by Tom Hansen
She turned, but he wasn’t behind her. He had jumped in front of a soldier’s blade to save her life.
He had saved her life.
“Go! I’ll be right behind you!”
She had made a mistake. She had thought she could take on the soldiers by herself, but what good would Borym have been in a fight with such deadly soldiers?
She stumbled out of the water, dripping wet, so cold her body no longer shivered.
She knew she was going to die, but she just wanted to live. Maybe if she kept moving, she would have a chance.
A massive wall of ice loomed over her, fissures and cracks up its side.
She could be wrong, but she thought she saw lights coming from one of the fissures.
She walked into it, and everything went white.
A noise roused her from her slumber.
She tried opening her good eye but it refused to move.
Her magic was still drained, and her body ached.
The noise rang in her ears again, a rustling of some kind, followed by a high-pitched scraping sound grating her nerves.
Was it breathing?
She realized the noise was her own breath, coming in a high-pitched wheeze.
She was beyond delirious, unable to process basic information.
But as she lay there, she realized a light came closer to her, swaying gently, as if someone carried a lantern.
The light stopped near her and she heard a low-pitched rumble.
She passed back out once again.
Talia woke to a comfortable warmth, unlike anything she had experienced in recent memory.
Something had happened once again. She had moved, but hadn’t remembered moving.
She lay still as she assessed her environment.
Her body was warm. Not overly hot either, just…pleasant.
The pain that had consumed her before she passed out was still there, but significantly reduced. Her head throbbed with a low-level ache, and her ankle still complained, but otherwise she felt…somehow better.
Better.
That was a strange word. Out here in the harsh tundra, one rarely thought of life getting better. Here she was, fully drained of her powers but still alive.
But how?
Was she dead? Could the warmth simply be the embrace of the Gods Below as the Raven inked her name in the annals of history?
Talia felt inside herself, searching for her magic. It was back, but significantly diminished. She needed more rest, or food.
Both would be best.
She took in a deep, slow breath, feeling her ribs. Pain on her right side told her she still had fractures, but the pain was manageable as long as she didn’t breathe too deep.
She smiled.
Things are going to be all right.
She stirred, testing out her body one part at a time. She started by rotating her feet, followed by her hands. Other than her one ankle, everything seemed to be in working order. Her ankle pained, but didn’t feel broken. Possibly just a bad sprain.
A warmth around her mid-section caught her attention and she worked her hand down to touch her stomach. Her skin was warm to the touch and slightly tingly, as if she had been bandaged.
I don’t remember being cut across the middle.
Her mind still fogged, she couldn’t quite remember what happened. How did she had end up this situation? Someone had to have helped her.
Caldin?
Part of her screamed to move, to jump up and run, but another, more rational side reminded her that she should assess her situation before making any rash decisions.
My back.
It was warm as well, just as warm as her stomach.
That’s odd.
She opened her one good eye, trying to take in more information around her.
While the light was extremely low, enough sunlight shone in from somewhere behind her to make her realize she was in some sort of ice cave.
I remember the cave of ice. I remember walking into it. Everything went white.
She remembered the light, swinging back and forth.
Interest piqued through her, setting her skin on edge. Someone had found her while she had been knocked out.
Then why am I so warm?
She tensed, as something around her stomach tightened.
She put her hand down, and realized that a hairy arm was draped about her stomach.
Panic flooded her body as her senses came alive.
Where am I? What is going on?
She struggled to retain her composure as she slowly turned her head to see whose hand held her.
Each movement was slow and methodical. She didn’t want to rouse suspicion until she assessed the situation.
But she needed to know. Who had found her?
As she turned, she first saw the bright red curly hair matted to his forehead.
She let some of the tension go as she followed the hair down into a curly red beard. Part of her realized it was Borym, but something else still seemed off.
Slowly, she turned her body toward him.
The man was asleep next to her, his face scrunched up and twitching slightly, as if he was dreaming.
Talia pursed her lips into a line as she studied his face. He must have found her after she had stumbled into the cave.
But I was so cold and now I’m warm.
In his sleep, Borym mumbled something, and tightened his hand around her stomach.
It almost tickled, his thick fingers on her bare stomach like that.
Wait…My bare stomach?
It was then that she realized his shoulders were bare, as was his chest.
And so was hers.
It was with great consternation that Talia Oblique slowly came to the realization that she was completely naked, and the hulky man Borym was just as naked as her, with a meaty hand on her bare flesh.
As much as she wanted to scream, some part of her wasn’t able to make the noise.
So she punched him in the face.
Chapter Nine
“God’s Below!” Borym screamed, rolling backward and clutching his cheek.
Falling out of the blankets that had covered both of them, Borym rolled into a wall of ice in the darkened cave a few feet away, naked as a baby. His free hand curled into a fist, swinging out wildly in front of him, whiffing the air as he struggled to right his pale body.
Once standing, he removed his other hand from his face and curled his fists, scanning the area, trying to ascertain who had just punched him awake.
Talia gathered the blankets around her and scooted back. After watching his reaction she was glad she had recoiled, as getting hit by him would have definitely hurt. She felt bad that she had punched him, and realized now it was far too much of an overreaction, but what was a girl to do when she wakes up naked in bed with a strange man?
There has to be an explanation.
His crazed gaze eventually settled on her face, and the two stared at each other for a long moment before he dropped his fists along with the furious expression.
Borym spoke. “Sorry, lass. I didn’t realize it was you. Kinda was dreaming of fighting when, well, I got hit. You can understand my reaction after just coming awake?” He paused, pushing on his cheek with a beefy finger. You pack quite a wallop I must say!”
She was beside herself, her mind racing like the howl of winds through the fanes. She had so many questions, but only one managed to coalesce into something coherent.
Talia couldn’t help but look down at his nakedness and his hairy body which was much more muscular than she had thought originally. “Why are we naked?”
Her gaze lingered below his navel for a long while as she took in all of him.
Realizing what she was doing, she pulled the blankets around her tighter, and tried to get her gaze above his belt line.
“Why are we naked?” Borym replied, as if that was some kind of an adequate response to her question.
He then looked down at himself, realization finally
dawning. His eyes went wide and he grabbed a nearby coat to cover up.
His face went as red as his hair.
For a long second, the two stared at one another. Her heart pounded in her chest as the heat that had warmed her face slowly abated.
Finally, Talia pursed her lips and scrunched her eyebrows. “I’m sorry for punching you awake. I was just startled, but I’m quite keen to know why we are both naked.”
He flashed that devious grin of his once again, the one that swore he hadn’t just gotten punched full-force in the face by an adult woman.
“You may not remember much from last night, given how delirious you were, but I rescued you from the main house. While I was dodging a soldier, you ran away and fell into the ocean, and I don’t have to tell you how stupid of an idea that was. Somehow, you made it to shore though I’m not sure how. One second you were flailing in the water, I turned to dodge another swing, but by the time I turned around you were gone.”
Borym pounded a fist into his open palm. “But Gods bless us all, I swear I saw your fiery hair like a blood moon to the north.”
His face lost his usual jovialness. “I grabbed some blankets from a hut on the way up here to find you. When I did, you were sopping wet, delirious, and freezing. You were seconds from death, I promise on the God’s Above. You needed warmth, so I stripped you out of your wet clothes, and, well, I got naked to warm you back up. Everyone knows that skin to skin contact is the best for transferring heat. I swear that’s all that happened! I was just trying to keep you from freezing to death!”
His voice had gotten very serious as the words tumbled out of him, trying to explain why they were naked.
“I swear, lass. Nothing else happened.”
His eyes pled with Talia. Clearly, it was vitally important that she know he only did it to save her life. It was almost endearing, watching him panic like this. He at least seemed an honorable man. Too few of those remained nowadays.
Like a dam breaking inside of her, she finally let out a breath.
“Thank you for doing it. I don’t suppose I would be here anymore if you hadn’t, well, gotten naked with me.”
There was another awkward pause between them before his casualness came back and he grinned. “You’re most welcome, lass. Can’t be having the mother of my children go off and die of frostbite naught twelve hours from meeting her, can I?”
She had been with him up until this point, even admiring his quick wit and almost prescient knowledge of her predicament, but then he had to open his mouth and make it awkward with premonitions of their future together.
Talia drew her lips to a line, her voice terse as she replied. “I would like to get dressed now if that’s all right. I need to get back to the man who nearly killed me and finish returning the favor.”
“Oh you won’t be going nowhere, lass. I’ll betcha once yer heart stops pounding so much, you’ll realize that you are weaker than a newborn pup. You’re going to need to rest up more. Besides, no one else knows about these caves up here, you will be safe and he’s not going anywhere without you. If you insist on taking out that man in the hood, then you best do it with rest and food. You’ll need it after what you’ve been through.”
Borym paused, then squinted, his face taking on a grave expression. “Who is that man to you, anyway, and why do you insist on going to find him when you were originally running from him?”
She looked away as a flood of memories poured through her. One in particular rose to the top; Caldin laughing as he held a cup of hot coffee just out of her reach, birds chirping in the distance as the sun beat down on them.
The memories bearing on her mind were more painful than the aches in her physical body, and Talia couldn’t help but burst into a wracking sob. It was all so much, right now. She had been in over her head for so long but hadn’t allowed herself to fully process what it was that she was running from.
Now, with someone asking a simple question, the dam had released, and she was open and raw. It was fitting that she was naked. It mirrored where she was in life; exposed and broken.
“Oh, lass, I’m sorry for asking.”
She turned back to him, stifling another sob. “It’s not you,” she managed to reply in between her spasming lungs. “It’s him. It’s always been him. The Queen twisted him in such a way that he’s purely her servant now, and he aims to take me back to her so she can do the same with me.”
He nodded, taking in each of her words. “The Gods Above have seen fit to lead you here, for that I am grateful to them.”
Talia retorted, her voice breaking as she snapped back at him. “Why, so you can marry me? You know that’s not fated like you think.”
He shook his head, a dead-serious expression on his face. “No, lass. So I can help break you free from your bonds. When the Fates came to me as a child, telling me I would marry the first fire-headed lass just like me, they also told me that I would break her free of her bonds. They said that through me, many more bonds would also break, freeing the land from frost and bone. They told me to never leave her side, and always protect her, and that’s what I aim to do.”
Chapter Ten
Talia wasn’t quite sure what to say to Borym’s pronouncement. His expression was one of commitment and surety, two things she didn’t have in her life right now. But despite his assuredness, one thing still bothered her about the entire situation.
I’m still naked, talking to a strange man about visions he had when he was a child.
She smiled in that way that meant you must deliver news to change someone’s behavior, like scolding a child while still being kind. “Borym, sir. While I appreciate all that you have done for me, I must insist that I get dressed before we carry on any more conversations.”
His expression turned instantly to one of apology. “Oh, of course lass. I have your clothes over here, right next to mine. I hung them up close to the fire to hasten drying.”
That he had done. Her clothes were hung on a handful of long sticks poking out of the ground. For the first time, Talia took in her surroundings.
She sat against the back wall of a spacious ice cave, large enough for half a dozen to comfortably sleep. It was jagged and narrow toward the entrance, with just a hint of light coming from around the corner. The sloped ceiling led to a small hole at the top where she could just see a pinpoint of light. The cave seemed to be the perfect size for them to hide out.
In the center of the room was the remnants of a fire. The vent hole at the top had most certainly allowed all the smoke to easily leave the area. For a moment she wondered if Borym was smart enough to know to extinguish the fire before sunup, but he seemed like a fairly capable man.
After handing over her clothes, Borym politely turned around while she changed.
Borym was prophetical.
Talia found herself incredibly weak from the activities of the previous night. Her hands shook, and even standing up seemed to be a struggle at this point. It was so bad that she ended up having to remain seated while she sorted out her dress to slip over her head, but once she had done that, she wasn’t able to stand lest she fall over. Finally, she asked him for help.
Quite the gentleman this morning, Borym put out a hand, but kept his head turned, allowing her to stand on wobbly legs while she smoothed out the rest of her dress and buttoned up all the bits that needed to make her proper once again.
While doing so, she ruminated on the last few hours of her memory, trying to sort out just what had made her so weak. On first thought it was the water, but she remembered Caldin’s hands on her face and the incredible power he pulled from her in such a short time. Having her life essence drained in such a way explained a lot of her current situation.
Caldin’s abilities had clearly grown since she had seen him last, and the notion of what he had become sent a cold shiver through her spine. There was something…inhuman about his ability, and there was a lingering darkness like a bad aftertaste that coated her magic this morning.
&n
bsp; In assessing her magic, she realized her well ran incredibly dry, with barely a trickle left from what was normally a raging river of power.
So here I am once again, naked in front of Borym, while innocent people are hurt because of my actions, and to top it off, I’m still on the run from Caldin.
Borym was correct, of course, but this wasn’t his situation to get out of. He hadn’t brought the villagers down upon them. He hadn’t been on the run from soldiers for weeks now. He hadn’t been the one to underestimate Caldin and soldier’s abilities.
He had just been a fisherman, going about his day like any other, when a cursed woman with cursed magic brought her maladies with her from the east, forever changing their sleeping berg into a hot-spot of death. She was so tired of running, so tired of this magic that dictated how everyone treated her. She just wanted to go back to before any of it started. Back when she had a family that actually cared for one another.
Before the Queen discovered us.
She wondered about the villagers, how many of them had taken up arms to protect their land, not knowing that they faced an elite squad of angry, bitter, and magically enhanced humans whose sole purpose in life was to carry out the Queen’s orders.
They had been innocent bystanders in the tyranny of the land, until Talia brought it down upon them.
It was almost enough to her to shake from the anxiety of the situation, but she took a few slow, deep breaths to calm her mind before finishing dressing.
Despite Borym’s insistence that she get more rest, Talia felt a little bit better, albeit colder, now that she was dressed.
Her clothes were a tiny bit damp, but there wasn’t much she could do about that now. Her alternative was to hang them up and stay wrapped in a blanket all day, a prospect she didn’t envy much with Borym hanging around her.
Borym.
The man was an enigma for sure. Northern accent, hard-working salt of the earth type, but he clearly had some interesting notions wafting around in his brain. Still, he had been nothing more than a perfect gentleman this morning, a little different from the way he was last night, all blustery and cocksure. She had a mind to slap him retroactively for his impertinence, but she supposed that the punch to his face would have to do. The bruise around his eye and cheek told her that she had definitely given it her all.
