e of the first-aid kit-Irene, that was her name-adjusted the

r the rise and fall of his chest li

ake an X-ray,"

ence. The machine vibrated softly, a click, and then Irene r

ted, no displacement. Rest, bandages every

roth smelled of old fat. Here, i

nk y

me without pit

u to a cabin. Yo

ly, and the older wa

walk two houses down. If you need anything,

what to say wh

duce you to the

. Not with this," I

or don't y

smile, like a nurse who had heard to

lowly, wrapped in my sweater and cloak. Kael's camp wasn't a makeshift village; it was a territory. Clean

left another jug. The nervous young man-I now learned his name was Ares-li

you," he said, and the a

ou," I s

Kael didn't fill t

elf?" I finally as

t you don't honor. I want ev

wall. Sometimes, when I was a child, my mother would

roduce me,

not today, then tomorrow, or in a month." Those wh

The liquid warmed me from my tongue to my stoma

mark you. I'm not going to ask you to sleep under my roof. Not today.

r sleep for twenty-four hours. Ins

y catches fire. I'll come to

ou stay

aid. And he did. He settled d

that wasn't there but still illuminated everything. I dr

me even opening the door. I sat up. My arm ached. I dressed in a clean tu

oor. He was al

rning,"

er a roof open in the center, so the smoke from a bonfire could escape. Five people

me; we entered togethe

ed. "I'd like to in

er-dark skin and blac

you," s

of recognition. I'd been taught it as a child, but t

the air, as those of our kind do when they don'

k on you

ell-treated

nodded, confirming th

for Lia. She is under my direct protection from this dawn

the youngest member o

ed woman corrected. "And then, if you

n," the woman said. "But

e old urge to find a corner. I b

t it,"

hed differently.

noon we'll light the stone and mark it in th

e, but neither was it as far away as I would have liked. My

peared,

on the high boundary b

body" more times than I can count. My wol

common one?" the da

"But they don't cross