Shift

Chapter 14

14

There was a soft knock on the door and Vera clutched her drowsy head as she opened her eyes.

“Whosthere?” She mumbled. Lana opened the door and quietly sat on the edge of Vera’s bed, her woollen turquoise gown pooling on the floor.

“How are you?” Lana asked worriedly.

“Fine, but what about Thomas and Anastasia?”

Lana held up a hand and shushed Vera.

“They are fine, they’ve almost recovered. And the herbs you had saved have been cared for, so far they are surviving but it’s too early to tell if they will grow.” Lana supplied.

“What? How did I get here?” Vera shook her head in confusion.

“Vera, you’ve been sleeping for four days,” Lana told her gently.

“Four days? It can’t be!” Vera shot up and Lana had to retrain her from getting out of bed.

“I’m amazing you didn’t pass out sooner. You were working non-stop, not sleeping, not even eating, really, and you were tending to two people. It’s a miracle you pulled through with only a bad case of exhaustion. Truly Vera!”

Vera had just relaxed bad into her bed when a thought occurred to her and she jerked up again.

“Drake is coming to the wall tonight, I need to meet him!” She hissed.

“Well you can’t go now, and you have plenty of time. Just rest and eat some food and later I’ll tell everyone you need a walk to stretch your legs and get some fresh air.” Lana assured her. Vera smiled in thanks.

“Just take a knife or something ok? I still don’t trust him,” Lana remarked as she hugged her friend.

“I’d be worried if you did trust him!” Vera joked.

Lana left to get her some food and Vera’s thoughts circled the meeting with Drake. She hoped he would keep his word and bring her news of Valdor, but something in her told her she could trust him. So instead she wondered how she was going to pull off the meeting. There were guards patrolling regularly along the walls now and there was no way she could go through the gate to ‘stroll’ in the outer ward.

Her plan consisted of Drake sneaking into the outer ward and them meeting at the inner curtain. Hopefully they would slip between patrols and miss any guards that might spot them.

A few minutes later Lana returned with a large tray of food and Vera decided to put the impending meeting out of her head.

“How is Maya doing?” Vera asked, referring to Lana’s assignments.