Chapter Seven
“Céline?”
Opening her eyes, Céline found herself in a bed, inside the tent she shared with Amelie, and her sister—fully dressed—was leaning over her, holding a plate of bread and a mug of steaming tea. The tent flap was partially open, revealing bright daylight outside.
“Amelie? What time is it?”
“Almost midday. We haven’t wanted to wake you, but Jaromir thought it was time.”
“Midday?” Céline couldn’t remember ever having slept so late, but something had happened last night . . . something . . .
Bits and pieces came rushing back.
“It’s all right,” Amelie rushed to say. “You just fainted.”
Céline blinked, suddenly feeling less disturbed and somewhat annoyed by Amelie’s suggestion. The Fawe sisters did not cry, they did not sleep until midday, and they most certainly did not faint.
Seeing the expression on her face, Amelie held up one hand in surrender. “You need to eat and get dressed. Quinn has the wolf tied up in the barn, but he’s getting anxious for us to do whatever we’re going to do.”
“Oh . . .”
Céline climbed out of the bed and reached for her tan wool dress as a number of questions rose in her mind.
“What of Captain Keegan?” she asked. “I never saw him last night.”
“He’s fine,” Amelie answered without attempting to hide her disgust. “But he looks even worse for wear. I think he kept on drinking long after we left last night, and he probably slept through the whole ordeal of having his camp attacked. One of the Pählen soldiers was killed. I saw the body.”
Céline shook her head. “Poor man.”
Keegan had no business being placed in charge of anyone. He abused the women and neglected the men. Trying to focus on something else, she began lacing up the front her dress.
“Céline . . . ,” Amelie started and then stopped.
“What is it?”
“You and I have met the man who was . . . changed last night. Quinn did a head count, and Guardsman Ramsey was the only one unaccounted for.”
Céline’s hands stopped lacing the dress. Ramsey was the tall man who’d been arguing with Keegan at sunset last night. Neither she nor Amelie knew him, but it was still sad to put a face to this tragedy. Ramsey was a victim just as much as the soldier he’d killed in his madness.
As she finished dressing, she realized she was hungry and started in on the bread and tea.
“I think I should read Ramsey,” Amelie said. “Seeing his future won’t tell us anything . . . as I’m not certain he has much of a future in his current state. But maybe I can see something that happened just before the change, something that triggered it.”
Taking a long swallow of the warm tea, Céline considered her sister’s words and nodded. “Yes, you’re right. Let me do an examination, and then we’ll have you do a reading.” She walked over to the table and picked up the empty water basin and the pitcher. “Here, you carry these. Have they kept him thirsty as I asked?”
“Yes. Why?”
Céline hurried to her box of supplies and took out the bottle of poppy syrup. “Because tied up or not, he’ll still be dangerous. I don’t want him senseless or you won’t get a reading, but we do need him calm.”
With that, she headed for the tent flap and stepped outside. Guardsman Rurik was waiting, and he offered a good-natured but mock bow. “My lady Céline.”
“Oh, stop.” She was glad to see another familiar face. His shoulder-length hair looked even curlier than usual, and in the sunlight, she noticed he had a light smattering of freckles. “Have things been all right for you here? We’ve hardly seen you, and I was worried you’d been cut off and rather on your own.”
“I’ve been fine. Most of the Pählen soldiers have taken to sleeping in the large tents. Safety in numbers and all that. But I’m bunking in the small tent next to yours with the lieutenant. I’d take my chances with him any day.” He flashed a grin.
In spite of everything, she smiled back. “So would I.”
Amelie came up behind them, carrying the basin and pitcher. “We should get to the barn.”
Rurik looked at her. “You’d best be careful around the lieutenant. He’s fit to be tied about you disobeying his orders last night.”
“I saved his life!”
“Doesn’t matter.”
By way of answer, Amelie grunted, and the three of them started off, walking through the tents toward the only wooden structure in the soldiers’ encampment. The day was fair, with clear patches showing through the clouds above. Both sisters had forgone their cloaks, and Amelie seemed to be somewhat more comfortable as she strode along in her pale blue dress.
“How soon do you think we’ll be done with all this?” Rurik asked. His previous good nature seemed strained, as if the answer mattered to him very much.
Céline remembered how reluctant he’d been to take Pavel’s place, and again she wondered why.
“I don’t know,” she answered honestly. “We haven’t learned anything of use yet. We don’t even know if these transformations are due to some kind of infection or if someone is doing this to the soldiers on purpose.”
The barn loomed ahead, with a small collection of hens pecking at the ground out front, and then she saw that Jaromir was waiting outside with two men. As she drew closer, she recognized Guardsmen Saunders and Graham. Saunders’s expression was bleak, but Graham’s eyes were red, as if he’d been weeping, and again the whole face of these tragedies hit Céline. Graham was young, and Ramsey had been his friend—possibly even a protector.
“I’m so sorry,” she said, walking up. “Amelie just told me that it was Ramsey.”
Graham looked at the ground.
“Keegan and Quinn are inside,” Jaromir said quietly. “I thought you might like to question these two before we go in.”
That was good thinking on his part. Though yesterday and last night had been trying, the sleep and the tea had left her feeling much more like herself today. She turned to Saunders.
“Please understand that we are only trying to find out what is happening here so we can stop it,” she began, “but were you with Guardsman Ramsey last evening?”
Both men nodded.
“Did he eat anything you did not?” she asked. “Or drink something you did not? Can you think of anyone unusual that he spoke to?”
Graham lifted his head. “No, we all ate our normal rations and then played cards for a while, but an hour past dark, we split up to go to our night posts, and that . . . that was the last time I saw him.”
“Was he still angry at Captain Keegan?” Amelie asked suddenly.
Both men’s eyes widened and neither spoke.
“It’s just that we overheard the captain dressing you down,” she went on, “and Ramsey spoke back to him.”
Saunders shook his head. “That’s just Ramsey’s nature. He blows up easy and gets over it easy. He wasn’t angry for long.”
“Miss . . . my lady,” Graham said. “Can you do anything for him? He . . . he always looked out for me. Can you give him one of your potions and bring him back?”
Poor young man. Céline couldn’t lie to him. “I don’t think so. I don’t even know what’s happened to him, so I wouldn’t begin to know how to fix it.”
His chin dropped toward the ground again, but she would not offer him false hope. “If either one of you remembers anything, anything out of the ordinary that happened yesterday, please come and tell one of us.”
Jaromir turned to open the barn door, and she realized that he appeared to be pointedly ignoring Amelie, who was pointedly ignoring him back. Céline wanted to sigh. She sensed a loud argument in their near future.