"We'd just been attacked by soldiers. He barely stayed on his horse, and he collapsed when we got to the cell."
"Um hum." Theron moved to take Tris's pulse and look into his eyes.
"I'm awake and alive," Tris managed through parched lips. "You can speak like I'm here."
"You kept fighting, after three doses of poison," Theron remarked. "Your Eastmark kick needs some work, but given your condition, it wasn't bad. Not bad at all. We've got to work on your control. You didn't effectively counter the pain spell."
"I know."
"And your magic got wobbly after you lost Mageslayer."
"Wobbly?" Tris echoed hoarsely. "It was out of reach."
"Not immediately. For an untrained mage, you hung on to it-at least a little bit-for quite a while." Theron managed a smile. "I'm glad you weren't at full strength when you sent that blast my way, or we might have needed a new trainer."
"I can teach you to counter that pain spell-and some other nasties that you might encounter." She chuckled mirthlessly. "You may not choose to use them on someone else, but it can be damn handy-knowing how to deflect them. And we've got to build up your tolerance for wormroot." "Build up a tolerance!" Carina exclaimed angrily. "We know Arontala uses it on other mages. As a vayash moru, it has no effect on Arontala himself. It's likely he and Jared will take some kind of precautions, and wormroot could be part of them." She gave Tris a crooked grin. "It's going to get worse before it gets better."
Tris swallowed hard and nodded. "I thought you might say that," he said, surprised at how spent his own voice sounded.
Theron spared a glance at his bandages. "Looks like Carina's got you patched up."
"Even with deep healing, he's not going to be good as new overnight," Carina replied tersely.
Theron met her eyes. "Whatever he's got will have to do," she said matter-of-factly. "We don't have time to wait." She looked down at Tris. "See you at the salle tomorrow morning. We'll work on that kick." Without another word, Theron turned away. Carina followed her to the door and might have said something more to Tris, but as the healer closed the door behind Theron, Tris felt the world waver around him. He closed his eyes as consciousness once again slipped out of his grasp.
