39
FARES
On the second day of the Emerging, the doctor goes back to Sandhorne. Before he departs, he gives Fares a velvet pouch tied with cords of gold and bulging with dried leaves of kratom.
He shows Fares how to grind the leaves into dust, and says how often he should boil a kettle of tea for Tomas.
Fares listens closely. He stuffs the doctor’s pockets with coin and says he should go to a smithy at once and order a kneecap made of steel.
The doctor knows the prince – crown or no crown – and does as he’s bidden, and bows deeply, too.
“See?” Fares says. He’s smiling again, now Tomas is awake and weakly sipping a cup of kratom leaf tea.
“I see a man, like any man, bowing to gold,” Hayden says. But she’s teasing him. “Men care about nothing but flesh and glory and gold.” Once,
