“Never mind me. What have you got yourself into?” he asks quietly.
“Where’s my mother?”
“He had soldiers take her before we arrived.”
“And you let him?” I scream.
“Where were you?” Kirin shouts right back at me. “Where were you last night?”
“Please tell me where she is,” I beg.
“What’s wrong with her anyway?” Kirin continues. “They found her locked in her room this morning. She looked close to death. She didn’t even flinch when they lifted her out of bed. Is that you? Are you drugging your own mother?”
My hand rises to my mouth and I sink to my knees. I imagine soldiers here, taking her out of bed in her tatty nightgown, looking at her gaunt body, her vacant eyes. Oh Gods.
“Why were you here?”
“Unwin reported it. Said he’d told the occupants to evacuate with the others and he thought refugees might have broken in. If I’d known it was you … I sent some of the lads here with him. By the time I came to check myself, it was too late. They’d taken your mother and found … everything.”
I bury my face in my hands. No. Oh please no.
Kirin pulls my fingers away, forcing me to look at him. “Errin, you can either talk, or I’ll have to arrest you myself. There’s enough evidence on the table to see you hanged, even without the body. Talk.”
I struggle out of his grip and walk back into my mother’s room, sitting on the end of her bed. He follows, remaining in the doorway.
“After we realized Lief must be trapped in Lormere, she … she shut down. She wouldn’t eat, wouldn’t clean herself, wouldn’t go to the privy. I had to do everything for her. We had no money, Kirin. I had to get it somehow. I started making potions to sell, to pay the rent and buy food. It was the only way. And I … sedate her, sometimes. Something happened to her, in the woods. It changed her.” Once I start speaking I find I can’t stop. “I tried to cure it; then I tried to treat it. Nothing worked, and it made her angry and dangerous. She attacked me.” I open my mouth and show him my tooth. “That was her. And there was more. Kirin, you have to tell me where she is. If they don’t take proper care of her, she’ll attack them too.”
He shakes his head.
“She’s like the Scarlet Varulv,” I blurt. “She’ll hurt people. She’ll pass it on if I’m not there to treat her.”
“Errin, this isn’t funny.”
“It’s the truth.”
He looks at the table, at the mess still there where I tried to deconstruct the Elixir, then back to me, shaking his head, his eyes full of sorrow. “Errin. I had no idea it was this bad.”
“I know, but I can control it. We have somewhere to go, with people who can help her. So tell me where she is and—” “Stop,” he says. “It’s over. She’s safe now. And you’ll be safe too.”
“What?” I still. “What do you mean?”
“You’ll be taken care of. You shouldn’t have been left alone. But we’ll take care of you now. I’ll make sure of it.”
I stare at him. “I don’t need taking care of. I’ve found us a new home. And we’ll be safer there than anywhere, trust me.”
“Errin, you need help. Both of you.”
“I’m not mad. Kirin, look at her arms. There are scars there. It happened. It’s real. You have to believe me.”
But he doesn’t. It’s written all over him, the way his eyebrows are furrowed, the sad twist to his mouth.
“Errin, I need you to listen to me. I’m going to take care of you. There will be questions – serious questions – because of some of the things you have here. And the fact there was a body. But anyone can see you didn’t hurt him, couldn’t have hurt him like that. I’ll speak for you, and I’ll write to Master Pendie to ask him to attest to your character. We’ll explain about your father, and about Lief. And that you’ve been here, alone, with your mother, these last four moons with no money. It’d be enough to send anyone a little mad. But you mustn’t say things like that, especially now, given the Sleeping Prince. You’ll be in real trouble. Let me handle it, all right? I’ll sort it out. It will be fine.”
It breaks my heart, his words, the kindness, the worry in them and