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“There is nothing we can do,” Cari said. “We can’t open a portal. We don’t even know where they are.”
I felt a slight change in temperature as Casja’s face contorted with fear.
I wished Lord Petret was here to calm her down since I did not know how to accomplish that. But he was walking around the prison, helping out the other prisoners as they quietly prepared to leave as though our plan would surely work.
Casja closed her eyes and somehow, made herself relax. The air around me returned to normal.
“But...” She started.
“No buts...” Cari stopped her, turning around to face Casja as she added. “We have no choice but to wait...”
“Let's at least think about what we will do if...”
“Be quiet,” I said. “We don’t want to attract any guards our way.”
“There are no guards around,” Cari said. “I feel no free minds inside the prison other than us and the prisoners.”
“Still,” I said, feeling frustrated. “It’s better to be cautious.”
Cari seemed like she was about to object again, but when she opened her mouth, she struggled to speak. Another coughing fit took over her. Her eyes grew wide as she covered her mouth with her hand and coughed.
“I mean I hope they are fine,” Casja said, ignoring Cari’s predicament. “But if not, we have to do something... We can’t get captured. Lord Tynan told Kieran to go and warn all the lords and ladies about what was happening here. If he gets caught...”
She went on. Cari was now almost bent into two, coughing as though she was trying to push out her lungs.
“Are you okay?” I asked, getting up to go to her.
Cari nodded, but she could not speak. As I reached her, the coughing started to ease. She stopped covering her mouth and quickly hid her hand under the desk.
But I had seen it.
There was blood on Cari’s hand.
“Are you okay?” I repeated.
Cari didn’t meet my gaze. She kept staring ahead as she nodded.
“Yes,” she said. “I am fine.”
Casja had stopped speaking. She seemed offended that we weren’t focusing on the issue at hand like she wanted us to.
But something was bothering me. As I looked down and stared at Cari’s neatly tied hair, I tried to put a finger on what it could be. She seemed to be... moving.
“Are you shivering?” I asked.
“Me?” Casja asked.
“No,” I said. “Not you. You never get cold. But Cari... Cari seems to have trouble acclimating to the cold climate.”
“Yes,” Cari said, coughing once again to clear her throat. “It’s horrible. Always cold... I think I’m getting sick.”
“But it shouldn’t be cold right next to the fire,” I said, the image of Cari beside Marlian’s hearth coming to me at once. She was shaking then too, when the rest of us had been completely fine. “And it’s not cold here. Do you have a fever?”
Cari didn’t say anything. She shook her head defeatedly.
“So why are you shaking?”
Casja stared at me, confused.
