The Apothecary Diaries Book 7

Strategist Down

Maomao sighed as she stood doing the laundry under the baking sun. This was really a huge pain. Not the laundry, no. The net she'd found herself caught in since Aylin had given them that riddle and they had solved it. All morning, Yao and En'en had been giving her the evil eye, making sure she didn't sell them out.

I'm in this too, huh...

That explained why En'en was smack next to her, her bucket right beside Maomao's. She was working industriously on some bandages, and because she'd thought ahead and gotten some soapberry pulp ready, the wrappings came clean nicely.

After the bandages were cleaned, they would be boiled. Blood could have toxins in it, and getting other people's blood on you or ingesting it could spread infection. Then there were sexually transmitted diseases, whose ravages Maomao was all too familiar with.

Yao was out with the medical officers; they were going to teach her how to shop for medicines.

I wanted to go on that trip, Maomao thought, but she had been left behind, along with En'en, who had felt Maomao shouldn't be left alone. It was terrifically boring. So boring that before long she found herself wanting to take it out on her companion.

"Here I thought laundry was maids' work," she said.

"I never once said such a thing," En'en replied, and it was true—it was the now-dismissed court ladies who had said it. Maomao wondered how they were getting along these days. Given that neither Yao nor En'en had looked particularly distressed by their departure, it seemed the ladies weren't so much old friends as sycophants who had been trying to ingratiate themselves with Yao when they heard about her family background. Unfortunately for them, Yao wasn't soft enough to stick her neck out for such fair-weather toadies.

"I wanted to go on the shopping trip," Maomao grumbled.

"So did I," En'en said. "For that matter, they could have just taken you, for all I care." In other words, she'd just wanted to be with Yao. It turned out neither of them was exactly happy, so Maomao resolved to stop griping about it.

They were just wringing out the washed bandages and putting them in a bucket when several people came running into the medical office. Maomao squinted, trying to see what was happening, and saw they had someone on a stretcher.

"An injury?" Maomao asked as she and En'en went back to the office, carrying the buckets. With the real doctors out shopping, the apprentice physician was the only one watching the place, so they figured they'd better get back and see what was going on.

"Uh! Umm..." The apprentice physician was in a tizzy, lost for what to do. Given their proximity to the military camp, injured men were hardly uncommon here, and even the apprentice should have been more than comfortable with them by now. When Maomao worked her way into the gaggle of people and saw who was lying on the stretcher, however, she couldn't refrain from a disgusted "Ugh!"

Who should she find but the monocled freak laid out on the stretcher, tossing with pain.

"They say he's been poisoned," the apprentice told her, his face pale.

"Unbelievable..." Reluctantly, Maomao took a look at the eccentric strategist. He was pale and shaking, holding his stomach. Which was fine as far as it went, until...

"I c-can't hold it in..."

At that, needless to say, his stretcher bearers paled, then hefted him up and hurried him off to the toilet. Let us refrain from saying which end "it" came out of.

It came in waves for the next hour or so, until the strategist's condition finally stabilized. Expelling so much had dried him out, though, so Maomao and the others gave him water with some salt and sugar mixed in to make it easier to absorb. For the record, it was the apprentice physician who administered the drink; Maomao only stood by and watched. She knew it might have been even easier for him to drink if they'd mixed it with a little juice, but she felt no obligation to go that far. At least he was able to get the water down. When it came to vomiting and diarrhea, staying hydrated was key.