"He's been moved?" I asked, as we continued on. "Why?"
"Elementals need a heat source to survive. We suspect the shadowed room could have been the reason for his failure to improve."
Tao was a werewolf rather than an elemental, but it was possible that consuming the elemental had changed his physiology enough that the lack of sunlight would affect him. "So the new room is sunnier?"
"Yes." She stopped at a doorway near the far end of the hall and motioned me to enter.
I took a deep breath, fearing what I might find, then stepped inside the small, sunlit room. Tao lay on a bed in the middle of the room, his lower body covered by a sheet—more for modesty, I suspected, than any real need for a cover. Even from here I could feel the heat radiating off him.
Ilianna sat in a chair beside the bed and did something of a double take as I entered. Dark smudges dulled her green eyes and her normally lustrous blond mane hung limp and lifeless.
I frowned. "You really need to go home and get some rest."
"I will. Soon." She half shrugged, but the worried look in her eyes said "soon" wasn't going to be anytime in the near future. It also suggested that nothing I could do or say would move her, and I couldn't use force in a place like this. The building—or the magic that guarded it—would not appreciate it.
Not that that would stop me from trying if it came down to it. The last thing I wanted was her falling sick, as well.
She scanned me from head to toe. "The new hairdo is startling, but I'm thinking there's something a little more than the need for a change behind it."
"Someone sent demon bloodhounds after us. Azriel thinks this will throw them off the track for the moment."
"Let's hope he's right."
He usually was. Annoyingly so. "How is Tao today?" He actually looked a little better. His face—although covered in a wiry brown beard that was growing thicker by the day—had lost some of its gauntness, and his breathing was less labored.
"He's doing okay," she replied, touching his hand lightly. "We actually managed to get a decent amount of gruel into him today and he kept it down."
The so-called gruel they were feeding him was a revolting mess of herbs, vitamins, protein, and carbs, designed to bolster his body and strength. Up until recently he hadn't been able to keep much of it down and I can't say that I was entirely surprised. If there was any spark of consciousness inside him, he sure as hell wouldn't have been happy about being force-fed the smelly muck.