The sentry collapsed before the physicians could reach him, folding straight down into the courtyard dust as the frost climbing his throat suddenly reversed, boiling off him in a fine mist that left his skin pale and human and terrifyingly still. Ratri worked over him for the better part of an hour while soldiers held torches close enough to see by, and when she finally sat back on her heels she looked more tired than Rama had ever seen her.
"He'll live," she said. "Whether he'll be the same man who lived before tonight, I cannot promise you that. Whatever spoke through him took something on the way out, the same way it does with every one of them."
