Flamecaster (Shattered Realms, #1)(74)

That was like a punch to the gut. Once again, Ash tasted fear, like metal in his mouth. Why had she said that? How could she possibly know? The last thing he needed was to be tied to the Gray Wolf line.

“What do you mean, Jenna?” Karn demanded, looking from the girl on the bed to Ash. “What do you mean, he’s a wolf?”

“The lieutenant doesn’t know, does he?” Jenna said, smirking like a cat with a bird in its mouth. She breathed in sharply, like she was tasting his scent. “Now I have made you sweat, Wolf.” She brought both hands up, put her finger to her lips. “Shhh,” she said, then slumped back onto her pillows and rolled onto her side, facing the wall, so Ash was staring at her back.

It seemed that his patient had been doing an assessment of her own.

“Well?” Karn shifted impatiently. “Are you going to get to work or not?”

Ash rose to his feet and broadened his stance. “She needs to be moved upstairs. She needs fresh air and light.”

Karn folded his arms and shook his head. “That’s not going to happen, healer. You’ll have to do the best you can right here.”

“At least unchain her, so I can examine her properly. And you need to leave.”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

“If she can speak to me in confidence, maybe she’ll be more cooperative.”

“I don’t want to speak to you at all,” Jenna said to the wall. “Both of you, go away.”

Karn looked from Ash to Jenna and back again, as if he were debating whose side he was on. “Why should I trust you, alone with her?” he said finally. “I don’t know anything about you.”

“The king’s word isn’t enough?” Ash raised an eyebrow.

Karn just looked at him for a long moment, then said, “Step outside. I need a word with you.” He jerked his head toward the door.

As soon as they stepped out into the interrogation chamber, Karn turned, quick as thought, and pinned Ash against the wall, his knife pressed into the hollow of Ash’s throat, just below the collar. Ash saw it coming, but he let it happen, because he knew by then that the lieutenant needed Jenna healed and he would not kill Ash to make a point.

“Why did she call you a wolf?” the lieutenant demanded. “What did she mean by that?”

Ash should have known that Karn hadn’t forgotten. He thought of claiming that Jenna was confused, but he had a feeling that Karn wouldn’t buy. The lieutenant knew something about his prisoner that made him take her words seriously.

“I’m not going to talk with a knife to my throat,” Ash said, meeting Karn’s gaze. “It won’t make any difference, anyway.”

Karn stared at him for a long moment, then lowered the knife and took a step back.

“I think it means she’s smart,” Ash said. “She wants to die, and she’s afraid I might succeed in healing her where Merrill failed. If she can plant enough suspicion to make you pull me off the case, she’ll get what she wants.”

“She does want to die,” Karn said grudgingly. “She stabbed herself. That’s why she’s so uncooperative. We need to keep her alive at least until—we need to keep her alive.”

If she wants to die, Ash thought, then maybe I should let her. But he guessed it wouldn’t be wise to say that aloud.

“If you want to keep her alive, then I’ll need some answers from you.”

Karn frowned, as if he were surprised to hear a healer snapping out orders. “Such as?”

“Do you have the weapon?”

For a few heartbeats, Karn seemed to be debating. Then, fumbling in his carry bag, he pulled out a dagger in a sheath and extended it, hilt first, toward Ash.

Ash pulled the blade from its covering and looked it over. It was magicked, but the spells used were unfamiliar to him, like a fragment of song from a faraway place. It was still smudged with blood.

“Is this her blood?”

“Hers and . . . and someone else’s.” Karn cleared his throat.

“Yours?”

“No. One of the guardsmen in Delphi. He’s dead. She killed him the night she was—we found her.”

“Is that why she’s here—because she murdered a guardsman?”

“That’s not your concern.”

“Where did the dagger came from?”

Karn shook his head. “She had it on her person.” He looked like he was going to add something else, then changed his mind.

“How long ago was she wounded?”

“Five days.”

“How was it treated?”

“I cleaned it, packed it, and applied a dressing.”

Ash nodded. “Good. Did it bleed much?”

“To start with, it did,” Karn said, “but it closed up quickly. It’s swollen. I think it might be infected. Or something.”

Or something. “Has she been eating and drinking?”

Karn shook his head. “Not much.”

“All right.” Ash handed the dagger back to Karn, who weighed it in his hand.

“Well? Can you heal her?”

“I’m not Merrill,” Ash said. “I can’t tell without examining her. But I’m not familiar with the magic in the blade. If I had to guess, I’d say it was from outside the Seven Realms.”