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The healer puts a cold compress on his head that smells of garlic and ginger. I wrinkle my nose, but don’t say a word. No matter how smelly, if it helps, we’ll do it.
A few minutes tick by before Drogo tosses open the door, and we see him hauling Princess Tara behind him. Rinan looks upset. I feel upset. What the fuck is he doing?
He shoves her toward the bed. “Heal him!”
Electricity charges the air.
She spins on him. “What?”
He advances on her, nose-to-nose. “Heal King Talon.”
“Don’t you think if I could do that I already would have?” she snaps back, but there's a note of fear in her voice.
“You healed Prince Rinan when he was injured!” His words are like an accusation.
“It’s not the same thing!” She sounds desperate. Desperate for us to understand something we just don’t.
“What’s the point in you if you can’t heal one man?” he shouts in her face.
To my surprise, she doesn’t back down. “Because if I can find the cause of the illness, I might be able to save him and all your people.”
“If you might be able to do that, you sure as hell can do this. Try!”
She takes a step back, but he closes the space between them again. “Try!” he repeats.
I can see her trembling. I can hear the rapid beating of her heart and the scent of fear just below the ginger and the garlic. She steps away from him and to the king’s bedside.
My father doesn’t look happy, but I’m not sure he has the strength to fight this. Princess Tara gives a deep breath beside him, and then she forces a smile. “Hello, King Talon.”
“Hello,” he whispers softly.
“Can I try to heal you? I don’t think it’ll work because I don’t know what’s wrong, but I can try.”
He nods, his eyes closing.
She takes his hand in her much smaller one and closes her eyes. After a moment, her breath comes in and out rapidly. “Fever. No appetite. Weakness. Chills. Headaches. No nutrition. Something. Something is there. Something weaving around it. Something in every drop of your blood and every organ in your body.”
Releasing his hand, she shifts back on the bed, pressing her other hand to her stomach and breathing rapidly. She’s gone pale, even paler than she usually is. And I move to stand beside her, worried she might pass out.
“Did you fix him?” Drogo snaps.
Her eyes flicker to him with irritation. “It’s like I said before, I don’t know the cause of the illness. I can see what it’s doing to him, but I can’t fix the source of it. So even if I could help him, he’ll just keep getting sick until the source is dealt with.”
“You can do more!” Drogo shouts.
She shakes her head. “I can’t.”
He comes toward her, and I step between them. “Enough.”
His dark eyes zero in on me. “Stop protecting her. Make her heal him.”
King Talon’s voice comes softly. “Enough.”
Tension sings between us all. Rinan turns to Princess Tara and says, “You can go.”
She hurries for the door, and Prince Drogo moves to go after her. I grab his arm. “If you kill her, she won’t be of use to anyone.”
Her eyes look back at us, wide and fearful, before she disappears out the door.
