Air flowed into my lungs, and I gasped and sputtered out seawater. I was rolled onto my side as light stabbed into my eyes and pain, waves of tremendous pain surged through my entire being. I had no energy to cry out, so I just whimpered.
“Amber!” I heard a voice shout.
The world around me was hazy still, but I saw a fall of auburn hair and intense amber eyes. “Sleep,” there came the soft and needful word and I had to obey it. So, I fell into unconsciousness.
When next I woke from the black depths of a dreamless sleep, I blinked my eyes open to dim light, and still a tremendous amount of pain. My hips ached and my feet throbbed. There still seemed to be a thousand points of fire across my skin, but they were fading, less urgent, more like a burning itch now.
I groaned.
Sparrow came into view. “Legs?”
I groaned again. “Water?” I tried to say, but my voice was rough and raw. Sparrow seemed to understand and had a glass to my lips a moment later, lifting my head a bit to help me drink. The water wasn’t cold, but it felt so very soothing on its way down. While my head was lifted, I saw Ant, sitting slumped against the wall. He barely seemed to be breathing. I groaned again as Sparrow lifted the glass away, nodding my head toward him.
She looked, then looked back at me. “He’s just resting. Your wounds are too severe. He can’t heal them all at once, and it takes a lot out of him when he does.
Ah, that would be why my throat and hands weren’t aching anymore.
“You should rest, if you can,” Sparrow urged, laying me back down.
I didn’t see much point in remaining awake, so I slipped back into sleep once more. And that was how the next few days went, or so I was later told. I would wake up in less and less pain and take some water or a bit of food. Silence or Sparrow was always there to spoon-feed me if needed. Ant always there and always exhausted.
I woke, finally feeling rested and refreshed, my body in no pain. It was dark in the room, a single lantern showing Sparrow curled up on a mattress on the floor. Ant was gone. But… there were voices outside the door, talking low, I couldn’t hear them normally… but like I had the night of the assassination attempt, I could hear them through the hairs on my skin.
“…attacking here?” someone said, it sounded like Crane.
“If they were going to, they would have, long before now. They had months before that pirate ship. No, they know she’s well-guarded here.” This was a firm baritone voice, one I hadn’t heard in a while… Maverick? Was he here?
“She’s a mistweaver for Spirit’s sakes!” This from Amber, I knew that voice well enough. “The lot of us are no match for a mistweaver. She could waltz in here and slay all of us and Legs and be done with it. No, there’s another reason she hasn’t attacked us here.”
Maverick grunted.
“Amber’s right.” This from Ant, another voice I knew well. “I saw her power, none of you did. She could have easily killed all of us, but went only for Legs. I think…” Ant trailed off.
“What?” Maverick asked, gruff. “I trust your instincts Ant. Say it.”
“I think she doesn’t want to or… or can’t kill the rest of us? She only wants to kill Legs.”
“Oh! Yes, of course!” This from Crane. “I think I might know why, but perhaps here is not the best place for us to talk. Come with me.” And I heard footfalls fading down the hall.
I wanted to know what Crane had to say. And I was feeling well enough to try to get out of bed, so I slipped from under the covers. I was in a light shift only. That would have to do since I didn’t want to waste time dressing. I slipped, silent as a spider across to the door, not waking Sparrow.
The door did creak something fierce when I opened it, but Sparrow must have been out cold as she didn’t even flinch.
The others were just turning into the long cross hallway in the center of the estate as I peered out into the hall.
I hurried to catch up, stopping at the corner to spy around and see them step into the central stairwell. There was only one place they could be going: the dome at the top of the central tower of Hedgewild.
Once they were all out of sight, I crept along to the stairwell. But… I’d heard this door creak a lot when opened previously… so I went a different way. I backed up to the entrance to the great hall, on the second floor this took me onto the balcony around the hall. From my explorations of Hedgewild, I knew that there was another access to the central stairs from here and no door, just an open archway to pass through. It was just to my left. So, I snuck through that and slowly moved up the stairs. I got to the landing below the large domed room at the top of the tower and stopped there, keeping to the shadows. I could only just barely hear the whispers above, not able to make out the exact words, so I let my body-hearing do its thing.
My hair bristled, and the sounds came into focus.
“… longer, what’s your theory?” This from Maverick.
Crane spoke, voice hushed. “Are we certain this room is warded? I’ve always wondered about that.”
“So Gander told me, when he passed leadership of the House to me. I’ve never had any reason to doubt the old man. Everything I’ve said in this room has stayed here. The only way anyone could hear is if they were actually here, not by any other means.”
There was a pause for a long moment after this, and I felt my skin crawl. I felt like they somehow knew I was listening in. I concentrated on hearing any movement with my enhanced senses and… there was something: a soft, almost imperceptible skittering of tiny feet. I was curious about this and focused, to pin-point the sound. I could actually hear two sets of tiny feet, and one of them…
