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Heir of Fire(19)

By:Sarah J. Maas


            The silence lay heavy on him as she hurried through the workroom, first changing her dirty white apron, then washing her hands for a good long minute, then gathering all manner of ban­dages and tins of salve, then a bowl of hot water and clean rags, and then finally, finally pulling a chair around the table to face his.

            They didn’t speak, either, when she carefully washed and then examined his hand. But he found himself watching her hazel eyes, the sureness of her fingers, and the blush that remained on her neck and face. “The hand is—­very complex,” she murmured at last, studying the cuts. “I just wanted to make sure that nothing was damaged and that there ­weren’t any thorns lodged in there.” She swiftly added, “Your Highness.”

            “I think it looks worse than it actually is.”

            With a feather-­light touch, she smeared a cloudy salve on his hand, and, like a damn fool, he winced. “Sorry,” she mumbled. “It’s to disinfect the cuts. Just in case.” She seemed to curl in on herself, as if he’d give the order to hang her merely for that.

            He fumbled for the words, then said, “I’ve dealt with worse.”

            It sounded stupid coming out, and she paused for a moment before reaching for the ban­dages. “I know,” she said, and glanced up at him.

            Well, damn. ­Weren’t those eyes just stunning. She quickly looked back down, gently wrapping his hand. “I’m assigned to the southern wing of the castle—­and I’m often on night duty.”

            That explained why she looked so familiar. She’d healed not only him that night a month ago but also Celaena, Chaol, Fleetfoot . . . had been there for all of their injuries these past seven months. “I’m sorry, I ­can’t remember your name—”

            “It’s Sorscha,” she said, though there was no anger in it, as there should have been. The spoiled prince and his entitled friends, too absorbed in their own lives to bother learning the name of the healer who had patched them up again and again.

            She finished wrapping his hand and he said, “In case we didn’t say it often enough, thank you.”

            Those green-­flecked brown eyes lifted again. A tentative smile. “It’s an honor, Prince.” She began gathering up her supplies.

            Taking that as his cue to leave, he stood and flexed his fingers. “Feels good.”

            “They’re minor wounds, but keep an eye on them.” Sorscha dumped the bloodied water down the sink in the back of the room. “And you needn’t come all the way down ­here the next time. Just—­just send word, Your Highness. ­We’re happy to attend to you.” She curtsied low, with the long-­limbed grace of a dancer.

            “You’ve been responsible for the southern stone wing all this time?” The question within the question was clear enough: You’ve seen everything? Every inexplicable injury?

            “We keep rec­ords of our patients,” Sorscha said softly—­so no one ­else passing by the open doorway could hear. “But sometimes we forget to write down everything.”

            She hadn’t told anyone what she’d seen, the things that didn’t add up. Dorian gave her a swift bow of thanks and strode from the room. How many others, he wondered, had seen more than they let on? He didn’t want to know.

            •

            Sorscha’s fingers, thankfully, had stopped shaking by the time the Crown Prince left the catacombs. By some lingering grace of Silba, goddess of healers and bringer of peace—­and gentle deaths—­she’d managed to keep them from trembling while she patched up his hand, too. Sorscha leaned against the counter and loosed a long breath.

            The cuts hadn’t merited a ban­dage, but she’d been selfish and foolish and had wanted to keep the beautiful prince in that chair for as long as she could manage.