Talon’s face was troubled, and he quickly turned to look at his ankle. Sure enough, blood was flowing from it and dripping onto the floor. “Oh no,” he muttered. “I’m bleeding. No wonder I feel so poorly.”

“What?” said Florence. “How can that be?”

Talon didn’t act surprised to discover he could bleed, but he seemed more than a little concerned about what appeared to be a small cut. He whirled around and limped toward the hospital ward. “Henry?” he bellowed. Then more urgently: “Henry!”

Henry, looking disheveled but in control, came running as Lani and Florence followed Talon.

“What’s going on?” Florence muttered. “I don’t understand it.”

Talon gave Florence an apologetic glance, then explained. “I’m made of bronze, but I have blood inside me. A single vein runs through my body from my heel to my head. It’s virtually impossible to access it. But if you ever remember me vaguely implying that I have some slight human characteristics, this is what I meant.” He looked at Henry, then lifted his leg for the healer to examine. “Do you have anything that will stop the bleeding somehow and seal the bronze to protect the vein? If we can’t . . . I’ll bleed to death.”

“Talon!” said Florence, clearly shocked by everything that was happening. “I thought you were immortal!”

“Well, almost,” said Talon, sounding anxious. “I just have this one vulnerability. My ankle has a weak spot. It’s always been so. But in all these years I’ve never injured it.”

“Come with me,” said Henry in a low voice. “Hurry.” He helped Talon inside the hospital ward and onto a bed and began rummaging through his many medicines. Then he looked up sharply. “Somebody get Thisbe.”

Florence went to get her from a different part of the hospital ward and brought her back.

“What can I do?” asked Thisbe, eyeing the rivulet of blood flowing from Talon’s ankle.

Henry looked up. “Can you melt metal with your eye sparks?”

Thisbe was taken aback. “I don’t know. I’ve never done it, but I can try.”

“Here,” he said, taking an old piece of a thornament necklace from a seldom-opened drawer. “See if you can melt this gold.” He placed it in a stone bowl and handed it to her, then turned toward Talon.

As Henry began to work on the bronze man using an herb mixture to try to stop him from bleeding to death, Thisbe took the bowl to an unoccupied corner of the ward and stared at the gold thorn in the bowl. She concentrated, remembering the horrible things that the Revinir had done to her, until she became furious. Then she narrowed her eyes and sent fiery sparks flying from them. They hit the gold thorn. Clouds of smoke billowed up. When the air cleared, Thisbe could see that a tiny drop of gold had melted.