“Should one of us go with you?” Qarla asked.
“No.” I touched her shoulder. “If he comes home to find you in his house, I don’t know what he’ll do, but I bet he’ll be kinder to me. I’ll be back soon. I won’t grab much, maybe a few spices. We can plan to go back for more later.”
“Very well, my Lady.” She bowed, and I slipped past her out the servants’ entrance at the back of the house.
Chapter 6
“She’s over here!” I heard a man’s muffled voice and felt my body move. “My gods, what happened to you?”
I tried to answer but couldn’t speak. My tongue was stuck to the roof of my mouth, and my head felt as if it were split into two parts. My skin burned hot, and my muscles ached.
“Bring some water!” the man said as he rolled me onto my back. “Oh geez,” he whispered. “Miss Una, can you hear me?”
I tried to nod, but moving sent waves of pain through my body.
Someone fell down beside me, like thunder from the sky. “Here, Una, try to take a drink.” A hand pulled my lower lip down, and water poured into my mouth. Most of it ran over my face and down my chin. “Go get Calish and her brother Marsh,” he ordered. “Una, it’s me, Ino. Can you hear me?” His words pierced my ears like daggers thrust into my eardrums and made me recoil.
Pushing him away, I moaned, still unable to open my eyes. The sun was too bright, and I felt my eyes were melting from its heat in their sockets.
“Una!” Calish called from a distance, then closer. “No! No, no, no, no, no!” He slid down next to me, his whispers boring into my brain like river logs against the rocks. “Oh god, no!” He whimpered.
“We need to get her inside.” Ino tried to calm him. “She’s responsive, but something’s not right. Her wounds aren’t great enough to cause her disorientation.”
“Una!” Marsh cried.
“Marsh! I need your help!” Calish begged.
“What the fuck happened to her?” Marsh demanded.
“Let’s just get her in the house,” Ino said. “We’ll lift her together, ready?” On the count of three, they picked me up. Their hands pricked like fiery needles against my body. Folding my limbs toward my core, I screamed.
They rushed me back to our house. “Hang on, my love. I know. I know it’s bad,” Calish choked his words out.
They carried me up the stairs into the master bedroom where they gently laid me on the bed. I grabbed my head and pressed my hands against my skull as hard as I could. My brain pulsed, and I feared it would burst at any minute. I moaned as I twisted to the side, trying to shield my face from the light pouring in the windows.
“Does anyone know a Healer?” Calish shouted hopefully. His volume drilled into my ears, and I howled in despair. “I’m sorry,” he whispered.
I clawed around to find a pillow, the room spinning in all directions at once. Someone put one in my hand, and I dragged it over my head. The sound in the room boomed, and pressing the pillow to my face barely alleviated the bass.
“Where is all the blood from?” Marsh asked.
“I don’t know.” Calish breathed deeply. “Turn around so I can find her wounds.”
“We’ll just wait in the hall,” Ino offered.
“Una? No one is here, I’m just going to get your clothes off and see where all this, um, blood is coming from.”
Calish said he intended to remove my pants and shirt, when in reality it felt as if he were skinning me alive. I kicked, begged, and screamed. When his tears landed on my body, I imagined it acid burning through me to my bones.
Finally, I was naked. The breeze created by his movements pulled every hair from my follicles, but at least he stopped touching me. His breath shortened, and his throat closed against itself as he gasped for air. Panic set in for both of us. He crashed through the bathroom door, and when he returned, he patted my skin carefully with a damp cloth, turning my flesh to ice with each touch. He started with my stomach then moved to my legs.
If I hadn’t known his feelings for me, I would have said he was trying various ways to kill me.
“Calish, let me help,” Trisk offered, closing the door behind her. “Sit next to her, be her husband. Let me be the nurse.”
He lifted my hand and kissed it. A painful, searing kiss. His whole body trembled, and his tears like knives ran down my arm as Trisk continued his work.
“I don’t see any wounds on her stomach,” she reported. I felt her hands spread wide along my belly. “The baby is still moving.”
“Who did this to you?” he asked.
“This blood isn’t hers, Calish.”
Calish sobbed. “Thank you, Great One.”
“She’s pretty burned from being in the direct sun, but I think it’s just her arms.” Trisk draped the thin bedsheet over my nearly naked body. “Una, can we look at your head and face?” She pulled the pillow away.
I moaned as the brightness of the room singed my closed eyelids. Trisk washed my face as Calish held tight to my hand, kneeling next to the bed. My belly knotted up, and my mouth began to water. A retching spasm took over, and I flipped to the other side of the bed, vomiting onto the carpet. I clutched the sides of my head, once again tormented by the unending pressure in my skull.
Calish tried to help me take some sips of water. Having as much as I could handle, I rolled more properly onto the bed with one hand on my stomach to check on the baby.
“Do you feel any better?” he asked, and I nodded slightly, keeping my eyes closed.
“I’ll get something to clean that up,” Trisk said and left the room. The hushed chatter between her and the people in the hallway ended with her footsteps running down the staircase.
Hawk’s voice cut through the air. “Is she going to be all right?”
“She’s not bleeding like I thought,” Calish said, “but she’s got some exposure burns, and she’s dehydrated. She seems to be in a lot of pain.”
“Has she said anything?” Hawk asked.
“Not yet.”
“Do you think the staff know anything?”
“You can ask them. I’m not leaving her side.” His boots fell to the floor with a muffled thump before the bed compressed behind me. Fitting the angles of his body behind mine, he reached around my side and held my stomach in his hand. “I’m going to stay right here with you, my love.”
I tried to ease the pain behind my eyes, but it was no use. Even though the sun had set, I pulled the pillow over my head to protect my face and cut out the sound blasting through my already pounding head. I wanted to claw my skull open and pull out my brain so I might find relief.
Sometime later, or maybe right away, I’m not sure, a nurse came in to look over me. She told Calish she saw nothing wrong with me other than a few scratches and the sunburn on my arms.
“She’s acting like she’s got a severe headache,” she whispered as she returned the pillow over my head gently. “She’ll need a lot of water to fight the exposure she had. That will help the headache too; dehydration makes it worse. Keep the curtains closed, and the room quiet as possible. Put this under her tongue, it’s an herb to make her sleep,” she paused, “and rub the sap from this plant leaf on her burns twice a day.”
“How long before she’s better?”
“Hopefully by morning if she gets rest and can hold down some water.”
“What do we do if she’s not by morning?”
“I don’t know, sir. Try not to worry about that right now. Let’s see how she’s doing tomorrow.”
“Thank you,” Calish whispered. He cradled my head to let me drink, but my mouth refused to cooperate. As hard as I tried to make my body do what I wanted it to, it forbade any efforts to repair it. He dried the mess and laid me down.
“I wish I knew what happened to you, Una.”
He pulled down my jaw and slipped the herb under my tongue. He left it there and brushed the hair from my forehead. The heat of his touch felt like fire across my scalp, and I whimpered at his effort.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” He yanked his hand back. His breathing sounded jagged as he put the pillow back over my head. A sniffle and a shallow cough broke through his stoic facade. “This is more than a headache. I’m going to send for Mother.”
Chapter 7
I was sure it had been only days since I’d been out of this room, yet it felt like two lifetimes. Trisk and Calish took turns sitting in the dark with me trying to get me to drink, putting the sap on my arms, and helping me to the toilet and back. The only escape from misery was when they placed the herb under my tongue and the sleep that followed. I had never been more grateful for a nurse and her herbs. She wasn’t a Healer, but I appreciated her gesture just the same.
Calish would try to get me to talk, although I was convinced if I did, my head would explode, leaving pieces of me all over the room. He tempered his frustration, and I practiced patience while waiting for my mother to arrive.
She’ll know what to do.
And when she figured this out, she’d put her hands on my head and end my suffering. Knowing her talents were on their way was the only reason for my lungs to continue taking air.
I knew the moment they arrived. Perspiration filled the room. A ruddy mixture of damp soil, compost, and salt with a faint layer of rose weed wafted in the air.
She had come.
“Is she any better?” Marsh asked at full volume.
His voice made me curl and clamp my arms over my ears, but my body didn’t react fast enough to temper the reverberation of his vocal cords. Each of those four words hit the space between my eyes like a wooden mallet sprouting wicked thorns.
“Shh,” Calish reminded him.
“Oh, yeah,” Marsh whispered. “Sorry.”
“How long has she been like this?” Mother asked.
“Three days,” Calish answered. “We called a nurse who gave her sleeping herbs, but sleep hasn’t helped at all.”
“Did she tell you what happened?” She rested her hands on my body, searching for something deeper within me. My flesh wanted to pull away, as if it feared it would melt under the weight of her hands.
I fought the pain, quickly losing my battle. “No.”
“The baby is fine.” She eased off my abdomen, and for a moment, my pain waned. “Una, I’m going to check if there’s something wrong with your head.”
I braced for her touch. When her fingertips made their way into my hair, I arched my back and gripped the sheets. The pressure made me scream and stole my resolve.
“Well?” Calish said impatiently.
My mother pulled back. “I don’t understand. I don’t sense anything abnormal.”
“That’s ridiculous! Look at her!”
What was so wrong with me she couldn’t fix it? She could heal anything. I sobbed, not knowing how much longer I could endure the pain.
“May I try?” A whisper came from the doorway and carried with it the familiar smell of pine and ale.
“And who exactly are you?” Calish spat.
“It’s all right, sweetheart. His name is Donik, he’s a friend,” Mother said.
“You’re Nik?”
“It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, sir, although I wish it was under different circumstances.”
His pleasantry was not reciprocated. “Why did you bring him?” Calish demanded.
“She wasn’t talking,” Marsh said loudly then remembered to be quieter when I twisted in the bed. “I thought he might be able to do his mind thing and help her.”
“Calish, sweetheart, please let him try.”
Silence filled the room, and my muscles unwound one strand at a time. The pine grew stronger, and the edge of the bed compressed then released. Nik touched a single fingertip to mine, asking questions so quietly I only heard his lips moving. Calish answered the best he knew how, but even with the pillow over my head, I knew he didn’t want the seer anywhere around me.
Once he’d gotten all his information, Nik knelt next to the bed. “I know it’s going to be terrible, Una, but tell me what you remember.”
I shook my head under the soft pillow I wished would swallow me whole.
“You’re more susceptible to sound because of the wolf’s blood.” He paused. “I need one sentence, that’s all.” He lifted the pillow from my head.
I put my hands over my aching ears and cried as I forced the words out of my mouth. “It was an exquisite day, I went for a walk and fell.” Each syllable echoed in the stale room like screams from a million angry children. I writhed on the bed, digging my fingers behind my ears. If I ripped them from my head, the sound might stop.
Nik lowered the pillow over my head and stood. “Does that mean anything to you? Is that her normal language? ‘An exquisite day?’”
“You know something, don’t you! Did you do this to her?” Calish demanded.
“No, sir. I think Una’s been cleared.”
“What?”
“Her mind has been altered by a Charmer.” Nik left my side to speak to Calish, and the crashing reverberation tearing through my head lessened, a temporary reprieve from excruciating pain to prolonged misery. The men spoke for a few moments before Nik returned.
“I’m going to take a look into your past so I can see what happened.” He took my hand, and I felt its warmth. He patted it and laid it back down on the bed.
“Who did this to my wife?”
“I can’t tell,” he confessed. “Whoever cleared her did a damn good job. I’m going to need to try a different way in. Can you bring me a dressing mirror?”
I heard movement in the room, and someone closed the door. Nik gave directions to a couple of people before coming back to my side. “I need you to sit up, Una. Can you do that?” he asked, kicking off his boots.
Calish helped me, keeping the sheet covering my breasts as Nik climbed onto the mattress behind me. He positioned himself and arranged the pillows to his liking. With his legs straddling me, he gave his next instruction. “Good, now, scoot back. You need to lie back against me.” He guided my hips into position, meeting his bare chest with my shirtless back. “That’s good.” Together, he laid us back.
It burns.
“I still don’t understand why you need your shirt off,” Calish protested.
“Surface area,” Nik replied, failing to mask his irritation with Calish’s jealousy. “Now, move the mirror a little closer, we need to see ourselves and touch the glass.”
Someone rested the mirror’s frame on Nik’s knees raised on either side of my thighs. He took care to not let it rest across my abdomen. It wouldn’t have mattered. My entire body felt as if I were engulfed in flames. Breathing became an impossible task.
“Una, your head hurts because you’ve been told a lie about yourself. There is literally a war going on inside your mind,” he whispered in my ear. “It’s not going to stop until you learn the truth. I’m going to warn you, it’s not going to be good. Whatever it is, you’re hiding it from me, too. We’re going in together; I’ll be right here the whole time. Remember, it’s real but in the past. Do you understand?”
I nodded.
“Are you ready?”
I nodded again.
“Then open your eyes.”
I did as he instructed and focused on our intertwined reflections. We appeared as lovers, naked beneath a thin, crisp sheet tucked under my arms. My tousled hair and cracked lips belonged to someone else, while the dark, worried eyes troubled the man whose heart I unintentionally broke.
We looked intimate, and even in my tortured state, we were. My love for Nik was not sexual, although in another life it might be. My feelings for him were much deeper. Nothing had yet happened; still, his full embrace brought comfort, and the quiet room became tolerable. The pounding in my mind softened, allowing the guilt I felt well up.
“I feel the same way,” the man behind me confessed.
In a moment of clarity, I cast my eyes from the glass. I couldn’t bear the feeling of my husband’s eyes hot on my expre
ssion. Did he see our alters in the mirror? In my fragile state, I lost what control I had of my mind. If such a display played out before the room, I would be too weak to stop it. Afraid to look at the scene unfolding in the mirror, I closed my eyes and wept.
Nik whispered in my ear knowingly, “No one will see anything but us as we appear now. Mirrors only hold truth for Seers.” He reached his right arm around me, interlacing his fingers between the ones I used to hold the sheet across my chest. He took my left hand in his, placing it against the mirror. “It’s time to go.” He pressed his cheek against mine, and we tumbled through to the other side.
I fell on my hands and knees, not that it hurt.
I’m naked.
I crouched and attempted to cover my front with my arms. A soft fabric draped across my shoulders startled me. The gentleman that he was, Nik ensured my modesty by helping me put on a robe that hung on a hook next to the bed. As I pushed my arms through the sleeves, I tried to thank him, but no words came out. He smiled and pointed to his lips, shaking his head. I fastened the robe closed and rubbed my eyes. For the first time in days, my head wasn’t killing me. I felt no pain whatsoever.
If only I had known relief existed here.
Nik took my hand, caressing my fingers with his. He cupped my cheek as a suffered smile pulled across his somber face. My eyes drifted from his, down the angle of his jaw, to the fullness of his lips.
“I miss you so much,” they said without sound.
I squeezed his hand, afraid to confess the truth to him or myself. “I’ve felt so alone.”
He pulled me into him and hugged me. Heartbeats were different on that side of the glass. I could feel his heart’s rhythm with my outstretched hand but could not hear the sound even when pressing my head against his bare chest. His embrace tightened, and his kiss stayed soft on my forehead.
We pulled apart enough to find each other’s eyes. They searched for truth, and when we found it, a flood of emotion washed over me. Guilt and regret pierced my heart for things I wanted but refused. Nik closed the distance in our gaze. His thumb brushed over my parted lips, across the curve of my jaw, up to the tender flesh of my ear.
Scavenger Girl: Season of Toridia Page 8
