‘He should keep that down,’ the physician said, ‘but I have not seen this do its work before. What would you suggest, Highness?’
They turned the title on Meilyr. Aldreda waited.
‘He will need to be monitored,’ he began, ‘and—’
‘Meilyr…’
Meilyr’s entire being keened at the sound of Osian’s rough, broken voice.
He stood transfixed for a wrenched heartbeat, then succumbed and went to the bedside, took Osian’s hand into both his own and perched on the sheets. ‘I am here, My Prince. Rest, please.’
Something tangible eased in Osian. Tightened in Meilyr’s chest.
‘Watch over him,’ Aldreda said.
He could only nod.
Osian’s forehead beaded with sweat as more supplies were brought, theroyal physician’s assistant careful with all of Meilyr’s equipment asthey laid it in the parlour.
Through the half-closed bedchamber door, he was aware of them, and Aldreda’s sharp commands to Pedr, Blythe, Macsen and Garrick – the four who had carried Osian from the hall. Pedr and Blythe were to watch the door, the other two the landing below – and all would be questioned with the rest soon enough.
That settled, she returned.
‘Do you have any idea who could have done this?’
She stood back from the bed, shock working beneath her levelled façade. She could not look at her brother.
They were alone.
‘Someone with enough knowledge of such a rare plant to know what it is capable of,’ Meilyr said. ‘Someone with access to his goblet, as the wine itself would mean we would all be dead.’
‘That plant’s rare? I’ve heard of it.’
No use skirting around the noose. ‘Osian – His Majesty let me grow it in the gardens. But it is rare, yes.’
Something dark flashed through her. ‘You are the perfect suspect, once again. How convenient – how much better it would be if I could believe you’d done it. Convenient for me, but not for him.’ She swallowed, lips tight. ‘But I do not think you would have gone to such lengths to save him. There’s no faking that fear in your eyes.’
He looked away, gaze unfocused on the shape of Osian’s fingers, entangled with his.
‘I will check in when I can,’ Aldreda said. ‘Call for anything you need, immediately. I have vermin to hunt.’
She strode out and pulled the door closed behind her.
Meilyr waited. Listened for each person’s departure; the physicians were to remain two floors below, in the spare rooms there, the crownsblood outside Osian’s chambers, ready to fly down to fetch them at Meilyr’s word.
His blood still thrummed. He waited, thumb tracing Osian’s.
That should do.
He eased his hands free and slipped from the bed to the door, which he locked as quietly as he could. Osian remained catatonic, chest moving in slightly laboured breathing, skin damp with fever.
Meilyr rewashed his hands in one of the basins of clean water. He had done so before he made the antidote, but the cloy lingered, the remnant sting ofwrongnesslike a residual burn.
His skin was his armour, but he would be feeling fox’s tears for days.
Fox’s tears…
He could not think about it yet. Just like Aldreda, he had work to do.