As I refused his help to cross over a bubbling brook and skipped from rock to rock on my own, I found myself asking a question.
“Prince Kalyll—”
“Please, call me Kalyll.”
For some reason, that unsettled me somewhat. I’d been thinking of him asthe princethis entire time. I hesitated, then decided he was no prince of mine, and I could call him that when and if I wanted to, just not now.
“Can you be honest with me and tell me something?”
He reached the other side of the brook and waited for me before speaking. “As honest as my duty allows, Ms. Sunder.”
“How long will this… quest take?”
He lowered his eyes and shook his head, the thin braids of his hair swinging from side to side. “I cannot say with certainty.”
“Give me a range, why don’t you?”
He grunted as he thought about it.
“For what you’ve done, I deserve an answer, at least.” I pressed him.
“That and much more.” His gaze dipped lower still, and I felt the embarrassment rolling off him in waves. “It won’t be long. Five weeks, maybe.”
I sucked in a breath. “Long enough. Muriel won’t make it.”
One of Kalyll’s fists tightened. “Muriel?”
The brook gurgled beside us as I thought of her bouncy curly hair and smooth dark skin, those deep brown eyes always holding a spark even when her disease got the best of her.
“She’s one of my patients,” I answered absently, wondering how she was doing this morning, if she was asking where I was. She had become very attached to me in the past few weeks. “She’s very ill, has a rare disease that causes her organs to shift inside her body even while she remains in her human form. She’s a coyote shifter, only five years old. I was working on a way to help her, and I think I was close to figuring it out. I could feel myself getting closer and closer to the answer.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Are you?” I spat, even though I could feel his sincerity. “She’ll be dead in five weeks.” I threw the words like an accusation in his face.
He flinched but said nothing.
“There are better, faster ways to travel than on horseback. How about that?” I was referring to travel through magical means. He was wealthy enough for that.
“It is not a possibility at the moment.”
I huffed, disgusted, feeling like a thousand spiders crawling inside my stomach.
“I wish there was a way I could make it up to you, but I know it’s impossible.” He turned and kept walking, his shoulders stiff, his midnight blue hair swinging around his face as he lowered his chin.
I batted a stray tear and followed him, resignation setting itself heavily on my shoulders. I would not be going home in time. If I returned and managed to get my job back, all those little faces that looked up at me from their small beds every morning would be replaced by new ones. Most of them would be at home with their parents, healed and enjoying their lives. Others would be gone after losing their battle against the cruel illnesses that plagued them, like little Muriel. Their families would be devastated and would take a long time to think of life as a worthwhile pursuit, if they ever managed. They would blame me, I imagined. The healer who promised to do everything in her power to save their children, and then just disappeared.
I pressed a fist to my mouth and bit back the tears that kept rising. I’d lost other patients before, hadn’t I? This was no different. Except it was because I wasn’t meant to be here. I was meant to be by their side, leaving no rock unturned until I found a way to use my skill to save their lives.
But thanks to Kalyll Adanorin, they would die.
Damn him.
An hour later, we’d reached the plains and were walking alongside the forest, headed north. Once I got my emotions under control, I started wondering how much harder the prince had ridden ahead of his friends. There was no sign of them on the road. Also, there was no sign of his black stallion.
“Are you sure your friends aren’t looking for us in there?” I pointed toward the woods.
“They’ll find us,” he assured me, appearing unconcerned. “As a matter of fact,” he squinted into the distance, “I see them.”