thunderous knock shook the heavy oak door.
Yusha moved to the entrance, his face hardening into the mask of the physician he once was. He opened it to find a man drenched in freezing rain, wearing the mud-splattered livery of a royal messenger. Behind him, a black carriage stood trembling, its lamps flickering like dying stars.
“I seek the man who mends what others throw away,” the messenger gasped, his eyes darting to the interior of the warm cottage. “They say in the city that a ghost lives here. A ghost with the hands of a god.”
Yusha's blood turned to ice. “You seek a beggar. I am a simple man.”
“A simple man does not perform a cranial trepanation on a woodcutter's son and save his life,” the messenger countered, stepping forward. “My master is in the carriage. He is dying. If he breathes his last on your doorstep, this house will be ashes before dawn.”
Zainab moved to Yusha's side, her hand resting on his arm. She felt the frantic vibration of his pulse. “Who is the master?” she asked, her voice steady and cold.
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