Astra
The bar lifted. A key turned from the corridor, and the door opened.
Marrow entered first. Two guards stood behind him with Caspian between them, one gripping each arm. His collar had been torn open and blood marked the corner of his mouth, but he was upright.
Marrow stopped when he saw Delphine beside me.
His gaze went from her face to the fractured Mark exposed at her wrist.
“Put down the keys,” he said.
I set the ring on the floor. I did not release Delphine’s hand.
“Now let him go.”
Marrow glanced into the corridor. “Release Ashford.”
The guards obeyed. Caspian came into the room and stopped at my shoulder. His hand settled briefly at my back before he looked at Delphine.
“Delphine,” he said.
She leaned more of her weight against me. “Caspian.”
He wiped the blood from his mouth with his thumb. “It’s good to see you.”
Marrow remained near the door. He had not taken his eyes off Delphine.
“You were there,” she said. “During the last reading.”
“Yes.”
“You told them to stop.”
Marrow looked at the damaged lines along her wrist. “I arrived too late.”
“You knew she was in this wing,” I said.
“I knew.”
Anger came back so quickly it left my hand hot around Delphine’s. “You watched me search for her.”
“And if I had told you, Wing C would have been cleared before you reached the first landing.”
“So you left her here.”
Delphine’s fingers shifted against mine. Marrow saw it.
“The readers requested her transfer after the damage occurred,” he said. “I prevented it.”
“Transfer where?”
“The order did not name a destination.”
Caspian’s hand left my back. “And that didn’t trouble you?”
Marrow looked at him. “It was the reason I refused the order.”
Delphine lowered herself to the bed. “No one told me.”
“They were not going to.”
I crouched beside her, keeping hold of her hand. “Why did you care where they meant to take her?”
Marrow sent the guards back to the checkpoint. He waited until their steps had receded before he answered.
“Because Delphine was not the first resident I saw removed that way,” he said.
I knew the name before he spoke it.
“Sadie Corwin.”
Delphine went rigid beside me.
Marrow’s expression did not change. “I was assigned to her when she arrived at the Tower. She was seventeen. Her reading at the Hall had been recorded as unstable.”
“She was kept in Wing C?”
“For several months. Then a transfer order arrived. I was told to prepare her before dawn.”
“Prepare her for what?”
“I asked. No one answered.”
The image came too easily: Sadie in this room, a ration bowl beneath the hatch, waiting through the night while stewards discussed her somewhere beyond the door.
“Did you see where they took her?”
“No. I was removed from the corridor before the escort arrived. Her file closed the following morning.”
“But you let them take her.”
Marrow straightened. “I made two formal requests for the destination and the resolution. After the second, I was told that another would end my employment and place my own record under review.”
Caspian watched him. “What did you do instead?”
“I searched every transfer record I could access. Her name never appeared. Neither did the names of the escort or the receiving facility.”
He had blocked Delphine’s transfer. That did not change the cell around us or the Mark she kept covered beneath her hand.
“Is that why you stayed at the Tower?” I asked.
“I thought I could prevent it from happening again.”
Delphine looked down at her wrist. “You didn’t.”
Marrow took the words without looking away. “No.”
I looked at Delphine. She did not look away from him.
“Keeping her in this room isn’t enough,” I said.
“I am aware of that.”
“Then get her out of it.”
Marrow went to the doorway. “Send for a healer. Tell the infirmary to prepare an isolated room.”
One guard left at once. The other hesitated.
“And the breach?” he asked.
“Has been contained.” Marrow’s gaze moved to Caspian, then me. “Verita and Ashford remain here until Moreau can be moved.”
The guard withdrew and closed the door without locking it.
Delphine watched Marrow. “Why did you tell them to stop that night?”
Marrow looked toward the open hatch and the broth cooling across the floor. “Because you were conscious and asking them to. That should have been sufficient.”
Tears gathered along Delphine’s lower lashes. “It wasn’t.”
“No, it was not.”
Sadie was still missing. Delphine was still shaking beside me. Whatever Marrow felt about either woman had come too late.
“I don’t trust you,” I said. “And I’m not grateful that you kept her in a cell instead of letting them move her to somewhere worse.”
“I don’t expect either.”
A healer arrived carrying a leather case. He was younger than Marrow, with wire spectacles and sleeves tied neatly above his elbows. He stopped when he saw the three of us around the bed.
“Moreau?”
Delphine drew her injured wrist against her chest.
The healer set down his case but did not approach. “May I examine the Mark?”
She looked at me. I stayed beside her without answering for her.
After a moment, she held out her arm.
He brought the lamp close and studied the breaks without touching them. When he finally placed two fingers against the uninjured skin below her palm, Delphine flinched.
I moved nearer. Caspian stood behind me, one hand resting on my shoulder.
“The damage is old,” the healer said. “There is no active spread, but she is depleted and badly underfed. She should have been transferred to the infirmary weeks ago.”
“The infirmary request was denied after the reading,” Marrow said. “I am overruling that decision. Can she be moved now?”
“Carefully.”
The healer wrapped Delphine’s wrist in clean linen, more to protect the damaged skin than to change what lay beneath it. Then he helped her stand.
She reached for me before she found her balance.
“I’m coming with her,” I said.
Marrow shook his head. “You may accompany her to the infirmary door. No farther.”
“She just found me,” Delphine said.
“And the administrator will know about the breach before we reach the upper corridor. This is the allowance I can make before she gives a different order.”
I started to argue, but Delphine sagged against me. Getting her to the infirmary mattered more. I put her arm across my shoulders, and together we followed the healer into the corridor.
The overturned cart had been righted. Caspian walked at my other side, close enough to take Delphine if my footing failed. The guards followed behind us.
At the infirmary junction, two more stewards waited beside a wheeled chair. Delphine refused it until the floor shifted beneath her and her knees buckled. Then she sat with her mouth pressed tight and let them cover her with a gray blanket.
“How long?” I asked Marrow.
“Her condition will be reviewed in two days. If she is strong enough, I will request a supervised visit.”
“Request?”
“The administrator may refuse.”
Delphine caught my hand before the stewards moved her away.
“You found me,” she said. “Try not to disappear before they let you come back.”
The dry warning sounded like her. My throat closed.
“I’ll do my best.”
They took her through the infirmary doors.
Marrow waited until they closed. “You and Ashford are being moved to separate rooms. Corridor access is suspended. Your reviews will resume when the administrator decides how to proceed.”
Caspian’s hand found mine.
We held on until the guards separated us at the next junction.