"Are you hurt?"
for you, yet, she thought. Not for you yet awhile.
The room he led her to overlooked the courtyard; two narrow windows let in the cold afternoon light. Inside were the Duke, one of the surgeons, and a man on a narrow bed. Paks wrinkled her nose at the smell. The Duke looked up.
"Paks. Good. Come on in." She stepped into the room. "Captain Ferrault would like to speak with you," said the Duke formally. Paks had not recognized the captain. He was pale, his face gaunt, his usually mobile mouth fixed in a grimace. The Duke, Paks saw, held one slack hand. The surgeon bent over him, gently removing bandages with a pot of sharp-smelling liquid. Paks came to the head of the bed.
"Yes, sir," she said to the Duke. She had seen enough to know that Ferrault was dying. She knelt u