Page 59 of Fortress of Ambrose
“My work relationships aren’t your business.”
“Only curiosity, my friend. Safe houses are ripe for the picking, thanks to you two.”
“The last time I saw the Dragunhead, he stabbed me in the back. Literally. So no, we’re not working together.”
“Mmm.” Zecky unrolls leather with tiny pockets. Inside are more silver tools in odd sizes and shapes. “Let me see the injury.”
I lift the edge of my shirt.
“What do you mean—ripe for the picking?”
“Willam’s the old-guard type, with a closed-door safe house policy. They don’t take in anyone. Which is why no one in his house knows the first thing about healing or any magic, really. The newer safe houses are more progressive in our thinking. I am strategic and aggressive with whoI bring into the family. This news of the Sphere has filled out our ranks nicely.”
“Glad I could help,” I groan, eager to get these fake niceties over.
“Hmph,” he says, inspecting my ribs. I try to exhale, but every hair on my body stands with unease. Zecky reaches for me with a round tool tight in his fist.
I grab his wrist. “What sort of experience do you have with wounds like this?”
“I am not in the business of proving myself to anyone.”
“We just met.”
Zecky purses his lips. “My ancestor’s surname was Doyle. Kindred Doyle.”
I sit up. “He was one of The Twelve. The Sphere’s engineers.” I think of the old Sphere engineer with the mottled skin and garden of strange herbs behind his home from the raid I did earlier this year.Francis.One of the brightest minds in magic, who worked on the Sphere. I can see his dead body on the backs of my eyelids. “How did you end up—”
“In a safe house?”
I offer a tight smile.
“I wasn’t born into my safe house family. I fled to one when my curiosity sparked for how dark magic and Shifter magic could intertwine. It took over my studies, ostracized me from my friends. My success at the Rites came to a screeching halt. I was about to be kicked out.”
“Someone should have turned you over to the brotherhood, in that case.”
“Oh, there were a few cousins hoping to make a name for themselves by squealing on me. But my mother, thanks to Gramps Doyle, prepared me well for skirting the rules of the Order. I’ve seen many things,” he goes on. “Nothingquitelike this, but I’m confident I can heal you up.” He rolls up his sleeves, and the insides of his wrists are covered in tally marks.
I shift uncomfortably. “So you work on Darkbearers?”
“My safe house family has to eat, too. I stopped practicing toushana tofocus on research. But I know it well.” He grabs his round tool again. “I should have you out of here by sunrise.” He hands me a strap of leather to bite. “It could get loud.”
I lie back with my heart in my throat. He pulls out a blunt tool with a wooden handle, turns it in his hand, studying it closely, then replaces it, only to pull another.
“This is curiously devastating,” he says. “Both of the Sphere’s magics are inside you. Your liver is fully attached to toushana. It looks like it’s covered in black icicles. But your lungs and heart are covered in calloused earthy granules, stuck to their surface like barnacles. There is a battle inside your body.” He slides the instrument deeper, and it nicks a bone.
I groan, recalling the stone with the Sphere’s magic I buried in my chest. It’s dissolved into my blood, unleashing the Sphere’s magic all over my body.
“Your skin, bones, and muscle are holding it all in better than any human-made material ever could. Magic is alive, and it thrives in an organic environment. The most powerful man alive.” Zecky smirks.
My stomach turns.
“How does it feel? Was this your plan the whole time?”
“I wasn’t even sure I’d survive. I just needed to dosomething.” The honesty slips out, and my heart knocks in my chest. But the Healer doesn’t flinch.The only person I could trust with the magic was myself.I think of Quell as Zecky sets a flat stone on my ribs.
“There are all kinds of ways to do things your precious Order never taught you. In fact—” He slips a card out of his robes. “If you are ever curious, that is how you can find me.”
“If you can heal this wound, that’s plenty.” I set the card aside. “I can handle the magics otherwise.”
