Gray light bled through the narrow arrow slit as Eileen Sherlow sat chained to the cold stone pillar in the isolation ward. Her wrists were free, but the iron cuff around her ankle bit into her flesh with every shift of the torches' flicker. She pressed her fingers to the dull indentation, remembering the sting from last night's battle with the banquet assassins and the soft click of Sig's command: leave her chain unknotted.
A sudden crack of wood announced the door's opening. Captain Hakon strode in, brows drawn tight, bearing a coiled rope and Sig Fraser's stern countenance behind him.
“Rise," Sig said, voice low yet commanding enough to shatter the ward's hush. Eileen stood, wincing as the ankle cuff bit anew.
He advanced until she could smell the juniper in his cloak. “Why did you s
