At last, she stopped moving and the wounds stayed open. One of the guards leaned on his sword, sweat making his hair damp. He spat on the mangled corpse. “Alanga,” he said, and it sounded like a curse.

The other guard gave me a quick glance, her eyebrow raised. While the guards were sworn to protect me, it was my duty to keep the Alanga from returning at all.

Jovis.

I whirled. His chest still rose and fell with his breath.

“A physician!” I called out. A woman in civilian clothes appeared in the doorway. I had the quick impression of iron-gray hair, stern features, a crisp brown tunic. I didn’t recognize her, but she was there, a pen held tight in her hand as though it were a weapon. “Call for a physician.”

She didn’t even hesitate. She turned to obey without question. Jovis was breathing shallowly when I went to him. Carefully, I pulled aside the torn cloth of his jacket. The wound there was already closing, the flesh knitting together as I watched. His hands fluttered up, fingers grasping for mine. “Em…” he mouthed. “Ema…” There was something both sad and wistful in his tone, as though he’d found something he’d long wanted but knew he would lose again. And then his hands fell and his head lolled back.

“Jovis? Jovis!”

His breathing steadied, though he didn’t open his eyes. I hoped his body was working through the poison.

A physician appeared in the doorway.

Jovis stirred and awakened. Sweat stained the front of his tunic, but his eyes were clear. If he was resistant to poisons, I wondered if I was as well. Not something I’d be testing out anytime soon, I hoped.

“See to him first,” I said, pointing to Jovis.

Jovis waved the physician away. A trickle of blood stained his jacket, but he pressed a hand to the healing wound and straightened. “It’s fine,” he said. “Quite shallow, really.”

The physician hesitated on the threshold.

The gray-haired woman had returned with him, and she spoke sharply at his ear. “Your Emperor gave you an order, did she not?”

He jumped and rushed to Jovis’s side. He needn’t have bothered. Although Jovis was unsteady on his feet, the wound from the knife had nearly closed. “A bandage and he’ll be fine.”

The physician went next to the guard at the teak pillar and put a hand out, checking her breath and heartbeat, performing a quick examination. “Broken neck,” he said. “She’s dead. I’m sorry, Eminence.”

One of the remaining two guards covered her mouth while the other broke down in tears.

I searched for the right words to say.

“We’ll burn her body with juniper sprigs tonight,” Jovis said to his guards. “We will honor her passing.”