Chapter 10 The House Of Herbs

• Water on her face brought her back. Aria opened her eyes slowly to a low wooden ceiling, beams hung thick with bundles of drying herbs that filled the whole room with a green, bitter smell, and a man's face, unfamiliar and creased with concern, watching her from a stool beside the bed, patient in a way that told her he had been sitting there a while already.
• "You're awake," he said, relief plain in his voice, real relief, not the performed kind. "I found you in the forest, half starved, more dead than not. I'm Charles."
• "Aria," she managed her throat raw and cracked. "Where am I?"