As she brought the water bottle back to her lips, she emptied most of what was in there, the chemical tint from the purification system stinging the sides of her tongue. For a moment, she longed for a taste of purity, of something that quenched the thirst not just by adding H2O to her system, but by—
Pivoting around, she looked down the row of beds. Then regarded the guards that had been moved out of the stretchers suspended between the shelves and onto the cots.
Her patients were lying like logs, none of them moving except for breathing. There was only one who was facedown, due to lacerations on the backs of his legs and his buttocks, but the rest she could check their faces to see if they were awake.
One was staring over at her from the far end.
His lids were cracked just a bit, so it was hard to tell if he was feigning sleep or that was as far as he could open things. But his eyes were definitely on her, and as she pivoted to set the water bottle off to the side and then turned back, his focus remained.
Hobbling over to him, she leaned down. “Do you require aught?”
The male had some deep lacerations across his upper body, throat, and face, the kind that were characteristic of a knife fight. She hadstitched them up, but the one down his jaw was probably preventing him from speaking.
“Your pain medicine should be working now.”
His eyes shifted over her shoulder.
Nadya stiffened as the presence who had arrived registered. “Greetings.”
She turned around. The head of the guards was standing in the open doorway, looking down the rows of her wounded subordinates. When she got to the final bed, the one that was empty except for a bloody pillow and some smudged sheets, she cocked a brow.
“Yes,” Nadya said. “There was a loss. But he was dying as he came in, and the supplies I required had not been brought to me.”
The female came forward. “Indeed.”
Nadya remained where she was, and when the head of the guards was before her, she tilted back because there was such a height difference between the two of them.
“I want to see your face,” the female said.
“Why.”
There was no reply. But a long arm reached forward—
Nadya slapped a hold on the wrist. “No.”
“What are you hiding under all that fabric.”
“Nothing that will affect my ability to take care of your males. And that is all you need to care about.”
There was a tense silence, and it went without saying that the female could do what she wanted physically. She was ten times stronger.
“Thank you for the supplies,” Nadya said stiffly. “They are very much appreciated. But they confer no rights on your behalf.”
“You’re not as meek as you make out.”
“And you need me. Unless you want to service their bedpans and ensure that you don’t overdose them when it is time for their medications again, you better leave me to do my job.”
The head of the guards twisted her arm such that Nadya had to release her hold.
“One of them dies,” the female said, “and I will kill you myself—even if I have to find someone else to do your job.”
Nadya inclined her head. “You were quite clear the first time.”
In the midst of the sound of the river he could not see, Kane could find no clarity at all.
As he lay there with the seconds ticking by, the sand running through his last-hour hourglass, he had expected relief with his decision made. When that didn’t come, he decided resignation was more what he needed to feel. Finally, he just waited, once again, to see the white landscape he’d heard about. Surely, that white door would be rushing up to him soon, the knob prepared for his palm.
He did not see white. He saw dark brown.