“Nothingtroubling.”The way Kerr said it made Niel look instantly at him, the berry caught between his pointer finger and thumb. “She had two books under her mattress. I can’t see why. It was only poetry and a very dull account from a voyaging trader, nothing scandalous.”
Niel raised an eyebrow.I do not know my letters,she’d told him, a vacant look on her face. He’dseenher staring at the page then, when he wrote, but he’d taken her at her word like a fool.
Did he even know anything about her? What was an act? What was the real Lady Blackfell?
He wanted to believe a servant had poisoned him; one of the cooks, perhaps, like he’d assumed at first. But it wasAyla’scastle he’d taken over, and for all her timid softness the lady had proven capable and complex. She’d lied about being a fool, and about being able to read. Hedidn’tthink she’d lied about the tunnel anymore. But the poisoning…?
The moment he let himself truly consider if she was capable of poisoning him was the moment he was certain of it. Ayla was just as likely a suspect as the cooks. He’d been a fool to discount her in the beginning. A fool blinded by her soft spoken nature and her breathtaking beauty.
“I, er, read a few pages,” Kerr admitted, misunderstanding the look on Niel’s face. “Terribly dry.”
“I see,” Niel muttered, even though he was barely listening. He closed his fist tight around the berry, then turned and launched it as hard as he could over the wall, outside the castle grounds.
“So?” Kerr asked. “What are you going to do about her?”
The snow was falling more heavily. A thin layer dusted the parapet. Niel dragged a finger slowly down the wall, his mouth downturned.
“Whatever I do, I'm not going to yell at her,” Niel muttered bitterly, as Kerr tilted his head in confusion. “You’re dismissed, Kerr. Go.”
Could she really have tried to kill him? Did she really want him dead?
Of course she did. She’d probably try to poison him again the first chance she got. He’d broken into her home and taken her hostage. What sane woman wouldn’t try to kill a man who didthat? He felt dizzy. And sick. And weak-legged. Like he’d been feeling for days. Almost like he was ill. Or…
He put the pieces together faster than an arrow leaving a bow, turned abruptly, and strode as quickly to the infirmary as he could. He needed to talk to Larkin, the healer among his troops, immediately.
The lanky, brown-skinned man perched on a stool in the infirmary, grinding seeds in a mortar. Larkin’s eyes found Niel instantly as the knight slammed the door open. The healer’s normally sharp eyes looked a little glassy, as if he’d been working too hard.
“He’s not awake yet,” Larkin informed him.
Niel spared a quick glance at the unconscious Enarian knight, now one-legged, bound thoroughly to one of the infirmary beds. Theystilldidn't have the dungeon key. The man’s pale skin was tinged gray-blue from blood loss, but Larkin had cleaned and bandaged him. Niel almost wished the healer had just let the wound fester. But there were more urgent matters just now than punishing a man he hated. Even if Bradhan of AshbrinwasHannes' nephew, and heir to the house of Ashbrin, the noble family Niel had sworn to exterminate.
“I’ve been poisoned,” Niel said.
“Again?” Larkin was on his legs before the word was out of his mouth.
“I can breathe. It’s not like last time.”
“Sit. Now.”
Niel perched on the edge of one of the tables and stared grimly straight ahead as Larkin peered into his eyes, hand pressed to Niel’s wrist for his pulse.
“Symptoms?” the healer snapped.
“My heart won’t stop racing. I feel flush, dizzy. Stomach’s unsettled, legs are weak. And my mood’s a pendulum. I feel like I'm going mad.”
Larkin frowned and slowly let go of Niel’s wrist. The healer pressed a cold hand to Niel’s forehead.
“Well?” the knight asked.
“Did this start with the fight?”
“No. Earlier. Maybe yesterday or the day before. But it’s getting worse.”
Ofcourseshe wouldn’t stop with the stilder berries. It made so much sense of all the odd ways he’d been feeling.
Larkin pulled his hand away and took a step back. Sinking against the empty bed, directly across from where Niel sat, the healer frowned and drew a deep breath.
“Have you vomited?”
