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The matron winked at him. “We were all apprentices once. And I’ve received enough laurels in my time not to be hungering after recognition at my age. By the time you’re weary from running this hospital for two decades, you’ll be more tolerant as well.”
“Delphine!” The shout from the doorway was half-enthusiastic greeting, half wail.
Luna shot across the room and threw her arms around me, nearly knocking me back onto the bed. Ember stood and shook herself, growling slightly until I reassured her with a quick hand on her head.
“You’re awake!” Luna cried in my ear, making me wince.
“You’re here?” I asked, in unenthusiastic tones. “Come to laugh at me for making a fool of myself?”
Luna pulled back and grinned. “Don’t worry about that. I would probably have been in the bed next to you if Master Hayes hadn’t stopped me in time.”
“A salutary reminder to the person who actually deserves the scolding.” Amara entered the room much more calmly, Hayes a step behind.
She stopped at my bed and looked down at me with a guilty expression.
“I’m sorry, Delphine. I failed in my duty to you, and I wasn’t even here when you woke up.”
I struggled to my feet, fighting against Luna’s weight. I could see the shadow in her eyes, and I wondered if she was thinking of her mother. Amara, of all people, knew the dangers of pushing yourself to the point of losing consciousness.
“You don’t need to worry about that. Of course you needed to be at the harbor saving lives during the storm, and I can understand them wanting your help in the aftermath as well. I’m the one who made the foolish mistake.”
“I’m sorry as well, Delphine,” Hayes said. “Unlike Amara, I was in the square, and I even saw you’d arrived. I should have kept an eye out for you, like I did for Luna. You might not be my apprentice, but you are my student.”
“Don’t worry,” I repeated. “I’ve finally learned my lesson. No more attempting to do the impossible for me. Next time I feel like I’m getting close to the end, I’ll pull back. And sit down. That would have been a helpful move in the circumstances.”
Amara laughed. “The lesson you learned is that next time you should sit down?”
I scrunched my nose. “When you put it like that…”
Amara stepped closer, and Luna and the local healers moved back to give her room. She put a hand on my shoulder and smiled at me.
“In all seriousness,” she murmured, “I’m proud of you. It isn’t an easy lesson to learn. And you shouldn’t expect yourself to suddenly be perfect at it. But it does you credit that your desire to help others is so strong. I hear you saved a lot of lives.”
I grimaced. “Unless you actually did single-handedly bring five ships flying in from the depths of the ocean with a singing chorus of mermaids to accompany them, I wouldn’t believe everything you hear about my supposed feats.”
She laughed. “Well, there weren’t any mermaids…”
“Amara!” I stared at her, and she chuckled again. “The rest might be a little exaggerated as well.”
She leaned closer, her voice dropping to a whisper. “I may be proud of you, but I would prefer not to repeat this particular scenario for more reasons than one. A certain someone has already reminded me of how I failed in my responsibilities where you’re concerned. And since he’s not the most responsible person himself, I’d prefer never to find myself on the receiving end of that particular lecture again, please. Especially when I don’t have a word in my own defense.”
I pulled away, flushing. But a moment later, a horrible thought occurred to me.
“Wait, does that mean you’re going to refuse my going—?”
She put up a hand to silence me, her eyes sending a warning. “Not here,” she mouthed, and I quickly stopped talking, my flush deepening.
“Does she have your official permission for discharge?” Amara asked the matron who was still standing nearby, an expression of interest on her face.
“Of course, of course,” the matron assured her.
“Properly speaking, you didn’t need to be here at all,” Hayes said, “since healers can’t do anything to speed recovery from ability overuse. But since you were brought here in the first place, and we’ve all been run off our feet without break, it seemed sensible to just leave you here. No one wanted you lying alone in our accommodation without anyone to watch over you.”
“It certainly relieved my guilt to have you here,” Amara said with another apologetic smile at me.
“I’m grateful for your care,” I told the healer. “Please pass on my thanks to all the other healers as well.”
“We should be thanking you for being by far our easiest patient,” she replied with a laugh at her own joke. “You can never tell with healers. They’re either the best or the worst patients.”
