Chapter 14: The Dose

Ambrose woke at dawn in his own bed, with the plates sunk back into his skin.

Linus was asleep in the chair beside him.

Linus had not left the room all night.

He woke when the Marshal's hand moved on the blanket, and was on his feet before he knew it.

"Don't," Ambrose said. "Sit. I'm well."

"You fell on the floor of the Empress's court."

"I tripped."

"On what?"

"On the carpet." The Marshal's mouth twitched. "It was a very large carpet."

Linus did not laugh, and he did not sit.

He had seen the physician come out of this room an hour before the dawn, with his mouth set hard.

He had asked what the man said, and Ambrose had answered, "To rest."

It was a short answer.

Linus decided to let it stand for one more minute.

The Marshal's colour had come back, and he wanted to look at it.

The door opened, and Wystan came in without knocking.

Behind him came a stooped old man in a grey coat, holding a leather case against his chest with both arms.

"The apothecary who filled the bottle," Wystan said. "He was in the lower city. He did not want to come."

"I was not asked," the old man said. "I was lifted."

"Sit down, please," Linus said. "Nobody is going to hurt you. Tell us what's in the medicine."

The old man looked at the Marshal, who nodded.

He opened the case and set a thick book on the bed.

"Three things," he said. "A sedative, so the Marshal sleeps. A cooling draught, so the plates stay low. And the third."

Keep reading free with an account. Start The Drone Who Claimed the Marshal from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.