“Yeah, I’ve had broken bones,” John assured the boy. “I fought in wars and I taught fighting.” “I’m not going to list all the breaks I’ve had,” Mishtali insisted. “I don’t know all of mine,” Ann admitted. “Some were from when I wasn’t myself and I don’t remember them. My sister says I don’t want to know. Prince Bacna had over fifty broken bones.” “That all probably hurt worse than this,” the boy said, gesturing to his splinted hand. “I’m sure that hurts plenty,” Ann assured him. “But as soon as a healer’s available, we’ll get it healed. Then it won’t hurt at all.” “And there’s a place you can stay until it’s safe for you to go home,” John added. He’d found the boy in the old abandoned market near the coast. The kid had been hiding from his dad who’d broken his hand. John had tried to contact the healers, but they were all busy. The others had been nearby with the coach and had come to give them a ride to the home. Mishtali had set and splinted the hand to the best of his ability. “The foster home?” The boy guessed. “Yes,” Mishtali agreed. “Ann, you don’t normally get sick because of your magic and it never lasts long. Do injuries heal faster too?” John asked. He wanted to distract Mishtali. He could see the older dragon was struggling to maintain his temper over the boy’s injury and its cause. The boy didn’t need that. Ann shrugged. “Most of my injuries either I used a healing potion on or there was a healer to heal me. I dislocated my jaw once and it was bad for three years, but that’s because I couldn’t get it lined up right on my own.” “Jaws are tricky,” Mishtali said. “Worse than setting a hand.” “Do you remember that leg you set?” John asked. Mishtali frowned. “A leg?” “On Earth, during World War 2.” “Oh, you mean that nut we served with? Jerry was his name?” “Jesse,” John corrected him. “What happened?” The boy asked. “When Mishtali and I were on Earth, there was a terrible war. We both helped fight in it and served together. We got separated from our squad with this guy named Jesse. The three of us were hiding in an abandoned building when the enemy found us. Jesse led them away from us so we could escape, and started a fire so they couldn’t follow us once they realized they only had one of us. We got out, but he was trapped. He made his way to the roof, but he was stuck. The building was ten stories, twice as tall as the palace. There was no way for him to go back down, even if he could get past the enemy soldiers, so he jumped off the roof. Mishtali and I saw it, but we were too far away by that time to see what had happened. We assumed he killed himself to avoid being captured. “We hid in another building while we waited for a new moon so we had a better chance of slipping out of the city unseen. Four days later, Jesse showed up with a mostly healed broken leg. Mishtali had to rebreak it to set it properly. By the new moon, a few days later, he was able to walk on it enough that we could travel.” “He jumped out of a ten-story window and lived?” Ann asked. “He must have been a healer and was hiding it.” “There are no healers on Earth,” John insisted. “He wouldn’t have needed me to set his leg, if he was a healer,” Mishtali pointed out. “Maybe he was an immortal,” the boy suggested. “Their magic makes them not get sick as much.” Ann poked her head out the window of the carriage. “Morina, do Ertonians heal broken bones faster than others?” “Maybe a little. Why?” Morina called from where she drove the coach. “I’ll tell you at the home,” Ann called and sat back down. “It probably wasn’t fully broken,” John reasoned. “Or maybe there are healers there and we didn’t realize it.” At the home, Ann told Morina what they had discussed. Morina frowned and told her not to worry about it. Ann took that to mean she and the Ertonian Senate would look into the matter.