Page 30 of Hearts on Fire
Kneeling by her perch, he propped his hands on its edge and dropped his head between his shoulders.
“What happened?” he asked Mother, not turning his head. “How long has she been like this?”
“About two days, my lord. We’re not sure what happened. Yesterday, she could still talk. Though not everything she said made sense. But today… It seems she can hardly breathe.”
“What’shappening with her?” he gritted through his teeth. “What did she eat? Could she have been cursed?”
“She has a warded protection from curses.”
Right. Amber had never taken off the ring he gave her.
Mother exhaled heavily. “We honestly don’t know what this ailment is or how to help her.”
Women were healers. If they didn’t know what was wrong with Amber, if they couldn’t help her, who could?
“Maybe if the king would be so kind as to allow the royal hag to look at her…” Mother suggested tentatively, letting the end of the sentence hang in the air for him to finish, fearful to impose her opinion on a king’s man.
The hag.She should know what to do.
“Right. I’ll see to that.”
He had to figure out a way to make the king allow using the hag’s skills on a lowly woman of the Sanctuary, whose kind the king clearly saw as disposable. But despite all his perceived strength, King Edkhar had one rather obvious weakness. His inflated ego and vanity opened a door for others to manipulate him. Elex had already used that royal weakness to bring thesalamandrasand Amber to the castle. He could do it again to get Amber well.
Something nagged at the back of his head, however, as he slid his hand under the covers and touched Amber’s arm. It was hot but felt clammy with the sheen of moisture that covered her skin.
Mother’s words from earlier rang in his head,“Amber is not a gargoyle…”
Then something that Amber told him long ago, back in her world, rose in his memory.“If I was as hot as you, I’d probably be dangerously ill and would need to cool off by any means necessary.”
He jumped to his feet, ripping the blankets off her. “These have to go.”
“Oh, gods…” Mother gasped. “With all due respect, she needs them, my lord. They keep her warm.”
“She doesn’t need to be warm right now.”
“But she does.” Behind the lace, Mother’s eyes expanded in shock at her own audacity to argue with one of the king’s men, but she wouldn’t stop. “She can’t keep warm on her own. My lord… Amber is ahuman.”
The confession left Mother’s lips with the finality of an executioner’s axe. She knew it was a betrayal, and it pained her. He didn’t envy Mother’s choices: keeping Amber’s secret or saving her life.
“I know who she is,” he assured her. “But don’t tell anyone else. All right?” He slid the soaking wet shirt off Amber’s limp body. “And don’t tell anyone I took her.”
He tried to lift the ill woman into his arms, but something was stopping him. He glanced down her body to find a metal cuff on her ankle. Amber was chained.
“What, by the Great MotherSalamandra, is this?” he roared. “Why is she chained?”
Mother’s face paled behind the lace of her hood. Her hands trembled.
“It’s… It had to be done, my lord… She’d be accused of spying if anyone saw her wander the castle after sunset at night.”
“Get it off. Now!”
Mother fumbled through the fabric of her robe, searching through her pockets with shaking hands. He snatched the key from her the moment she produced it, unlocked the manacle around Amber’s leg, then tossed it away with so much strength, it chipped the rock of the wall.
“Where are you taking her?” Mother panicked, rushing after him on his way to the shuttered window.
Anger burned through him, hotter than his fire. He didn’t want to speak to this woman. But he needed her cooperation.
“I’ll try to make Amber feel better, but no one can know where she is. Not even the king. Do you understand?”