Page 150 of Salt Between the Wolves

"It explains many things."

For a moment neither of them spoke, while the healer's attention returned to the stain spreading across his shirt.

"Show me."

"No."

"Show me."

Soren let out a short, humorless laugh.

"You're becoming repetitive."

"And you're becoming difficult."

"I've always been difficult."

"Not this difficult."

The answer came quietly, and something in her tone made him look at her.

Varda was no longer irritated. Instead, she looked genuinely worried, and Soren hated it immediately.

"Show me."

This time he didn't argue, perhaps because he was tired or perhaps because the pain was becoming harder to ignore.

Slowly, he pulled the fabric aside.

Varda stepped closer and then abruptly stopped.

For a moment she neither spoke nor moved, and she seemed to forget how to breathe.

The color drained from her face.

Soren noticed the change immediately, and for the first time since the blood had appeared beside the campfire days earlier, something dangerously close to unease settled in his chest.

He had known this woman for years, and she had stitched wounds that should have killed men, set shattered bones, and walked through battlefields without the slightest hint of fear.

Nothing frightened her.

Yet as she stared at the mark upon his chest, she looked truly afraid.

And suddenly Soren wasn't certain he wanted to hear what she was about to say.

Chapter 19: The Open Wound

Soren

Varda refused to examine him in the training yard, though Soren wasn't certain whether that decision had been made for his dignity or hers. In truth, he suspected it was neither.

By the time they reached his chambers, the pain beneath his ribs had settled into something deeper. It was no longer sharp enough to demand his full attention, yet it remained impossible to ignore, like a blade lodged beneath the skin and waiting for the right moment to twist.

The door closed behind them, and silence settled over the room as the healer placed her satchel on the table.

Soren remained standing.

"Sit."