Wad had found her like this, though covered with burns. A firemage of Bexoi’s power should never have been burned. The man named Keel had witnessed the event, and even though he was hanging upside down, in terror for his own life, his account was clear and did not change. When Anonoei stepped through the gate Wad had made for her, she found Bexoi waiting, and soon Bexoi set Anonoei on fire. But to Keel’s surprise, Anonoei stepped to Bexoi and clung to her.

At first Bexoi did not burn, and she laughed at Anonoei. But then she did burn after all, even as Anonoei’s body slumped into ashes on the floor. It was as if Anonoei were a firemage after all, as if she had stolen some of Bexoi’s magery, that’s what Keel said.

But Wad knew that such a thing was not possible. Anonoei was a manmage. She had no way of acquiring someone else’s skill.

She might, however, have taken over Bexoi’s body in that last moment of her life. And in a brief struggle, she might have kept Bexoi from protecting her own flesh from the fire. Then Anonoei died and Bexoi was so badly injured that she fell into a coma.

But Wad had healed her the moment he saw her, for the baby’s sake. He and Keel had made sure that she was found, floating in the waters of the port; she had been kept warm and comfortable, and if anything went wrong with her body, Wad healed it again and again. Why was she still unconscious?

Or was this an elaborate prank? A diversion? Wad knew well that Bexoi had the power to create a clant of herself that could talk and bleed and show all other signs of life. Was this only her clant? Keel swore that it could not be—he had been conscious the entire time, and he swore that the woman in the coma was Bexoi. There could have been no substitution.

Besides, no clant could survive passage through a gate. It would crumble into its constituent parts.

What are you hiding from, Bexoi? Why can’t you allow yourself to return to the world? King Prayard weeps and prays for you. The kingdom awaits your baby. All your plans are coming to fruition. How can it benefit you to pretend to be asleep like this?

Or is this real? And if it is, what could possibly ail you that passage through my gates did not heal?

The servant girl stirred, and with her small noise, the doctor awoke. Wad knew that he would go to the corner and urinate, then return to Bexoi’s bed and check her pulse to make sure she had not inconvenienced and endangered him by dying on his watch.