He grunted. So did I.
“I’m going to go see what weapons we’ve got available,” he said finally. “And try to squash the rumors.”
“Godspeed,” I said. “I’m going to take a nap.”
I did not get my nap. Javier was gone for perhaps five minutes when there was a pounding on the door. I yelped and jumped sideways, picturing the armored figure hammering the door open, but then I heard a voice call, “Healer! Healer!” through the wood and realized that it was one of Snow’s maids.
Oh Saints, please don’t let someone have been injured and they’re expecting me to fix it…I’ve done enough dissections that I don’t mind blood and internal organs, but I’m generally not expected to put the bits back when I’m done with them. I opened the door with trepidation.
“Healer,” said the maid, panting. She’d obviously run, probably from Snow’s rooms. “It’s the princess. She’s sick. Really sick this time. Nurse sent me. Please.”
“Oh hell,” I said, and snatched up my bag from where it sat next to the desk. I hadn’t expected to encounter any emergencies, but old habits die hard, and I’d set it out anyway. The maid made a grateful face as I swept by her and pounded down the hallway toward Snow’s suite.
The sounds of retching greeted me the moment I entered the room. Snow was kneeling in the bathing room with Nurse holding back her hair.
The older woman’s expression when she saw me was complicated—half hope, half suspicion. I’d upset Snow the last time I was here,but the king trusted me, but, but, but. I went to my knees next to Snow and felt her forehead. She was clammy with sweat and her hands shook on the bowl.
Shit.I knew what questions I wanted to ask, and I also knew that Snow would never answer them with Nurse there.
“Nurse,” I said, never taking my eyes off the king’s daughter, “I need you to bring me a pitcher of water. Not the one in the room. I want you to go to the pantry, pick one at random, go to the well, and have someone pull up a bucket of water. Don’t take your eyes off them while they do it. Don’t let the pitcher out of your hands, before or after you fill it. Then bring it up here, and do not set it down until you’re back.”
Nurse gaped at me. “You don’t think…?”
“I don’t know,” I lied. “But this is the only way I can be absolutely certain that it will be safe, and I don’t want to put anything into her system that has even a chance of being poisoned.”
Nurse straightened her back and nodded to me. “I shall, Healer,” she said, and swept out of the bathing room.
A frightened maid was standing nearby with an armload of towels.
“Don’t hover,” I snapped at her. “Go and build up the fire in the other room.”
That disposed of both potential eavesdroppers. Snow was watching me with haggard amusement. I knew that she knew what I was doing, even if no one else did.
Another spasm wracked her. A moment later, she began to shudder, not quite the same way as before. Her hands fell off the basin, and her back arched. I reached for her, holding her upright, and felt the tremors of her muscles. Then she went limp for a long moment, just long enough for me to panic, then shook herself and bent over the basin again.
Shit. Was that a convulsion?A small one, perhaps. Oddly, she didn’t seem to have noticed it. I smoothed back her hair. Her neckwas so delicate, the skin so soft that I was almost afraid to touch it. It was easy to forget that she was only twelve, and then moments like this brought it crashing back.
“How many did you eat?” I asked quietly.
She turned her head to look at me. “Two,” she said, just as quietly. “Down to the core.” I could not tell if she was gloating or confessing. A little of both, I think.
“Two!” Even assuming that she was building up a tolerance, I could not imagine it.
“I can handle two,” she said softly. “I did it once before.”
“Why?”
Snow looked away.
I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself. Saints, how I wanted to be the sort of person who could hold out their hand and say,I don’t know what the problem is, but I promise I’ll solve it with you. Someone who radiated trustworthiness, someone that Snow would believe. Someone like Healer Michael.
But I was only myself, and if we were relying on my skill with people to save Snow, she would be dead in the ground before too much longer.
Instead, I told her the truth. Plain and unvarnished. “Much more of this, and youwilldie. Something will rupture in your throat and you’ll drown in your own blood. I can’t imagine that’s what you want.”
She shrugged, looking down at the basin.
“Please. Tell me what’s wrong and I’ll try to fix it.”
