Chapter 18: The Cup Beside the Vial

The vial of pale amber liquid stood beside Noah's wine cup.

Noah had not put it there, and no one had told him it was coming.

He had it in his hand and was turning it toward the candle before he had decided anything.

Adrian's fingers came over his and stopped the turn.

A wool blanket settled across Noah's shoulders from behind.

The vial sat closer to his hand than the wine did.

Noah lifted it into the light and rolled the glass between his fingers.

The wax stopper carried a thumbprint pressed flat into it.

Under the thumbprint sat a small mark in red wax, the same red the court physician sealed his packets with.

'Sleeping draught,' Adrian said. 'The physician sent it up before we came in.'

'For the bond's first discomfort,' Noah said. 'Nothing more.'

'Nothing more.'

Noah set the vial back down without drinking.

Adrian had spoken first, before Noah had asked him anything at all.

He banked that fact where he kept the others.

His hands would not hold still.

The healing in the ward had taken more out of him than he had let on.

The night had taken the rest.

His knuckles caught the wine cup and sent it across the table.

Red ran over both halves of Orwin's letter where they lay joined on the wood.

Noah snatched them up and blotted them on the blanket.

His fingers shook the whole way through.

Adrian watched him do it and said nothing about the shaking.

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