Her clothes were filthy, too—though they’d once been fine. She wore what looked like boy’s breeches and a torn linen shirt stained with blood and only the gods knew what else. A velvet coat lay crumpled up on the floor next to the bed.
Her hands were manacled together, attached to a bolt in the wall by a short chain. The skin at her wrists was scabbed and discolored, as if she’d struggled to get free. Ash’s fingers found the collar around his own neck and his stomach clenched with sympathy.
Her eyes, though—they were a striking gold color, clear and piercing, set into a planed face with a rather prominent nose. Raptor’s eyes that missed nothing. Undefeated in a place intended to extinguish hope.
She wasn’t the kind who could survive long in captivity, even if she hadn’t sustained a mortal wound. His heart broke a little.
“The first healer said I’d be fine.” Her voice was weak and thready, but there was an element of steel in it. “I thought he was the best you had.”
“Merrill said you wouldn’t let him come anywhere near you,” Karn said.
Smart girl, Ash thought.
The girl shifted on the bed, bunching the blanket in her fists. “Is that what he said? He’s a liar then.”
“Jenna,” Karn muttered, as if frustrated.
“Anyway. He said he didn’t need to touch me. He could diagnose me by my aura.”
“Blood of the martyrs!” Karn said through gritted teeth. “I’m trying to save your life.” He gestured toward Ash. “This one is gifted.”
Jenna looked Ash up and down, and something like fear flickered in her eyes. “No,” she said, licking her cracked lips. “He’s too tall. I don’t want a tall healer. Bring me someone else.”
She doesn’t want a gifted healer, Ash thought. Is she worried that I might actually succeed in healing her? Or is she afraid that I’ll ferret out secrets that she wants to keep hidden?
Ash squatted in front of her, setting his kit down beside him, so he could take a closer, appraising look.
Her eyes were overbright, her breathing quick and shallow. Likely her pulse was rapid, too. He could feel a blaze of white-hot magic, centered in her midsection. That must be where the injury was. The girl was not a wizard—she had no telltale glow. Her arms were well muscled, like she worked hard for a living. She’d eaten well, too, at least until recently. Her skin had an unusual reflective quality—it shimmered in the light from the torches as if there were flames under her skin.
“I’m Adam Freeman,” he said. “How do you feel?”
Jenna gazed into his face for a long moment. “You are a wolf,” she said, her lip curling. She looked up at Karn. “Why did you bring a wolf into the palace?”
That was like a punch to the gut. Once again, Ash tasted fear, like metal in his mouth. Why had she said that? How could she possibly know? The last thing he needed was to be tied to the Gray Wolf line.
“What do you mean, Jenna?” Karn demanded, looking from the girl on the bed to Ash. “What do you mean, he’s a wolf?”
“The lieutenant doesn’t know, does he?” Jenna said, smirking like a cat with a bird in its mouth. She breathed in sharply, like she was tasting his scent. “Now I have made you sweat, Wolf.” She brought both hands up, put her finger to her lips. “Shhh,” she said, then slumped back onto her pillows and rolled onto her side, facing the wall, so Ash was staring at her back.
It seemed that his patient had been doing an assessment of her own.
“Well?” Karn shifted impatiently. “Are you going to get to work or not?”
Ash rose to his feet and broadened his stance. “She needs to be moved upstairs. She needs fresh air and light.”
Karn folded his arms and shook his head. “That’s not going to happen, healer. You’ll have to do the best you can right here.”
“At least unchain her, so I can examine her properly. And you need to leave.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
“If she can speak to me in confidence, maybe she’ll be more cooperative.”
“I don’t want to speak to you at all,” Jenna said to the wall. “Both of you, go away.”
Karn looked from Ash to Jenna and back again, as if he were debating whose side he was on. “Why should I trust you, alone with her?” he said finally. “I don’t know anything about you.”
“The king’s word isn’t enough?” Ash raised an eyebrow.
Karn just looked at him for a long moment, then said, “Step outside. I need a word with you.” He jerked his head toward the door.
As soon as they stepped out into the interrogation chamber, Karn turned, quick as thought, and pinned Ash against the wall, his knife pressed into the hollow of Ash’s throat, just below the collar. Ash saw it coming, but he let it happen, because he knew by then that the lieutenant needed Jenna healed and he would not kill Ash to make a point.
“Why did she call you a wolf?” the lieutenant demanded. “What did she mean by that?”