CHAPTER 59
By the time she was done stitching, the man was out—whether that was from the pain, the blood loss, or the alcohol he had chugged she wasn’t sure.
Her lower arms were covered in blood, but seemingly, the job was done.
She had managed to not only stitch it up but to stop the bleeding too, at least down to a light ooze.
And then thankfully after tying the bandages and gauze tight, even when she removed the tourniquet, there didn’t seem to be too much of a problem.
No, the problem was the fact that there were nine other men and she had easily taken over an hour tending to his wounds.
She felt awful for not immediately searching for them, but she had checked the horizon so many times as she had paddled back and even as she had dragged him inside, and even in her tower, she had seen nothing.
If she had to guess, he must have been adrift for several hours, so depending on when—or if—the boat sunk and depending on the currents, they could be on a very different trajectory than he had been.
And it wasn’t like she could have just left the man. He truly couldn’t have afforded any more blood loss.
So while she was sure she had made a good decision, she couldn’t help worrying, and after she quickly washed off her arms with a jug of water and some soap, she returned to the tower, her heart in her throat, and searched.
Because she knew if those men were out there and she had missed them, Kallias likely would have gone for them.
And whether they were fishers or merchants or heaven forbid, pirates, she imagined all of them would have quite a few ideas about how to make a profit off a mermaid.