It was dangerous to take her with me through a stutter again so close to my recovery. I knew that chance of my survival was low, but I held in my arms the one person I would willingly die for, and I would do anything to save her life.
I didn’t think, I just moved us into the heavy realm of the sub-dimension, moving our bodies away from the rock that would otherwise destroy us and, hopefully, into the warm sanctuary of the Rioseco Abbey.
Wyn
Chapter Fourteen
No one came back. Not Sain, Ryland, or even Cail. They all left and they never came back.
It had been at least a week since Edmund had removed the others from our prison and I still lay there, in the dark. At least I think it had been a week. There was no easy way to track the passage of time when you spend all of it, day in and day out, in the dark. I had slept six times, and someone had brought the daily glass of muddy water seven times.
One glass not two, just like there was only one maggot covered loaf of bread.
Just like Talon hadn’t woken up.
A week alone in the dark, with only my husband’s limp hand for company. I slept next to him, my arms around as much of him as I could reach as I dreamed of the beautiful girl and of the Henry the Eighth wanna-be, but never of the torture. I was glad that the dreams of torture had left. I had enough torture in my waking life.
I still hurt from what Cail had done to me a week ago. My joints still ached, and my skin was still tender to the touch. But I could move, although not a lot and not very fast. I could manage to move from one corner to another, it was enough movement to enable me to reach the glass of water and still be able to lie next to Talon, which is where I had spent most of my time.
I clung to him in the dark, pressing his hand against my face, prodding him in the hopes that he would wake up.
But he didn’t. He stayed still, a high pitched wheeze occasionally issuing from his mouth as his chest slowly rose and fell, his skin getting hotter and hotter. The fever that had appeared two days ago was increasing by the hour.
I ran my fingers over his skin, the heat feeling like hot stones in summer under the pads of my fingers. I kept hoping that he would cool down, but so far, nothing I had done had helped. Not that there was much I could do.
I was helpless. With very little water to cool him and no magic to heal him, I didn’t know what I should try next. I wasn’t even able to speak to him. I was trapped in a nightmare of torment, and all the while, Sain’s words still echoed in my head.
It will be soon.
I refused to put thoughts behind the words. I refused to let the meaning behind them move into my mind. Even if it already had, I wouldn’t accept it.
I shifted my weight and crawled slowly toward the filthy glass that sat in the corner of the cell. My fingers clutched at the stone floor, moving over sand, dirt, and bits of what I could only assume were rodent bones, until they gently hit the hard surface of the glass. I fidgeted through the air until my hands wrapped around it, the grit on the glass feeling like slime underneath my hands. I clutched the glass to my chest, the small amount of fluid that was left in the bottom as precious as gold.
I shuffled back to Talon, my knees screaming in horror as my weight rested on them in my movements, the water suspended between my hands. I felt in front of me for the bars, terrified of going too far, of losing my balance and dropping the glass. It took a few tries, and an extraordinarily large amount of pain, before I found him again, the warmth of his skin heating the air around him.
With shaking fingers, I scooped the water from the glass and pressed it against his skin. I trickled it against his lips and into his mouth. Over and over, I moved, pressed, and sprinkled the water over him, only to have it evaporate into the damp air the second it touched his scalding flesh. I held my damp fingers against him, hoping to keep the water against him longer, hoping the chill of my own skin would serve as an equalizer.
Something deep inside of me was pleading for me to accept that this was hopeless, begging me to save the water for myself, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t abandon him. I would sacrifice myself for him until the very end. Half for me and half for him. Always.
“I love you,” I whispered, my voice barely audible. It was all I could risk. But it was the most important thing to say.
I let the now empty glass clatter to the stone floor, my body giving out to collapse against the bars and slide across the slime covered surface to the floor the moment my job was done. A small gasp escaped my lips as I hit the stone floor a little harder than expected.
I turned toward Talon, my hands clinging to him as my body attempted to fall asleep.