"Until then, Cassius protects him. Same as before."
Kael reached over and took my hand. Not to say anything. Just to hold it.
I let him.
Martin lost his arm that night.
Helena had known during the battle that it was a question of when, not whether.
The damage was too extensive, too deep, too far along by the time she got to it.
She told him, and he nodded once, with the particular economy of a man who had already done his grieving on the walk back and arrived at the point of decision.
He asked me to be there.
I stood at the edge of the healing station while Helena worked, and Martin talked about nothing, about a cousin he had in the western territories, about whether the eastern barley crops had come in before the evacuation, and I listened to every word of it, because it was the
