Page 98 of Keldori By Daybreak

“I feel great!” In fact, I’d never felt this good in my life. I could fight ten rotsbane. I could climb the Second Sentinel. I could—my stomach rumbled. “God, I’m starving. Do we have food?”

I glanced around for something to eat but didn’t recognize where we were. Candles sent shadows dancing up the bare walls of the room, and incense burned somewhere nearby. I tried to sit up to get a better look, and my white linen gown shifted with the movement.

I froze, staring at the fabric. “Where did my clothes go?”

“They smelled like a bog.” Ciarán did his best to come off as nonchalant, but a twinge of embarrassment tugged at our tether. “The healer put you in that, but Orla dropped off some new clothes for you.”

“But my hoodie—”

“It’s fine. Orla’s getting your other clothes cleaned.”

I nodded. “Right. And where are we?”

“At a healer’s in the citadel. She’s a Ceremender, so she specializes in head injuries, but you’d developed a fever too.”

“And how long have I been at this healer’s?” I dared to ask.

“Nearly a day.”

“A day?” I felt myself blanching.

“That’s not bad for the extent of damage the Ceremender had to repair, and your fever broke around midday. You should be fine, but the Ceremender mentioned some temporary side-effects from the treatment.” Ciarán helped me sit, and I rubbed my head.

“Side-effects like what?”

“I think her exact words were a ‘detachment from reality and a mercurial sense of whimsy’.”

“Oh, no. Not whimsy!” I teased, then pulled a bit of lichen from the tangles of my hair. “I’m growing moss.”

“That’s probably been there since the flood.” He grimaced.

“Gross.”

“There’s a bath in the back. Don’t worry. It’s private.”

I swung my legs over the side of the cot. My head felt light and woozy, but it no longer pounded behind my eyes and temples. I could think more clearly than I had been able to in days.

Fresh bandages wrapped around my forearms. I’d completely forgotten about the wounds my bone blades had left there, and until that moment, I’d also forgotten about the wound they had left in Ciarán’s flank.

“You!” I grabbed at the hem of his tunic. “Are you okay?”

“Wren—!” His face flushed as I pulled his shirt up and pressed a hand against the fresh bandages there. Whoever had treated the injury had also tended to what remained of his wounds from the rotsbane in the Second Sentinel, though scars peeked out from under gauze and wrappings.

“Does it feel okay?” I prodded hard at the bandages.

He took my wrist into his hand again and let his tunic drop.

“I’m fine, now that you’re awake. Come, Blue. You smell simply offensive.” He helped me to the stone bath in the back room and pointed to where a clean set of clothes waited in the corner. “Those are the clothes Orla bought you. You can change into them once you’re ready.”

“Bought? We have money?”

“We do after selling a bottle of Skal. It’s highly valued everywhere in Skalterra, but we’re in the Barony now, and Tamora keeps tight control over who gets Skal and when.”

“Eck. Tamora. We’ll just have to drop a lake on her next,” I giggled, then froze at the sound of my trilling laughter. I’d never made a sound like that before. I laughed harder.

“Yes, very funny and a great plan, but again, even here on the outskirts of the Barony, we are in her house. Be careful talking about drowning her.”

I shooed him away from the bath and let myself be greedy with the amount of time I spent in the hot water. I unraveled the bandages on my arms, revealing pink lines of scar where my blade had cut through muscle. The healer may have specialized in brains, but she’d done an excellent job magicking the skin back into place.