“And,” Padric continued, “clearly your strength is returning if you can attack your nurse. Fortunate it was not Svala. She would have hurt you.”

“Need to escape,” Kederic mumbled.

Padric reached again for the wet rag. There was no escape, but he could not say that to this man.

“Who is she?” Kederic managed as Padric placed the rag on his brow.

“Svala?” Padric shook his head ruefully. “The royal consort, thanks to you. Though I think that title is yours by rights if the true heir is your wife.”

Kederic’s hand darted from the bed, grabbing Padric by the front of his shirt.

“Do not say that.”

Padric removed the man’s hold. “Where is she, my lord?”

Kederic looked away, closing his eyes. “Better if you do not know.”

Padric could not let this rest. The knowledge would not help him, but he wanted to know. “You told Torcan I was your son. Did you have a child?”

The answer came quickly. “No.”

“Then we are stuck with your lie.”

Padric did not know why he was growing angry. Even if he knew who the heir was and where, he would not reveal it to Torcan, not even for his own life. He just wanted answers, some truth before the end.

“Do they still believe?” Kederic asked.

Padric thought of the crown and unease settled firmly over him. “Now more than before. But the truth will come out and when it does…”

“We are dead,” the Thegn finished.

Padric nodded, though the man’s eyes were still closed.

“Is there a plan?”

“Slouch Hat is working on something,” Padric replied, knowing better than to say any more.

Kederic tried to take a deep breath, but his lungs rattled wetly and he succumbed to a fit of coughing.

“That husk,” he said after recovering, “was always too clever.”

“I should leave you to rest,” Padric said rising.

“No,” the Thegn’s eyes opened. “Help me stand. I need to be out of this bed. Are there garments?”

Choosing not to argue, Padric went back to his own chamber and fetched some of his spare clothes. Svala was awake and she accompanied him back to the Thegn’s room, finding the man already sitting up, his legs swung over the bedside. Svala said something to Padric and then to the Thegn, her face none too happy.

“We are being chastised,” Kederic told Padric, then spoke to Svala in her own tongue. She calmed a little, but still wore a concerned frown as she and Padric helped the Thegn dress. He was unsteady on his feet, his breathing labored, but the fever appeared to have broken. Together, Padric and Svala helped Kederic walk to their bedchamber, where the morning sun was beginning to come through the window. They sat Kederic in a chair by the fire and Padric told one of the guards to send for food.