POV: Seraphina
Beneath Seraphina's palm, the torn flesh drew together and the skin closed. A pale seam showed between her fingers. Fresh blood had stopped coming.
Thalion's eyes stayed shut.
She kept the fire open. It had to do more than leave him lying here.
"Wake up," she said. "Please."
Her left arm had grown heavy. She tried to reach his face with that hand and could only drag it across his shirt. Heat burned along her right arm while she kept pouring into him. A low ringing began behind her right ear.
Yona reached for the torn shoulder of her dress. Seraphina flinched away, pulling the cloth farther down. Gold showed along her collarbone, above the torn edge. The nearest cries faltered, but farther back a woman was still begging her to save him.
"My lady, your arm!" Yona cried.
"Make room!" Corwin shouted.
He came through the guards and dropped to his knees beside Thalion. Seraphina leaned over him when Corwin reached for her hand.
"Let me finish!"
Corwin looked from the seam beneath her fingers to the gold above her torn sleeve.
"Stop! You have closed it. Close the fire!"
She pressed her palm down again. "He won't wake."
Corwin got a hand under her right forearm and pulled her palm off Thalion's chest. He held her arm back when she tried to reach past him.
"Look at your shoulder! You are burning yourself. Stop now!"
The heat was still in her hand.
She shut the fire. The heat withdrew into her arms, and she cried out. Corwin lowered her hand into her lap instead of letting it fall.
Corwin felt for Thalion's pulse at his neck. Seraphina waited for him to speak.
"His heart is beating."
He bent close to Thalion's mouth, then watched his chest.
"He is drawing breath on his own."
"Then why won't he wake?"
Yona handed Corwin a cloth, her eyes wet. He wiped the blood away and pressed beside the seam.
"Tell me what I missed!"
Seraphina wanted to reach for Thalion, and she was afraid Corwin would pull her away again.
"I cannot find another injury." He looked up at her. "I am still looking."
"Has anyone kept the blade?" Corwin asked the nearest guard. "I want it before someone cleans it."
When Corwin moved his cloth aside, Seraphina touched Thalion's warm chest with her right hand. She kept the fire closed. When she had healed Suri, he had coughed against her collarbone. His body had jerked under her hands before his eyes opened. Thalion's next breath came, but his eyes stayed shut.
A guard shouted for the road to be cleared. Someone beyond the guards cried that the Crown Prince was dead. Seraphina lifted her head at the words, angry enough to shout back.
"He is breathing," Corwin called before she could speak. "Keep the road clear."
The guards held their places. Behind them, people wept or called for those farther back to stop pushing. The sound carried over Corwin's instructions.
Seraphina slipped her right hand under Thalion's head. His hair was gritty where it had touched the road. She lifted him a little and let Corwin help settle his shoulders against her knees. She laid her heavy left forearm across her lap, and Corwin lowered Thalion's head onto it.
"I'm here," she told him.
She watched his mouth. He had been trying to speak before his eyes closed. She would have listened to whatever he wanted to say.
Suri crept from Yona's skirts to Thalion's feet. He sniffed at the blood and drew back with his ears flat. When the shouting rose again, he pressed close to Thalion's leg.
Seraphina bent closer.
"I am sorry. Thalion, can you hear me?"
Her voice broke on his name.
She laid her right palm over his heart. The resonance ran warm beneath her skin while she waited through one breath, then another.
He gave no sign that he had heard her.
* * *
"Seraphina. We need to move him."
She looked up at Corwin. Two men had brought a stretcher from the wagons. She tightened her arm around Thalion when they knelt beside him.
"Stay by his head," Corwin told her. "Let them lift him."
Yona crouched where Seraphina could see her. "I'll help you stand."
She waited until Seraphina nodded before taking her elbow. Seraphina slid her arm free as Corwin took Thalion's weight. The men lifted him onto the stretcher, and she struggled to her feet. Corwin checked his breathing before the bearers stood.
Gavrel hauled Arin upright between the paladins. "You swore to guard her. You will answer for this."
As the guards cleared the passage ahead, two paladins kept hold of Arin. Gavrel freed his wrists long enough to remove his mail, then bound his hands behind him again.
Liora looked toward Seraphina. Her face was flushed, and she kept one hand on Arin's shoulder while he struggled.
"Keep him under guard," Seraphina said. She looked straight at Arin, her voice low and hard. "Let me deal with him later."
She turned back to the stretcher before he could answer.
The passage through the gate was open now.
Guards stood along both sides, holding the crowd behind them. Seraphina walked beside the stretcher with Yona at her shoulder. Through the gaps between the guards, she saw a woman crying into her hands. Calls to save the Crown Prince followed them under the arch.
The stretcher shifted with each step the men took. Seraphina watched the cloth over Thalion's chest until she could separate that movement from his breathing. When a guard stepped closer to make room for the bearers, she drew back against Yona.
"I'm beside you," Yona said. She kept her hands where Seraphina could see them and matched her pace.
Gavrel followed with Arin between his partner and another paladin. Liora walked beside them, watching the crowd until the gate guards closed the passage behind the prisoner and the wagons.
A rider had gone ahead to the palace. By the time they reached the yard, servants were waiting at the doors.
Eleanor met the stretcher inside. At the sight of her son's bloodied shirt, she stopped so abruptly that the servant behind her nearly ran into her.
"Thalion?"
She reached toward his face, and the men carrying him slowed.
"He is breathing, Majesty," Corwin said. "The wound has closed. He has not woken up yet."
Her fingers touched his cheek. Then she pulled her hand back and stepped out of their way.
"Take him upstairs to the north-facing room. Quickly."
A servant led them there. The men carried Thalion to the bed while Corwin walked at his head. Seraphina followed them in. Eleanor came as far as the foot of the bed and watched the physician examine him again.
Eleanor's eyes moved to the gold above Seraphina's torn sleeve.
"What has it cost her?" she asked Corwin.
"I need to examine her."
"After him," Seraphina said.
Yona held up a shawl. "May I cover your shoulder now?"
Seraphina nodded, and Yona settled it over her shoulders.
Eleanor turned toward the open door. Palace guards had taken up positions in the passage. Beyond them, hurried footsteps stopped as the captain ordered the household back.
"Tell the gate and the council that he is alive," Eleanor told the captain. "Anyone seeking news comes to my household. They are not to question the people in this room. I want statements from the men who saw the attack. Keep them available. The physician stays here."
The captain bowed and went to pass on the orders. Eleanor stayed beside the bed a moment longer. She took Thalion's hand between both of hers and bent over him.
"I am here," she said, close to his ear.
She waited, still holding his hand. Then she laid it on the blanket and slowly let go.
Eleanor went into the passage. Her voice sharpened when she spoke to the men guarding Arin.
"He stays bound. I want him where he can reach no one else."
Gavrel was waiting near the stair with Arin. Liora came to the sickroom door.
"The Empress wants his coat searched before they take him below."
Seraphina looked from her to the bed.
"I will stay with him," Corwin said.
She went as far as the doorway. Yona stayed beside her.
The guards held Arin while Gavrel searched his padded coat. His partner stayed beside him. A seam beneath one sleeve was torn.
Gavrel felt along the lining, then opened the tear wider.
Sewn inside, in dark thread on dark cloth, was a serpent coiled around a shattered crown.
Seraphina recognized it. The seal on the keeper record had carried the same mark. What was it doing inside Arin's coat?
Lucien stopped beside the guards. Seraphina moved aside so he could see Thalion through the open doorway.
"He is breathing," she told him. The words caught in her throat.
Lucien looked at the exposed lining.
"May I examine the coat when you have finished?"
"The guard will keep it," Eleanor said. "You may look at it with them present."
Lucien nodded and stepped back to let Gavrel finish.
Arin twisted toward the exposed lining, straining against the man holding his shoulder.
"Who put that there?" he asked.
She had expected another answer about the Order. She searched his face for the certainty she had heard in his voice at the gate.
"Take the coat," Eleanor told the guards. "Keep it with the blade."
The guards kept hold of Arin while Gavrel cut open the coat's sleeves, keeping clear of the marked lining. His hands stayed bound as they pulled the coat free. Then they led him toward the stairs. Liora went with them. When Arin tried to turn back, she pushed his shoulder toward the steps.
"Keep walking. You are finished here."
Gavrel remained until they had passed the landing, then turned to Seraphina. He stopped when she stepped back into the doorway.
"I will check the rest of the men, my lady."
Seraphina nodded, then looked past him at the paladins in the passage. Arin had stood among them at the gate. They were waiting for her orders now, and she kept looking from them to the bed.
Corwin called her back to the bed and asked her to raise her left hand. She got it only as far as her waist. She turned the palm upward to show him.
"Rest it," he said. "And keep the fire closed."
Yona helped her change. The gray dress lay across a chair, blood stiffening at the knees.
Yona brought Lucien in from the passage and gave him a chair to wait for Corwin.
The steward came before the lamps were lit. Yona met him in the passage, and Seraphina stood in the doorway to hear him.
"Tomorrow's reception has been postponed. The Empress will receive the written report when the physician permits it."
"Lucien is still injured," Seraphina said. "He is not to prepare it tonight."
"I will tell the clerks, my lady. Duke Alaric has asked to attend the reception. His request remains before the council. He has not been given permission to leave the Vessant estate. Lord Harwick has asked to attend as well."
Seraphina could hardly follow him while Thalion lay behind her.
"Harwick is confined."
"To the capital. He has been writing to the archive."
"Ask the Empress to hear my objections to Alaric's request," Seraphina said. "I want to hear his reasons too."
The steward wrote down her request. Seraphina returned to Thalion's bed.
At the second hour, cold tightened beneath Seraphina's ribs. She sat up as Suri lifted his head, his ears flattening.
She looked around the room. Suri stood beside the bed, tense and silent.
She reached for Thalion's hand. His fingers were warm, and the resonance still ran between them. She watched the blanket rise with his breathing.
She kept hold of him and listened for movement.