Healer Mego exits my chamber and leaves in the opposite direction.
“Who’s that?” Ashwin asks.
“A healer Indah sent to see me. Should we go?”
“Wait.” Ashwin holds me in place. “What did he say?”
I am dying, not dead. Right now the difference, thank Anu, is tremendous. I muster a wobbly half smile. “I’ll be fine.”
“Thank the skies.” Ashwin’s arms come around me. “You’re my strength, Kalinda. I cannot do this without you.” I should move away, but his nearness drizzles over me like warmed honey.
Healer Mego must be incorrect. Ashwin’s touch serves as an antidote to the Voider’s poison. Embracing his nearness for the good of my health cannot be harmful or I would feel something besides this blissful absence of cold.
He releases me, and the hoarfrost inside me shakes loose again. My body’s reaction makes up my mind. I cannot do this without him either. Ashwin will be my protection against the Voider’s poison in the days to come.
Outside the main palace entrance, a wing flyer fills the crushed shell courtyard. Ashwin and I join Pons and Indah, who secure our packs to the passenger platform with rope. Datu Bulan speaks to a palace guard off to the side. In the distance, the last navy vessel disappears through the breaker passageway, out to sea.
“I didn’t know the datu kept wing flyers,” I say.
“He traded the Paljorians for them a few years back,” Pons replies.
“Prince Ashwin,” asks Bulan, striding over, “have you seen my daughter? Gemi was supposed to meet us here.”
“She’s gone with Admiral Rimba,” I answer. “Gemi volunteered to enlist, and I accepted.”
The datu’s mouth drops open, and his color rises.
Ashwin mutters a curse and scrubs at his forehead. “Kalinda, you didn’t.”
“Gemi said the admiral wouldn’t allow her to go without our authorization.” I lob my gaze back and forth between them, uncertain why they are angry. “I saw no sense in turning down a capable Trembler.”
Datu Bulan blusters out a string of indecipherable syllables and then shouts at his guard. “Signal the bridge! Tell them to bring back my daughter!”
“They’re gone, sir,” replies the guard. “The navy has passed through the breaker.”
“Then send a boat after her!”
“Princess Gemi said she wanted to go,” I explain, trying to pacify him.