Niam woke to pain. Only, instead of the sharp, livid pain of fresh wounds, he felt the deep, throbbing ache of broken bones, lacerations, and strained muscles mending. He decided that the latter was almost as bad as the former. At least he was in a soft bed large enough for four people sleeping side-by-side. The room he lay in was elegant yet simply furnished. To his right, a large window held back the afternoon light with the help of thick curtains upon which golden embroidered griffons chased themselves—whether in play or battle it was hard to tell. The table beside the bed glowed beneath the culmination of years of beeswax and constant polishing. Simple, solid furniture lacking in ostentation what they made up for in quiet, well-executed strength signified that the room was one of Count Joachim’s guest quarters.
When Niam stretched, he realized that his right arm was splinted and tightly wrapped. His lips felt parched and when he moved his jaw, little striations where the skin had split apart stung maddeningly. Slowly, he eased himself up and noticed a small figure curled up at his side.
Niam smiled and felt his heart swell with warmth. Bug slept quietly with an extra quilt covering her entire body up to her eyes. Gingerly, he moved his good arm and laid it so that he could smooth the hair back from her forehead and see the faint traces of soft dark circles where her irises remained hidden behind closed lids.
Movement from the doorway drew his attention away from his little friend. “It’s good to see you up,” Lexa Sartor said in a voice as soft as fresh velvet. “She’s staying here with her family while another house is being built. She refused to leave your side . . . except when we had to clean you, that is.”
Niam could tell that the bed linens were fresh, and he realized with alarm that someone must have cleaned him while he slept. She recognized the look spreading across his face, because she laughed. “Oh, it wasn’t me you goose. We had one of the older women do it.”
That made Niam feel only slightly better. To be fair to Niam’s sense of modesty, Lexa changed topics quickly. “I’ve brought you some broth. Joachim said nothing solid for a while. We were worried about you.”
“How long?” Niam asked. His voice was raspy.
“You’ve been heavily drugged for over a week,” Lexa said, sitting the tray down across his lap. “Drink in sips,” she said. “Don’t gulp it.”
Niam opened his mouth to tell her she didn’t have to worry about that. He felt too wretched to eat. But the moment the steaming bowl made itself known to his nose, Niam’s stomach growled and he realized that he was actually ravenous.
Lexa watched him drink his broth and regarded Bug thoughtfully. “She’s quite fond of you.”
“She’s odd like that,” Niam told her. Normally he would have made tracks away from Lexa as quickly as his legs could carry him, but today he felt too haggard to care. He had always known Alexandretta was too far above him on the social ladder to ever entertain the thought of a relationship. Besides, Maerillus would have killed him if he ever caught wind of anything more than the purest brotherly affections for the only Sartor daughter. Still . . . Lexa’s presence always brought a hot flush across his face, especially whenever she smiled.
Like now.
Niam took another deep sip to hide the fact that he couldn’t look away. Her stern features melted and softened whenever her lips curved upward, and when that happened, she always disarmed him.
“Well, I guess we all are odd like that, then.”
Niam inhaled some of his broth and coughed.
From the doorway, another voice saved Niam. Lexa looked as if she had been about to say something important, but her face reacquired its typical detachment as Andromeda sartor entered with Maerillus.
“Are you bothering my sister?” Maerillus beamed brightly.
Niam felt his cheeks redden, but Lexa was quick to respond. “Shhh! Keep baying like that and you’ll wake Madeline.”
“Poor thing has been through a lot,” Andromeda said. “We tried to get her to come stay with us. We’re putting up a number of families with children who lost their homes, but the little thing said she wanted to be here where her family was.”
“Funny how her family turned out to actually mean you,” Maerillus said. “Kid’s got guts.”
Lexa’s reply was cross, though. “And yet you took her down to a trall’s cave.”
Niam sucked down more broth.
“I already told you that we didn’t know the trall was nearby. That was Salb’s cave . . . or Kreeth’s cave,” he said, but Niam knew it was the wrong thing to say.
“And THAT makes it BETTER?”
Andromeda cut them both off. “Children, let the girl rest before you start tugging on her to see who gets the biggest piece.”
Niam grinned behind his bowl.
“I see that, Maldies,” Maerillus said.
Niam set the bowl down asked, “How are Kine and Joachim, Mrs. Sartor?”
“They were fine once the poison wore off. It took longer for them than it did for us. Gaius and I only got one strong dose. It looks like that bastard had been feeding it to them slowly over a month or more.”
Niam nodded his head. “I’m glad,” he said, sinking back into the pillows.
“Joachim has been scrambling to help repair all the damage,” Maerillus said.
Niam pinched his eyes closed in shame and put his hands over his eyes to hide the embarrassment on his face. “I am so rude sometimes,” he said. “How is the rest of your family?”
Andromeda and Lexa smiled. “They were caught up helping put out fires in Pirim Village,” Lexa told him reassuringly.
“Yeah,” Maerillus added. “Had no idea what was happening here until they got back.”
Niam sighed. “We all needed some good news,” he said.
“Indeed,” Andromeda said, and then announced as Davin entered the room, “Why don’t we give the boys time to talk?”
Lexa nodded and gave Niam a small kiss on his cheek.
Niam, for his part, tried not to look nonplussed as she walked out of the room. When they were gone, Maerillus asked, “Is it me or is she acting . . . strangely all of a sudden?”
“She’s just happy we’re all alive,” Niam said a bit too quickly.
Maerillus frowned. “Maybe . . .”
Davin’s voice boomed brightly. “Good to see you finally up and moving!”
Both Niam and Maerillus looked at him and shushed him sternly. “You’ll wake her!”
Davin gave them a chagrined look. “Sorry!” he whispered loudly.
Niam tried smiling broadly at his large friend, but he was too sore to make it work. Instead, he grunted and asked, “I just want to know one thing—how did you manage to sneak up on Kreeth so easily? I saw you both lying on the floor unconscious one moment, and the next you were tossing the filthy monster into the fire . . . and how did you manage to get me and the count and Hammer out of the basement?”
“That’s two questions,” Davin said.
If Niam had felt any better, he would have thrown a pillow at him. Instead, he leaned over to Maerillus. “Will you please punch him for me?”
Maerillus balled up his fist and raised it.
“Okay,” Davin complained lightheartedly. “You’ve got to find your sense of humor.”
“I think the bees stung it out of me,” Niam said, wincing as he readjusted himself on the mattress.
In answer to the first question, Davin said, “The credit goes to Maerillus. I came round first, but Maer here did most of the hard work.”
Niam looked up at his rich friend, who shrugged his shoulders. “We were both on the floor as I came back around. Davin whispered to me not to move . . .”
Davin jumped in. “I knew that as long as Kreeth t
hought we were both out of the game that we had a chance.”
“But we needed to get close to him,” Maerillus took over talking again. “I thought he was going to kill you, Niam. Then I heard the Voice.”
“So did I,” Niam said.
“We all did,” Davin added.
Maerillus stumbled over his words as he tried to explain what happened next. “It told me to . . . I don’t know how to explain it . . . but I just knew that I could make it look like we were still lying on the floor. We had to be careful though. I almost blew it trying to do that AND hide us while we cut the bonds holding Joachim and Kine.”
“You had him so terrified that he never noticed we had moved them to a safer spot,” Davin said.
“I couldn’t believe it when you started laughing,” Maerillus told him. The wonder in his voice was plain.
“You spooked me as much as you did Kreeth. We both thought you’d lost it.”
Niam felt his face drop. “I had.”
“How did you do it?” Maerillus asked. “I mean you looked like a dog that made the mistake of picking on a pack of wild boars.”
Niam response was simple, “I gave up. I knew I was going to die . . . that we all were going to die. What else did I have to lose, right?”
Maerillus whistled.
Davin put his hand lightly on his shoulder. “I’m glad you didn’t give up. On any of us.”
Niam looked at his two best friends, and then down at Bug who still slept soundly at his side. “Me too,” he said, smiling. When he looked back at his friends, he felt his chest become heavy. “He told me that there were more of his kind around.”
“I heard,” Davin said.
“As to that,” Maerillus told them, “We’re meeting with Joachim once Niam is ready. He wants to talk to us about everything that happened.”
“Good,” Davin said. “I’ve got a feeling that none of this is done yet.”