no one and no power left to attack Kalthorne. We’re in a standstill now.”
I hummed. “How can I help?”
“I don’t know,” he said, sighing and failing to blow his sweat-heavy hair from his eyes. “It’s a mess.”
“Well,” I said, brushing his hair from his eyes, “this might be the concussion speaking, but saving lives looks good on you. Thank you for saving me.”
“Those were some of our dear chevalier’s people.” He laughed. “You’re lucky I was over here.”
“We need to get rid of him and Pièrre.” I leaned against Charles as we walked. Each step, each breath, filled me with a renewed sense of purpose. “If we kill them, we remove their threat to the camp and prevent the attack on Kalthorne.”
They were two of His Majesty’s staunchest supports, and without control of his army, how much power did a king really have?
“I don’t know how we didn’t assume you were Madame des Marais. Such arrogance,” muttered Charles. “Madeline nearly laughed herself to death when she heard.”
“I know you’re teasing me.” I tilted my chin up and grinned. “However, I much prefer confidence. Nicer connotations.”
We broke through the thin line of trees. The camp was oddly quiet, soldiers clumped in groups and whispering to each other. No one paid us much mind, most turned the moment they saw us, and Charles murmured that there had been several fights earlier. He led me to the infirmary tent, and inside, the hacks were busy. Soldiers with bloody noses sat to be healed. Madeline and Physician Allard’s hack Louis ordered everyone around.
“Physician Allard’s dead,” Charles whispered. “He had an argument with Physician Pièrre du Guay. The soldiers broke up the fight.”
Physician Allard wasn’t noble. He had been one of the few common boys to rise from hack to physician.
“Sit here,” Charles said, one hand on my shoulder holding me down and the other cupping my cheek. “Do not move. Do not channel anything. Rest for once in your life.”
He joined Louis near the opening of the tent. They chatted and flipped through a journal that might have been Laurence’s, and Charles started directing other hacks and a handful of apprentices on what to do. Power fit him well, his panicked expression calming as he and Louis counted up how many were here. Charles frowned, and I sighed. He had so much left he wanted to do, none of it killing.
He shouldn’t have been burdened with stopping this war and getting blood on his hands.
“You know,” a familiar, drawling voice said, “I was going to say all sorts of mean things to you for leaving with no hint of a note and then getting arrested, Madame.”
Madeline sat next to me. A green silk scarf was wrapped around her hair, and smoke stained the collar of her dress. A new scar split her chin.
“Did you hear me, Madame?” she asked, my title on her tongue very much an insult. At least she was smiling as she said it. “But watching you pine might be better.”
“I’m not pining.” I scowled.
I wasn’t—Charles and I were friends and colleagues, and half of our relationship was a lie, the other half stained with death.
I couldn’t ruin my friendship with Charles. He was important to me. Our jobs were important to both of us. To have neither him nor medicine in my life would be a tragedy I couldn’t accept.
“We have more important things to worry about anyway,” I said.
Though, even if we had the time, Charles had no reason to like me. I was selfish. It wasn’t a secret and I wasn’t unaware, but it had never been an issue. It had been a blessing.
Cauterization.
It didn’t hurt to be disliked if I didn’t care about anyone else.
“Yes, but you look sad, and I’ll be damned if I let that physician and his chevalier make me feel sad,” said Madeline. “And looking at the mess you are right now makes me feel sad. So for my sake, please stop.”
I glanced at her. “I’m sorry I lied, but I’m glad that lying led me to you. I wish I had told you the truth.”
Her head tilted, as if the world were crooked, and she laced her fingers through mine. “Don’t leave without saying goodbye ever again.”
I dropped my head to her shoulder. “I got arrested. I didn’t leave.”
“I don’t care,” she said. “Figure it out.”
I laughed and shook my head, and Charles approached again.
“What’s the plan?” I asked.
He took a deep breath. “Subdue the soldiers and hacks coerced by Chevalier Waleran