Location:Kaelport — the water side; the Pavilion, the Medical Bay
Date/Time:6 Flamefade 9943 AZI, Restday, first light
Realm:Lower Realm
Clean linen came off that hand, and under it something green and bitter that had been steeped too long. Cangwei had the smell of it before she had anything else, and it did not belong on that beach. The beach smelled of river and burned stone and the queen's blood. The hand held out past Heiteng's shoulder smelled of a room.
She read it as she read everything, from one edge to the other.
The dressing, wound firm and flat by somebody who did that for a living. The red at the center of the palm, larger than it had been a moment ago. The fingers past the end of the linen, bare, and at the end of each a talon, clear and hard as cut stone, catching the light coming up over the hill. The fingers did not close. They had been asked to and had declined.
Twice, and she had watched both.
