Chapter 35Nertha was veering wildly between near-panic and manic confidence. The greyness all about her seemed to be seeping into her very soul and, though no reason informed her, she knew that if she faltered, gave way to the despair that was clamouring at her, it would sweep her into oblivion. Resolutely she kept her thoughts from considerations of what had happened and what might happen. She was a physician — a healer; she must tend her four charges, here, now. They were all that mattered.
All were breathing, all had good pulses. While this was so, all would be well, she told herself, over and over, continuing her steady, sustaining ritual of checking them.
Then Antyr’s pulse began to falter.
* * * *
‘As you see and feel, so shall we,’ Antyr said, speaking the words from long habit
