His eyes slid closed as he nodded and mumbled, “Okay.”
Half an hour later, the glint of firelight in the distance wicked away some of my dread. We were close,and soon, Penny would be in the care of nurses better versed in medicine than Isla. They would know what was wrong, they would put him right, and he would be okay.
The mission outside of Emberstead was an imposing old stone building tucked away on a wooded lot beyond the town limits. It was once the home of a wealthy family that had died out half a century before, but it had since been converted into a charitable outreach with a vast infirmary. I’d sought refuge there years before but never thought I’d return. Especially not like this.
As we approached, it looked almost sinister, a hulking shape in the darkness with two flickering lanterns on either side of the door. Light peeked around the curtains on several of the lower windows, but the rest of the building looked uninhabited.
Penny roused as I drew Betty to a stop at the base of the front steps and leaped from the driver’s bench with barely the presence of mind to knot the reins on the hitching post.
I pounded on the door before returning to the cart and easing Penny out of it. He leaned against me when I wrapped my arm around his shoulders to keep him close, then stumbled as we made our way up the three steps to the heavy wooden door creaking slowly open.
An elderly woman emerged, holding a lantern. I squinted against the light. Crepey skin wrinkled around her tired gray eyes, and her white hair was pulled back in a neat bun. She barely came up to my chin. I was equal parts relieved and dismayed to find that I recognized her—Nora Halmer, head Symbiarch of the mission—and she, in turn, recognized me.
She took in our muddy, disheveled state and sighed. “Kit Koesters. And company, I see.” She stepped back and waved us inside. “I thought you left all this behind.”
I helped Penny over the threshold while avoiding the old woman’s eyes. The disappointment in her tone stung. “I did,” I replied, then added, “but it caught back up to me.”
She closed and locked the door behind us and gestured for us to follow as she crossed the foyer to a set of double doors on the right side of the room. “After all you did to get away?” she asked, pushing open and holding one of the doors for me to maneuver Penny into the infirmary beyond.
“It’s complicated.”
She glanced at Penny and then back to me. “I see that.”
The infirmary was effectively a long hallway lined with patient rooms on both sides. Nora pointed at one of the open doors on the left.
“Bring him in here,” she said. “No point in walking him any farther.”
Penny crossed the threshold, then balked at the sight of the white sheeted bed. He planted his feet, resisting my efforts to lead him in. A coughing fit interrupted his rapid, shallow breathing, leaving him winded while trying to pull away.
“Hey.” I cupped his face in my hands and forced his wild eyes to meet mine. “It’s okay. We’re safe here. We can trust her.”
“How do you know?” he asked, his voice raspy.
“You trust me, right?” I managed to smile when he nodded without hesitation. “Then let that be good enough for now. You trust me, and I trust Nora.”
Penny let me lead him inside and sit him on the edge of the bed. He perched there, stiff and uneasy, while I stepped back to let Nora approach.
“Let me have a look at you.” She took Penny’s chin in hand and tilted his head to one side, then the other. “Eyes are a bit dilated, and you’re awfully gray. No fever, though.”She pressed her fingertips against his neck beneath his jaw. “Pulse is rapid.”
It was all I could do not to pace the open space at the foot of the bed, mired in worry I wasn’t sure how to soothe. Penny looked even paler than he had at the grave, though at least his lips had lost their blue tint.
“Let’s get this off so I can listen to your lungs.” Nora reached for the hem of Penny’s shirt.
He leaned away and pushed at her hands.
“It’s all right, Pen.” I returned to the bedside and crouched beside him with a hand on his knee. “It’s nothing she hasn’t seen before.”
“But the…” His eyes darted meaningfully down to my chest and back up again.
I squeezed his knee then looked at Nora. “The brand is fairly fresh, but well-tended.”
The Symbiarch’s frown deepened, but she nodded. “Unlikely to cause respiratory distress even if it weren’t.” When she returned her attention to Penny, she offered him the same kind smile she’d given me years ago when I’d first stumbled into her care. “You’ve nothing to fear from me, child. I’m not here to judge.”
Penny watched me with unmasked confusion while the old woman eased him out of his shirt, careful of the healing brand beneath.
He hadn’t asked the details of how I’d escaped the Bone Men all those years ago, and I hadn’t offered, but I regretted that now. If I had, he might not have looked on the verge of a panic attack while Nora made a quick check of the state of his brand and then leaned in to press her ear to the unmarked side of his chest.
“Take a few breaths,” she said, tutting when anything deeper than normal sparked a cough. She moved to theother side of the bed and repeated her request as she listened to his back. “Your lungs sound clear. What are your other symptoms?”
