Adrissu set out, walking at a rapid pace down to the town square, where he made a careful circuit of all the main streets and the side street that housed the Garden of Delight. He did not truly think Volkmar would have returned there after so long, but he lingered on the street anyway, watching people go in and out. But it seemed quiet and slow, only a handful of visitors entering in the hour Adrissu loitered around the building, and he left without any leads. He saw no sign of Volkmar as he continued around town, and eventually came back to the footpath that led to his tower. He doubted Volkmar had left the city, but wherever he was, he wasn’t walking about town.
When he came home, he methodically went through all the things Volkmar had left behind, as if he could make some sense of it all from what he had taken and what remained. Only about a week’s worth of clothes were gone from his closet, and most of his valuables had been left behind—though, Adrissu noted, Volkmar had taken a necklace with him that he particularly loved. Adrissu had bought it for him during one of their many trips, when they had spent the summer in the west of Autreth, visiting several small beachside towns that attracted tourists for their warm shores and lovely views. The necklace was a silver chain with a single, large blue pearl on it: one that could only be harvested in Naymere, along the western coast.
Maybe that was a good sign, he thought. Maybe he had brought it with him because deep down he knew Adrissu cared. Or maybe he had only been wearing it when he left and hadn’t thought to take it off. Adrissu couldn’t remember if he had been wearing it or not.
On the third day, Adrissu woke from a restless sleep, already feeling sick and hating himself. Never before had he felt so completely useless. He couldn’t even track his mate down in their own city, much less convince him to return. He thought of going out to look again, but Vesper curled heavy and tight around his shoulders.
Stay,he heard clearly from her.Sleep.
“How can I sleep when I don’t even know where he is?” he muttered, scowling at her. But she did not budge, and he didn’t have the will to fight. The cool weight of her on his bare shoulders was almost comforting in the summer heat, and he managed to sleep a little longer.
Adrissu woke with a start, uncertain of how long it had been, to the sound of someone pounding on his door. Vesper was slithering off him the moment he woke—they must have only just arrived, otherwise she would already be at the door.
Stranger, she thought. He scowled, getting up slowly; but the pounding on his door continued, so he descended the stairs, pulling a clean summer robe over him as he went.
The pounding stopped as he unlocked the door, and it swung open to reveal a spindly, fair-haired human that Adrissu did not recognize at first. He was red-faced and breathing hard, leaning forward with his hands on his knees as he squinted up at Adrissu.
“Headmaster Adrissu,” the man panted, and recognition dawned on him as he spoke. “I’m Dr. Allar with the surgeon’s office—”
“What are you doing here?” Adrissu interrupted, a chill overtaking him despite the afternoon heat. The human hesitated, looking at him with something like sympathy, and instantly his heart plummeted to the very bottom of his stomach. “What happened?”
“It’s your, ah, your husband—your partner, sir,” the doctor stammered, still breathing hard. “Well, he’s with us.”
“Whathappened?” Adrissu asked again, hissing through his teeth. The wood of the door cracked as he said it—he had clenched the door handle so forcefully, it splintered in his hand. Angrily, he yanked his hand away, looking back into the tower where Vesper was watching from the stairs. He waved his now-empty hand, sending his shoes sliding along the floor to him.
“I can tell you on the way, sir, you should really come with me,” the doctor continued. Adrissu stifled a growl of frustration, pulling his shoes on with one hand and reaching out with the other, until he felt his coin purse come sailing into his palm. Adrissu had never had to make use of the handful of physicians in town, and he guessed that they were not operating out of the goodness of their hearts.
“You said the surgeon’s office?” he said, stepping out of the tower and closing the door behind him. “Near the town square?”
“Yes, this way,” the man said, starting to turn. Adrissu seized his shoulder before he could get more than a step away. The doctor looked back at him, confused; but Adrissu snapped his fingers, thinking of the building where he knew the surgeon’s office to be. There was a lurching sensation, then they were standing in the town square.
“Gods above!” the doctor exclaimed, eyes wide as he looked about. A woman walking near them yelped at their sudden appearance, stumbling backward.
Despite the heavy exhaustion that immediately settled over him—teleportation was by far the most taxing magic he was capable of, even a short distance like this—Adrissu ignored them, pushing past the doctor to enter the building. The human seemed to shake himself and hurried after Adrissu.
“You should know before you see him,” he said quickly, jogging to catch up and pushing his hair out of his perspiring face. “He’s been here about an hour—he was hurt when someone found him and called us over, but we don’t know for how long. It’s—” He hesitated, and Adrissu stopped to look back at him, frowning. “It’s bad, to be honest, sir. I wanted to tell you before you saw him.”
“How bad?” Adrissu said. He already felt cold, but now he was shaking. “How bad?”
The doctor didn’t answer him right away, glancing away anxiously, and Adrissu had the cold realization that he had not brought him to help or comfort Volkmar. He had been in a rush to bring him to say goodbye.
Chapter Twenty
“Wherewashewhenyou found him?” Adrissu asked tersely, following more slowly, as Dr. Allar led him through the hallways of the physician’s office. His whole body felt numb with shock, but he had already been useless enough. He had to see this through, whatever was going to happen.
“A citizen found him collapsed in town, behind the inn near the harbor. He must have been robbed, but we don’t really know exactly what happened. He had a, well, a stab wound in the abdomen... He managed to walk out into the street before collapsing, where someone spotted him and brought him here. He woke up a bit and asked for you, but... I’m sorry.” He opened his mouth to say more, glancing back at him anxiously, then shook his head and only repeated, “I’m sorry.”
He stopped in front of a closed door, his hand hovering nervously over the handle.
“Let me in,” Adrissu said, his voice choked. “I need to see him.”
The man nodded and opened the door.
The first thing that struck him was the smell—blood and something like ammonia. The room was cramped, just large enough for one narrow bed and space on the sides for someone to walk by. In the center of it all was Volkmar, pallid and unmoving. Adrissu’s stomach lurched—already he looked like a corpse—but then he stirred slightly, eyelids fluttering, but not quite opening. A thick layer of bandages was wrapped around his abdomen just below his ribs, bloodied on his right side. His hair was a mess, dampened with sweat and sticking to his face. A nurse was on the other side of the bed, gathering a bundle of bloodied sheets in her arms. She glanced at them with a start, then pushed past them to hurry out the door, leaving them alone.
He couldn’t move, frozen in the doorway. His mate was dying, and he couldn’t move. Before, he had anguished over not being with Ruan when he died—now the thought of being with his mate as his life so obviously faded away made him want to flee in terror.
“The dagger cut him through the liver,” the doctor murmured next to him, shaking him from his stupor. “We’ve tried to stop the bleeding, but... By the time he got to us, it was already too far gone. We’ve done our best to make him comfortable. I’m... I’m sorry.”
