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The pain woke Elle like a starved aniers ere poking around the castle and stoardens She had just followed thearden and had leaped fro roof to the next But it was black, and Elle les she hit glass and pluh She didn’t remember much after that besides pain and a beastly shape

Soroaned

When she finally opened her eyes there were three people in her room A woman stood at a fireplace on the far end of the room, a second woman stood at the door, and the third person in the roo

The bedroom was posh, better than any room Elle had ever stayed at in her life It smelled woodsy, probably fro into a large bowl

Elle rubbed her nose, pausing to consider the bandages wrapped around her arhtened up and s Elle the chance to see his face--or what little of it wasn’t hidden A black ed in blue partially covered his forehead, swooped down over his nose and cut off just above the lips, running across his cheeks It was too dark to see what color his eyes were, but he smelled like the herbs in his concoction

Theit steady for inspection

You broke your left leg when you fell I already set it with so a pack of Comfrey herb

Elle stared at the words for a"I cannot read"

Elle’s words caused the woman by the fire to tumble across the room She threw herself in a wooden chair that was placed at the bedside, across froeon The wo in her chair, than the ladies maid she was very likely to be based on the fine cloth and elegant cut of her dress Both she and the h theirs were edged in the eon let hisopen in dismay as he looked back and forth from Elle to the slate He wiped away the words and wrote so the slate to the ladies maid and the woesture of horror The other whipped out a s on it

Elle briefly closed her eyes, the pain was incredible Her leg throbbed and ached with a fierceness Elle thought only torture could deliver The cuts on her ar and prickled She tried to clear her h the haze

Elle hadn’t seen the chateau staff before--she always took the night watch, when everything was quiet and no one stirred

The gossiping servants of Noyers--the capital of Loire and hoiti with him The stable boys claimed they were turned into animals, and the kitchen staff insisted the servants were completely invisible, but Elle put the uess Farand said they had lost their voices and faces Apparently he was right

The shush of skirts scraping across the floor prodded Elle fros She opened her eyes just in ti behind her

The re female servant--the one that looked like a ladies asped in pain when the barber-surgeon began wrapping her leg in bandages that were dripping with the odd se It was hot on Elle’s bare skin, and it oozed, but the bandages were skillfully wrapped

Elle clenched the blankets on the bed, but the barber-surgeon’s hands were gentle He gave Elle a sympathetic smile, but did not pause in his task

The ladiesa co Elle’s black hair out of her face The two servants worked silently Elle’s unsteady breathing and the crackling fire were the loudest sounds in the room

The silence was broken a few minutes later by a thunderous voice that stalked towards the room "--makes sense she can’t read She’s an unschooled peasant That ed his hands in a bucket of water and hastily wiped the away on his slate The ladies maid at Elle’s side did the same, and both of them leaped to their feet and held their slates out when the door was nearly thrown off its hinges