Chapter 20: In Order

Mira was standing over the alcove bed with a paper in her hand when he woke. The shawl was already on. She was grey, and the grey sat deep, as it did the morning after a ring, though she had only dipped. A basin stood by the stove where no basin lived. On the bench Tessa Rill slept sitting up with her back to the wall and her bound palm open in her lap, and she gave one grunt as the paper rustled and slept on. Kael tried to turn over and the arm refused. It lay across his chest in its two laths and its linen, and every breath lifted it. The torn belly of the muscle had set overnight into a hot cord from wrist to elbow. He sat up by the left elbow, which opened the palm again, and put his feet on the boards. "The Board's…