“Hexblood,” Cell
murmured, glancing at the boy as Sithe lay him flat on the table where they had
just been sitting. “Slow. Painful. He’ll be conscious again in a few hours ... but he won’t want to be. Whomever used this on him wanted to prove a point.”
He turned to glance at Godric and Sythius.
“Scratch,” Godric said,
directing the word to Sithe. The matron stiffened. “Vincent was right. Found him out behind the new godsmith’s
place.” He clapped Sythius on the elbow — it was the
best he could do, given the man’s more-than-impressive height of seven feet. “Our big friend here had some choice words for the black-hearted shit. And by words, I mean fists.” When this didn’t get the reaction he was looking for, Godric's hopeful expression dwindled. Deadpan, he finally
just said: “The damn assassin’s dead.”
This caught Sithe’s attention. She whirled on a heel, her blazing
blue eyes boring into Godric’s soul. “Dead?!” She stared at Sythius. “You killed him?”
Sythius scowled, but not
out of anger; again, he was a picture in confusion.
He gestured to the boy.
Sithe remembered that his name was William. A friend of one of her boys. “You were protecting this
boy,” Sithe guessed.
Sythius nodded,
decisively. His head went up, down, exactly once.
“Well, you certainly look
capable of protecting,” Sithe muttered.
“Good thing he did, too,”
Cell said, approaching the table. “Judging by the fact that he isn’t vomiting up his innards ...” He lifted one of William’s eyelids. “Eyes aren’t bloodshot, either. The
assassin didn’t have the chance to give him the cap. Most people don’t realize that’s the fatal part. Hexblood is a
two-step poison. This boy’s only got the one. He should recover.” He glanced at
Sithe. “Any experience with medicine, Milady Breckenridge?”
Sithe scowled, eyes
flitting across William, Cell, and Sythius.
She shook her head, and
sighed. As she spoke next, it seemed obvious to everyone except Sythius that
the words were the precise opposite of any she might have wanted to say at this
moment.
“... Not for this. But I know who
to call.”
* * *
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