Deny Me, Dragon King novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: The Dark Draught

The healer was in the room before I had Posy's hand in mine.

She took one look at the black spreading up the child's fingers and swore, a word I would have blushed at in the village.

"That's not the rot," she said. "Not at that speed."

"It doubled in an hour."

"Something fed it."

Torren stood at the foot of the bed with his hands open and useless.

"She was well at supper," he said. "She ate her honey cakes."

"And what else did she eat?" the healer asked.

"The warm milk the day nurse brought," I said slowly.

I picked up the cup from the bedside table.

A skin of cream lay on the bottom, and under it a thin grainy dust.

I wet my finger and touched it to my tongue.

I knew the taste before I could stop myself.

Green and sour and a little like pepper.

"Ember-moss," I said.

Torren stared at me.

"The Seer swore it was moss in the tea," I said. "Eight days ago, in front of the court."

"She told us exactly what she meant to do."

The healer took the cup from my hand, sniffed it, and went gray.

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