“Luck does seem to be favoring me right now.”
“If that isn’t the understatement of the year, I don’t know what is.”
He motioned me to remove the towel and lie down. Once I had, he placed one hand on my forehead and another on my chest, just above my heart, and closed his eyes. Warmth radiated from the epicenter of his touch in gentle waves, but again, there was nothing sexual about it. It was, in fact, weirdly impersonal.
After a few minutes of silence, he pulled his hands away. “You, young lady, are amazingly resilient.”
“Meaning I pass the physical?”
“Very much so.” He flicked the towel back over my torso. “Although I highly recommend you avoid another encounter with the Adlin if you can. It might be a case of third time unlucky.”
I snorted. “I’m Nightwatch. It’s not like I have much choice about who I do and don’t fight.”
“Under normal circumstances that might be true, but it seems to me you’ve gone out of your way to cross their path of late.”
“It wasn’t by choice, trust me.” I hesitated. “Did you do a similar hands-on physical with the two children when they were here?”
“Yes—why?”
“Was there anything unusual about either of them?”
He frowned. “Not really—again, why?”
I hesitated. “I saw an Adlin with human eyes, and I just wondered, given these children didn’t—according to Treace—appear to speak or even understand us, whether they might somehow have been related.”
“An Adlin with human eyes? Surely you’re mistaken—it was dark, after all.”
“Maybe.” I wasn’t, but I didn’t want to start any untoward rumors either. Kiro was keeping the problems at Winterborne close to his chest, so I imagined he wouldn’t appreciate me letting the cat out of the proverbial bag, even out here in an outpost. “So there was nothing unusual about the two kids?”
He hesitated. “Their skin reminded me a little of the exoskeletons I’ve seen on some insects, but I have no doubt it was probably a result of both their severe aversion to water and malnutrition.”
“Could there be any other reason?”
He wrinkled his nose. “There are some known diseases—like scleroderma—that causes a thickening of the skin, but I could find no trace of such in either of the children.”
Which meant we’d hit another dead end—and that was damn frustrating. “Treace also mentioned a smell—did you notice that?”
He half smiled. “Even those with the dimmest olfactory senses couldn’t fail to notice it. It was so entrenched that I fear it might be a part of their physiology.”
“Have you ever come across anything like that before?”
“No.” He paused. “But I have to admit, your questions have piqued my curiosity. I’ll check the medical library and consult with some of my fellows in Winterborne. They might provide some clarity.”
“Could you let me know if you do uncover anything?”
“I will. In the meantime, you’d best get dressed. The commander will be waiting downstairs for you at one.” He glanced at his watch. “You have half an hour.”
“I’ll be there.”
He nodded and left.
Silence, I thought, as it closed in around me again, sucked.
I thrust to my feet, found my clothes—which once again consisted of a new Blacklake uniform rather than my own—and got dressed. Once I’d reclaimed my knife and my sword, I headed downstairs to wait for Trey. Watching the noise and motion of daily life here in Blacklake was far better than the solitude of my room.
Especially when that room was one of Trey’s rather than a more impersonal hospital or bunkhouse.
I walked across to the waiting speeder. The door was open, and the engine was already primed and ready to go. A nearby guard gave me a nod in greeting then spun around and walked away. I sat on the step-up and waited.
Trey must have seen me, because a few minutes later, he came out of the tower and strode toward me. I rose. “Commander, do you mind if we make a slight detour on the way back to Winterborne?”
He raised his eyebrows. “No, but why?”
“Because I want to reexamine the area where I found Saska.”
“There’s nothing there.” He tossed a small pack into the speeder and then offered me his hand. “We’ve already checked it out.”
I placed my hand in his and allowed him to help me into the speeder. His fingers held mine just a shade longer than was necessary, but this time, only a tiny flicker of that odd energy stirred. Perhaps it had been tightly leashed—at least on his side. It wasn’t like I had any great control over it—or anything, really. “Saska told me answers could be found there if we look in the right places. I don’t want to chance ignoring it.”
“She’s part of this plot. She might just be sending you on into another trap.”
“I don’t think so.” I slid into the driver seat. “I actually think she’s doing her best to help us.”
He climbed in behind me then pressed the door-close button. “I’ll have to trust your instincts on this one, because Kiro’s certainly not getting much out of her.”
“Maybe his sort of talent just doesn’t work on an unstable mind.”
I punched in the coordinates and then carefully guided the speeder through the inner gatehouse and across to the remnants of the main one. Even though a little less than ten hours had passed since the attack, the outer wall was already half rebuilt. But it would be days before the outpost was fully secure again. Trey obviously put a lot of trust in his people—there could be no other reason for leaving now. Not when he was also leaving his daughter in their care—although I rather suspected Eluria was more than capable of looking after herself.
Once we were free of Blacklake, I punched the accelerate button and kept the vehicle on an even keel as she rapidly gained speed. As the dust began to plume behind us, I said, “Your daughter came to see me this morning.”
“Did she now?” There was amusement in his tone. “What did she want?”
“To talk to someone else who was stained. Which surprised me—I’d have thought that with so many people living and working at Blacklake, there’d be others who are stained.”
“There are at least a dozen that I know of,” he said. “But it was probably the draw of someone new that had her running to your side against orders.”
I frowned and glanced around at him. “You didn’t want her talking to me?”
“Oh, I’m all for her becoming acquainted with you, but not when she’s skipping lessons to do so.” His expression was amused. “If she wishes to follow in my footsteps and become commander of Blacklake, she has to learn to obey orders. Especially if she wants to give them herself one day.”
I grinned. “I suspect following commands is always going to be difficult for her. She has her father’s determination and strength of self-belief.”
“That she has.” He was silent for a moment, and then said, in an obvious attempt to redirect the conversation, “Did Saska give any clue as to what we might find?”
“All she said was answers,” I replied. “Did you take the bracelet from Eluria?”
“Yes. The outpost will be safer if that thing isn’t held at Blacklake.”
“Winterborne won’t be any safer—not after the success of the recent attack.”
“But Winterborne has far more resources it can call on.” He paused. “Did you press Saska for more information?”
“Yes, but she wouldn’t—or couldn’t—say anything more.”
He grunted. “That really doesn’t give us much to go on.”
“Which seems to be something of a theme in this quest of ours.”
“Unfortunately, yes.”
He fell silent. I returned my attention to the controls and the miles rolled quickly by. When the sensors indicated we were nearing our destination, I slowed the speeder down and did a sweep of the area. As Trey had said, there was nothing there.