How long I slept, I do not know. But when I awoke, the child was no longer in bed with me and the sounds of a lively household filled my ears. I threw the blankets off me as I slowly rolled out of bed. Cautiously, I rose to my feet for the first time in days. Surprisingly, I found myself feeling quite strong and refreshed.
“Good,” Tomasa smiled at me, looking over her shoulder at me as she continued working, preparing some kind of bread. “Right on time, I might add. You should never make fun of my Thakk Soup, Roland. Medicine is medicine. But it does not have to taste like brackish water.”
I grinned, nodded, and walked over to her to grip her shoulders with both hands as I kissed her on the top of her lovely head. Tomasa Runyan, Queen of the Bretan Wizards, was almost two hundred years
