By the time he finished his story about Sarah, without mentioning who she was, both women were just staring at him. Tuva finally folded her hands.
"What am I missing here? Why haven't you brought her home?"
"And why did Father say that you had to marry Kayleigh?"
Luke stared at both of them as he tried to decide if he should give up the secret. Larisa may not remember the banishment, but he was sure that his grandmother would.
"There's a reason, but I'd rather not get into that right now." He wanted to wait and see what happened with Ardec before he told them the entire story. They had enough to worry about at the moment, and if they disapproved of Sarah, he wouldn't be able to stay and deal with everything.
"I can respect that," Tuva advised as she rose from her chair. "When you're ready, you'll tell me. I'm going out to the gardens. Let me know how your father is. Give him my wishes."
"Do you think I made her mad?" Luke asked after Tuva was gone.
"Nah, she doesn't get mad that easily. I'm still curious though."
"I know, but we have things to do. We'll save the ending of my story once we know what we're up against."
"I started the machine in the infirmary. No one else is in there. Come on. It should be done shortly."
They headed down the hallway. "The tests are that quick?"
Larisa shook her head. "Not usually, but I'm just doing a quick test to see if there's anything in his blood that doesn't belong. It'll take a lot longer to figure outwhatis actually in his blood. I want to get some hair samples from him, too."
"Sounds like you're doing an autopsy."
Her face was grim when she turned to him. "Depending on what we find, I just might be."
The machine hummed quietly when she flipped the lights on. With dragons being heartier than humans, they didn't have much use for the infirmary on a regular basis. Most of their population preferred the healers over the human doctors. It made Larisa's use of the equipment much easier and more confidential.
The machine stopped and a printer started to hum. Larisa stood next to it and waited for the pages to print out before she grabbed them and perused the content.
She let out a huff and looked up at him. "Father has definitely been poisoned. His numbers are off the charts."
Dread ran through Luke. "Who in the hell would poison him?"
"You live here, not me. I have no idea."
"But it's only been a week. Would it make him sick immediately, or is this something that built up in his system before it affected him? Wouldn't he have had some kind of symptoms before he collapsed?"
"Whoa, bro. I'm going to have to research this to find out. This is forensics more than doctoring, and I'm not a forensic specialist. I have some people I can ask, but that could raise a flag."
"Do you know what's poisoning him?"
She shook her head again. "Nope. That will take a bit longer."
"I hope we have the time to wait."
"Come on," Larisa encouraged. "Let's go sit with him a bit so I can get samples and get the ball rolling on the tests."
They headed down the hallway before she turned to him. "Don't say anything to Seneel."
"His own doctor?"
"Start thinking like this is a murder. Everyone is a suspect, including his doctor. I mean, think about it. Who better to poison someone? He'd know how, when, and how long."
"Usually the most obvious suspects aren't always the guilty."
"I'm not saying he did it, Luke. But we need to keep this quiet until we have more answers. And we need to stay with Father so that we know who comes and goes from his room."
