hands or the way he jolted awake from shallow sleep, breathless and afraid.
Eamond had worried, watching Garret twist his tiny hands in the blanket, haunted by what no child should have to survive. Maybe, he'd thought, going back home would help heal what medicine could not.
