Page 61 of Heart of the High King
“No one has given you a mirror?”
Rafferty shook his head. “Why does my hair have gray in it?”
“I can’t answer that. Your doctor might be able to tell you,” Drystan said. “So, we’ve established you have some memory. What’s your name?”
Rafferty still wasn’t sure what was going on, or if it was a good idea to reveal everything, so he wasn’t comfortable telling the truth. “Dermot.”
“Lie,” Mortis said.
“I’m a sentinel. I can tell when you’re lying to me,” Alaric drawled.
“But we’ll call you Dermot for now, if you aren’t comfortable with the truth yet. Will you share anything about what happened to you? We want to find out who hurt you, so they can pay for their crimes,” Conley responded, his voice gentle.
The betrayal cut deep, and Rafferty had endured who knew how many weeks or months of torture, but his fury was still fresh. “Tell me what day it is.”
“No one has told you yet?” Chander asked.
“No.” The four men shared concerned glances, and it irritated Rafferty. “Why is telling me that such a big deal?” Rafferty had to know how long he’d been away from Aleksander, and as soon as the doctor came into his room again, he was going to demand answers, so he could get healed and return to D’Vaire.
When Alaric told him the date, all the fury in Rafferty simply blew away as he did the math and realized it was nearly eight months since he’d spoken to Aleksander. “Are you sure?” he asked stupidly.
“Give us something, Dermot. Who hurt you?”
Despair filled him as he thought about how hurt Aleksander had to be, and he could only wonder what lies had been fed to him by Sullivan and his father. “My family,” he whispered.
“I think you’ve had enough for one day. We’ll come visit you again soon, okay?” Conley said. “I have to tranq Mortis.”
“Hate it,” Mortis complained; then he collapsed into Drystan’s waiting arms as he was knocked out. Like Mortis, Rafferty hated everything about where he was and what had happened. Overwhelmed, he closed his eyes and gave in to the torrent of weeping, which only added to the extreme pain in his entire body.
