Taming the Thorny Rose novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: Blood and Want

I woke on the floor of the gatehouse with a cloak under my head and a roof of grey stone above me.

Everything hurt.

The bolt was still in me, and each breath felt like drawing a knife through my chest.

"Don't talk," said the woman from the infirmary.

She had her sleeves rolled and both hands pressed on the wound.

"You've a hole in your lung, girl.

"I can take the bolt out, but I can't close what's under it."

"How long?"

"An hour.

"Maybe less."

Aldric knelt on my other side.

He had run across open road in the last light, and the skin of his face and hands was red and blistered.

Smoke curled up from his collar.

He didn't seem to notice.

"Where's Crane?"

I managed.

"Gone," said Astrid, from the doorway.

Her voice was thick.

"He put spurs to the horse and went down the east road.

"There was a black coach waiting at the bend.

"Osric's."

"And the captains?"

"They didn't shoot him.

"They said the Guild would judge him in its own house."

She wiped her face with her sleeve.

"They're guarding the gate, Kes.

"Every one of them.

"They're not leaving."

I closed my eyes.

Then I opened them again, because I did not want to die with them closed.

"Aldric."

"I'm here."

"You can fix this."

He went very still.

"Kestrel."

"Your blood heals.

"Every hunter knows it.

"It's why we burn the bodies."

"It heals a hunter at a price," he said.

"Tell me the price."

His jaw worked.

"A little of it would close the wound.

"It would also tie you to me in ways I cannot unmake.

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