A Throne of Ruin (Deliciously Dark Fairytales #2)(78)

I felt her pulse, then her head. Burning up. Her face wasn’t sallow, though. She wasn’t wheezing. No coughing.

“She’s got time. It’s not going to be fun for her, but she’s got…a couple of months, at least.”

The girl sucked in a shaking breath and held it, her eyes shimmering with emotion.

I put my hand on her shoulder. “Sorry. I’m not the bedside nurse of my family. I’m the jerk who talks to herself out in the yard and hands off the nursing to others. You can see why. A couple months is very good news. I’d thought the situation was dire. It isn’t. We’ll save your mom for the time being, no problem, okay? Then we’ll save her for good. You’re not going to lose her.”

A tear leaked out, and she wiped it away, nodding.

“Okay.” I patted her. I needed Hannon. He was the other half to this healing team.

I braced my hands on my hips, looking around. No fireplace in this room.

Out in the living room, the ground beneath the small pot in the hearth was cold. I pointed at it.

“What’s the deal with no fire?”

“We don’t have money for fuel. With Momma not working, and me not getting much for my sewing…”

I nodded and stepped out of the house, looking down the lane. “What about your neighbors? What kind of situation are they in?”

“Um…”

I stepped forward and went to the next house over, opening the door without ceremony and popping my head in. “Official business. Right ball of the prince.” No one sat in the living room. The single bedroom in the back held three beds, one of them occupied by a man who could barely take a breath. Liquid had collected in his lungs. He didn’t have long. “Crap.”

I pushed my way out, heading down to the next house. Dabnye followed, probably not knowing what else to do.

“How many in this village are sicker than your mother?”

“I don’t know. There are about a dozen in this section.”

I pushed my way into the next house. A little boy looked up from two blocks on the floor. His eyes took in my clothes and he froze.

“Where’s your—”

“What is this? We’ve paid our rent.” A woman in a mustard-yellow apron thundered from the kitchen so quickly that she still had flour on her face. Her scowl etched deep lines in her face, and bags circled her eyes. She wiped her slick forehead. Someone groaned from the back room.

“Damn it, you’re sick, too. Is this whole fucking village sick?”

Her demeanor changed, her expression turning desperate. “It’s not me. We don’t need the potion for me. It’s for Rufus. Please help him.”

He was in one of the two bedrooms, coughing into a napkin. I stopped by his side and took the napkin away, startling him. No blood. His cheeks were flushed and his eyes reddish.

“Nah, he’s good for a month or more.” I walked by her, ignoring her confused expression, then stopped at the door and turned back. “Does anyone in this area have access to a large fire? We need a cauldron over a large fire, inside or outside, doesn’t matter.”

“Uh…Maryanne down at the corner house. She has a cauldron in her backyard. They say she dances naked in the moonlight. She’s not in her right head.”

“She sounds like she’s about to be the most liked person in this area of the village, actually.” I met Dabnye at the door. “Show me to her house.”

No one was home in her three-room house. The back door was open, a screen covering the doorway. Beyond, most of her backyard was covered in healthy green plants, reaching up to the stark, white-yellow sun. To the side, a large cauldron hung over ashes. Over it, a little roof held up by four posts was embedded in the ground.

“Maryanne, is it?” I asked from her back door.

She startled and stood, a woman a little older than me with large brown eyes and a small nose. Beads of sweat shone on her rich bronze skin, and a large hole in her tatty pants gave me a glimpse of her knee.

“I already paid rent,” she said with a lovely cadence to her voice. She could sing, I bet. Probably when she was dancing naked in the moonlight.

I looked down at my outfit. “Man, this is great. I wonder if the people in the expensive part of town would hand over rent if I just wandered into their houses. When’s rent time?”

Her eyebrows sank.

“Yeah, I’m not from here. Listen, you have a lot of sick people in these parts.” I pointed to the cauldron. “Do you use that for brews or draughts or anything more useful than dancing?”

Her expression soured further, and she turned more to face me. “Look, I’m not trying to summon the demon king or practice black magic or anything. I don’t even dance around it! I just make a few natural remedies to try to help with the sickness. It doesn’t even work! I’m not doing anything wrong.”

“Clearly you are doing something wrong if your remedies don’t work.” I walked out into her extensive garden, identifying the various plants. Dabnye pushed up next to the screen door, watching.

“Who…who are you?” Maryanne asked me.

“Someone who could use your help.” I pointed down at the everlass. “Where did you get that?”

Guilt crossed her expression before it cleared and she lifted her chin. “It grows everywhere around here. I replanted them from the edge of the village. They were wild. I didn’t do anything wrong.”