Page 41 of Zenith Tower

Marrow went to the doorway. “Send for a healer. Tell the infirmary to prepare an isolated room.”

One guard left at once. The other hesitated.

“And the breach?” he asked.

“Has been contained.” Marrow’s gaze moved to Caspian, then me. “Verita and Ashford remain here until Moreau can be moved.”

The guard withdrew and closed the door without locking it.

Delphine watched Marrow. “Why did you tell them to stop that night?”

Marrow looked toward the open hatch and the broth cooling across the floor. “Because you were conscious and asking them to. That should have been sufficient.”

Tears gathered along Delphine’s lower lashes. “It wasn’t.”

“No, it was not.”

Sadie was still missing. Delphine was still shaking beside me. Whatever Marrow felt about either woman had come too late.

“I don’t trust you,” I said. “And I’m not grateful that you kept her in a cell instead of letting them move her to somewhere worse.”

“I don’t expect either.”

A healer arrived carrying a leather case. He was younger than Marrow, with wire spectacles and sleeves tied neatly above his elbows. He stopped when he saw the three of us around the bed.

“Moreau?”

Delphine drew her injured wrist against her chest.

The healer set down his case but did not approach. “May I examine the Mark?”

She looked at me. I stayed beside her without answering for her.

After a moment, she held out her arm.

He brought the lamp close and studied the breaks withouttouching them. When he finally placed two fingers against the uninjured skin below her palm, Delphine flinched.

I moved nearer. Caspian stood behind me, one hand resting on my shoulder.

“The damage is old,” the healer said. “There is no active spread, but she is depleted and badly underfed. She should have been transferred to the infirmary weeks ago.”

“The infirmary request was denied after the reading,” Marrow said. “I am overruling that decision. Can she be moved now?”

“Carefully.”

The healer wrapped Delphine’s wrist in clean linen, more to protect the damaged skin than to change what lay beneath it. Then he helped her stand.

She reached for me before she found her balance.

“I’m coming with her,” I said.

Marrow shook his head. “You may accompany her to the infirmary door. No farther.”

“She just found me,” Delphine said.

“And the administrator will know about the breach before we reach the upper corridor. This is the allowance I can make before she gives a different order.”

I started to argue, but Delphine sagged against me. Getting her to the infirmary mattered more. I put her arm across my shoulders, and together we followed the healer into the corridor.