Page 71

Little feet scurried across the wood floor then Tif appeared. “Thane is coming. I told him no one was helping you and you have the worst injuries.”

“That is not true, Tif. Piper has a significant cut on her head and Leif may have broken his arm when the bookshelf fell on him, and Fennan is of course worried about them. I think I got the least of it.”

She’d have sat closer to the others, but this was where the healer had steered her and told her to wait. It wasn’t that she thought they were ignoring her on purpose. She simply wasn’t part of their close group. She was the new outsider,andValeen’s sister. Although they’d been cordial to her, she was still not one of them. And from what she had seen since she’d arrived, the three of them had a grudge of sorts against Valeen. Sure, they’d fight to protect her but otherwise, they didn’t interact with her much. If the gossip was correct, it was because Valeen chose Hel over their beloved king. Leif was the only one of the trio that didn’t ignore Valeen.

Tif put a hand on her hip and pushed her bottom lip out. “Well, you haven’t seen your back. It’s covered in big red blood spots. And that cut above your eyebrow may be mostly healed but it’s still there. And since you heal faster than the average person, I’m a little worried that if we don’t hurry, your skin will heal around the pieces, and we’ll have to cut them out. If we leave them there is the risk of infection. I can start picking out the glass shards and splinters if you want. I’ll be gentle.”

The sooner the better. She took another gulp of her rich, purple-berry wine. “That would be helpful, thank you, Tifapine.”

“We need to take off your dress, at least the top half. I’ll close the curtain.” She dragged the white sheet in a half-circle around them, blocking anyone’s view. Katana carefully raised her arms to gather her hair. The movement exacerbated the sting from the small cuts on her sides, but she pushed all her hair forward toget it out of the way. With her hands at her sides, she gripped the table and leaned slightly forward. A moment later Tif was on the table behind her with scissors in hand. “I have to cut the fabric. If I start untying it, it will probably hurt.”

“Do what you need to. Just be careful not to cut my hair.”

“I’ll be careful.”Snip, snip, snip.Tif set the scissors aside and gently peeled the fabric away from Katana’s sticky skin. It hurt but she gripped the table harder and slammed her eyes shut. Once the fabric was free and fell to her waist, Tif let out a low whistle. “Ouch, this has to hurt. Thanks for protecting me by the way. You shielded me from all this. Some of these pieces might have killed me. I am small, you know. A big one came out when I pulled the dress off, but it could have pierced straight through my wee little heart.”

Katana giggled, then hissed at the pain the movement caused. Her ribs seemed to be bruised on the left as well. Now that she thought about it, a large book had crashed into her side.

“Don’t laugh if it’s going to hurt,” Tif chided. Cold metal from the tweezers touched her back then Tif pulled the first one. Katana flinched. “Hold completely still.”

She was a fiery girl for being so small. “I will try.”

“There is no try, only do. That’s what mama always said… or was that papa? No, that was definitely papa. He said that when I said I would try to cut wood for the stove.”

The others were already laughing and joking about the attack. Piper was going into detail about seeing Presco take out half the bookshelves in the library when he fell. “I wish we could have gotten there sooner,” Leif joked. “Valeen, Presco, and Varlett got to have all the fun.”

It was a strange way of thinking especially since they didn’t know if Presco or Valeen were alright. Did they even care? Her stomach was still in knots from watching her sister fall from dragonback. Oh, she knew Valeen could use her shadow form tohalt herself, but it didn’t make her worry less. She’d disappeared into the forest, and they hadn’t seen her since.

Quick footsteps approached and the curtain was suddenly whipped aside. With a gasp, she threw an arm across her naked breasts, although her hair covered her almost completely. “Thane,” she squeaked. “All Mother above, I thought you were going to be Fennan or something.”

He looked absolutely furious. “Katana, I’m so sorry. My healers won’t be working here any longer—” He took her in then quickly jerked the curtain back into place. “Sorry, I should have asked for permission to enter and gave you time to… cover yourself.” He stepped behind her where Tif stood, and for some reason, him being so close but out of sight sent a shiver through her and goosebumps trailed along her skin.

“The healer is busy. There is no reason to punish her. I am fine.”

“Then she should have called for the other on duty. Your back is covered in blood. You don’t look fine.”

The chatter from Leif, Fennan, Piper, and the healer suddenly went silent.

“Thank you for coming,” Katana said softly. She dropped her arm and settled into a comfortable position.

“Fortunately, it looks like your body is pushing out some of the larger pieces, which is good, but some smaller ones we’ll have to manually pull.” He still sounded grouchy. “I can take it from here, Tif.”

“Ugh, fine.” She hopped down. “Oh, I know, I’ll get some snacks for you. Food always helps me feel better. Cookies, cupcakes, pastries? Or maybe something salty? Which do you prefer? Never mind, I’ll get it all.” She was already under the curtain and out of sight.

She turned her head slightly; he picked up the tweezers. “Did you find Valeen? Is she alright? What about Presco? We saw him go down and she fell…”

“She’s fine and so is Presco. Hel healed his injuries, but he’s fatigued.” His tone began to have less of an edge to it now, and he carefully rested one hand on her bare shoulder. “Is it alright if I hold here?”

“Yes.”

“I’m going to start pulling them out now.”

“I am ready.”

He plucked a splinter from her back, but it didn’t seem to sting as much when he did it.

“Where is my sister?”

“On her way, I’m sure.” His breath brushed against her skin, distracting her from the next pull. “They had to stop the last attacker.”