Chapter 24
LORIANE GASPED and stirred, lifting her head off something hard that hurt her ear. She sat, to her surprise, on the floor of Isandor’s sleeping shelf, leaning on the chair by his bed. One leg had gone numb and her ankle hurt where it pressed into the floor.
The fire in the stove downstairs had died to a pitiful glow that barely lit the furniture.
She must have fallen asleep, although she couldn’t remember sitting down. Myra slept in Isandor’s bed, her mouth open, her arm twitching by her side.
Loriane heaved herself to her feet. She did remember giving Myra the sleeping draught which had stopped her pains. The girl was too tired to continue, not having slept for two days, and all the hard work was still ahead.
A soft noise drifted up from downstairs, the sound of scrabbling
