The herbs smelled strong and very potent as Zorah mixed them with several concoctions she had created. Aldous stood in the wooden tub in the small bathing room off the healers' quarters and worked the bundle through the water the way Zorah had shown him, pressing it against his arms and shoulders and letting the water run dark with it.
Zorah had explained what each herb was for while she prepared them, tying them together carefully so she didn’t break them and talking to him as though they had been friends for a long time. She told him the blackroot would strip the scent of the sanctuary from his skin. The grey moss would do the same for anything that clung to his hair. She said by the time he stepped out and dried off, he would smell like nothing more than a man who had been living a rou
