Dance: Cinderella Retold by Carlton Demelza

Author:Carlton, Demelza [Carlton, Demelza]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: amazon, Romance, supernatural
Amazon: B01NCZ6T85
Publisher: Lost Plot Press
Published: 2017-02-08T23:00:00+00:00

Twenty-Three

Mai jerked awake, convinced her hands were afire. A quick glance told her this was not the case. In fact, her hands were bound in bandages and she was lying in a bed that also wasn't burning.

She shouldn't be in bed. Yi had been.

But the bed beside her was empty.

Mai jumped to her feet. "Where is he?" she demanded.

A healer she didn't recognise hurried toward her, making hushing sounds. "Where is who?"

Mai pointed a shaking figure at the empty bed. "Prince Yi, the Prince of Swords. He was injured in the battle."

"The Prince of Swords, lie in a soot-smeared bed, beside a boy so covered in ash and cinders you look like one of the kitchen drudges?" The healer laughed. "The prince would not be in a tent with the common soldiers. He will be in his own tent, or with the General. But the Prince of Swords cannot have been defeated. The news would be all over the camp by now if the Emperor's favourite son was injured, and all I have heard is about the General's victory over Dean. The city surrendered before the cooks rang the breakfast gong."

The battle had raged all night? How had she slept through it?

Realisation dawned. "What was in the tea I drank? Was it a sleeping draught?"

The healer shrugged. "I gave you nothing, so I do not know. But a sleeping patient is easier to treat than one who is awake, so we help many men to sleep."

"I shall not stay here a moment longer. I must find the prince," Mai said. Whatever the healer had heard, she knew otherwise. Yi was injured, and if he had tried to rejoin the battle in his condition…

She checked their tent first, but it was cold and deserted. No one had slept there last night. The practice ground was deserted, too, so she climbed the rise to the General's house.

In the doorway, she nearly bumped straight into the healer she remembered from last night.

"You!" she exclaimed. "You drugged me, when you said you were giving me a pain draught. What did you do with Prince Yi?"

"It was a pain draught," the man said, drawing himself up. "It also relaxes a patient, so that many fall asleep. And the prince left my care, only to collapse in the General's arms. I have done what I can for him here, as he should not be moved." He glared at Mai as though she had suggested moving him.

"Will he be all right?" Mai demanded.

"He will live," the healer replied. "I shall return later, if the prince's condition changes. Until then, I have a hospital full of injured men to see to." He marched off down the hill.

Mai slipped inside. She found Yi in what looked like the General's own bedchamber, lying facedown on the bed. The General was nowhere to be seen.

"Yi, can you hear me?" she asked, her voice shaking more than she liked.

"What, did I finally manage to beat you, so you won't call me Rooster any more?" Yi turned his head and smiled weakly.

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