Page 60 of Crown and Dragon
“Ah.” She shook her head like Tahlia was silly. “King Durniad will be here shortly. You’re in his fortress.”
“The same place where he stashed that horrible crown and tried to kill me the first time?”
“Probably, yes, although I wasn’t privy to all of that business,” she said chirpily.
Tahlia shut her eyes. She definitely hadn’t healed fully in front of this woman’s eyes because with every heartbeat, pain lashed at her side.
“Tons of guards outside, huh?” Tahlia asked, hoping to tease some information from the Healer.
“Of course. The king wants you to stay put on account of your upcoming nuptials.”
“You think I should marry him?”
The Healer glanced at the closed door and grimaced. “No. I do not.”
Tahlia snorted. “Great. Then can you help me escape?”
“I wish. But I just landed this job. I used to be a tanner’s wife.”
“You left him?”
She grinned widely. “He died.”
Tahlia laughed. “I guess he deserves that vicious joy on your face?”
“Completely.”
“You remind me of my friend, Fara. She’s a Healer too. Maybe a person has to be vicious to sew folks up all day.”
“You do, yes. Or you’d be weeping or puking or both during every shift.”
Tahlia nodded. “Now, about that escape…”
“I could look away maybe while you check out the window up there…” The Healer raised her pale eyebrows.
Tahlia twisted, wincing, and eyed the window in question. “It’s forty feet up with nothing to climb to get there.”
“But you’re half-Fae.”
“I hate to burst your bubble, but we can’t leap that high. At least, I can’t.”
“Too bad your dragon isn’t here. I heard you’re a Mist Knight of the Shrouded Mountains.”
Of course she knew who they were. Ragewing had completed their already-pretty-much-blown cover situation. King Lysanael was not going to be best pleased. But Tahlia wasn’t going to worry about any of that until she got out of here still breathing.
“What about that door there?” Tahlia jerked her chin at a slender wooden door in the corner of the room.
“That’s a privy.”
“Perfect.” It would dump into a body of water, hopefully.
The Healer helped her up and walked her to the door. “I’ll leave you to it unless you call out, all right?”
Nodding, Tahlia entered the privy. This wasn’t going to be fun.
“I hope the humans and Fae alike appreciate my sacrifice here.”
They had managed to take the crown from Durniad. The mission was at least successful in that regard. Marius would try to come back for her. She had no doubt about that, but would he have any support? They’d already created a fantastic mess and sending someone back in would only make more waves. The human high queen and her regent didn’t want this snatch-and-grab job to point to them at all. So perhaps it would make sense to return and rescue her so Durniad wouldn’t have her to question?