trained him. I knew if I snapped my head back swiftly, I could break his nose and possibly take out some of his front teeth. Snapping my head back swiftly struck me as only slightly simpler than picking up the floor under my own feet would be. I stood, hands curled defensively over my belly, pushing the pain aside, gathering my strength. After a moment I lifted my head and regarded Regal.
I ran my tongue about the inside of my mouth to free my lips from my teeth, then spoke. 'You killed your own father.'
Regal stiffened in his chair. The man holding me tensed. I leaned in his arms, forcing him to support my weight.
'Serene and Justin did it, but you ordered it,' I said quietly. Regal came to his feet.
'But not before we had Skilled to Verity.' I made my voice louder. The effort broke sweat on me. 'Verity's alive, and he knows everything.' Regal was coming at me, with Will right behind him. I swung my gaze to Will, put threat in my voice. 'He knows about you, too, Will. He knows it all.'
The guard held me as Regal backhanded me. Once. Another slap, and I felt the swollen skin of my face split under the impact. Regal drew his fist back. I set myself to take it, pushed away all pain, centered myself, got ready.
'Look out!' Will yelled, and sprang to knock Regal aside.
I had wanted it too badly, he had Skilled what I intended to do. As Regal swung I jerked free of my guard, slipped aside from Regal's blow, then stepped in. With one hand I seized the back of Regal's neck, to pull his face toward my other hand that gripped the now crushed paper of powder. My intent had been to rub it into his nose and mouth, to hope against hope he'd get enough of it to kill him.
Will spoiled it all. My swollen fingers would not close on Regal's neck. Will snatched Regal from my wooden grasp, swung him sideways away from me. As Will's shoulder collided with my chest I reached for his face instead, ground the torn paper and fine white powder into his nose and mouth and eyes. Most of it floated up in a fine cloud between us. I saw him gasp at the bitterness and then we were down, both of us, under a wave of Regal's guards.
I dove for unconsciousness, but it eluded me. I was struck, kicked, and throttled before Regal's frenzied cries of 'Don't kill him! Don't kill him!' seemed to matter to anyone save me. I felt them get off me, felt them drag Will from under me, but I could not see. Blood was sheeting down over my face. My tears mingled with it. My last chance, and I had failed. I had not even gotten Will. Oh, he would be sick for a few days, but I doubted he would die of it. Even now I heard them muttering over him.
'Take him to a healer, then.' I heard Regal finally give the command. 'See if he can figure out what's wrong with him. Did one of you kick him in the head?'
I thought that he spoke of me, until I heard the sounds of Will being carried out. So either I had gotten more into him than I had thought, or someone had kicked him in the head. Perhaps his gasp had pulled it into his lungs. I had no idea what it would do there. As I felt his Skill presence fading it was relief almost as blessed as surcease from pain. Cautiously I relaxed my vigilance against him. It was like setting down a terribly heavy weight. Another thought blessed me. They didn't know. No one had seen the paper and powder, it had happened too quickly for them. They might not even think of poison until it was too late for him.
'Is the Bastard dead?' Regal demanded angrily. 'If he is, I swear, every man of you will hang!'
Someone stooped hastily beside me, to lay fingers at the pulse in my throat. 'He's alive,' a soldier said gruffly, almost sullenly. Someday Regal would learn not to threaten his own guard. I hoped he'd be taught it by an arrow through his back.
A moment later someone dashed a bucket of cold water over me. The shock of it jarred every pain I had to new frenzy. I pulled my one eye open. The first thing I saw was the water and blood on the floor in front of me. If all that blood was all mine, I was in trouble. Dazedly, I tried to think of whose else it could be. My mind did not seem to be working very well. Time seemed to be flowing in jumps. Regal was standing over me, angry and disheveled, and then suddenly he was sitting in his chair. In and out. Light and dark and light again.
Someone knelt beside me, ran competent hands over me. Burrich? No. That was a dream from long ago. This man had blue eyes and the nasal twang of a Farrow man. 'He's bleeding a lot, King Regal. But we can stop that.' Someone put pressure on my brow. A cup of watered wine, held against my cracked lips, splashed into my mouth. I choked on it. 'You see, he's alive. I'd leave off, for today, Your Majesty. I doubt if he'll be able to answer any more questions before tomorrow. He'll just faint on you.' A calm professional opinion. Whoever it was stretched me out on the floor again and left.
A spasm rattled through me. Seizure coming soon. Good thing Will was gone. Didn't think I could keep my walls up through a seizure.
'Oh, take him away.' Regal, disgusted and disappointed. 'This has been nothing but a waste of my time today.' His chair's legs scraped on the floor as he left it. I heard the sounds of his boots on the stone floor as he strode from the room.
Someone grabbed me by the shirtfront, jerked me to my feet. I could not even scream for the pain. 'Stupid piece of dung,' he snarled at me. 'You'd better not die. I'm not going to take lashes over the likes of you dying.'
'Great threat, Verde,' someone mocked him. 'What are you going to do to him after he's dead?'
'Shut up. It'll be your back flayed to the bone as much as mine. Let's get him out of here and clean this up.'
The cell. The blank wall of it. They had left me on the floor, facing away from the door. Somehow that seemed unfair of them. I'd have to do all the work of rolling over just to see if they'd left me any water.
No. It was too much trouble.
Are you coming now?
I really want to, Nighteyes. But I just don't know how.
Changer. Changer! My brother! Changer.
What is it?
You have been silent for so long. Are you coming now?
I have been… silent?
Yes. I thought you had died, without coming to me first. I could not reach you.
Probably a seizure. I didn't know it had happened. But now I am right here, Nighteyes. Right here.
Then come to me. Hurry, before you die.
A moment. Let us be sure of this.
I tried to think of a reason not to. I knew there had been some, but I could no longer recall them. Changer, he had called me. My own wolf, calling me that, just as the Fool or Chade called me a catalyst. Well. Time to change things for Regal. The last thing I could do was make sure I died before Regal broke me. If I had to go down, I would do it alone. No words of mine would implicate anyone else. I hoped the Dukes would demand to see my body.
It took a long time to get my arm from the floor to my chest. My lips were cracked and swollen, my teeth aching in my gums. But I put my shirt cuff to my mouth and found the tiny lump of the leaf pellet inside the fabric. I bit down at it as hard as I could, then sucked on it. After a moment the taste of carryme flooded my mouth. It was not unpleasant. Pungent. As the herb deadened the pain in my mouth, I could chew at my sleeve more strongly. Stupidly, I tried to be careful of the porcupine quill. Didn't want to get a quill in my lip.
It really hurts when that happens.
I know, Nighteyes.
Come to me.
I'm trying. Give me a moment.
How does one leave one's body behind? I tried to ignore it, to be aware of myself only as Nighteyes. Keen nose. Lying on my side, chewing diligently at a lump of snow wadded up in the space between my toes. I tasted snow and my own paw as I nibbled and licked it away. I looked up. Evening coming on. It would soon be a good time to hunt. I stood up, shook myself all over.
That's right, Nighteyes encouraged me.
But there was still that thread, that tiny awareness of a stiff and aching body on a cold stone floor. Just to think of it made it more real. A tremor ran through it, rattling its bones and teeth. Seizure coming. Big one this time.
