Chapter 8: Caleb's POV

Caleb's POV

I gave Rotheram the key because I could not stop looking at her.

She sat on the bottom stair with her arms wrapped around her ribs, and her face had no color in it at all.

"She goes to the healer's loft," I said. "Rotheram and Ida watch her. The council hears her in the morning."

"That's a fair ruling," Joss said, and I could have hit him for how easily he said it.

Kestrel stood without my help.

She walked up the stairs past me and did not look at me once, and I felt her go through every inch of the cord.

I stayed in the cellar after they left.

The lantern burned down a little.

I looked at the iron ring in the back wall, set there by my grandfather, and I could not think why it made my own hands cold.

I had never put anyone in this room before tonight.

She had known the ring was there.

She had looked straight at it when she was falling.

I went up and did not go to bed.

At two in the morning I was still walking the house.

A weight sat low in my chest, the last of her fear, and walking was the only thing that moved it.

The kitchen light was on.

Maud was at the stove with her back to me, in her nightdress and her old grey shawl, heating the small brown pot.

"Caleb," she said, without turning. "You frightened me. Can't you sleep?"

"No."

"Nor can I. It's the worry. I'm making Lenora's tea. She sleeps better after, poor lamb."

I leaned on the doorframe and watched her.

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