She felt a bead of sweat roll down her forehead and slip into the corner of her eye.
It might be a medicine that would bring unimaginable pain.
It might even be poison.
Even as those suspicions refused to leave her, Talia parted her lips.
Varkas tilted the bottle, pouring the bitter liquid into her mouth.
She coughed weakly and instinctively turned her head away, but he caught her chin and pressed the bottle to her lips again.
Talia swallowed the liquid helplessly as it seeped into her mouth and looked up at him.
Firelight flickered across his pale eyes, as though a curtain had been drawn over them.
She searched desperately for some trace of emotion within those inorganic eyes.
Finding nothing, she slowly let her arms and legs fall limp.
She strained to keep her eyes open.
Fought desperately to hold onto consciousness.
But her thoughts gradually became muddled, and her vision rapidly blurred.
Her eyelids fluttered once.
Twice.
Then Talia sank into a silence as deep as death.
She had no idea how much time had passed.
Perhaps only a few seconds.
Perhaps an entire lifetime.
Staring blankly into empty space, Talia frowned at the rhythmic sound of hoofbeats and the rattling of wheels.
As her vision slowly cleared from its fog-like haze, the dim interior of a carriage came into focus.
For a fleeting moment, she wondered whether everything had been a dream.
The terrible monster.
Varkas abandoning her to rush to Aila's rescue.
Being carried away by the wyvern and nearly dying.
Perhaps it had all been nothing more than a nightmare.
As if rejecting that hope, searing pain suddenly spread from her knee to her waist.
Talia bit down on her lower lip and grabbed her burning leg.
Beneath her thin chemise, she felt the rough texture of cloth.
Her fingers traced it.
Then her eyes widened.
Her entire left leg was wrapped in thick bandages.
Pulling up her skirt, she found strips of stained cloth stuck to her thigh and side, blotched with dried blood and seeped fluid.
Her trembling fingers wandered across them.
Then she lowered her skirt again and slowly sat up.
The spacious carriage was lined with thick padded cushions.
Pillows and summer blankets lay scattered everywhere in disarray.
She stared at them blankly before grasping a handle mounted on the wall and dragging herself upright.
But her leg refused to obey.
No matter how hard she tried, she could not stand.
Her limbs felt like solid blocks of lead.
As she struggled to straighten her leg, agonizing pain shot up her spine.
With a dull thud, she collapsed back down.
A scream escaped her lips.
“Your Highness!”
Hearing the sound, the carriage abruptly stopped.
The door flew open.
Squinting against the light, Talia looked up at the figure standing in the entrance.
It was her guard knight.
His usually unruly hair was even more disheveled than normal, and concern filled his eyes.