Chapter 10: Sparks

Roan's sealed order had been the only thing either of us talked about for two nights.

He had pulled the dungeon steward in and put him in a cell of his own, and the steward had said only that the seal was real.

Someone close to the king had used it, and neither of us knew who.

The healer said the hot springs under the east wing would sweat the last of the wolfsbane out of me.

I had been in the king's castle for six days, and I was sick of being flat on my back.

"Ask," I told Roan that afternoon.

He was standing in the doorway with his jacket over his arm, and he had been standing there for a while.

"May I carry you down to the baths?"

"Yes."

He took me through a stone passage that grew warmer with every step.

Steam hung in the air, and the walls were slick with it.

The pool at the end was cut from black rock, and the water was so hot and clear that I could see the bottom.

He set me down on a stone ledge at the edge with my legs out of the water.

I wore a thin cotton shift, and it was already damp.

He knelt in front of me.

"The splints come off today," he said.

"The healer says I can do the left."

"The healer says so."

"She said it twice."

He started on the bindings around my ankle.

His fingers were careful and sure.

I watched his hands, because it was easier than watching his face.

The cloth came away, and he lifted my foot and set it into the water.

The heat climbed my leg, and I groaned before I could stop myself.

His hands stopped.

Under his palm, just above my ankle bone, the skin prickled.