Page 103 of Tides of Shadows

“What have you done to her?” he shouted.

Minerva merely shrugged.

“What you asked me to do. I didn’t say it would be gentle. We cannot begin with control alone, first the poison must be drawn. We accomplished a lot today.” She smiled as if she had merely finished knitting. “Well. I did. Now, tea.”

She walked out.

“Nerissa, can you hear me?” Aidenar’s voice trembled. “Nerissa?”

His fingers brushed my cheek. I could not move. He gathered me from the floor, cradled me against his chest, and carried me through the halls. I felt the steady rhythm of his heartbeat beneath my ear.

He laid me on the bed in my chamber.

After that, I remembered nothing.

Chapter

31

Iwoke when the sun was still high. The older servant sat in an armchair, calmly working her crochet as if time itself had no claim on her. I was in a nightgown. I did not remember anyone changing my clothes.

“How long did I sleep?” I asked in a hoarse voice.

“Oh, my Lady wakes at last,” she said gladly, setting her work aside. “I began to fear for you. You slept all day and all night.”

I pushed myself up to sit on the bed. I felt dull and heavy, yet, strangely, rested. For the first time in weeks. As if a great weight had slipped from my shoulders.

“I am hungry,” I said as I rose from the bed.

“I shall send for food at once,” she answered, and hurried from the chamber with an energy I certainly did not share.

I turned to the window. The valley lay wrapped in a pale mist, and the sunlight gleamed on the silvered rock. High above the trees, eagles circled on the rising currents of air. Their wings cut through the sky like sharp blades. Their cries echoed off the stone walls of Durminas. They were like sentinel guardians looking after their lands. I watched the view from the very edge of the room. I had no courage to step out upon the balcony, the abyss below still set cold shivers running down my spine.

After a little while someone knocked upon the door.

“Enter,” I said, without turning from the window.

Aidenar stepped inside with a wicker basket in his hands.

“I am glad you are awake,” he said, setting the basket upon the table. “Forgive me that you had to endure that. Mina told me there was no other way.”

“Gentleness is not her strongest virtue,” I sighed.

“That is true,” he answered with a faint smile. “How do you feel?”

“Strangely better. As though something had been lifted from me. A stone. The dreams grow dim.”

Aidenar drew out fruit, bread, and several cheeses from the basket, then sat in the armchair opposite, taking a bite from an apple.

“Will you sit there and stare at me while I eat?” I asked in mock indignation.

“I prefer to make certain you regain your strength,” he replied calmly. “Don’t you want to go out onto the balcony?”

“The view from here is good enough” I allowed myself a small smile.

He smiled back, his old, mischievous smile, one I hadn’t seen in a long time.

“You’re afraid of heights,” he said with amusement.