CHAPTER 51
Penrys wasn’t able to sit easily on the ground, so she perched on the edge of her bedframe, her weak leg wrapped between knee and ankle with cloth bound around two pieces of the shorter stick that had pulled it straight, all of it resting on a pack that Najud had maneuvered into place. She couldn’t eat much of the dinner—chunks of squirrel, fresh killed, and the ever-present cabbage—but the luxury of handling her own bowl and her own spoon was very welcome.
After the meal, Haraq whittled on the longer of the sticks she’d discarded, and presented her with the crutch she’d demanded. He’d reduced the fork at the top to a flat stub, thoroughly padded, and once he’d held it against her to check the position, he bound a hand-grip into place, stout and easy to hold with a gloved hand
