JingYi inclined her head in thanks, the knot in her chest loosening—just a little. “Then we begin now.”
The Omega hadn’t moved from where she’d left her earlier. With careful fingers, she withdrew the needles. They came out dark, stained with the impurities drawn from the woman’s body. Setting them aside, she checked for a pulse at the wrist.
A small improvement, but not enough yet.
She took out a few ingredients from her medicine chest to make her best blend for drawing poison down and out. She ground them in a small porcelain mortar, adding boiled water drop by drop until the paste thinned into a cloudy draught.
“Hold her upright, just enough so she can swallow,” she told Adelise. They worked together to brace the girl and brought a small cup to her lips. “Don’t hurry. Let it rest in her mouth before she swallows.”
When all the medicine was gone, she handed Adelise a cloth steeped in salt and warm water. “Wrap her feet with this—it will help guide the heat away.”
They worked in silence, and for the rest of the day, hours blurred into a grim rhythm. A key turning. A door groaning open. The stink of fever-sour air.
Some patients clung to them; others stared through them, minds too far gone to register touch. By the time they finished with the last Omega, her fingers ached and her knees throbbed. Sweat dampened her forehead, and hair matted to her skin.
When they emerged into the gallery again, Tedric peeled out of the shadows at the end of the passageway. With his navy velvet jacket and crisp white shirt, wrists dripping with lace, he looked out of place in this gloom. She caught a small gold pin on his lapel—a curious little sigil: a crown with a jagged linethrough the middle, as though struck by lightning. It was too deliberate to be mere adornment.
“I’ve sent your ridiculously complicated list to the Niewberg market,” he said, voice light, almost bored. “A guard will bring your roots and barks and whatever else by morning.”
Tedric’s gaze slid to Adelise. Beside her, JingYi felt the princess adjust—hips shifting, weight settling—and then Adelise’s arm hooked around hers, drawing her in.
“She should stay withme. I’ll see that she rests.”
Tedric half-raised an eyebrow. “Why not?” he drawled. “The two of you are guests of honour, after all.”
Once they stepped inside Adelise’s cell, the door clanged shut behind them.
Alone at last, after what felt like days.
But JingYi’s body reminded her it hadn’t forgiven her yet. A sharp cramp lanced through her lower abdomen, and she folded in half. The medicine chest fell from her hand with a clatter.
“Are you alright?” Adelise’s voice, sharp with concern.
JingYi managed a nod. “Give me a moment.”
She rushed behind the worn privacy screen as another cramp, deep and grinding, seized her abdomen. She braced a hand against the cold stone wall, breathing through the wave. When it passed, she lowered her undergarments.
The sight of the red smear sank her heart to the bottom of her stomach.
Not pregnant, then, if her flow came at last?
Her fingers trembled as she cleaned herself with the meagre water and rag provided. The physical evidence was a closure she hadn’t sought, answering a question she’d refused to fully ask.
What a relief,her practical mind whispered. What use could she have for a pregnancy in this dreadful place? Still, she hadn’t been prepared for this ache. She’d told herself she hadn’t been thinking of it—that there was no reason to.
But now, faced with the truth, the absence . . .
It felt like aloss.
When she emerged from behind the screen, the sight of the narrow pallet—thin blanket, straw sagging in the middle—was enough to pull at her like a tide. The moment she sank down onto it, her strength ebbed away. Adelise crouched beside her, bright grey eyes searching her face.
“Did . . . something terrible happen?”
JingYi tried to smile, but her chin wobbled. “No. I’m just . . . tired.”
Even as she spoke, a faint scent of spruce rose through the cell’s mildew-thick air. It reminded her of Alexander. An ache sharper than the cramp rolled over her.
Because here, under the weight of rock, she couldn’t even see the sky, let alone the blue of his eyes.
