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I tried to speak, but no words came. I coughed to clear my throat.
"Keep still, love," a voice said.
Love?The speaker sounded like an older woman.
"Who's there?" I asked. "Are you a doctor?"
She chuckled in response. "I might as well be, but no. I'm Wilma."
My leaden brain took a while to process that. "The Watcher's grandmother," I said finally. "I think he might be a very bad boy."
She chuckled again. "He might be, but not when it comes to you."
Of course, the Watcher's grandmother would say that, wouldn't she? She was pretty much obligated to stick up for him.
"What happened to me?" I asked cautiously. Even a handful of words was an effort.
"We're not sure. Bain thinks your power reacted to something in the Keep. Like a power trap. When you use it, this is what happens." She spoke with a slight accent that suggested she grew up in Ireland. There was no reason to assume everyone spent their whole lives here, in the Vault.
"Bain thinks that, hmmm?" I asked. Or he was trying to put me off the trail, so we didn't find out what he really did?
My paranoia was alive and well at least. Along with the rest of me. If it really was an attack of some kind, they failed. Or had they?
"What happened while I was asleep?" I asked.
"Dinner," Wilma replied. "There's a tray here when you're up to eating." She waved, but all I saw was a vague movement in the gloom.
"And a lot of talk and worry. I had to send those boys to bed after the fifth time they came in to check on you." She snorted a laugh out her nose.
"All of them?" I asked. I tried to sound casual, but my heart pounded faster.
"Yes. Even Slade. He would feel terrible if a guest died under his roof."
He'dfeel bad? I'd feel pretty shit about it too.
"That bard even sang to you. That was when I tossed them out and stayed here to be sure they didn't come back." She sounded amused, but also like someone not to be messed with. Just the kind of person I needed in my corner.
I had a foggy memory of someone singing softly, but I couldn't remember the song or even the tune. I might have imagined it, just because Wilma mentioned it.
"I thought Bain and Knox were going to come to blows, arguing over who would sit with you," she said.
"They were ready to fight over me?" I asked, half disbelieving.
"Men are silly, aren't they?" she chuckled again. "I made them take an hour each, then sent them off."
"How long was I out?" I spent an hour in the dark, alone with Bain, and he hadn't killed me? Maybe what happened to me had nothing to do with him after all. I wanted to believe that, but until I could be sure, I would be careful.
"It's about five in the morning," Wilma replied. "So, a goodly while."
About ten hours. No wonder I was hungry. Even as I had that thought, my stomach turned. Evidently I wasn't ready for food quite yet.
I tried to sit up, but I couldn't manage that, either. I was floppier than a rag doll. I felt more awake and normal as the minutes passed, but I wouldn't be outrunning anyone in a leg race any time soon.
"Relax," Wilma said. "I'm going to put on a light."
I squinted in expectation, but heard the sound of a lighter flick and a flame burst to life. Wilma's face was illuminated, as was her hand when she lit a candle beside the bed.
"There, that's better." She closed the lighter and tucked it back into a pocket. In the soft light, her hair appeared to be bright green. She also had a nose piercing, septum piercing and a lip ring. When she turned her head, I noticed a bunch of bling there too.
