Chapter 178 — Waking

His gaze took a while to focus and make out the situation in the room. He saw Gao Yang first, and for an instant stared blankly; then he saw Lilith standing before him, and his expression turned tense at once: "Darling! What are you doing here?!"

"I... I heard something had happened at the castle..." Lilith Kant looked rather flustered. "So I ran over to see you..."

"I am fine," the viscount said, waving his hand with some effort to dismiss the servant. Then, weak as he was, he forced himself to try to rise—but the attempt failed. Lilith stepped forward at once to support him, and he caught her arm in turn. "You need not worry. If anything, your rushing here at such a time is what worries me."

"I... I am all right," the viscountess said hurriedly, and gave Gao Yan a quick nod. "The duke saved you at once, and called for the priest too. Darling, what on earth happened?"

"Thank you for stepping in," Victor Kant said at once, thanking Gao Yang. Then, frowning, he slowly drew a breath—the wound had closed, but the pain of the dagger piercing his chest seemed still to linger between heart and lungs. "It was Carter. Carter attacked me out of nowhere. I was completely baffled—he seemed like a different person. While he was stabbing me, he was saying strange things, that there were intruders in the castle, that he had to protect something... I am utterly confounded even now!"

Then the viscount seemed suddenly to remember: "That's right—where has Carter gone? Did he attack anyone else?"

Gao Yang was just about to answer when a shadow suddenly gathered into form within the study, and Amber's voice came from the darkness: "He got away."

The half-elf lady emerged, nearly soaked through by the rain. Her long ears twitched in the air (shaking off water, perhaps?), and she turned to Gao Yang. "That old steward is no ordinary man! I saw him running across the castle's spires as if flying—one moment he was there, the next gone. Even with Shadowstep I could not catch him. I chased him as far as the stables behind the castle, and there he vanished. I could not find him at all."

Gao Yang was startled. "A man even you cannot track?"

"Yes—at the very least a demigod," Amber said with great certainty. "After all, I am the chosen of the Goddess of Night..."

Gao Yang pretended not to hear that.

"He has fled, and I fear he will become a threat," Gao Yang said, looking at the viscount and viscountess. "I suggest you strengthen the castle's defenses."

"That goes without saying." Viscount Kant nodded firmly.

Lilith nodded slightly as well, but suddenly pressed a hand to her forehead, her body swaying faintly as though it had lost its support.

Viscount Kant's face turned anxious at once: "Darling?"

"I... I feel a little dizzy," Lilith said, pressing a hand to her forehead, her voice tinged with a faint note of pain. "I'm not well..."

"You have been out of your room far too long!" The Viscount Kant's tone turned stern. "You must go back and rest at once. Set your mind at ease—I will double the guards at the North Tower, and as soon as I am a little better, I will come and be with you."

"All... all right," Lilith Kant said, swaying as she rose to her feet, dazed and obedient to her husband's arrangements. Then she took up the lantern that had been set down nearby and walked slowly toward the study door.