Twelve nodded briefly. “It’s different when it belongs to someone you care about. Do you have anything we could clean his face with? Did you bring woundwort? I . . . I think I forgot.” Color flooded her cheeks. Woundwort was one of the first things she should have packed. How many times had she heard Hunters declaring they owed their life to it?

Six winced. “I didn’t bring any.” He rummaged through Five’s bag and shook his head. “None in here either and we don’t have anything clean. I’m wearing all my clothes.”

Twelve groaned. “Me too.”

In the end, they cut strips off their middle layer of tunics—which they hoped were the cleanest—and bound Five’s cheek tightly.

“Do you think he’ll be all right?” Six asked, his eyes wide as he looked between Twelve and Dog.

Twelve winced, thinking of the pictures in A Magical Bestiary. “Their bite is poisonous,” she said carefully. “Sometimes it’s . . . serious.” Dog looked like he wanted to add something, but thought better of it. He resumed his pacing.

Six ducked his head, but Twelve saw his expression.

“He’d be dead if it wasn’t for you,” she said hesitantly.

“He’d do the same for me,” Six said, his eyes overbright. Something in her gaze must have shown her doubt. Six shook his head emphatically. “You don’t know him like I do.”

There was such certainty in his expression that Twelve felt a tingle of doubt run through her. She thought she did know Five, and what she knew she happily loathed. For the first time, it occurred to her that she might only see one side of him, and that she could be as much to blame for that as him. She nodded slowly. “We should make a stretcher for him,” she said finally, standing up. “Dog or Surefoot can drag it and it’ll be easier than you holding him; that must have been hard back there.”

“What in Ember are you implying?” Five groaned, shifting painfully and opening one eye. “There’s not an ounce of fat on me!”

Twelve’s heart leaped.

“Five!” Six yelped. “Are you all right?” He knelt next to him.

“I’ve been better.” Five winced, trying to get up and falling back again. Six batted his hand away as he reached to touch his cheek.

“You were bitten,” Six explained quickly. “Best not touch it.”

Five’s face paled even further. For his sake, Twelve hoped he hadn’t seen the images in her book.

“Is it bad?” Five asked.

Twelve, Six, and Dog didn’t even need to look at one another. They all shook their heads forcibly.

“B-barely a scratch,” Twelve said, her tongue stumbling over the lie.

“The bandages were more of a precaution,” Six added.

The effect was not what they’d desired.

“By the frost,” Five groaned, closing his eyes again. “So half my face is gone.”