I nodded as I chewed.
Linc continued, “There is a prisoner who would like to speak to you. Nobody else. Just you.”
This made no sense to me. I let them keep talking.
“Don’t put her through that stress,” Velline interjected.
“Just a quick conversation,” Tommins insisted. “She’ll figure out what he wants and then we’ll get her out of there.”
“And what if it’s not? He just tried to murder her!”
This stopped me up short. I almost choked on the mouthful of bread. Murder? That was news to me.
“She said she found the mushrooms,” Linc countered.
Velline shook her head. “Those mushrooms aren’t local to Moonvale. They wouldn’t have been growing in the woods.”
Unless my memories had been scrambled—they sure were growing in the woods. Just like any other mushroom.
“You think he drugged her with them? Planted them there?” Tommins asked.
“Maybe,” Velline mused. “We can’t rule it out and let him get away with it.”
“What if he’s innocent?”
Velline sighed. “What if? We will apologize for the mixup. Besides—the King sent a missive searching for folk like him.”
“He is our Mister Moonvale,” Tommins said. “That would reflect poorly on all of us.”
“So, we’re supposed to harbor a criminal until we make up our minds?”
Finished with my hunk of bread, I brushed the crumbs from my hands and cleared my throat. “I’ll talk to him.”
Three sets of eyes flashed in my direction, all of them varying levels of alarmed.
“Are you sure?”
“You can wait?—”
“You don’t have to?—”
I rose to standing, only feeling mildly shaky. “I’ll do it. Let’s just get it over with so I can go home.” A sudden flash of panic rooted my feet to the floor. “Brambleby?” I asked.
Velline ran a reassuring hand over my shoulder. “He’s alright. He’s at Kizzi’s. He’s been going back and forth between the apothecary and the trinket shop, when he’s not pacing outside the clinic.”
I breathed a sigh of relief, but then another alarming thought struck me. “How long have I been asleep?”
She fidgeted nervously with her fingers.
“How long, Velline?
“A few days.”
Gods. “A few?”
“Four,” she said, clearing her throat. “Or five.”
“Which is it, four or five?”
