He does not. He repeats their names, their strong, godly names, and is that approval she detects or has pain and fear addled her mind? She struggles against the ground, adjusting herself so the fillies may suckle more easily when they return from gazing up so lovingly at the man who would have killed them. If they are to revere anybody, they should turn their adulation onto the harpy who saved their lives, who stayed the blade of their would-be assassin.

He asks if she's dying, and her laugh is sharp, humourless. Somehow, she doesn't think he's asking out of concern for her wellbeing. "You needn't worry that your girls will be without milk. I will live." This, she knows. Last time, it took a healer to save her, but this time, despite the pain, she does not think the fillies have destroyed her inside. Just outside, where it stings and bleeds - horrific, biblical revenge, the area that let him in so ravaged by his monstrous children. But that will heal. She will heal. She has to. Rest and food should restore her stolen strength, and time will ease the rest.

"I left my home in the Edge to spend the pregnancy alone - they do not know that I was with-child, and it will remain that way." She does not know if she's being stupidly trusting, to tell him this - is it wise to share her secrets so easily? Yet she cannot risk a slip of his tongue unravelling her lie like a burnt spiderweb. "I will tell them that I found the twins with their herd massacred, whilst their sweet still-living bodies were ravished by vultures. Almost the truth." She looks to Oizys' poor face, hoping the Edge has a decent healer. At least the girl's wounds fit her story - her scars stand testament to the thread that Nyx will weave.

She shifts again, hunting for comfort. The urge to sleep is overwhelming - she thinks she will wait a week or so before she returns to the Edge, to give her body time to heal and her mind time to enter the correct frame to tell yet another lie. She looks at the stallion through mistrustful eyes, praying he will leave her to rest - she is sure they will meet again, as undoubtedly he will want to involve himself in their daughters' lives, but she has quite had her fill of his menacing facade for one day.