Page 144 of The Bone Season

The implication hung between us. The Bicentenary would take place in early autumn. By then, the killing cold might already be closing in.

‘To protect the performers before the Bicentenary, no jacketed humans may visit,’ he said. ‘As for your attackers, they are forbidden to approach you without supervision.’

‘I told you they would come after me.’

‘Yes.’

Warden approached the daybed. Flakes of ash were caught in his hair.

‘May I see your injury?’

After a pause, I gave him a small nod.

He used his knuckle to lift my chin, brushing my hair behind my ear. Kath had left a graceless cut between its upper shell and my temple.

His touch raised an unexpected chill. It was the gentlest and most intimate I had experienced in a while, softened by the worn leather of his glove. I held still, my knees pressed together, heart beating too hard.

‘Michael cleaned it,’ I said. ‘It’s fine.’

‘Hm.’ He released me. ‘You appear to have treated your wrist.’

The dirty poultice was still wrapped around it. The reminder tightened my throat.

‘It’s comfrey,’ I whispered.

‘Who gave it to you?’

‘Liss, one of the aerialists.’ I looked up at him. ‘The red-jackets ambushed me at her place. Can I really not go out there to check on her?’

‘Even if I could allow it, I think it best that you keep to this residence as much as possible from now on. As you rightly said, I cannot be everywhere. In Magdalen, you are under my protection.’

I swallowed.

Liss had looked at me with the beginnings of betrayal. If she died, I would never be able to explain. It would be the last thing I had ever told her.

Warden sat in his chair and poured himself a generous amount of red wine. ‘The summer feast will take place in a week,’ he said. ‘Until then, you should recover your strength. You have had a strenuous few days, Paige.’

‘What about training?’

‘You will no longer be training with Merope. Since your position with me has made you a target, I have asked Nashira if I may continue your instruction here, rather than on Port Meadow. I am confident she will agree to this for your safety, if only for the rest of the month.’

Our training sessions had always been watched. Without those eyes on us, Nashira would have no idea of my progress.

‘I will try to secure another splint for your wrist,’ Warden said, seeing the protective way I was cradling it. ‘I assume you lost it in the Rookery.’

‘Yes.’ It was even more swollen. ‘Kath … gave it a pretty good twist.’

‘Her death was unnecessary.’

‘Who is her keeper?’

‘Kraz Sargas, one of the blood-heirs. There are always two – a male and a female, to mirror the blood-sovereigns,’ Warden said. ‘Should anything befall Gomeisa, Kraz would be his successor.’

‘You told me you were deathless,’ I said. ‘Why the need for heirs, if so?’

‘We cannot die of old age, but we are not invulnerable.’

‘On that subject, I can’t get any sense ofyourage.’

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