Natalia’s POV
After that experience, the nausea was affecting me more than usual that day. After checking on Max and Jane—and ensuring that they were both okay, which they were, happily playing with some wooden toys that my father gave them—I retired to my room to rest.
I had been dozing on my bed for the better part of the day in between bouts of sickness when I heard the sound of someone knocking on my door after dinnertime. Stirring from a half-waking-dream involving spilt wine and torn needlework, I sat up groggily and called out, “Come in.”
To my surprise, it wasn’t my father or David, or even Celeste, who entered my room a moment later. It was a woman I’d never seen before in the distinctive cream-colored robes that the healers wore.
She looked young, perhaps no older than ninete
