The next morning, the first thing Crow was aware of was that he felt deeply uncomfortable. The feeling wasn’t caused by any specific sensation. After being bedridden for…—what was it? [i]Four[/i] days?—he was simply getting restless and longed to be able to get up and stretch his legs. His body ached from laying in the same position for so long too. It was even worse than when he’d been bedridden from his illness because at least then, he’d been able to turn from his back to his sides and shift freely when he was beginning to feel stiff. However, this time, he didn’t have the same luxury. Between then chains around his wrist and ankle and the pain his wound caused him whenever he did anything more than stretch his limbs a bit, he was trapped flat on his back with no way of relieving the discomfort that continued to build up inside of him.

To make an already bad situation worse, his empty stomach was plaguing him more now than ever before. It had been over half a week since the last time he’d eaten anything, and he was starting to feel sick from the lack of sustenance. His head was foggy, and his body felt weak. Additionally, he had noticeably dropped in weight—not to a severe degree, but enough that he was able to tell the difference. The discomfort of it all was almost enough for him to break his resolve and throw caution to the wind by asking one of the knights to sneak him some breakfast. But he still couldn’t do that. Perhaps if Layth hadn’t stopped by the day before, he would have been feeling well enough to stomach something other than water, but after having his wound mercilessly targeted by the other man, he didn’t think he would be able to do it. The hole in his middle pained him more today than it had the day before.

He let out his breath in a sigh. As long as men like Layth continued to stop by to harm him, he was going to have a long stay in the knights’ camp. The thought made him feel a pang of longing to be back in his own camp with his own companions. He missed their company quite a bit. Even though it was nice to see Penelope every day, he would much rather have been recovering amongst friendly faces compared to waking up every morning wondering who was going to try to kill him next. It was stressful to feel so trapped. He hated being at the mercy of his enemies like this.

Shaking off his lingering weariness a little more, Crow looked over the tent to examine his surroundings. From what he could tell, nothing had changed aside from his guard. He vaguely remembered Olivia and Gavin trading shifts sometime in what he guessed had been the early morning, but he had only woken up about halfway, since he’d realized the sounds of their shifting hadn’t been caused by anything dangerous. Now more alert, he saw that Gavin was studying him with his usual look of contemplation before he asked his usual question: “Do you need anything from Jane?”

“No,” Crow shook his head, although it wasn’t entirely the truth. He was hungry, so he wanted food; and he was in pain from his wound, so he wanted something to take the edge off. However, the physician would have provided him with neither of these things. He still couldn’t eat, and he could tell that she wanted him to suffer. It would have been pointless to even ask for anything.

Stretching in an attempt to ease his discomfort, the thief let out a tired yawn. “What time is it?” he asked, glancing across the room at the knight.

“Late morning,” Gavin answered with a shrug.

“Oh,” Crow frowned. Part of him had been hoping that he would have slept in much later than that, but unfortunately, it looked like this was going to be a long day. He gazed dully up at the canopy of the tent, hoping Penelope’s meeting with the barons would go by quickly. She was the only person that made his confinement here somewhat bearable.

“There’s going to be a new guard coming to watch you at midday,” Gavin spoke up again, still eyeing the thief with that thoughtful expression of his. “His name is Philip.”

“Who sent him?” Crow asked warily, turning back to the knight.

“Penelope did… I just thought you’d like to know in advance.”

Crow held Gavin’s gaze for a moment longer before he nodded, “Thanks. I appreciate it.”

“Mhm,” Gavin grunted in response.

With nothing else for the two men to discuss, they both lapsed into silence. Crow propped his arm behind his head and stared up at the canopy again. Even though he was tired, he found that he wasn’t in a mood to take a nap, so instead, he let his mind roam as he waited for the long day to pass, hoping it would go by quickly so that he could see Penelope at nightfall.