When Tobei sauntered into the warm, tidy little infirmary, Kadie looked his finally-dry and fully-clothed self over and said, “Thought you were on duty.”

“Mother Light,” he said, exasperated, before giving Kadie a kiss on the top of her fuzzy, bright pink hair. “Does he alert the whole camp when I’m on duty so you all know to snitch on me?”

“Not the whole camp,” she said. “And when could you ever name me Snitch?”

Tobei threw an arm around her shoulders and squished her into him. “Never. I count it among a thousand reasons I love you. And I got Sen to cover me anyway.”

Kadie sighed. “That poor boy.”

“What? It was his offer.”

“Mm.”

“It was!”

“I’m sure he thinks so.” Kadie nudged Tobei affectionately before shrugging off his arm and heading for the infirmary’s storeroom.

The infirmary had started much smaller, but over the years as their numbers grew, especially with so many who’d had their health stolen by their years in the crown’s camps and those who had trouble making it up into the village above, they’d had to make room for more and more permanent beds. It was a cozy little place, unless you were Daivad. The roots from the tree overhead were woven into little privacy screens between beds and glowstone lamps of blue, orange, or yellow lit the room.

Tobei leaned against the storeroom’s doorframe while Kadie searched shelves of jars, pots, and lockboxes of all sizes. He caught her eye and tipped his head toward the room where Daivad was attempting to interrogate Jac.

“He’s lasted longer in there than I expected.”

There was no one in camp better to gossip with than Kadie—aside from Tobei himself of course. Being the camp’s resident healer and an excellent one at that, she overheard everything, and while she never spoke of her patient’s health issues, she was more than happy to speak on any drama.

In a whisper, she asked, “Who was that?”

“Give me another hour, tops, and I’ll know,” Tobei said. “He’ll get nothing from her, and when the walls start hugging him a little too tight, he’ll tag me in. Why do you think I’m here?”

“To swipe some herbs,” Kadie answered immediately and waved a bottle full of a thick blue liquid at him.

“I’ve never seen herbs that looked like that.”

“I talked to Ben like you suggested, about finding a way to get Luelle to take her medicine. He made this.” She tossed it to him. “Smell.”

Tobei uncorked it and immediately a thick, sweet scent wafted out of it. He lifted it to his nose unnecessarily and took a long, deep inhale, and felt a cascade of tingles rain down from the crown of his head, down his back.

Halfway through his next sniff, Kadie snatched the bottle from him. “That was a bad idea,” she mumbled to herself.

“Like blueberry syrup,” Tobei purred.

“And Luelle loves it,” Kadie added. Her tone was as easygoing as ever, but concern hid behind her eyes as she watched his face.

Already the buzz was fading, leaving Tobei hollow. But he smiled, making sure it reached his eyes. “That’s brilliant. Can’t believe we didn’t enlist Ben’s help sooner.”

She relaxed a bit, but the next comment felt a bit targeted. “Yeah. But her supply has got to be constant, and the herbs are hard enough for him to grow here year-round, much less what he needs to make ‘em taste good. So her rations are strict.”

Shame punched him in the gut at her unspoken accusation, but he didn’t let it show on his face. “Relax, Kay. I wouldn’t steal medicine from a sick little girl.”

She considered him, like she was trying to decide whether she believed him or not, and the shame burst all over his skin, set a wicked chorus of poison words off in his head. He just gave her a calm smile.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Finally, she offered the bottle back to him, along with a small measuring cup and a gentle smile of her own. “Want to give it to her, then? She just told me her night was sleepless, and this should knock her out.”

It was more than just an apology, it was an extended hand. A show of trust.

“Sure,” he said over the sound of the toxic voices in his head.

“To the first line.” She tapped a finger on the first mark on the cup, then passed it to him.

Luelle spent about every third night in the infirmary. Often Tobei found himself at Luelle’s bedside there during those nights when her illness and his thoughts kept each of them from sleep. Even when she was just an infant, the first child born here in camp, Tobei would sit up with her because the screaming of a newborn was preferable to the echoing inside him.

Her toothless smile when she saw Tobei warmed his heart. “Uncle Tobei!”

“Little Lulu,” he said, and swooped down to kiss her forehead before sitting on the stool at her bedside. “No sleep last night, huh?”

As an answer, a hacking cough rocked Luelle’s little frame.

While she recovered from the fit, Tobei said, “Guess not. But, ay, I hear this is the good stuff.” He dangled the bottle before her.

Through a smile, she croaked, “The blue flavor?”

“The blue flavor.”

She clapped and bounced a bit—one thing her illness had yet to rob her of was energy. Tobei uncorked the bottle and resisted the urge to take another long sniff of the sweet liquid. He measured out the dose.

Unbidden and unwelcome, a thought came to him. If he under-poured her dose, Kadie wouldn’t know if he took the difference—

No. Never.

“Bottoms up, Lulu.”

She slurped the medicine down eagerly, and he snort-laughed when she lowered the cup.

“What?” she asked, giggling purely because he was laughing.

Tobei, who knew where every mirror was in camp at all times, fetched a small hand mirror from the storeroom—under Kadie’s careful gaze—and presented it to Luelle.

“If I took you out on the town with a look like this,” he said, “within the week, all the high society ladies would have their lips painted blue. A trendsetter, that’s what you are, Lulu.”

Luelle grinned at the mirror, blue all the way to her teeth. She tried to dive and kiss his cheek in an attempt to smear him with blue, but he scooped her up before she had the chance.

“Nice tr—”

“Ay!” Kadie hissed, and gestured to the few snoozing figures that had begun to stir at the commotion. “Settle, you two!”

“Sorry, Mom,” Tobei and Luelle said at the same time.

Luelle asked for the next chapter of the epic tale Tobei had been telling her for years, but already, as he lowered her back to her cot and tucked her in, her eyelids were drooping. He’d barely reminded himself where the story had left off when her little heartbeat and her soft breaths were made heavy and slow by the medicine, and she drifted off.

Mother Dark, he envied the bliss on her face. The nothingness. He glanced once more at the bottle on the stand beside her cot. Picked it up. And corked it. Without looking up, he handed the bottle to Kadie over his shoulder. She patted his shoulder, and went to return it to the storeroom without a word.

Luckily, Tobei didn’t have to sit with his shame for long.

Daivad finally emerged wearing a mask of fury that Tobei knew served to hide his discomfort. He wanted out of the cave so badly that he didn’t even pause to snap at Tobei to get to his guard post. That came as soon as they stepped into open air.

“I got Sen to cover me,” Tobei said dismissively. “Figured my services would be better used here.”

“Your services?”

“I’ll guess what you got from her:” Tobei said.

Then he gestured with his hands for emphasis—and said nothing.

Daivad’s scowl said it all.

“Yeah. When will you finally open those ears to my teachings on dealing with people? I bet after just one lesson the camp kids would stop running away whenever they see you.”

“They don’t,” he snapped.

“Nah, they just burst into tears.”

“That was once, and only because of the monster blood on m—,” Daivad caught himself, realizing he’d let Tobei distract him. “She won’t give you shit either.”

“I can crack her.” Confidence tugged at one corner of Tobei’s mouth.

Daivad stared at him. “You saw the mess she made of that clearing.”

“‘Zactly,” he said. “I fought her. No better way to know someone. Come on, brother. I’m your best bet.”

Daivad considered him, glanced toward the vines that hid the cave entrance, then said, “I need to know who she is, what her relationship to the other girl is, and how they found us.”

“You’re sure we’re what brought them to Urden?”

“Yes.”

“On it, brother.”

Tobei was ducking through the vines when Daivad’s growled “Tobei” made him pause and look back. “Your job is to question her. Not try and fuck her.”

“Ah, you know me better than that.” Tobei grinned. “I can multitask.”