Daud assesses Billie’s injuries swiftly and clinically. It’s fatal, he can tell that much — though hard to discern the exact extent of the injury or what caused it. He knows the shiftling can’t manage language in this form, not that he could hear her even if she could.

It doesn’t change what he knows he needs to do. He draws his sword with the soft hiss of metal on leather and steps closer, still poised and alert.