Page 91 of A Court Bright and Broken

“What if you were to smuggle me out of the palace in a big basket or something so no one sees me? You could buy the carriage driver’s silence as you did with the jailer,” I suggested.

When we’d first met, I’d had too much pride to let the prince help me with his money, but I was desperate now. Ihadto get back to the village before Sorcha did—or before she talked and revealed my part in the plot.

It wouldn’t matter to theseinvestigatorsthat I’d failed to carry it out.

Stellon shook his head adamantly, beginning to pace.

“Under the circumstances, I’ll have to go back andaddto the fortune I’ve already bestowed upon the jailer,” he said. “Vast rewards will be offered for information leading to the would-be assassin, whomever it may be. Carriage drivers talk. Servantstalk. The only people I trust not to betray me in light ofthatmuch temptation are my brother and sister.”

He went to the large window and stood looking out at the lawn and the ocean beyond it. Then he turned back to face me with a frown.

“We can’t risk it. Someone could stop you on the road and bring you back for questioning. Or worse, follow you all the way home and torch your whole village, just to be sure they got any ‘accomplices.’”

I shuddered at the horrific thought. “No carriage.”

“Right,” Stellon agreed.

“If you could just get me outside the castle walls somehow, I’ll make my own way home and trouble you no further,” I assured him.

“That’s theotherissue—you can’t even walk.” His expression was droll. “How would you propose tomake your own way home?”

“I’ll figure it out,” I said. And I would.

Almost all my life, I had figured everything out—by necessity. No one else was going to help me, so I’d always found a way to help myself and my family.

No matter what, I’d do what needed to be done, even if I had to drag myself home on my belly then carry my family out of town on my back.

“I admire your confidence.” Stellon gave a nod toward my ankle. “Butthatis not something you just ‘figure out.’ Your pain tolerance may be high, but a sprain of this severity would fell one of our bravest knights.”

“Can you ask your healer for some medicine to give me? So I could walk?”

The day we’d met in the marketplace he’d said his “village” had a healer who could fix his injuries. That meant the castle had at least one, if not several healers who served the royal family.

If I wasn’t mistaken, he’d mentioned a healer last night.

“It doesn’t work that way, unfortunately,” Stellon said. “They don’t make teas and tinctures like your village mothers. For an Elven healer to help you, he’d have to be right here in the room with you, his hands on your injured ankle, using his own energy. It’s another type of glamour—one I very much wish I had at the moment.”

I looked down at my grossly swollen ankle and foot, which was also coming fully awake and beginning to sing with pain.

It was blue and purple now and at least three times its normal size.

“Thatwouldhave been nice.”

“I’ll get you some more saol water. You’ll have to take it more slowly this time, but it will take the edge off.”

Stellon went to the next room and returned quickly with a pitcher and glass.

“Our healer is loyal to my father and wouldn’t even considernotmentioning the fact I had an injured human woman in my quarters. So for now, this will have to do.”

Pouring me a small amount, he handed me the drink. “Not as fast or effective as healing glamour, but it’ll speed up the process, at least a bit.”

He sat down beside me, giving me a regretful look as I took a sip.

“Even if your ankle were whole, and Icouldmanage to smuggle you outside and through the gates, there are patrols everywhere,” he said. “They rangemilesbeyond the border walls. And you match the description of a certain human apprehended by two guards last night.”

“After dark maybe?” I asked, still clinging to a shred of hope.

“Elves see in the dark far better than humans,” he said. “It’s a certainty you’d be caught in quick order and marched right back to the dungeon.”

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