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Chapter Forty-Three

Fenli

R unehall’s clan left in the night, but not before the elder promised to never come for me again.

I went to Yeshi’s. She chased her own family from her hut and washed me quickly, taking careful inventory of all my wounds.

Her apprentice was the only one allowed to come and go, but Roan, Esska, and Indi waited outside.

Sometimes I could hear their voices, asking how I was when the apprentice headed out, before she had the door closed.

There was a salve for my cuts and scrapes and another for the burns.

Gods almighty, the burns hurt. My skin felt like it was burning long after the fire had been put out.

I bit my lip until it bled, until Yeshi noticed the red that dripped from my chin and scolded me, rushing to get a piece of leather.

I bit the leather strip so hard I thought I’d bite right through.

When she finished the wrappings and said that was all she could do for me for now, I started to cry. The burns were nearly unbearable.

“But the pain ,” I whispered.

She shook her head, regret in her eyes.

“I’m sorry. ”

She’d already given me what painkiller she’d had.

Then she took my arm and helped me out the door, delivering me to Roan who diligently took her place.

“She needs sleep,” she said. “Tomorrow, we scrub the burns and change the bandages. It’s gonna be hell.”

The three of them led me back to my hut and worried over me until they seemed to remember that they were supposed to be letting me sleep. Indi and Esska left, and Roan poured me a cup of mead. My hands shook as I lifted it to my lips, but I drank deeply. I hoped it would help me.

But the mead was not enough.

I was up throughout the night, catching only bits of sleep before waking in a panic. There was always the pain, like my skin was still burning, and so my dreams were ones of fire as well.

“Listen,” Roan whispered, stroking the hair from my forehead while I tried to get my breathing back under control. “It’s raining.”

I heard it then, coming down in sheets against the roof.

I listened, and I let it anchor me.