Chapter 28 Ginger
Ginger
My eyes were dry, scratchy like the sandpaper in Redd’s woodworking shop, and they refused to open.
My throat was even drier.
I tried to swallow but the task was impossible—made more difficult by the stickiness in my mouth.
My limbs were clumsy and leaden. Useless. And my head throbbed ferociously.
I felt like death. Worse than death.
“Water?” I croaked, hoping Brambleby would somehow be able to help me.
“Ginger? Honey?” a sweet voice asked. “Can you hear me?”
“Water?” I repeated. The word was gooey in my mouth.
I finally managed to open my eyes a crack. Velline hovered above me, lantern light creating a beautiful halo around her silhouette.
Her hair was frizzy and dark circles marred the skin below her eyes. Her eyebrows were pinched in a frown. I wanted to reach up and pat her cheek, comfort her from whatever was bothering her, but my arm remained limp at my side.
She lifted a jar of water into view, a straw sticking out. “I have some water,” she said quietly. “Don’t try to move. I’ll bring the straw to you. Think you can drink out of it that way?”
I nodded, just barely. The movement sent spots dancing in my vision.
It took some maneuvering, but after a coughing fit and a few breaks to close my eyes and take steadying breaths, I managed to suck down half a glass of water. I had never tasted anything so magnificent in my life.
I felt incrementally better.
I took a second to gather my whereabouts. I was clearly not home with Bram—I was in Velline’s clinic, Moonvale Medical. And, if my deteriorated body was any proof, something awful had happened to me.
Was I dying? I felt like I was dying.
“What happened, Ginny?” Velline asked, settling her hip onto the cot beside me. She smelled sharp, like disinfectant and magic. It was strangely comforting. “If you need to rest, we can talk later.”
I lifted my hand to wave it dismissively at her, but it fell back to the cot with a thump. “I’m fine,” I said lamely. “I can talk.”
“What’s the last thing you remember?”
I considered this. My mind was muddled, my thoughts swam. It was outrageously frustrating.
“I was on a jog,” I mused. “Through the woods.”
“And?” she prompted.
I cleared my throat. “Oh. I saw these—these mushrooms. I was going to bring them to Kizzi.”
“You saw mushrooms?”
“Growing in a cluster in the ground, yes. I remember now. I used my sweater to create a pouch.”
“Are you sure?”
My eyes flashed to Velline’s face to find a skeptical expression. My hackles rose.
“I’m sure,” I said cautiously. “Why?”
“It’s just…” She fidgeted, clearly uncomfortable. “Those mushrooms aren’t local to Moonvale. The shiny red ones with the dots?”
I nodded slowly. “I didn’t recognize them, but I know what I saw. Red. Dots.”
She didn’t look convinced. “You were unconscious when you arrived here. Do you remember anything else?”
“There was… something following me. A monster. I ran. And then, I think I fell. My head—” I forced my arm to move, and my fingers met bandages on my forehead. I winced. Yep, definitely pummeled my head alright.
Velline tensed. “Who was following you, Ginny?”
“Who? No, it was a beast. A monster.” I shook my head. “I didn’t get a good look at it.”
“Are you sure it wasn’t a man?” she asked cautiously.
“A man? No. I don’t think so. It couldn’t have been.”
She sighed, stood up, and straightened the linens on the cot. “I’ll let you get some rest. You took quite a spill, and the toxins are still leaving your body.”
“Toxins?” I asked. Suddenly, I felt incredibly stupid. “The mushrooms.”
She nodded sagely. “Toxic.”
“I’m such an idiot,” I muttered.
“Just rest. Don’t worry about it now. It’s being handled.”
“What’s being handled? Wait, Velline, why did you ask about a man? Who found me, if I was unconscious?
“Rest,” she said, ignoring my questions.
She reached out to drag feather light fingers over my forehead.
And suddenly sleep sounded like an excellent idea.
My eyes fell shut.
Words reached me as though through a long tunnel.
“He’s refusing to speak to anyone else.”
“He can’t just refuse to speak. Make him.”
“It’s impossible! We’ve tried.”
“Well try harder.”
The hushed argument pulled me from my dark and fuzzy dreams. I remained still, my eyes closed, mentally begging the folk to keep talking. I needed to hear more.
“He’s remarkably stubborn.”
“I know, but—” He broke off. I recognized the voice as Mayor Tommins. He sounded tired.
“What do you want us to do, torture him?” Linc.
My muscles tensed involuntarily. I sucked in a quiet breath. Luckily, the distracted folk didn’t notice.
“No, of course you can’t torture him, but maybe if we make him a little more uncomfortable?”
“He’s in a dungeon. How much more uncomfortable can we make him?”
“What if we light the fireplace and—”
“He just wants to talk to her.”
“She’s not well!”
“She doesn’t have to do manual labor. Just talk. We need answers.”
Velline’s voice chimed into the argument. “She’s my patient. I refuse to push her. She needs to rest.”
“Let her sleep for a bit longer, and then—”
I sat myself upright, unable to resist any longer. My head only swam a little. “You’re talking about me like I’m not right here,” I said. My voice was stiff and groggy, but nowhere near as hoarse as it had been before my slumber.
How much time had passed? I had no idea. But I was famished, and my throat was bone dry.
I grabbed the full glass of water from a nearby table and chugged it down. It tasted crisp and cool, with a hint of something herbal, and maybe something magical, too. It must have had some sort of healing potion mixed in.
Velline fluttered anxiously to my side. “Slow!” she exclaimed. “You’ll make yourself sick.”
I batted her hand away when she tried to take the glass from me. I needed to quench the thirst. My stomach roiled, but luckily, the water stayed down.
I took a few deep breaths to steady myself and then I pushed the sheet aside and rose to my feet.
Startled, I realized I wasn’t in my running outfit. I was wearing a loose nightgown that reached my knees.
I took the sheet from the cot and wrapped it around my shoulders like a cloak.
Velline hovered, looking nervous. “You should sit, it’s been—”
“It sounds like someone needs me,” I interrupted.
“Ginger, it’s good to see you up and moving!” Tommins said, his voice sounding sincere. I tossed him a tentative smile.
“At least eat something, Ginny,” Velline insisted. She shoved a hunk of bread into my palm.
I relented. “I eat, you guys talk.” I sat on the corner of the cot and tore into the bread. It settled into my stomach like a brick, but I persisted, determined to finish the whole thing while the conversation continued around me. I needed to regain my strength somehow.
“It’s a complicated situation,” Tommins started.
I nodded as I chewed.
Linc continued, “There is a prisoner who would like to speak to you. Nobody else. Just you.”
This made no sense to me. I let them keep talking.
“Don’t put her through that stress,” Velline interjected.
“Just a quick conversation,” Tommins insisted. “She’ll figure out what he wants and then we’ll get her out of there.”
“And what if it’s not? He just tried to murder her!”
This stopped me up short. I almost choked on the mouthful of bread. Murder? That was news to me.
“She said she found the mushrooms,” Linc countered.
Velline shook her head. “Those mushrooms aren’t local to Moonvale. They wouldn’t have been growing in the woods.”
Unless my memories had been scrambled—they sure were growing in the woods. Just like any other mushroom.
“You think he drugged her with them? Planted them there?” Tommins asked.
“Maybe,” Velline mused. “We can’t rule it out and let him get away with it.”
“What if he’s innocent?”
Velline sighed. “What if? We will apologize for the mix up. Besides—the King sent a missive searching for folk like him.”
“He is our Mister Moonvale,” Tommins said. “That would reflect poorly on all of us.”
“So, we’re supposed to harbor a criminal until we make up our minds?”
Finished with my hunk of bread, I brushed the crumbs from my hands and cleared my throat. “I’ll talk to him.”
Three sets of eyes flashed in my direction, all of them varying levels of alarmed.
“Are you sure?”
“You can wait—”
“You don’t have to—”
I rose to standing, only feeling mildly shaky. “I’ll do it. Let’s just get it over with so I can go home.” A sudden flash of panic rooted my feet to the floor. “Brambleby?” I asked.
Velline ran a reassuring hand over my shoulder. “He’s alright. He’s at Kizzi’s. He’s been going back and forth between the apothecary and the trinket shop, when he’s not pacing outside the clinic.”
I breathed a sigh of relief, but then another alarming thought struck me. “How long have I been asleep?”
She fidgeted nervously with her fingers.
“How long, Velline?
“A few days.”
Gods. “A few?”
“Four,” she said, clearing her throat. “Or five.”
“Which is it, four or five?”
“Five? I don’t know, I kind of lost track of time.”
My jaw fell open. “I’ve been here for five days?”
She nodded solemnly. “The toxins had to work their way through your system. You almost died, Ginny. The toxins, plus the head injury…” Her voice faded as she gestured helplessly with her hands.
No wonder I felt so ghastly. I had been rotting away on a cot for days. A wary shiver traveled down my spine.
“Thank you,” I said to Velline, reaching out and squeezing her hand. “For saving my life.”
She smiled sheepishly. “It was nothing.”
Five days of hard work was not nothing. I made a mental note to find a better way to thank her.
“Well let’s get this over with.” I looked to Tommins. “Are you going to report him to the king? I’m sure this is all some kind of misunderstanding.”
“I haven’t decided yet,” Tommins said honestly.
I nodded, just once. “Fair enough. Take me to the dungeon.”