Rozea called to the servants. The door flap of the last tarn opened and fearful faces appeared, then one servant emerged and hurried to Rozea. The guards appeared with a narrow plank of wood. Emerahl rolled Star on her side. The girl made no sound. She had fallen unconscious. The guards slid the plank underneath her. Emerahl kept her hands pressed against the wound as she rolled Star back onto the plank. The guards took the ends of the makeshift stretcher and carried the girl toward Rozea’s tarn.

Rozea followed. “You’re not putting her in there. You can treat her just as well outside.”

The sooner I get away from this woman the better, Emerahl thought. “She shouldn’t be moved once I’ve sewn her up, so we have to get her somewhere warm and comfortable first.” She looked at the guards. “Put her in.”

They obeyed her. As they climbed out again, Rozea stepped into the doorway. Emerahl grabbed her arm.

“No,” Emerahl said. “I work alone.”

“I’m not letting you—”

“Yes, you are,” Emerahl growled. “The last person she will want to see when she wakes up is you.”

Rozea winced. “She would have died either way.”

“I know, but she needs time to accept that. For now you’ll only agitate her, and I need her calm.”

Rozea frowned, then stepped aside. Emerahl climbed inside and crouched next to Star. A moment later servants deposited a large bowl of water, scraps of material and a pathetically small leather bag on the floor near the entrance.

Emerahl didn’t touch them. She placed her hands on the wound again.

“Nobody is to disturb me,” she called out. “Do you hear me?”

“I do,” Rozea replied.

Emerahl closed her eyes. Forcing her breathing to slow, she turned her attention inward.

She reached the right state of mind quickly. This healing technique was similar to her own method of changing her physical appearance but not as demanding of time or magic. Her mind must alter its way of thinking in order to grasp the world of flesh and bone. In this state of consciousness everything—flesh, stone, air—was like a vast puzzle made up of a multitude of pieces. Those pieces formed patterns. They liked to form patterns. When healing, she need only to realign pieces roughly in their proper pattern and old links would reform.