Chapter 59
Aunt Yeung was right about the white fog being bad for one’s health though I don’t think she meant it like this.
A pair of burly women in robes rushed towards me and Gou Ngaam, carrying a moaning man between them on a makeshift stretcher.
"Lay him here," said Gou Ngaam, indicating the small bit of open floor in front of her. "Misha."
"Got it." I held out the pair of scissors to the snake woman and she snipped a neat line down the front of the unconscious man’s bloodied shirt.
The two women looked between them but Gou Ngaam made a shooing motion. "Go do what needs doing," she said. "Leave Sam-gor to us."
Beside me the little Gou Wun had already rustled up a wad of dense cloth for staunching the wound.
"Get the needles and thread ready," said Gou Ngaam as she placed her hands on either side of the blade wound. I couldn’t see her channel her qi into the man to search for foreign bodies but I felt it. After a moment she lifted her hands. "Needles."
I held out a cloth roll with fine acupuncture needles neatly stowed along it. She took four and deftly inserted them around the wound.
At the beginning of the evening, when everyone’s energy had still been high, Gou Ngaam had been able to take the time to tell me the names of each of the acupuncture points she was targeting and why, but now everyone was too tired for that, most of all the head healer.
The blood from the man’s wound slowed to a trickle as the last needle found its mark. "Thread," said Gou Ngaam and I handed her a pair of scissors with a threaded crescent moon shaped needle held tightly in its blades.
She took it and began to stitch the wound.