Chapter 11 #2
Someone shouted in horror. I ran into a stand and knocked over a bolt of cloth in my flight. Reaching the back door, I fled into the quiet dark alley and followed the sloping path north.
Before meeting Seraphim, I had never dealt with chthonics. Now, I understand why they were so feared. How were you supposed to fight someone who turned your own blood against you?
The world flew by in a blur. I was a child again, alone and frightened. My mother had dumped me on a street corner, promising to return, but she never did. A man had grabbed my arm, and though I was too young to understand his intentions, I knew to feel fear.
Blinking the memories from my eyes, I dove behind an empty wagon sitting in a corner by a small warehouse. Pressing my back against the stone walls, I ran my hand down my shoulder, checking my injuries.
It stung. There was a lot of blood, and I didn’t understand enough about medicine to accurately assess myself while consumed by panic.
I pressed a hand to my chest, trying to stop the bleeding soaking my dress. Pounding drum beats thudded against my ribs as my heart raced. Had the nobleman followed me?
Footsteps sounded on the road. Holding my breath, I crept forward and peered beneath the wagon. I caught a glimpse of white pants and boots, and quickly recognized the elaborate patterns stitched up their leather.
Rising from my hiding spot, I stumbled as pain flared through my arm. Eleos spun in my direction, sage-green eyes widening in worry as he raced to my side.
“Seas.” He gasped, hesitating to touch me. “What-”
“We need to get out of here.” I interrupted, clutching his wrist.
I managed to drag him two steps before I faltered.
Blood streamed down my dress, and everything hurt.
Pulling me behind the wagon, Eleos forced me down and tore my dress to examine the wound.
Cuts and scrapes patterned my arms and chest where the vines had dug into my flesh, and a deep gash cut above my breast.
Eleos flinched, ripping a section of his cloak to pack the wounds before pressing down on the gash to stop the bleeding.
I wasn’t proud of the whimper that escaped my lips.
“Who did this?” He hissed.
“A noble in the city,” I panted, “Has it out for us. For Seraphim in particular.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t recognize his face, and he didn’t mention his name.”
Eleos glanced around the wagon. “Nobody should know about us. Not by name.” Tearing off his sash, he wrapped it around my chest and bound it tightly. “We need to get back.”
He offered me a hand, but I shook my head. “We’ll attract too much attention, running through the streets like this.” Raising my chin, I studied a nearby street sign. “I know this place like the back of my hand. There’s a brothel nearby we can shelter in.”
“Is a brothel really the best-”
“The women there will help us.” I staggered to my feet, shimmying around the wagon to check for a man dressed in red. A few people came and went, but none wore masks.
Taverns and whorehouses adorned this road; the crowds would arrive with the setting sun.
That gave us only a few minutes before we’d find ourselves surrounded by onlookers.
Limping from behind my cover, I hurried down the street.
Eleos followed me, hand hovering behind me as though worried I’d fall.
A ‘closed’ sign hung from the brothel’s dirt-smeared door. Leaning against the stone building, I gestured for Eleos to knock. “I’ll talk to them.”
He hesitated before knocking heavily. A few moments passed before the door unlatched, and a woman, tangled hair bound in a bun, peered through the crack.
“I need a room and a change of clothes,” I said. “I’ll pay whatever you like.”
The woman studied me quickly, eyes darting to my bloodied gown before settling on my face. “The second room on the left is empty. I can let you have it for an hour.” She said, pulling open the door.
* * *
I hadn’t expected to lie topless in a brothel today. Stranger things had happened in my lifetime, I supposed.
Ainwir and I had hidden in this place once before. He’d taught me a valuable lesson: most women will aid other women. Learn to tell which will throw themselves into danger without a word, and which will turn you away.
I’d like to think I was the former, but had yet to find a distressed young woman at my door.
Squeezing my eyes shut, I winced as Eleos poured a bottle of cheap liquor over my gash. I took a glance at the jagged wound and decided I didn’t need to see it again if I wanted to keep my lunch.
“Sorry,” Eleos murmured. “You’re sure you didn’t recognize him?”
“I didn’t exactly brush shoulders with the highest of society,” I said, pointedly staring at the brothels’ stained wall.
The thorns had ripped across my chest, meaning there was but a thin sheet preventing us from getting to know each other a whole lot better. Wiping off the alcohol, Eleos retrieved a bandage from the end table and hesitated.
“Do you mind?” He asked, reddening as he reached for the sheet protecting my modesty.
“I thought healers were supposed to be professional.”
“I’m not a healer.”
“Or a priest or a scholar.”
“You remember wrong. I am a scholar.”
“Right. The only scholar of the Empty.” I said, trying to lighten the mood. “But tonight, learned of the female form.”
“I’m already familiar with the female form.”
“Oh? Are you?” I grinned.
“Yes.” He said calmly. “I studied anatomy in my youth.”
“Well, that settles it,” I murmured. “You are a scholar. No one else would phrase it that way.” Turning my head, I stared back at the wall. “Go ahead. They’re not bad, so enjoy.”
“I, um. . .” Clearing his throat, Eleos pulled back the blanket and quickly bound my wounds.
Had anyone else been beholding my naked body, I wouldn’t have cared. I laid there rigidly, intimately aware of every brush of his hands against my skin.
The last thing I needed was growing feelings for a man I knew nothing about. Had I learned nothing?
“There,” Eleos said softly, tying the bandage and pulling up the blanket.
He turned his back to me, staring at the far wall. Sitting up, I checked the bandages, frowning. Was it better for him to say nothing, for us both to pretend this hadn’t happened? Or was I upset at the silence?
Maybe he read my thoughts. Head tilting slightly, Eleos offered quite possibly the worst compliment I’d ever received.
“You’re right. They’re. . . aesthetically pleasing.”
A laugh erupted from my lips, and I doubled over as pain shot through my chest, the burning only worsening as the laughter refused to cease. Wrapping an arm around my chest, I rose from the bed, half-whimpering, half-giggling.
Chuckling, Eleos nervously played with his hair. “I shouldn’t have said that.”
“No, I’m glad you did.” I caught my breath, grabbing the black frock the girls had lent me from the wardrobe. “Have you courted someone before?”
“Yes.”
“Did you use that line on her?”
“No.” He blurted out. “I imagine it would’ve ended much quicker if I had.”
“Sounds like she wasn’t any fun,” I said, pulling on the gown.
Most of the men I dealt with were sleazy and disingenuous. It was nice to speak to a man who was anything but.
My chest cracked in pain, and I pressed a hand to it, grimacing. Eleos flew from the bed and grabbed the sash from my hands. “Let me.”
I forgot whatever I’d been thinking as he drew me close and touched my back, gently looping the silk around my waist. Over the years, I’d been with a few men.
Some I’d been foolish enough to think were love, only to learn they were not.
None had ever begun with something simple. All had started in lust.
Eleos tied the sash in a neat bow at my side and looked up from his work to meet my eye. Maybe he read my emotions, or perhaps he saw them on my face.
“Your eyes.” I blurted out. “He had your eyes.”
Brow furrowing, Eleos stepped back. “The nobleman?”
“Yes. Do you have family?”
Eleos answered hesitantly. “Yes.”
“Then, maybe-”
“None of my family are nobles. Nor would any be here, threatening you.” He shook his head, pulling his cloak off. Shaking out the pale blue fabric, he wrapped it around me. “We need to get back to the others. The first curfew bell already sounded.”
Oh, it had. I’d been distracted by the blood streaming down my arms. Pressing a hand to my chest, I grabbed my bag and followed him to the door, pausing at its threshold.
Gods, I was an idiot. In all the dreams where love had found me, never had I been the one to ruin the moment. Disheartened, I trudged out the door.
The brothel had come alive since we’d entered. Several patrons sat in the common room or led girls upstairs. Fishing out his coin purse, Eleos approached the counter and thanked the matron for sheltering us.
Pausing by one of the couches, I examined the room, the barely-dressed girls, and the men who eagerly sought their company.
The men were the kind you’d call neighbors and peers, not the scum I had once imagined. A girl who’d worked here years ago had given me words of advice: most of their business came from married men. Love and loyalty were delusions only naive maidens indulged in.
Someone touched my arm, drawing me from my thoughts. Eleos gently wrapped an arm around me. “Come on.” He said, guiding me to the door.
A cold breeze dug into my bare skin as we stepped outside. Night had blanketed the city, save for fires glowing in lanterns. Pain throbbed in my chest with every step, and though my legs were unharmed, I struggled to move them.
Stopping, Eleos sighed, muttering to himself. “What am I doing?” Swinging his bag around to his side, he knelt in front of me. “Let me carry you. And you aren’t allowed to say no.”
Lucky for him, I wasn’t usually the stubborn type. Relieved, I trudged forward like a shambling corpse, wrapping my arms around his neck and burying my head into his hair. Grabbing my thighs, he hefted me up.
First a brothel, now a piggy-back through Serifos’ backstreets. My life just got better and better.
“It’s not the best solution,” Eleos whispered. “I know you didn’t want to draw attention.”
“No, it’s fine,” I said. “At this time of night, everyone will assume I’m your drunken lover.”
“Good point. It’s not far from the truth.”
Had I more energy, I would have contested the egregious line. Closing my eyes, I tried to ignore the throb of pain with every step, instead focusing on his hair.
The hair. I’d wanted to touch it for ages now, and it proved as soft as I’d hoped. It even smelled good, though I was too woozy to place the exact scent. Had he snuck out of camp every morning to bathe in a nearby stream?
Stupid scholar. Why hadn’t he taken me? I probably looked like I’d just rolled out of the sewers. It had been a mistake to assume he wasn’t vain.
A mistake borne from knowing nothing about him.
I wanted to change that. I wanted to glance over a market stall and effortlessly pick out something he’d like. Come the evenings, we could sit together in companionable silence, each aware of the others’ hobbies and quirks.
Not since Ainwir betrayed me had I shared my soul with another. The loneliness had grown into an all-consuming hole.
“Are you alright, Lady Aethra?” Eleos asked.
“No,” I murmured into his hair.
“I can put together a proper painkiller for you when we get back.” He said. “Oh, and you aren’t going anywhere alone anymore.”
I turned my head, watching stores and houses pass us by. “Can psyches fight?”
“You’d be surprised what we can manage in a scrape.” He said, releasing a soft snicker. “Perhaps I can demonstrate on Seth.”
“Don’t jump to judge—maybe he’s a nice guy.”
“Hm.”
Wind swept over the streets, blowing strands of his hair across my face. Lifting my head, I opened my eyes and noticed him looking back at me.
The expression he wore fractured the solace I’d slipped into. Worry darkened his face, but not for my safety.
I’d seen that expression before. Men wore it when closeness had grown between them and someone they had not wished it to. Because they could not be together, or because the woman had not learned the depths of his sins.
Eleos quickly looked away, and my mind reeled. Day after day, he’d shown me kindness. Reading insincerity came easily to me—and he’d displayed nothing but genuine compassion. Any doubts I’d harbored about his character had faded at the outpost.
He feared I would learn a secret he kept hidden. A secret that would make me hate him.