Sheida

said.
"Shhhh," Bast replied, laying her fingers against his lips. "And that is the other side. A hurt, once made, cannot be unmade. But they heal, in time. Most anyway. In your case, the hurt, too, will mostly heal. But what will bind the wound and reduce the scar tissue is what you do, Herzer Herrick. But you know that, don't you?"
"Yes," he replied, looking at the carpet again.
"Then let us do," she replied seriously then smiled. "From the looks of things, I'm going to be busy. You have had a hard journey, are you sure you're up to it?" She winked at him and covered her chest modestly, widening her eyes again. "Oh, sir! I was just bathing and I can't find my clothes!"
"For you milady," he said looking up with a gleam of tears in his eyes, "who is young as the air even if you are old as the trees, I will always be up to it!"
"So I see!" she said with a laugh. "And so gallant! Let's see how long we can make it last this time, fair knight!" She picked up a scrap of towel, placing it over her chest and looking at him with a hint of fear in her eyes. "Please, sir, I'm all alone and you're so big!"
"The Belle Dame Sans Merci!" Herzer groaned.
"Oh, you've heard of me," she chuckled throatily. And then there was no more talk.


CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Daneh had stayed in the kitchen puttering with herbs. She knew that some of them had healing properties, but not which and in what proportions. Some of Edmund's books had marginal notes on them, though, so she had gotten the few available and had been grinding sorrel when Sheida appeared.
"Daneh," Sheida said from the doorway.
The mortar and pestle flew across the room, the pestle cracking in two against the hard