"Silence! Or we'll call the den guards!"
"If you're not immediate blood-kin, leave this place at once!"
Morwenna halted her advance, wrinkling her nose in disgust.
"We never should have set paw in this healer-den. What foul fortune!"
She turned and gestured to the others.
"We're leaving, all of us..."
Kael released a heavy sigh, disappointment plain in his amber eyes.
"Lyra, we're supposed to be pack. How can you be so cold-hearted?"
Cold-hearted?
They had certainly taught me a lesson today.
What true cold-heartedness looked like.
After the Stormhart wolves departed, I ended the recording on my speaking-stone.
My father's face was drawn with worry.
"Daughter, what are we going to do? Your mother and I have some tokens saved—enough for perhaps ten thousand to cover the initial healer's bond, but the ongoing treatments... that's another matter entirely."
I placed my hand on my father's shoulder.
"Father, leave this to me. I've already found a way."
Garrick looked at me with questioning eyes but asked nothing more.
I went first to pay the healer's deposit.
Three hours later, the glow-stones outside the treatment chamber finally dimmed.
The healer emerged from the treatment chamber.