Magnus bathed Lyla’s face with the dragon tears and scrubbed her mouth until not a bit of the balm remained on her lips. Her tender flesh tore a bit and started bleeding, but at least the poisonous paste was gone. “Forgive me, my love. Please forgive me.” He soaked the cloth in the dragon tears and pressed it to her bleeding lips, noting with some small sense of relief that she had stopped her feverish conversation. Her mouth no longer moved with silent words. He prayed that was a good thing.
Hellys took the tainted bowl of herb water and the crock of paste, tossed them out the window, and annihilated them with an explosion of flame. Anything with the slightest scent ofvenenum upon it, she did the same. Cleansing the place with the purity of fire.
Magnus scooped Lyla up into his arms and held her. “Check the bed. That traitor may have sprinkled that noxious herb among the bedclothes.”
Tern and Inuk entered the room, heads lowered and submissive. Albionna and Talia followed.
“Albionna shall serve yer lady,” Talia said quietly. “She has served me many a year and can be trusted.”
“I will take the best care of yer lady, mighty chief,” the Selkie maid said.
“The bed is tainted,” Hellys said from the other side of the room.
“Burn it.” Still holding Lyla clutched to his chest, Magnus turned to go to his solar. “Check the dressing room, the bathing solar, everything. Anything that bears the stench, purge it.” He ached to throw his head back and roar his fury to the winds. “Burn the entire floor, if need be. I trust yer judgment.”
Talon stood in the doorway. Sadness, fury, and sympathy rolled off him in waves. “The seventh floor shall now be the private chambers of our chief, and they shall be made perfect and whole within three heartbeats of a dragon.” He fixed a stony look upon Tern and Inuk. “Make it so and know if another traitorous servant gets close to our lady, the spy will not be the only one placed on a spike with their entrails ripped from their bellies, ye ken?”
Both Tern and Inuk nodded, then rushed from the room.
“Assist them,” Talia told Albionna. “Watch all who are with them as well. We shall care for our lady until ye have the floor prepared.”
Albionna hurried after the housekeeper and the steward.
“I shall take her to the tower until the chambers are ready.” Magnus paused, closed his eyes, and uttered, “Tutum.” When heopened his eyes, he stood in the tower where the Scale of Rurik sat upon its pedestal.
Talon and Talia materialized beside him and lit the braziers lining the circular room. Talia produced a fine golden weave and draped it around Lyla and Magnus. “This fleece is pure and healing,” she said, “and only cleansed in dragon tears.”
“Thank the mighty Draig for Ipsillian’s blood oath,” Talon said as he circled the room, his tail twitching restlessly. “If not for that…”
“Dinna say it.” Magnus knew very well what could have happened if Lyla hadn’t been exposed to the sacred purity of dragon’s blood. It was even more powerful and healing than their tears.
The fortress shook with the force of Hellys’s fierce cleansing of the third floor.
“Will ye punish Tern and Inuk?” Talia asked Magnus while pointing a claw at Talon, then jabbing it at the floor while mouthing, “Stop pacing.”
He glared at her but did as she asked.
“No. Not this time,” Magnus told her. “I believe their regret will be punishment enough.” Both Tern and Inuk had served for countless hectrooms and nothing like this had ever happened before.
“Albionna has a sister who is most devoted and trustworthy,” Talia said. “Perhaps I shall try her as my new maid, and Albionna can stay with our lady. She seems quite fond of her, which is rare for a Selkie.”
Magnus didn’t care, as long as no one ever endangered his Lyla ever again.
Another explosion shook the place, followed by the sound of shattering glass.
“We may have to build a new fortress.” Talon stretched his long neck out of one of the arched windows and lookeddownward. “Flames are shooting from the third-floor balconies and the roof of yer solar below. It appears that feckin’ maid infected everything.”
“Well then, perhaps her punishment should be burial alive in a coffin of venenum.” Magnus gently rocked back and forth while pacing as though Lyla were a restless babe trying to sleep. She still burned hot with fever and occasionally shuddered. He kept close to the braziers since the windows of the tower were simple arches open to the winds, and the late autumn gusts were cold.
“Thornpitch’s barrier swirls darker,” Talon said. “Perhaps Kcirred knows his spy failed him.”
“Or he has plans to increase the wickedness.” Magnus adjusted his hold so Lyla would be more comfortable resting her head on his shoulder. “The maid said ye summoned the Weavers. Be that truth or a lie she made up for reasons known only to herself.”
“Truth.” Talon sidled over to another window and peered out, studying the landscape. “I thought the old one and her assistant might be of some help in discovering what ailed yer lady.” He cast a worried look back at Magnus. “Now we know she was being poisoned, but I still wonder what caused her to fade right after the great healing. That was before the poison. I fear something else may be at work here.”
“A poison we dinna know of?” Talia asked. She adjusted the blanket covering Lyla, tucking it closer around her.
“A poison. A spell. Who knows?” Magnus worried about that as well. Perhaps it was not just Kcirred attacking his dear one. One of the darker forces the druid had allied with might have gotten to her first. Or it could be an entity fighting to bring down the Highland Veil by preventing the completion of his and Lyla’s fated mate binding. Sadly, much evil was at play here and identifying it, would not be an easy task.
