Once again, Dally woke to sunlit cloth walls and an elegantly handsome man seated beside her sickbed.
As soon as she opened her eyes, Connell rushed from the room. He was gone long enough for Dally to realize that the sun now shone upon the western wall and carried the burnished warmth of approaching dusk. Which meant she had been unconscious through the entire day. Dally’s worst physical discomfort came from a very sore throat and the throbbing juncture where her head met her neck. But she also felt internally bruised, as though her deepest being had been assaulted by the morning’s events.
Which, she decided, was more or less the truth.
She heard approaching voices and pushed herself to a seated position. Her dizziness was so intense she felt nauseous. But she was desperately thirsty and did not want to try to drink lying down. She required both hands to lift the mug on her bedside table. Each swallow was agony, but the water tasted divine.
The voices grew into a fierce argument swiftly approaching. Dally wanted to be standing for whatever was about to come her way, but her legs would not support her.
The healer protested, “I allowed one of your parasites in there because the Lady Shona ordered. And that is one too many!”
Connell said, “Parasite? That’s a bit harsh.”
Meda snapped, “Healer, you forget yourself.”
“I forget nothing!”
“What is more, you forget whom you address!”
“I know exactly whom I’m addressing! What’s more, I know where! In my clinic!”
Edlyn said, “That’s quite enough.”
“You took one of my patients before I gave my permission. You placed her in harm’s way. You brought her back in an even worse state. And now you want more of her! No, I say! No!”
Meda snarled, “Alembord, restrain this medic. And if he gives you any further trouble, cage him.”
Shona’s was the only voice that remained calm. “You will do no such thing. Connell, where is the patient?”
“The last compartment on your right, my lady.”
Even as wounded and dull as she felt, Dally knew a keen nervousness as the group forced their way past the medic and crowded into her doorway.
The medic kept struggling against Alembord’s firm hold. “I order you to release me!”
“All of you be silent.” Shona approached the foot of the bed, her voice and face holding a deceptive calm. Dally thought her force was made even more potent through this evident control. Dally struggled to rise, but Shona ordered, “Stay where you are.”
“My lady.”
“How do you feel?”
“Not good. But it doesn’t matter.”
“Of course it matters,” the medic groused. “Do you not hear her? The woman is ill and needs—”
Shona merely turned and glanced his way. A single look.
The doctor froze like he was made of glacial ice.
Shona said softly, “I want you to assure me that you are quite done.”
The medic made do with a single nod.
“Alembord, you may release the healer. Meda, take your hand off your blade. Edlyn, sheath your wand.” She turned back to Dally. “How much do you remember?”
“I’m not sure.” She swallowed painfully. “My throat is very sore.”
“I’m hardly surprised. After the way you shouted.”
“I . . . yelled?”
“Screamed, more like,” Connell said. “On and on.”
Edlyn stepped forward, took the empty cup from Dally’s hands, and gave it to the medic. “Make yourself useful, good sir. Tepid this time, and lace it with honey and lemon.”
Dally asked, “What did I say?”
Shona’s resolve almost broke. “Hyam. You repeated his name. Many times.”
Dally remembered then. The name had been at the heart of a surging blast of images. She said hoarsely, “Hyam is dying.”
The queen struggled momentarily but maintained her composure. The only evidence Shona gave of her internal destruction was the release of a single tear.
“My lady . . .” Dally watched the tear’s descent.
“Honesty,” Edlyn said softly. “Remember its value. Even when it hurts.”
Dally found it necessary to focus on the Mistress to continue. “Hyam is wasting away.”
“Poison?”
“Not in the normal sense. Nothing he has taken. But it is the enemy’s hand at work. The image was clear on that.”
“Just as I suspected,” Edlyn said.
“But how?” Shona’s voice was as soft as it was woeful. “He has remained shielded inside the Elven realm since Joelle’s death.”
“Perhaps from before,” Meda said. “In his quest for the vial.”
The healer took the mug from an assistant and passed it to Dally. He was now as caught up in the drama as the others. “Vial?”
“Joelle’s life breath was forced from her body,” Meda said, the former quarrel forgotten now. “A Milantian mage stole it away. And I watched it happen.”
“You were as frozen and helpless as I,” Shona replied.
“You were far from helpless, my lady. You saved my life.”
She waved that aside and turned the name into a soft dirge. “Hyam. Is there anything we can do?”
“Probably not, my lady. That was altogether clear.”
“Which means we should strike,” Meda said.
Dally shook her head. “All the options you are considering, they lead to ruin.”
Meda scowled. “How can you be certain?”
“Because I saw them.” The recollections caused her entire body to shudder anew. “The proposed attack on Port Royal leads to utter defeat. Your plan to kidnap the king’s wife and son is no more successful. A blockade of the Inland Sea would lead to complete—”
“Those plans are secret,” the colonel hissed.
“No longer,” Edlyn said. “If Dally has envisioned them, we must accept the risk that our enemy has managed to access them as well.”
Shona said, “Go on, Dally.”
“Every concept you have discussed would only lead to defeat and ruin. The enemy is ready. He hopes to use Hyam to lure us into a desperate act.”
Shona demanded, “What, then?”
“My lady, there is little hope.”
“A little is better than none at all!”
“I must go to Eagle’s Claw,” Dally said. “Alone, save for one guard.”
“When?”
“Now. This very instant. There isn’t a moment to lose. Hyam’s life hangs in the balance. And ours.”
Edlyn demanded, “What are you to do once you arrive?”
“The only thing I can,” Dally replied, and sipped from her mug. “Wait.”