7. Annani
ANNANI
Khiann's fingers had closed around hers.
Annani did not move.
Did it mean anything?
Had he really understood her, or was he just asking her mutely not to leave?
His eyes had been following her across the room, so he was aware of her, and he seemed to enjoy her presence, so maybe that was it.
Khiann was looking at her now. His eyes were open and pleading, but she did not know for what.
"If you understand me, squeeze my hand again," she said, keeping her voice exactly at the same level as before so he would not be influenced by the urgency she felt.
He did it again.
It was not stronger than the first time. If anything, it was weaker, but it came at the right moment, and he had relaxed his fingers when she had stopped speaking.
Her glow intensified. She felt it first, then saw it illuminating Khiann's face.
It happened when her emotions were strong, and she knew how to mute it when it was not wise to be luminous and project what she was, but there was no reason to dim her glow now.
Across the room, Julian noticed. "Did something happen?"
"I think Khiann understood me."
Julian walked over and stopped at the foot of the bed. "What makes you think that?"
"I asked whether he could understand me and told him to squeeze my hand if he did. He did that. Then I asked him to do it again, and he squeezed my hand again."
When the double doors swung open behind her, Annani knew it was Alena without turning around. The first clue was the light, flowery perfume she wore, and the second was the distinctive sound her sandals made on the floor.
"What happened?" Alena asked. "You're glowing more than usual."
"Potentially good news." Annani turned and smiled at her daughter.
The doors swung open again, and Bridget came in. "What good news?"
"Khiann understood me," Annani said.
Alena's hand flew to her chest. "Are you sure?"
"He responded to a verbal instruction." Julian joined their cluster next to Khiann's bed.
"I asked him to squeeze my hand if he could understand me," Annani clarified. "I did it twice, and he responded the same way both times."
"That's encouraging." For some reason, Bridget's expression did not match her words. She looked skeptical. "Let's test it."
Bridget must think she had imagined it.
"How?" Annani asked.
"First, let's establish the rules. One squeeze for yes, two for no."
Annani translated Bridget's instructions to Khiann, and he squeezed her hand to show he understood.
"Now ask him if your hair is red."
Annani nodded and leaned over Khiann.
"Is my hair red?" she asked.
He squeezed once.
"Now ask him if your hair is black."
This was the real test, and Annani was afraid to say the words and be proven wrong.
"It needs to be done," Bridget said.
Annani closed her eyes for a moment, took a deep breath, opened them, and looked at her mate. "Is my hair black?"
Khiann squeezed her hand, let go, and squeezed it again.
Twice.
"One more," Bridget said. "Ask him if your hair is long. If he's just alternating, we'll know."
"Is my hair long?"
One.
"Ask him if you glow."
One squeeze again.
"Ask him if your eyes are brown."
Two consecutive squeezes.
"Thank the merciful Fates." Annani let out a breath. "He understands me."
"Yes." That one short word coming from the physician was more encouraging than her previous statement.
Khiann's mind was working, and he understood spoken questions.
Bridget patted her shoulder. "There are probably a thousand more questions you want to ask him, but try not to exhaust him."
"Thank you." Annani put her hand over Bridget's.
"I'm going to make the update calls outside," Alena said. "Give you privacy with him in case you don't want us to overhear your questions."
Annani laughed, not because Alena's nonsensical teasing was all that funny but because she was giddy with excitement and happiness.
"None of you know enough of the old tongue to understand me if I choose my vocabulary with care."
"True," Alena agreed. "But the other four might, and they have ears. I don't know about their vocabulary, but I assume it's sufficient." She winked and walked out the doors.
Annani was glad that Alena was keeping the family updated. Esag too. She still felt guilty about not inviting him to visit.
Perhaps she could ask Khiann if he wanted to see his old friend?
"Do you remember Esag?" she asked.
Two barely-there squeezes indicated that Khiann was weakening, and she did not have much time before he drifted away.
"I see that you do not. He was your best friend, and he wants to see you, but I am not ready to share you."
There was no response, which was a good sign in itself. She had not asked a question, and he had nothing to answer.
"Do you remember me?"
One, then before her heart completed its somersault, two.
"Are you not sure that you remember me?"
One.
That was encouraging. Perhaps the Fates were merciful after all and had let him remember at least fragments of his life prior to the stasis.
"Are you in pain?"
Two very weak squeezes.
"Are you tired?"
One.
"That is perfectly understandable. You have made so much progress today." She adjusted his blanket. "If you need to go back to sleep, do not fight it. Your body needs the rest."
Two, indicating that he did not wish to allow sleep to claim him yet.
"Then I will ask one more question."
His eyelids were coming down and then hauling themselves back up, and each time they came up a little slower and not as far.
"Do you want me to keep talking to you?"
He squeezed once, firmly this time, and the expression on his face matched the conviction in his grip.
Annani laughed.
"Very well," she said. "I was afraid of boring you, but since you seem to enjoy hearing my voice, I shall keep talking, and I will not be offended if you fall asleep."
She kept her promise, talking long after his eyes closed.
Once his breathing evened out, Bridget returned to his bed.
"I want to try that on the other four," she said. "Can you please teach me the sentence?"
"Which one?"
"Squeeze my hand if you agree that my hair is red." Bridget pushed her hair back off her shoulder. "It works for both of us."
Annani said it in the old tongue several times, and Bridget repeated it until she got it right. Her accent left a lot to be desired, though.
"Now the other one. Squeeze twice if my hair is black."
Once she got that one as well, Bridget went down the row.
Annani stayed in the rocking chair with Khiann's hand in hers, but she did not resume her stories. Instead, she listened, hoping the others would do as well as Khiann had done.
She heard Bridget stop at the first bed and ask the question, badly accented but clear.
"Nothing," Bridget said. "He's tracking me. He's looking straight at me, but he doesn't understand me."
Bridget moved to the second bed and repeated the same question.
"Nothing."
The third. The fourth. Each time Bridget said it a little better, and each time the result was the same.
Nothing.
"Maybe they don't understand because of how I say it?"
"To me, you sound perfectly clear," Annani said. "But it might be because I am used to the accent. Try it again, and if it does not work, I will try later, but I doubt the delivery is the problem."
Bridget went down the row a second time, and then a third, with Julian holding each man's hand instead of her, in case the trouble was something about her that had nothing to do with the words.
"Nothing," Bridget said at last, straightening up from the last bed. "They looked confused, as if I was speaking in a foreign language and they wanted to understand me but couldn't."
Annani looked back at Khiann.
Bridget would say that gods healed differently, and she might be right, and yet Annani felt guilty.
Khiann opened his eyes again.
Not all the way. He had dragged himself back up for a reason, and he was looking at her as if there was something he wanted to tell her and could not.
"What is it, my love?"
He squeezed her hand once, but she did not know what he wanted to communicate.
Maybe he remembered something about her?
She had asked him if he remembered her, but not if he knew who she was.
"Do you know who I am?"
His fingers tightened around hers.
Once.
Annani sucked in a breath.
He knew who she was.
And then, before she could get any joy out of it, the logical part of her destroyed it.
He knew who she was, and she had no way to find out what he meant by that.
He might mean the female who sat beside his bed.
He might mean that he had understood her when she said her name a quarter of an hour ago and had held on to it, which would be a marvel and would be nothing.
He might mean Princess Annani, as in the bride in the story she had been telling him while he slept.
She could ask him if he knew her name, but he could answer yes, and it would tell her only that he had heard her say it. Or maybe she could ask him if he knew what she was to him?
He could say yes to that as well, and mean the female who had been sitting next to his bed, telling him stories.
She could ask him if he knew she was his mate, his truelove mate, and that answer would not be ambiguous, but she was not ready for that one yet.
She was not a coward and had never once flinched from anything the Fates had put in her way, but she had been given a great deal this morning, and to ask for more would be greedy.
"That is enough for now," she said. "Rest, and when you wake up again, I will still be right here to keep pestering you with more questions."