‘You got to feel better after that,’ Carson observed approvingly. ‘Here. Eat some of this. It will settle your gut.’

‘What is it?’

‘Hardtack softened with hot water. Works like a sponge in the gut, if you got a man with a sour belly or one you got to sober up fast for a day’s work.’

‘It looks disgusting.’

‘Yes, it does. Eat it.’

He hadn’t had any food, and the aftertaste of the dragon blood still lingered in his mouth and nose. Anything, he reasoned, had to be better than that. He took up the wide spoon and stirred the muck.

The hunter’s boy Davvie entered the deckhouse. ‘What’s going on?’ he demanded. There was a note of urgency in his voice that puzzled Sedric. He put a spoonful of soggy hardtack in his mouth. It was all texture and no taste.

‘Nothing you need to worry about, Davvie.’ Carson was firm with the boy. ‘And you have work to do. Get after mending those nets. I’m betting we won’t be moving from here for most of the day. We set a net out in the current, we may get a haul of fish, maybe two. But only if the net is mended. So get to it.’

‘What about him, what’s the matter with him?’ The boy’s voice sounded almost accusing.

‘He’s sick, not that it’s any of your business. You get about your work and leave your elders and your betters to their own. Out.’

Davvie didn’t quite slam the door but shut it more firmly than he needed to. ‘Boys!’ Carson exclaimed in disgust. ‘They think they know what they want, but if I gave it to him –well, he’d find out that he just wasn’t ready for it. But I’m sure you know what I mean.’

Sedric swallowed the sticky mass in his mouth. It had absorbed the dragon blood taste. He ate another spoonful, and then realized that Carson was looking at him, waiting for a response. ‘I don’t have any children. I’m not married,’ he said, and took another spoonful. Carson had been right. His stomach was settling and his head was clearing.