“No, and he won’t let anyone treat his wound. Did you know that he got caught on the spikes at the bottom of the portcullis?” Rafe rooted through his pocket and then held his hand out toward her, passing her Val’s ring. “He asked me to give you this.”
Gods. It was worse than she thought.
“What about his nails?”
Rafe chuckled, his teeth showing white in the gloom. “You noticed.”
She didn’t bother to respond. And Rafe didn’t seem to expect her to. Instead, he gave her a gentle nudge with his shoulder. “Val’s sleeping and won’t move for some hours. I’ll watch him.”
“You’ll call me if anything changes?”
He dipped his chin. “You know I will.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Standingon top of the ramshackle old mill gave Tristan a good view of the farmhouse buildings, with their picturesque red bricks, thatched roofs, and low eaves.
Looking further, he scanned the copse of woods leading to the small dirt road, the nearby wheat fields lying bare since the autumn harvest, the tinkling stream running beside the path that led to the jetty, and the wide, muddy Tamasa river.
The pale morning sky, streaked with clouds, contrasted against the dark reds and golds of the ancient oaks and beech trees surrounding the homestead, while a woodpecker drummed a rolling tattoo somewhere in the distance.
He supposed it could have been beautiful, probably was beautiful, if it didn’t all seem so unreal. Like a scene in a play or a book.
A moment of stillness, outside reality.
The reality that he had lost Nim. That Val was broken. And somewhere not that far away, outside this strange bubble, there was an army bearing down on them all.
He swept his eyes slowly over the woods and river, checking for threats. He would not fail them again.
It was the only thing keeping him going after two nights without sleep and enough fear, loss, and anguish to bring him to his knees.
He had put everyone else onto a roster, sleeping in shifts and working in teams. The two Mabin had taken the boat downriver and flown back while the others cared for the horses, took turns as sentries, and worked in the damp darkness of the tumbledown mill house. Thank the gods that the owners had let it go to ruin.
He had worked alongside them. Taken lead on every task. But skipped the sleep. There was no way he could rest until they were finished. Until he knew that she would be safe.
Now, they were finally ready. Mathos and Jeremiel had laid the last stone and slipped quietly into the house to rest. Leaving him alone. Watching.
Rafe had been clear that moving Val would set him back days, if not kill him. His fever was raging, and he needed to sleep. He needed to stay cool and dry and still; they could not risk him on the river. Otherwise Tristan would have had them moving already.
Instead, he made plans. Kept watch. And worried.
He scanned the forest once more. With a bit of luck, they would have a few days before the king could find this isolated homestead. And he’d already told Rafe that they would be moving out in the morning—Val had to be ready.
The back of his shoulder throbbed relentlessly. He knew he’d have to get it seen to soon if he didn’t want it to fester. But he’d needed the pain to help him stay awake and focused during the long hours before dawn.
The front door of the farmhouse opened, and he watched for Rafe or Tor; both would be joining him soon. Jos was supposed to be finding food for everyone, and the others were either watching the perimeter or sleeping, their bedrolls spread out over the floor of the large formal parlor at the front of the house.
But it wasn’t any of his men that walked through the door.
Her dark chocolate braid fell over her shoulder, wings held softly at her back, her chin tilted as she looked around, getting her bearings. Nim.
It shouldn’t have hurt to see her standing in the weak sunlight, but it did.
She took in the farmhouse, the surrounding farmland and woods, and then swept her gaze along the small tributary that fed into the wide Tamasa. She paused at the old mill, taking in its mossy stone walls and abandoned machinery, and then, inevitably, looked up.
Her face set, and she took a step toward him.
He knew that he could climb down and walk away before she reached him, but he couldn’t bring himself to do that to her.
