Gritting her teeth, Marian reached for the handle of the brass basket.

The basket vanished before she touched it. It reappeared a moment later, waist high and just out of reach. Then it fell to the ground with a heavy thunk.

“Perhaps I wasn’t clear enough when I told you to take it easy for a few days.” The voice didn’t quite hide the ripple of anger beneath the mildly spoken words.

Marian turned. Jaenelle stood a few feet away from her.

“Lady Angelline.” Marian swallowed hard, unable to look away from those sapphire eyes. She felt as if fingertips were passing over her body, just above her skin.

“You haven’t done any permanent damage,” Jaenelle said, “but—”

“Marian!” Luthvian’s voice lashed out through the open kitchen windows. “Are you going to dawdle all night over a few pieces of wood? You have chores to finish.”

Something deadly flashed in Jaenelle’s eyes, gone so fast Marian wasn’t sure she’d actually seen it.

“Pack your things,” Jaenelle said quietly. “You’re leaving.”

“But—”

“Now.”

She wasn’t going to argue with that voice. Moving as fast as her stiff legs could manage, she reached the cottage’s far corner just as Luthvian stepped out of the kitchen door.

“Hell’s fire, girl,” Luthvian snapped. “Where’s the wood? Can’t you do anything—” She froze for a moment. “Good evening, Jaenelle.”

“Good evening, Luthvian.” Jaenelle moved forward until she stood next to Marian. “Marian is leaving. Her skills are required elsewhere.”

Luthvian looked as if she’d been slapped, but she recovered quickly. “We need to discuss this.”

“Fine,” Jaenelle replied. “We’ll discuss it while Marian packs her things.”

The air crackled with suppressed temper. Marian stepped back and swung around both women, too nervous to step between them. As she entered the kitchen, she heard Luthvian say, “She’s adequate, but anyone who pays wages for her work will be disappointed.”

She didn’t wait to hear Jaenelle’s reply. She simply hurried up to the small, second-floor room Luthvian had given her. There wasn’t much to pack. When Jaenelle had brought her to Luthvian’s cottage, she had only the trousers, tunic, and underthings she’d been given at the Keep since her own clothes had been destroyed in the attack. Luthvian had given her a skirt and two tunics the Healer no longer wanted and had grudgingly purchased two sets of underthings for her. Her only other possessions were the things that, through Craft, she always carried with her—her moontime supplies, the hairbrush and hair ornaments her sisters hadn’t permanently “borrowed,” the book she’d asked for last Winsol and had actually gotten as a gift from her mother, and the small loom and cloth bag of yarns.