“Maggie!”
“I’ll come back to life, and it will be fine. Besides, if she wakes up, she will handle Damaes herself.”
“Is she going to murder all of us when she comes to?”
“I hope not.”
Shana swore. “Just tell me that my children aren’t going to be turned into torches.”
“Again, if anyone is going to be set on fire, it’s me.”
Shana resumed scrubbing.
“I wonder about you.”
“Which part?”
“All the parts!” She sighed. “You need her for something. I understand. But even so, here you are washing a filthy stray you picked up in the Tangle and plucking lice out of her hair knowing that she might murder you when she wakes up.”
“We can’t leave her in this state. Clover is dying my dress, and I wouldn’t expect you to do it for me. This is not a one-woman job.”
“What if she refuses to help you?”
We would be screwed. “Then we did a good deed and saved her.”
Shana pointed her soapy comb at me. “That’s exactly what I mean. Ours isn’t a time for kindness. Too much compassion will get you killed. Sooner or later, you’re going to get yourself into trouble.”
“Shana, look at her. Would you leave her on the street?”
“In an instant.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Believe it.” Shana set the comb aside. “Pour the water for me.”
I scooped some water out of the bucket with a large ladle and gently poured it over the woman’s hair.
“What’s her name?”
“I don’t know the one she was born with. Her mage name is Isadau. It means Flame-bloom.”
Isadau jerked upright like a corpse popping out of a coffin in a cheesy horror flick. Shana shied back. I froze.
Isadau looked at me with eyes that were a deep, golden amber.
“Put down the ladle,” she said.
I dropped the ladle. It clattered as it fell to the floor.
“What date is it?”
It was after midnight. “Redberry 8 of the year 3044.”
“Two years,” she whispered. Her hands clenched the side of the tub, the freshly cleaned knuckles turning white. The water in the tub steamed.
“Easy,” I told her.
Her gaze fastened on me. “Do I know you?”
