Chapter Thirteen #4
I agreed with this as well. I wouldn’t mind washing these clothes and changing into my spare tunic and leggings.
Taio took the lead, and we walked another hour or so before the stream began to deepen.
We found some dark blue berries and the men began to pick those as Omira and I moved a few yards upstream, pushing through some brush to look down at a wide pool.
I could see the bottom of the pool and estimated the water would only reach to my hips, but it was enough to wash in.
The shallowness also reassured me no Hollows were trapped in it waiting to strike.
Taio emerged from the brush behind us, and his face broke into a smile.
I hadn’t seen him smile very much, and my heart almost jumped into my throat.
He looked much younger when he smiled and even more handsome.
His right cheek dimpled, and I fisted my hand so I wouldn’t reach out and touch that dimple.
“Go ahead,” he said. “We will pick berries and bathe after you.”
“You don’t have to wait,” I said, but he gestured to the pool and went back to the others.
“He wants to keep you to himself,” Omira said.
I unhooked my weapons belt and bent to unlace my boots. “What does that mean?”
“He does not want Yung ogling you.”
I removed one boot. “What about Kintle?”
“Kintle couldn’t care less about a naked woman,” she said.
Same sex pairings were frowned upon in Earsleh but tolerated.
After all, with the restrictions on marriages and childbearing, people needed safe outlets for their natural urges.
I’d heard same sex pairings whispered about but never spoken of openly.
I’d assumed Zulen had the same attitude toward marriage and children, but now I realized I knew nothing about Zulenii family life. I’d have to keep an open mind.
Omira stripped off her tunic and shimmied out of her leggings, then her undergarments.
She tossed them aside and stepped into the pool, making sounds that indicated the water was cold.
I laid my clothing out so I could reach it and don it again easily in case we were attacked.
I’d need to teach the Zulenii to do the same.
Naked now, I stepped into the water and winced.
It was cold, colder than the air pebbling my flesh.
The best way to deal with cold water was to plunge right in.
I lowered myself quickly and went under water, wetting my hair.
When I emerged, the air had left my lungs, and I felt like ice needles pricked my body.
Omira stared at me, still standing only to her ankles.
“How is it?” she asked.
“Refreshing,” I said.
She looked dubious.
“Do you swim?” I asked.
“Everyone in Zleyval swims,” she said. “We are surrounded by water, but much of it is warmer than this. It bubbles up.” She indicated water coming up from underground.
“Hot springs,” I said. We had one in the south, but I’d never been to it. But cold water? That I was familiar with. “Better to just dive in,” I said. “You get used to it faster.”
She looked at the water then looked at me.
Then she moved deeper and plunged underneath as well.
She came up sputtering and cursing in Zulenii.
I laughed, and she splashed me and said more words I couldn’t understand but which were undoubtedly not complimentary.
She reached out and opened a hand. In her palm lay a small piece of soap.
“Wash,” she said. She had her own piece and went about washing herself quickly.
I moved more slowly due to the cold and because I was becoming somewhat accustomed to the temperature.
My stiff fingers fumbled to unplait my hair, and I let it trail out in the water.
I lathered my hands with the soap that smelled faintly of flowers and scrubbed my head, dunking it under the water to rinse.
By this time, Omira was back on shore. She crouched, still naked, and washed her clothes with the last of her soap then hung them to dry.
I washed myself all over multiple times, leaving a little of the soap for my clothes, but just enjoying a few minutes of floating.
“I’ll be right back,” Omira said. I looked up, and she was dressed and pointing to a group of trees.
She probably wanted privacy to relieve herself.
I raised my arm and signaled I’d heard her then decided I had better get out of the pond before I turned blue.
I stood and squeezed the water out of my hair then caught the soap floating by me and carried it to the shore where I’d laid out my dirty clothes.
I knelt by a rock and began to wash them.
When they were clean, I’d rinse off one more time and then dress in my clean clothing.
I had just begun to wash my tunic when a hand clamped over my mouth. I immediately jerked up, ready to twist and fight, but I felt the prick of a knife against my bare back. “I wouldn’t do that, if I were you,” murmured a familiar voice.
Gaz.
A flood of emotion surged through me. Fear, hatred, condemnation. And surprisingly, affection and sorrow for the friendship I’d lost.
“You’re unarmed,” he said. I couldn’t argue as I was naked. “And I have this knife pressed into your back.”
I muttered against his hand, and he lifted it slightly. “You won’t hurt me.” That much I knew without doubt.
“I won’t hurt you, but if you scream, Nize will kill the Zulenii woman. He’s up in a tree above her, just waiting to strike.”
I nodded my head, understanding Omira’s life was in my hands. “I won’t scream.”
“Turn around. Slowly.” He removed the knife, and I rose and turned.
His eyes flicked down to peruse my body.
I could see the appreciation in his gaze.
Once I would have blushed and hoped he admired me.
Now I wished I could cover myself. I felt nothing when he looked at me.
His gaze met mine and held. “Get dressed and come with me.”
“You are either very brave or very stupid,” I said. “If I had my skullcrusher, I would kill you right now for what you did to Finnrey.”
His eyes flashed pain. “I didn’t mean for that to happen. She was my friend too.”
“Well, she was my sister.” My voice broke. “And your stupid, single-minded hatred of Taio killed her. You killed her, Gaz.”
“You were the one who brought her here, Mara. You and your Taio.” His voice held a note of scorn. “Has he rutted with you yet?”
I sighed, suddenly very tired and very sad.
Not only had I lost my sister, I’d lost one of my best friends in Gaz.
I wanted to hate him, I did hate him, but right now all I felt was a bone-deep sorrow.
I wanted no more death, no more pain. “Gaz, go home. If you try and kill Taio, I’ll have to fight you. We all will.”
“I’m not worried about any Zulenii.”
“Are you worried about me? Because I’m one of them now, and I will kill you.”
Gaz shook his head. “You won’t kill me. You’ve been panting after me for years.”
My cheeks heated as the implication of his words settled over me. That feeling of nausea that was becoming all too familiar roiled in my belly. I had been such a fool. “Was any of it real, Gaz? When you kissed me, when you told me you wanted me?” When you’d said I was beautiful...
“You’ll be queen one day, Mara.”
I jerked back. He knew I was the heir! How long had he known? Had he known even before me?
“Any man would overlook your flaws for the chance to be your consort.”
My flaws—my height, my mother’s reputation. “And you say Taio is the barbarian,” I retorted. If I survived this, if I ever made it back to Highcastle, one thing I knew for certain: Gaz would never be my consort. “Go home to Highcastle, Gaz, or I swear I will stop at nothing to track and kill you.”
Gaz stared at me for a long moment as though considering what he would tell me next. “I can’t go back without killing him.”
I narrowed my eyes.
“I have orders to kill Taio, Mara.”
I shook my head, not wanting to understand what he was plainly telling me. “Orders? What orders? From whom? My mother?”
“From the king.”
I flinched as though physically struck. “No.” I suddenly felt colder than I had in the pool. “I refuse to believe that. My father would never dishonor—”
“Your father did not want to lose you. If the barbarian had picked any other daughter, he might have let him go, but you are the heir. Your father was beside himself after what you did in the arena, but your mother, whore that she is, whispered in his ear and convinced him to send me and Nize to kill Taio and bring you back. You made it all the easier by volunteering us to go as escorts.”
I was still shaking my head. I didn’t want to believe Gaz, but for once he spoke the truth. My mother would do anything to save me, even use my father’s lingering love and affection for her to convince him to abandon his honor and order the unthinkable.
“You see my dilemma now,” Gaz said, reading my thoughts. “I cannot go home without you.”
“Then I have no choice but to kill you.”
“I hope you do,” he said. “Because if you don’t, and I return to Highcastle without you, your father has pledged to send an army to attack Zulen and bring you back.”
“What? He would never—”
“He would and he will.”
I felt the mirage of Earsleh and my father waver and grasped at it with desperation. Gaz must have misunderstood.
He sneered. “How do you think your barbarian will like it if we come in and slaughter all his musician and artist friends?”
We both turned at the sound of a twig snapping. Someone was coming.
“Think about it, Mara,” Gaz said quickly. “If you love these barbarians so much, maybe you should sacrifice one to save the rest. Today is your last chance to change your mind. Tomorrow, I’ll kill them all.”
And then he was gone, and I was standing naked on the side of the pool.