Page 15 of A Matter of Destiny

“I’d like to speak with Doshir,” she says, and her voice is so calm she might as well have been commenting on the lovely weather we’d had this afternoon.

Eadberh responds by pulling his crutch off the floor and coming slowly to his feet. He gives me a final, sympathetic sort of smile as he limps to the door, leaning heavily on his massive crutch. Ailen strides across the room as he leaves and stops in front of the huge chair Eadberh just vacated. For a moment I expect her to sit down like a normal person, but instead she stands next to the chair and stares at me as steam rises from the mug in her hands.

“So,” I begin, awkwardly, “how is she?”

Ailen frowns in a way that’s not at all encouraging.

“If she were a human,” Ailen says, “she’d be dead.”

Great. The smile I’m trying to force onto my lips curls up and scurries away. Ailen finally sinks down into the chair with a soft sigh, like she’s being forced into something. She shakes her head.

“Doshir,” she says, fixing me once again with her intense stare. “I’ve done all that I can, but I’m no dragon doctor.”

I shift in my chair.

“But, she’s okay?” I ask.

Ailen exhales slowly, almost in a hiss.

“She’s stable,” Ailen replies. “I didn’t think she’d make it through last night, and she did, so that’s something.”

“That’s good,” I say, but my voice rises at the end, making it sound like a question.

Ailen gives another brisk shake of her head, like she’s negating the implied question. She takes a sip of whatever’s steaming inside her mug, then turns to me with an expression that is perhaps intended to be sympathetic.

“She has multiple severe infections,” Ailen says. “Her lungs, the laceration on her foot— She’s healing better than a human, of course, but I’m not sure how much I’m helping. I’m dosing her like I’d dose a dwarf.”

Ailen takes another sip of tea.

“No offense,” she adds, raising an eyebrow over the steam.

“Of course,” I say.

Ailen puts her mug down, and the sympathy fades from her face.

“Doshir, she needs an expert,” Ailen declares.

My breath catches in the back of my throat. She’s suggesting the Iron Mountains. She’s talking about leaving Cairncliff.

“I don’t—” I begin, then stop myself. “I don’t think she can travel.”

Ailen’s eyebrow raises once more.

“You brought her here,” Ailen says.

I make a sort of snorting noise. Rather undignified, really.

“Well, that was—” I begin.

“Nope, nope, nope,” Ailen snips, cutting me off as she raises her palms in the air. “I don’t need to know. Really. The less I know about dragon affairs, the better.”

I sigh. It sounds like the end of something.

“Here’s the thing,” I whisper to Ailen. “I don’t know what’s going on in the Iron Mountains. I don’t know who we can trust.”

Ailen makes a sort of shrug, then picks her mug back up and brings it to her lips in silence.

“I don’t know anything about that,” Ailen finally says. “But I do know that your mother needs more help right now than I can give her.”

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