Gawain (Knights of Excalibur Book 1) by Hanley Donald

Author:Hanley, Donald [Hanley, Donald]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-08-20T22:00:00+00:00

37

Butler sat at the kitchen table with his right arm resting on a hand towel taken from the master bathroom. Trisha hunched over his arm, carefully snipping the next suture with a tiny pair of scissors Butler had in his toiletry bag and then slowly extracting the thread with his tweezers. The process wasn’t painful as long as she was careful, but the sensation was obviously unpleasant, judging from his expression. She dropped the suture into the bowl by her elbow and started on the next.

“You’re kind of handy to have around,” Butler noted. “I wasn’t looking forward to pulling these out myself.”

“You should go back to the ER,” she told him, concentrating on her task. “They can make sure there’s no infection or other complications.”

“It’s probably best to avoid the hospital for now,” Nim said absently. She sat across from Butler, frowning at something on her phone. “They’d have too many questions that we can’t answer.”

“Like why your arm isn’t still torn to shreds.” Trisha grimaced as she wiggled the tip of the scissors under the next suture. The knots were very tight. “Dr. Adams had a note in your file for the neurologist to check you out after you woke up. He wasn’t sure you’d be able to use your hand again.”

“No worries there.” Butler waggled his fingers and Trisha pulled back quickly to keep from accidentally stabbing him with the scissors. “Sorry,” he said contritely. She shook her head with a frown and resumed her work.

“Would anyone care to explain who Savard and Chantal are?” she asked, not entirely certain she wanted to know the answer. “How can they do ... this to people?” She indicated Butler’s arm with a vague wave of the tweezers.

“By that, I assume you mean you want to know what they are.” Nim set her phone down, looking pensive. “In a word, they’re an abomination.”

Trisha paused, shooting Nim an uncertain look. “What do you mean?”

Nim looked her over for a moment, as if assessing her likely reaction to what she was about to tell her. “Among his many other talents,” she said finally, “Merlin was a very skilled therianthropist. A shape-shifter,” she explained at Trisha’s puzzled expression. “He could transform himself into an animal and back again at will. He usually took the form of an owl when he needed to keep an eye on things in secret.”

Trisha wanted to heave a frustrated sigh at being subjected to another one of Nim’s nonsensical tales but she managed to restrain herself. “Go on,” she said tersely.

“Viviane persuaded Merlin to teach her the art of shape-shifting, although she isn’t quite as skilled at it as he was. She’s used it many times over the years to trick and harass us.”

“Are you saying she’s Savard in disguise?” Trisha asked skeptically. “Or Chantal?”

“No, not at all, although you’re not too far off the mark. Somewhere along the way, she discovered how to change other people into animals, if they were both willing and strong enough to survive the process.

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