“I’ll go with him, Ty.” Ira’s face had taken on a look of stone. “I promise not a hair on his head will be harmed as long as I’m breathing.”
Ira didn’t make declarations like that often and when he did, he took them seriously. Still. .
“Please, Pa.”
I sighed, realizing he was right. “You can go, but so help me you better not do like I did. You need to take breaks to eat and drink.”
Zadok gave me a brilliant smile. “I will.”
“Don’t worry, Ty,” Ira said. “I’ll be as much of a nag to him as you can be to us.”
I shook my head. “All right, Nason. Go get a wagon. I’m going to see everyone off before I go upstairs.”
CHAPTER 19
Lasha stood at the foot of the bed and slowly undressed, exposing the fullness of her dark, smooth skin. She wore a smile she saved only for me when the kids had gone down for the night and the house was quiet.
My heart raced and blood flowed to places I had no control over.
Her smile grew wider as she began to glide around the bed, stretching and pretending that she had no clue what she was doing. She looked down and noticed my excitement. “Oh, were you expecting something?” she asked, teasing me as she liked to do.
I loved every minute of it.
I started to speak, ready to fire back some bit of witty banter for her to play off of, but found I could not open my mouth. I attempted to bring a hand to my face, but my arm did not move and neither did the other. I was strapped to the posts of the bed. Looking down, my legs were bound similarly.
I pulled, jerked, fought to break free of the constraints without any success. Lasha stood as naked as her name day at the foot of the bed, smile growing wider by the moment.
The door to our bedroom swung open. Jareb entered. He said not a word. In fact, he didn’t even acknowledge me. Why would he? I saw the lust in his eyes. I knew what he wanted. He pulled Lasha to him, kissing and touching her in ways that only I had ever done. Bile crept into my throat and tears filled my eyes. The entire bed shook, creaking as I pulled as hard as I could against my binds. I felt the straps dig into my skin, cutting my wrists and ankles. Still, I pulled. I could not let him do that to my wife.
My Lasha.
She turned to me. Her eyes met mine and she whispered. “You weren’t here for me.”
My head slammed back against the pillow as the fight left me. I closed my eyes. Regaining control of my mouth again, I screamed.
* * *
“Tyrus! Xank be cursed, wake up!”
My eyes shot open and I sat up covered in sweat, chest heaving. I swallowed and winced at the grating rawness in my throat.
“What happened?” asked Dekar, hands still gripping my shoulders as if he let go I might slip back into the hell he shook me out of.
My eyes darted about, blinking. I saw the chairs, the dresser, the big window. I was back at the Hemlock Inn.
“A dream,” I said.
“About the war?”
I shook my head.
He noticeably relaxed.
In the army, some soldiers began to lose their minds as the things they had seen in the war began to haunt them. It started out while they slept, but over time, they began to dream of the horrors even in their waking moments. It couldn’t be predicted who would be affected. A grisly old veteran was just as susceptible as the young recruit. And the worst part was that none of the healers knew how to treat the ailment. Several of the men affected ended up taking their own lives rather than experience those memories over and over.
I was sure Ira had told Dekar about having to wake me from reliving the battle at Safed Plain.
“What was it then?”
“Just a nightmare,” I said.
“Do you want to talk about it?” asked Dekar.
“No.”
I didn’t want to even think about it. I sure didn’t want to discuss those images. To me, nothing in the war was as bad as what had entered my mind-especially because there was some truth to the dream. Granted, Lasha likely never enjoyed what she had done with Jareb, but he’d had her. And worst of all, I wasn’t there to prevent it.
One more thing that would haunt me forever.
My stomach lurched and my heart raced again, this time in anger. “Let’s just talk about something else.”
I went to rub my eyes and realized one of my hands was bound. I was in bed beside Ava, my forearm strapped to hers. I guessed that might explain part of my dream.
“What in the name of Molak happened? Last thing I remember I was outside as Nason went off to get a wagon to take Zadok out to the farms.”
Dekar reached over and snatched a skin of water off a nearby chair. “Here. Drink.”
I took the skin and inhaled the liquid, nearly choking.
“Slowly.”
I wiped my mouth. “So, last night?”
“Well, you ended up passing out in the street again and Ira had to carry you upstairs. Zadok came up too and they filled us in on what had happened. It was probably a good thing you were out because Myra was pretty livid at you for saying Zadok could go off by himself. Ira said he’d be there with him. Myra made some choice comment about that and within a matter of seconds all three were at each other’s throats.”
I took another long swallow, then realized I didn’t hear any movement outside the bedroom. “Is Myra asleep?”
“No. She said the only way Zadok was going to leave was if she went with him. But since she didn’t want to leave Ava unattended, she suggested we throw you in bed next to her and strap you both at the arm so she’d stay in contact with you. I said that for all we know that might delay you coming around, but she did it anyway.”
“I’m glad she was as equally concerned about me,” I muttered.
Dekar frowned. “I’ve stayed in here while you slept. You started screaming and it took me a minute to get you to wake up. You know the rest.”
I looked out the window. A night void of stars stared back at me. At least it seemed the night was void of stars since the sorcerous glow continued to do weird things to the sky.
“So, I slept all evening and into the night?”
“Yeah. Dawn’s probably a couple hours away.”
“And they aren’t back yet?”
“Nason said they’d likely spend the night at someone’s farm so they can visit more homes first thing in the morning, but only as long as Myra and Zadok were still up to it.”
I didn’t like knowing they were out there somewhere without me, but I trusted Nason’s word and Ira’s blade. It’d take a couple D’engiti to take my children from Ira and those monstrosities were but a memory now.
“You hungry?”
On cue, my stomach growled. “I’d say that’s a yes.”
“Here.” Dekar held out a plate containing a roll of stale bread, assorted cheese, and a link of cold sausage. “Dinah brought this up for you a few hours ago in case you woke up before breakfast. She apologized for it not being more, but in light of everything going on she had little time to cook.”
I took one more drink of water, set the skin down, and accepted the plate. “The way I feel, I’d say it’s a feast fit for the king.” Saliva filled my mouth as I took the first bite of cheese.
“If the king is even alive,” Dekar said with a grunt. “You’ll probably want to eat that as quick as you can and try to get some more rest. You still look like you’ve been through hell.”
“I guess not sleeping much will do that to you.” I tried a bit of sausage. It was bland, but not bad. “You look tired yourself. Why don’t you take the bed in the other room since the kids are away?”
“I’d rather stay here while you sleep.”
I thought of the dream that woke me and shuddered, sausage almost coming back up as I did. “No. Go on. The food is helping. Besides, it will be a while before I get back to sleep anyway.”