Seyun moved down to the foot of Bed Two. Meanwhile, Mina folded back the lower corner of the gray wool blanket.
Pera’s bare left foot was thick-soled from decades of road marching, with a faded blue vein running over the instep toward the inner ankle bone. Gently, so the stiff linen wrap on his palm wouldn’t scratch her skin, Seyun laid the unburned side of his left wrist against the arch of Pera’s left foot while placing two fingertips of his right hand near the bronze metal ring between her ribs.
He closed his eyes and listened across the length of the mattress.
For three heartbeats, only the surrounding hum of the black bronze pillar shook through the iron bedframe. Then, deep beneath the inner ankle bone of Pera’s left foot, a tiny, clear flush of blood-warmth stirred. A minor collateral vessel that had grown thicker years ago to compensate for the cut Red Ditch spirit vein along her flank.
One heartbeat passed. A second heartbeat passed.
Only on the third beat did the sub-floor amalgam pipe hub send its smooth, clockwork wave clicking up through the bronze metal ring into Pera’s fifth rib.
Seyun opened his eyes and looked at Mina. His sister had her fingers on Pera’s left tibial pulse behind the ankle bone and was already nodding. Her mouth curved into the rare, fierce smile she reserved for a pulse that finally told the truth.
