Up close, the woman is nearly terrifying. Dark shadows surround her eyes, which are sunken into her skull-like face. Her cheekbones seem ready to split through her thin and papery skin. Her lips are cracked and bloody. She reaches a wasted limb towards me, little better than bones lightly wrapped in flesh, and without thinking, I grasp her hand. I hear Ward’s sound of distress behind me, but this woman, she looks so brittle and frail, as if I might break her if I breathe on her too hard… I have a hard time denying her what little comfort I can.
“My Queen.” She mumbles, and my eyes fall from roving her dying form to settling on the bed between us. Her husband hovers over us as her breath wheezes in and out in the silence. My mind shrieks at me that there is nothing I can do. A r
