It was the most information Dev had given since Thisbe had been back. Thisbe rinsed the bottles, still feeling a bit dazed by the broth. The image of the girl being taken away by pirates loomed large.

Satisfied, the soldiers left.

Thisbe glanced at Dev, who stood with his back to Thisbe, hands pressing on the counter as if to steady himself. He didn’t move for a long moment, and then he shook his head and made a noise.

Thisbe glanced over her shoulder at the doorway to make sure the soldiers were gone, then went over to him. “Are you okay?” she whispered.

“I think so,” Dev whispered back, but he appeared unsteady.

“Let me help you sit down,” said Thisbe, eyeing him carefully. His face was flushed and covered in sweat. Thisbe took his arm and lowered him to a sitting position on the floor.

Dev pressed his palms against his eyes and let his head fall back against the cupboards. He didn’t say anything, and Thisbe, though she wanted to pelt him with questions, knew to stay silent or risk being thought of as suspicious. Instead she took a moment to close her eyes and focus on turning off the volume in her ringing ears. To her great surprise and relief, she managed to quiet the screaming of Maiven’s name.

After a moment, Thisbe returned to her station to light her fire and get her broth going. Dev got up and went back to work too, his once blank expression looking slightly puzzled now. Thisbe held her breath and watched him closely. Was he lucid? Had just one dose helped counter the effects? Should she say something to him?

“Feeling better?” Thisbe asked tentatively.

Dev startled. He turned toward her, still mildly puzzled, and studied her face. Then he looked away again without a word and carried on with his work.

Thisbe did too, all the while wishing there was a way to tell Rohan she needed more ancestor bones today—she knew he wouldn’t risk bringing more when he’d just done it, and he probably expected there to be plenty of ancestor broth to last several doses for each slave.

But even if Rohan did bring more, how was she going to make the broth with Dev’s watchful eye on her?

As she worked her familiar tasks in the kitchen and puzzled over how to get to the next step in the plan, she let her focus stray to the images that had found a permanent place around the edges of her vision. In general she’d gotten so used to them that she hardly noticed them. But since taking the extra dose of ancestor broth just now, they were more prominently displayed in her mind. She focused on the girl and the pirate ship, which was the scene she saw far more often than any other.