Then the smile faded, and she looked as if she wanted to say more, but she didn’t. She fled into the kitchen. A few minutes later, Jentt emerged with a tray. He set it on a table near the sofa and smiled at her. “You’re lucky—turns out you have some resistance to stone fish venom. You know how rare that is?”
Kreya drank in the sight of him: his shoulder bandaged, a slight limp, but otherwise he seemed well and whole. “You seemto have some resistance to being shot with arrows. That’s good. You didn’t used to.”
Leaning over, he touched her cheek. She saw sadness in his eyes, wrinkles in the corners that hadn’t been there before. She wanted to reassure him that she was okay. Both of them were okay. But she wasn’t certain that the world was okay. “Has Grand Master Lorn responded to the threat? Has he assembled an army?”
“You nearly die,” Jentt said, “and that’s your first question?”
“Actually, my first question was to Amurra, who said you’re all alive. So yes, this is my second question: is somebody out there doing what needs to be done to save the world?”
“Drink your broth,” he told her.
“Jentt?”
He lifted the bowl to her lips and tilted it. With shaking hands, she took the bowl from him and did it herself. “You woke briefly enough to take in a little food and water,” Jentt said. “You probably don’t remember that.”
She shook her head.
“You weren’t coherent with the venom in you.”
Kreya lowered the bowl. “Oh no, what did I say?”
“You seemed to be under the impression that I was a pear tree,” Jentt said. “And you were very concerned about squirrels eating all my pears before they could ripen. Another time, you accused Amurra of stealing a shovel. Every time she walked into the room, you’d demand she return it before she broke it, because you didn’t know how to fix a shovel.”
Kreya began to laugh and then stopped when it hurt. She felt as if her torso had been trampled. “I don’t know how to fix a shovel.”
In a quieter voice, he said, “You also cried. As often as I told you I was here, you wouldn’t believe me, and you cried.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I realized how rarely I’ve seen you cry.”
She marshaled a smile. “It’s not my favorite activity. No more tears. You’re here. We’re all alive, and someone is going to do something about Eklor, right? Grand Master Lorn must have approved action once Zera reported to him.”
Jentt lifted the soup again. He didn’t meet her eyes.
“Zeradidreport to him, didn’t she? It couldn’t have been you—too many questions. Marso would be considered too unreliable. And Stran was injured.” Had Zera flaked on them? Surely she wouldn’t have. She’d seen the danger. She wouldn’t have retreated to her plush life and pretended none of this had happened. Would she have?
“She was the one who found you,” Jentt said. “She saved you. But...”
He trailed off.
The silence of that unfinished sentence was worse than any words he could have said. Kreya struggled to push herself to sitting. “But what?”
“She didn’t know what injured you...”
Before he finished, Kreya realized where he was leading. “She was exposed to the venom. How badly? Is she awake?”
He shook his head. “She hasn’t woken at all. You, we were able to feed, even when you were delusional. But Zera... If she doesn’t wake soon... I’m sorry, but there isn’t much we can do. There’s no cure for stone fish venom. The body either fights it off, or it doesn’t. And usually, it doesn’t.”
“Amurra said Stran was recovering. She didn’t say anyone else had been hurt!” Kreya would have asked if she’d thought Zera was in danger, but the last time she’d seen her, she’d been fine. She hadn’t known to worry.
“Amurra didn’t want to upset you.”
“Help me to Zera,” Kreya commanded.
“You need rest.”
Kreya glared at him. “I’m giving you a look. Do you see me giving you a look? Carry me, if it makes you feel better.”
