Chapter 20 #2
The funnel at the top of the thick tube was overflowing with brown liquid as Scarlen coughed and spluttered, trying to wriggle free of her confinement to the chair outside her ground-floor cell.
‘Hold your prisoner, Kane,’ snapped the guard with the jug of broth, but it was too late, Bear reached him and slapped the container out of his hand, the broth spilling to the floor as the wooden jug bounced before rolling away.
Kane quickly intervened. ‘Warden’s orders are for Smithson to be returned to Green Block Two immediately.’
The information looked to insult the guards from Red, but they backed off, the previous holder of the jug calling for an Amber inmate to clear the mess.
As soon as she was free, Scarlen ripped the tube from her throat, threw up, then ran to curl into a ball on her bed.
Kane put himself in Bear’s eyeline, an attempt to discourage a fight. ‘You take care of Smithson while I sort things here.’
Calming himself from wanting to kill everyone in sight, Bear entered the cell, his heart going out to the small ball quivering in the spoiled sheets reeking of vomit.
Scarlen jolted as he reached for her back. ‘No,’ she mumbled, her one word as sluggish as her.
Bear knelt to her side. ‘It’s all right, Scars. It’s me, Bear. I’m going to take you to the healer.’
Slowly, she turned to face him, her tear-stained face and eyes so lost hit him straight in the heart.
‘I’m going to carry you, okay?’ he asked softly, and as she didn’t flinch when he closed in on her, he scooped her up as though she weighed nothing and took her to Posla for help.
Professor Posla told Bear to put Scarlen on the bed, then he rubbed a balm over her forehead and went to his desk.
‘She’ll be fine in an hour. Just some rest and food.
I’ve settled her for now, and she will eat soon enough and have her strength back.
’ His quill swirled over parchment before he made his way to the door.
‘You can sit with her, then walk back with her to her cell once she’s up. ’
Bear gently placed himself by her side as soon as the healer left them alone. He rested his head next to hers and curled an arm around her waist, the two of them just about fitting on the bed. ‘How you doing?’ he whispered into the back of her hair, fine silver strands sticking to his lips.
‘Bear?’ she questioned, as if just realising he was there.
‘I’m here.’
‘They drugged me.’
‘I know.’
Her sigh was deep but slow, and he felt her body relax under his arm.
‘I dreamed about you,’ she mumbled. ‘A small house in the meadow. Tiny blue flowers. The scent so sweet.’
Bear smiled. ‘Perhaps that’s the place for us.’
Scarlen slipped her hand into his, lacing their fingers, both of them holding on as though it were the last time they would touch. ‘Do you think there’s a place for us?’
‘Yeah, somewhere quiet, far away.’
‘If we were free, I’d move to your home. Stay.’
‘It would be hard for you with the divide. We’d have to go away. Somewhere. Forget everything. Everyone. Live a different life. Somehow.’
‘In our little house in the meadow.’
‘But not too quiet,’ said Bear. ‘Some life close by. Maybe a village with a market or something.’
‘And a waterfall for you.’
He pressed his mouth to her head. ‘You want a vegetable patch? I’ll make you one.’
‘I’ll cook for you. Once I learn how.’
‘I’ll teach you. We’ll learn new things together.’
‘And the sun will always shine.’ Life was back in her voice. Each word holding hope, peace.
‘Except when we need rain for the garden.’
Scarlen pressed into him, and he wished he could hold her forever. Keep her safe all her life. ‘It’s a nice dream.’
‘Then believe in it, Scars. Believe in it all.’
‘There’s a place for us. There has to be.’
He lifted one finger to her forehead. ‘In here is where we live.’
She turned and put his palm over her heart, tears welling. ‘And here.’
‘I wish you could be my girl, take you out, be a friend to your father, but it would never be, and you deserve to live with happiness, to have a circle around you that doesn’t hurt. No complications.’
Scarlen shuffled in his hold, their noses almost touching as reality set in for them both. ‘I am your girl. Right here. Right now. And when I get out of here, I’m going to do everything in my power to end the death penalty. I’m going to fight for you. For us.’
He quirked his lips, though his heart wasn’t in his smile. ‘In that case, I wish you the very best of luck.’
‘I’ll do it, Bear. I’ll free you somehow.’
Cupping her cheek, he kissed her lightly, the gentle touch sending all things desirable into them both. ‘Do you feel it, Scars?’ he whispered, his mouth still upon hers.
‘I don’t know what it is. I just know it’s strong and familiar, as though I’ve loved you for a thousand years or more.
Even when you’re not with me, you don’t seem far away, and when I see you, it’s as if the time spent apart never existed at all.
’ She nudged his nose with her own. ‘Is that what you feel too?’
‘It’s as though I’ve been surviving rapids for as long as I can remember, then you came along, and the water calmed, birdsong filled the air, and I could breathe with ease.
I never knew I needed a safe space until I found you, or rather, you found me.
It feels like you did. Like you knew more about us than I did.
How it should be. Who we’re supposed to be. ’
Scarlen held him as close as possible, wrapping love around them both. ‘Hold on to that. Hold on to us, and believe in forgiveness.’
‘Why forgiveness?’
‘If they all forgave each other, the war would end, peace wins, and no one would see us because who we are wouldn’t matter to them. We’ll live in our house in the meadow.’
‘The one by the waterfall,’ Bear added quietly.
‘And the village with a market.’
‘Let’s not forget our vegetable patch.’
She rested her head on his chest, and he curled her into him, their hearts beating as one, their hopes and dreams dancing upon the brightest star. ‘We’ll get there.’
Bear closed his eyes as he inhaled the scent of her. ‘Some day.’