Kelsey Castle
SEVRIN
He had stared at enough ceilings to know the difference. This one was older. Lower. It carried the particular quality of stone that had absorbed centuries of damp and never fully dried.
He lay still and did not move.
The wound was dressed. Someone had been diligent about it. The linen was clean, recently changed, the knot at his shoulder precise in a way that suggested a healer rather than a soldier. His chest ached with a deep internal wrongness he recognized as Yorali work. It would take time. He had time.
He turned his head.
A woman stood near the window. Gold eyes. Dark hair. He placed her after a moment.
Nox.
"Why are you here?" he said.
She looked at him the way someone looked at a problem they had not yet decided was worth solving. "The healing pools," she said. "Axar mentioned them."
"Axar sent you?"
"Axar mentioned them," she said again.
"That was not an answer."
She looked at him coldly. "You're too weak to demand anything, that includes answers."
He looked down at the bandage on his chest and realized with a grimace that she was right.
Then he paused.
"You are not a feeder. How are you here?"
She smiled. "Because you are not as smart as you think you are, King Sevrin. Perhaps I am a feeder."
He frowned. "Does your father know?"
She stared at him, her smile still frozen in place.
Fine.
"How long have I been here?" he said.
"Long enough."
He said nothing at first. The ache in his chest was real and persistent. It would take time he did not want to spend.
He furrowed his brow trying to remember all that had happened. "Avaneer?" He said.
"Alive."
The word sat between them. He remembered Avaneer's voice. He did not remember much else about that night. But what was certain is that there was danger, and he needed strength.
"I need to feed," he said. "Properly. Before anything else."
She moved from the window and sat in the chair beside the bed without being invited. "You are not strong enough yet."
"I am aware of what I am."
"Then you are aware that going after Avaneer at half strength accomplishes nothing."
He said nothing.
She was quiet for a moment. "The Bloodhaven."
He looked at her.
"You need strength you cannot build lying in a bed," she said. "The Bloodhaven would give it to you. Faster than anything else in Morrath."
He already knew that.
He also knew what the Bloodhaven cost.
He looked at the ceiling again.
She waited. He had not expected patience from her. He revised his assessment of her slightly.
"No," he said.
She studied him. "You would rather recover slowly in Kelsey Castle than take three days in the Bloodhaven and walk out strong enough to tear Avaneer apart?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
He did not answer that.
She looked at him for a long moment. Something moved through her expression that she did not offer to him.
She stood.
"Ivanoxa."
She stopped.
"When I am well enough," he said, "I want to know everything that has happened."
She looked back at him once.
"When you are well enough," she said.
Then she left.
He looked at the ceiling.
He waited.