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Footsteps hurried towards me. Cairn’s friend ran across the courtyard while the female who had woken me climbed down the ladder.

“Oh my God,” she said. “Are you all right?”

“Stay back.”

The words weren’t quite fully formed, but she seemed to understand.

She stopped. The female with the sunrise-coloured hair reached us moments later, her trainers sliding in the mud.

“Don’t move,” she said.

I blinked up at her. Who was she to give me orders? The only one brave enough to order me around was Cairn, and he hadn’t given me an order since that day our ship had crashed. Yet here she was, the tiny female, telling me what to do.

“I am… not… taking orders… from you.”

I’d listened to their language for a long time, yet speaking it was harder than I’d thought. My tongue couldn’t quite twist in the right way to produce the sounds required.

The female crouched several steps away, keeping her hands where I could see them. “Then consider it advice from a professional.”

Her gaze moved over me, pausing on my trapped wing. “What’s your name?”

“Why?”

“Because I’d like to know what to call you. That’s generally why you ask someone for their name.” She smiled, taking the sting out of her words.

Some of my anger eased. “Sten.”

“I’m Robyn. That’s Pam.”

“I know… who she is.”

Pam’s eyes widened. “You heard us? I wasn’t sure.”

“I heard everything.”

Before she could respond, I tried to push myself upright. Pain shot through my shoulder and forced me back down.

“I need to examine your wing,” Robyn said.

“No.”

“All right. Can you move it?”

I tried. The muscles tightened, but the wing barely lifted from the grass. I shut my eyes for a moment to push away the pain threatening to overwhelm me.

“A little,” I said.

“You can barely move it. Does it feel numb?”

“No.”

“That’s good. It means there’s probably no nerve damage.”

“You cannot know that. I am not human.”

She lifted her shoulders and let them drop. “No, but I know what an injured joint looks like. I’m a nurse.”

“Nurse?” I repeated.