Dragons of the Watch - Donita K. Paul [79]
She pulled out a handkerchief, folded it, and applied it to the first boy’s head. The child interfered by trying to get his hands back to the wound.
“Stop it,” Ellie fussed. “Your hands are filthy, and the cut will become infected. It’s a small wound, but head cuts bleed a lot. Stop it and let me hold this. It’ll quit bleeding if you just let me hold the pad there. Am I going to have to sit on your hands? Stop it!”
Soo-tie laughed. “Sit on his hands!”
Bealomondore sat the other boy down, told him to lean his head back and apply pressure under his nose. He found the abandoned cloth from Ellie’s basket, wadded it up, and shoved it into the boy’s hand. “Use that.”
He moved closer to the boy with the head wound. “Let me see, Ellie.”
She pulled the cloth pad away for a moment.
Bealomondore inspected the boy’s scalp. “It probably could use stitches, but it will have to do without. If we keep it clean, he’ll heal up just fine.”
Ellie returned the pad. She took a deep breath and sat down next to her patient. Leaning him against her in a more comfortable position, she managed to get a better hold of the wiggling child to keep pressure on his wound. Tears still stained her cheeks, and she hunched first one shoulder and then the other to scrub them away.
She sighed again. Bealomondore couldn’t quite determine whether she was weary or disappointed, disgusted or resolved to carry through with her agenda.
“My name is Ellicinderpart Clarenbessipawl. What is yours?”
Bealomondore looked away, grimaced, and turned back. She hadn’t given up.
The boy sniffed. “Porky.”
“Well, Porky, you and your friends have no manners. But that is going to change.” She addressed the bloody-nosed boy. “And what is your name?”
“Cinder.”
“Cinder, you are going to learn to enjoy life. You will find it is good instead of bad, fun instead of boring, and safe instead of dangerous.”
He lowered his head to look straight at her. The rag muffled his question. “Do you have more of them daggarts?”
“I do.”
He put his head back again. “I don’t think we want manners. Daggarts are all right. But I don’t know about the manners.”
“No manners, no daggarts,” said Ellie.
Bealomondore shook his head. How did she plan on withholding daggarts until she got the manners she wanted? So far, they’d engaged in two battles with the horde.
And the horde had won both battles.
“The bleeding has slowed.” Ellie dabbed at Porky’s wound with another clean cloth.
“There’s an apothecary a few blocks over.” Bealomondore looked up from washing Cinder’s face. “We could walk over there and get some sticking plaster.”
“Where are the dragons of the watch?” Ellie looked up and down the street as if they would suddenly appear. “It would be handy if they kept tabs on us instead of on all the empty parts of the city.”
“Are you proposing to organize the little band?”
“I bet they have followed the same routine for decades.”
“You’re probably right, but I don’t know how easily they can be persuaded to adopt another schedule.”
Ellie pushed on the boy leaning against her. “Come on, Porky. We’re going to take a walk.”
Soo-tie jumped up to go with them. “Does he need stitches? Are there stitches at that place? Are you going to make stitches? What kind of stitches? Like sewing? Eww! Will it hurt?”
Porky scowled at the girl and put up clenched fists. “You think I’m going to cry. I’m not. So you won’t have a thing to tell on me.”
“Hush, children,” said Ellie. She patted Porky’s shoulder. She had to look up to see his face, but she determined to treat him just like Gustus. “You chomp down on all those angry words. Think of something nice to say. You too, Soo-tie.”
Cinder snickered.
Ellie pointed a finger at the boy tagging along. “You aren’t out of it, Cinder. You think of something nice to say to both Porky and Soo-tie.”
Cinder made a face like he smelled cooking cabbage. “I don’t know anything nice to say.” He glowered at Soo-tie. “You go first.