Fairspell Meadow shed every skin that no longer fits

Oh, my. He had endured a lot, hadn't he? Maegi listened with a mournful expression, sad not only for the boy but for his family as well. Had any of them survived? She hoped so, for his sake, but from the gruesome picture he painted, it didn't seem likely. Scarab had been lucky to survive.

I'm sorry, she murmured, eyes fixed gently on his own brilliant blue gaze. If you need a place to stay. . . We've faced our own hardships lately, and I can't promise anything much in the way of food or shelter, but. . .

She really ought not to do this. But what other choice did she have? Turn the boy away? Maegi supposed some would, true. She thought of Indra, then, who'd had no obligation to help her in her time of greatest weakness—yet she did. Children should be loved, protected. It was only right.

She'd find a way to feed another small mouth.