I surprised myself by laughing. “Yes, if they’re behind me, they’ll see how lovely I look from that angle.” I ran my cloth along her forehead. “Don’t worry, I intend to forgo all socialization tonight and stay here to nurse you.”
She shook her head. She knew what I was really saying. “You mustn’t change your plans. The future…yourfuture,” she amended, “is too essential to sacrifice on my account. You have men of importance to meet.”
If the physician and housekeeper were listening to this conversation, and they could hardly help but do so as our voices had returned to their normal volume, they would assume Gwenyth was talking about potential suitors.
I silently stroked her hair, fighting back the protests that lined up behind my lips. If Gwenyth could urge me, while laying so badly burned on the floor, to fulfill my duty, how could I refuse her? I needed to honor her sacrifice. When I took Mage Saxeus’ mark tonight, I would think of her.
The door from the hallway swung forcefully open, letting in a draft from the hallway. I turned, hoping to see Mage Saxeus. It wasn’t him. Of course, it wasn’t.
But the appearance of the red-robed wizard striding into the room was even more astonishing. Ronan had come.
CHAPTER 20
Ronan’s formal robes trailed behind him as he joined us. His gaze was on Gwenyth, his brow furrowed in concentration. “What’s her condition?”
He’d come to help her. I wanted to cry in relief. Ronan had cured my scars even though I’d never found an incantation for such a thing. Surely, he could help her.
While the physician gave his report, Ronan kneeled by Gwenyth’s head and examined the sting marks on her skin. “The venom does seem to be subsiding.” He picked up Mage Saxeus’ ointment and sniffed the bowl. Whatever it contained earned a nod of approval. “Here…” He slipped an arm behind Gwenyth’s back and lifted her to a sitting position. “You’re well enough to drink some. That will help hasten the cure’s work.”
She looked like a doll in his arms, my formerly assassin-strong lady’s maid.
He put the bowl to her lips. She took a gulp, and some of the liquid spilled from her lips and dribbled onto her dress. She wiped her mouth. “Thank you, sir.”
Ronan gently laid her down and moved to the physician’s side to check the wounds on her legs.
I scooted closer to him. “You can do something to hurry along her healing?” I was telling him the spell I thought he should use.
His attention was on her burns, not me. He’d barely glanced at me since he came into the room. “That depends on the extent of her injuries.” He motioned to the bandages already wound around her calves. “Are her burns there as severe?”
The physician paused slathering grease on her thighs. “Worse, I’m afraid.”
Ronan swore and shook his head. His eyes finally met mine. I recognized the look I saw there. It was the same frustration of defeat I’d seen when we were children and he’d been unable to bend a spell to his purposes.
No. I wouldn’t accept defeat now. “Youcando something for her and youmust. I don’t care if you have to dip into the king’s store of bat claws or shark teeth or whatever you need to do it.”
His gaze shot to Gwenyth’s eyes then went back to mine. He stood and offered me his hand to help me up. “Let’s speak privately of our options.” That meant her condition was so poor, he didn’t like talking about it in front of her.
His hand around mine—one would’ve thought such an action, having already occurred a thousand times, wouldn’t have occasioned new sensations in me. And yet I felt the pressure of his hand gripping mine with all sorts of connotations that weren’t there. He was simply helping me up. The gesture meant nothing more.
Once on my feet, I dropped his hand and followed him out the door into the hallway. I barely waited for him to finish shutting the door, before blurting out, “Why can’t you use the spell to speed healing?”
His words were soft, consoling. “It only works on wounds that would naturally heal. She has burns on a quarter of her body, and I’m afraid they’re deep. Her case is too severe.”
I would’ve realized this already if I’d brought the incantation to the forefront of my mind and read it, but I hadn’t. I’d simply depended on the fact that magic could help her. Alarm made my breaths come quicker. “There must be some other spell you can use.”
His eyes turned pitying. “Burns are difficult. They can’t be knit together like other wounds.”
He was right. I’d used magic before to sew torn flesh like a seamstress mending fabric. With burns, one had little to sew together. Still, I couldn’t believe Ronan knew of nothing that could avail her. “You’re the king’s wizard. Certainly, you can save her.”
“Magic has rules even king’s wizards can’t break. Spells aren’t wishes set to words.”
As if I didn’t know that already. “Then turn her into some creature who can survive without all of its skin and let her heal in that form.”
He raised an eyebrow, surprised at my suggestion. I expected him to protest that such a spell would take too much energy. A wizard, even a powerful one, couldn’t force another human into an unnatural form for weeks. Those transformations usually lasted no longer than a few hours. But if the king’s other wizards helped…which, granted, was asking much…
Instead, he said, “What creature can survive without a quarter of its skin?”
My mind ran through possibilities. Nothing that was a mammal, bird, or fish. Scales, though not skin, would transform as such. Even trees would die if stripped of too much bark. “I’ve heard lizards can lose their tails and live.”