“I had my hand in front of your nose, just in case,” she said.

He could make out the dark blur of her body beside him. She must be on her knees. Slowly his sight improved as he blinked sandy incrustations from his lashes.

“My eyes are full of sand.”

“Just a moment.” Suddenly water was dribbled carefully into his eyes. He blinked furiously, complained loudly. “I told you to hush, you’ll wake Brekke. She’s worn out. Now, does that clear the sand?”

“Yes, it’s much better. I didn’t mean to be so much trouble.”

“Oh? I thought you’d planned all this on purpose.”

Jaxom caught one of her hands and brought it to his lips, holding it as fast as his weakened condition permitted because she gasped at the kiss and withdrew her hand.

“Thanks!”

“I’m putting your bandage back on,” she said, the reproach in her voice unmistakable.

Jaxom chuckled, pleased to have disconcerted her. His only regret was the lack of light. He could see that she was slender. Her voice, despite her firmness, sounded young. Would her face be lovely enough to match that voice?

“Please drink all this juice,” she said, and he felt the straw against his lips. “Another good sleep now and you’re over the worst of it.”

“You’re a healer?” Jaxom was dismayed. Her voice had sounded so young. He’d assumed she was a fosterling of Brekke’s.

“Certainly. You don’t think they’d entrust the life of the Lord of Ruatha Hold to an apprentice? I’ve had a lot of experience getting people through fire-head.”

The familiar floating sensation induced by fellis juice flooded him and he couldn’t have answered her no matter how urgently he wanted to.

To his disappointment, when he awoke the next day, Brekke answered his call. It didn’t seem courteous to inquire where Sharra was. Nor could he ask Ruth since Brekke could hear the exchange. But Sharra had evidently told Brekke of his middle-of-the-night awakening because her voice sounded lighter, almost gay as she greeted him. To celebrate his recovery, she permitted him a cup of weak klah and a bowl of moistened sweetbread.

Warning him to keep his eyes closed, she changed the bandage but the replacement was not as dense and when he opened his eyes, cautiously, he could distinguish light and dark areas about him.

Midday he was allowed to sit up and eat the light meal Brekke provided, but even that slight activity exhausted him. Nonetheless he complained petulantly to Brekke when she offered him more juice to drink.

“Fellis-laced? Am I expected to sleep my life away?”

“Oh, you’ll be making up for this lost time, I assure you,” she replied, a cryptic remark that puzzled him as he drifted off to sleep again.