“You are in my home.” The woman’s voice was warm and welcoming. She pulled back the hood of her cloak to reveal a beautiful, fine-featured face with startling eyes and silver hair. “You were found in Drey Wood by the captain and crew of one of our vessels and brought here. What happened?”
Arling hesitated. “I was in an airship crash. I don’t remember much after that. But there were people with me. What happened to them?”
“I don’t know. A man and woman brought you to where my airship was anchored and asked the captain if he would take you somewhere safe.”
A man and a woman. The shoes. She felt a chill go through her. “These people didn’t say if there was anyone else?”
The woman shook her head. “I don’t think they had much interest in anything but getting you off their hands. Peasants, from the sound of things. Would you like a drink of water?”
Without waiting for an answer, she moved over to a table set off to one side, poured water from a pitcher into a cup, and brought it back to the bed. Reaching behind Arling with one arm to brace her, she helped the girl into a sitting position and let her sip the water, careful not to give her too much or cause a spill.
Arling, for her part, was grateful for the water and for the time it took the woman to bring it over while she fought to get her shock under control. Was it possible that everyone else was dead? But wouldn’t this man and woman have discovered any bodies? Wouldn’t they have said something? Or would they have kept quiet because the less said the better?
“Who were you traveling with?” the woman asked, setting aside the water and seating herself next to Arling on the side of the bed. “Were they family or friends?”
Arling couldn’t help herself. “My sister.”
The woman shook her head in a gesture of regret. “Well, we must hope for the best. I will do what I can to find out what happened to her.” She rose abruptly. “It’s best if you sleep some more. Let me come back a little later and bring you some food. For now, just rest.”
“Wait!” Arling called out. “Did you take my clothes?”
The woman gave her a sharp look. “Yes. I still have them.”
“Was there anything with them? My pack?”
“No. Just your clothes, and they are ruined. I’ve already thrown them out.”
She wheeled away and was at the door before Arling could say anything more, her dark form silhouetted against the light as she opened the door. “You should rest now.”
Arling gritted her teeth. Her sister and Cymrian were missing and maybe dead. The Ellcrys seed was gone. She was injured and miles from anyone she knew. It was then, for the first time, that it occurred to her she might not have been rescued, but captured by the very people the Wend-A-Way had been fleeing. She might not be a patient, but a prisoner.
“Who are you?” she called out to the woman.
“A friend,” the other replied, pausing in the open door. “Just go back to sleep.”
Arling started to get out of the bed. She needed to have a look outside her room; perhaps that would tell her something. Or maybe if she could have just a peek through one of the windows …
But almost immediately the woman was back at her bedside, gently pushing her down. Too weak to resist, Arling fell back again. She was surprised to find herself so listless. She seemed to have no strength at all. She looked up at the figure bending over her, and suddenly she was afraid. Something in the other’s eyes, in the sharp edges of her face, in the set of her mouth, warned her.
“Go to sleep,” the woman whispered.
Arling’s eyes were already beginning to close, and she could feel herself slipping away. The last thing she remembered thinking before she dropped off entirely—so quickly she seemed to fall asleep mid-thought—was that this woman was not to be trusted.
Edinja Orle walked out of the bedroom and down the hall a short distance before stopping to consider her impressions of Arling Elessedil. The girl was young, but she wasn’t stupid. Already she suspected things were not as they seemed; Edinja had seen it there at the end in her eyes, heard it in her voice. The gentle approach she had planned to use to unmask her secrets was not going to work. Time’s demands did not allow for it.
There was no question that Arling was hiding something. But Edinja wasn’t sure what. She’d admitted to having a sister and had been straightforward enough about what had happened to them in Drey Wood, but there was something else going on, something Edinja didn’t yet understand.