The taste of blood was in his mouth and he had a cloth across his eyes, a heavy cloth fragrant with some unguent. It smelled of cloves, he thought.
Dunk groped at his face, pulled the cloth away. Above him torchlight played against a high ceiling. Ravens were walking on the rafters overhead, peering down with small black eyes and quork ing at him. I am not blind, at least. He was in a maester's tower. The walls were lined with racks of herbs and potions in earthen jars and vessels of green glass. A long trestle table nearby was covered with parchments, books, and queer bronze instruments, all spattered with droppings from the ravens in the rafters.
He could hear them muttering at one another.
He tried to sit. It proved a bad mistake. His head swam, and his left leg screamed in agony when he put the slightest weight upon it. His ankle was wrapped in linen, he saw, and there were linen strips around his chest and shoulders, too.
""Be still"". A face appeared above him, young and pinched, with dark brown eyes on either side of a hooked nose.
Dunk knew that face. The man who owned it was all in gray, with a chain collar hanging loose about his neck, a maester's chain of many metals. Dunk grabbed him by the wrist. ""Where?.. "".
""Coldmoat"", said the maester. ""You were too badly injured to return to Standfast, so Lady Rohanne commanded us to bring you here. Drink this"". He raised a cup of… something… to Dunk's lips. The potion had a bitter taste, like vinegar, but at least it washed away the taste of blood.
"
"Dunk made himself drink it all. Afterward he flexed the fingers of his sword hand, and then the other. At least my hands still work, and my arms. ""What… what did I hurt?""
""What not?"" The maester snorted. ""A broken ankle, a sprained knee, a broken collarbone, bruising… your upper torso is largely green and yellow and your right arm is a purply black. I thought your skull was cracked as well, but it appears not. There is that gash in your face, ser.
You will have a scar, I fear. Oh, and you had drowned by the time we pulled you from the water"".
""Drowned?"" said Dunk.
""I never suspected that one man could swallow so much water, not even a man as large as you, ser. Count yourself fortunate that I am ironborn. The priests of the Drowned God know how to drown a man and bring him back, and I have made a study of their beliefs and customs"".
I drowned. Dunk tried to sit again, but the strength was not in him.
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