Lying peacefully on a soft surface. Eyelids parting slightly. Rough-hewn rock walls. Fuzzy shadows and flickering fire light. Overwhelming weakness. Then darkness, oblivion.
Slowly waking in a different position. Squinting, blinking at the fire here in the cave. He was lying on and under blankets atop a bed of fragrant grasses. Maia was sitting against the cave wall on the other side of the fire, dozing. She looked exhausted.
N'rak gradually came to full consciousness, and blinked and rubbed away what seemed like weeks of sleep from his eyes. He slowly took inventory of himself. Although he was profoundly weak, all his muscles seemed to work. He realized that his brain was still a bit foggy, but he remembered everything, who he was, who Maia was, the crossing of the river, the bowman.
The arrow! N'rak now snapped fully awake and automatically thrust his hand to where he had last seen the arrow's point sticking out of his torso. There was scar tissue, hot to the touch, and abnormally pale, but there was no pain, no discomfort at all really.
"What happened?" N'rak croaked, realizing as he did that his voice had not been used for quite some time. Maia now also snapped to full wakefulness, and she crawled over to N'rak.
"You are awake!" she said with evident delight.
"How long have I been asleep?" he asked.
Maia sighed, smiled, and then answered him, "Eleven days."
"Elev..." N'rak was shaken by her response. "Eleven days?"
Maia nodded. "How do you feel?"
"Pretty good, actually. What happened?"
"I – I removed the arrow and treated your wound. As soon as possible, I moved you to this cave. You've been unconscious since then."
"Treated? That was a fatal wound. I know. That's something I've been fully trained about."
Maia turned to look at the fire. Its flickering light danced across her ashen face and sparkled in her downy white hair. "Yes, it was a fatal wound. But I – I wasn't ready to lose you. I tried a very unusual – a very difficult treatment, and I'm very very happy to see now that it worked." She turned her face and her wide white pupil-less eyes back to N'rak and smiled tiredly.
"You've been caring for me for eleven days."
"You shielded me, protected me, and almost died."
It was N'rak's turn to look over at the fire now. "You didn't see the arrow coming." He could feel her looking at him, and he finally turned to look back at her. For a very long moment, they simply looked at each other.
"Yes," she finally said.
"Is there – is there anything to eat?" he asked.
N'rak ate and drank, carefully but fully, and Maia watched his every movement until just as he was finishing, he saw she had fallen asleep. He cautiously got out from under the blankets and stood up, not surprised this time to find he was naked. His abdominal muscles complained as he stretched and then twisted his body this way and that until he finally began to feel his old confidence returning. He looked around the cave and found his gear, his sword, his clothing – all clean and in good order. He made his way to the cave mouth, crouching a bit as he approached the low space at the entrance, and pulling aside the brush that had been piled there. It was nighttime outside. He could smell the forest.
He sat there at the cave mouth for a long time, letting thoughts run through his mind at random and not making any real effort to examine any of them closely. He knew this much: she had dragged him and their gear a very long way, had found this cave, had healed him and cared for him, and missed a lot of sleep doing so.
He moved back into the cave, replacing the brush pile at the cave entrance. He roused the sleeping woman enough to lead her to the bed. He carefully unfastened her robe and slid it off of her, tucked her in, and then slid in next to her. Pressed tightly together, they were both fast asleep in an instant.
He was the first to awaken, his arms about her, their legs intertwined, they were holding each other as though they always must. He listened to her soft breathing, the rhythm of her heartbeat. He felt her body pressed tightly against his. He let himself float on their shared heat in the inky darkness of their hiding place.
With no light, he couldn't see her unnaturally white skin, her shiny white silken hair, her pupil-less eyes. He could only feel her perfect body, smell her hair mixed with the smoky air of the cave, hear her sleeping faith in him. It was enough for the time being to feel all this and not think of what would come next.
N'rak could feel the fresh air blowing almost continuously through the cave. That explained how they had not died inhaling smoke from their fire in the night. He wanted to lie there with her forever, but there were the usual mundane morning things to attend to. He began to move very very slowly, wanting more than anything to let her sleep on. His infinite patience paid off and he was finally able to roll out of their shared grass-and-blanket pallet and stand up – careful to feel above him so he did not strike his head on the top of the cave.
He felt his way to the brush pile and carefully pulled it away from the entrance. The daylight outside was not strong, but N'rak could not yet be sure if it was dawn or dusk or simply a heavily clouded day. He allowed himself a long time to listen before moving any farther, even though he began to shiver a bit sitting just inside the cave mouth with nothing to warm him. When he felt as confident as only listening could make him that no army had surrounded the cave to capture or kill them when first they peeked out, he shuffled gradually out into the dying sunshine. It was dusk. They had slept forever. N'rak twisted around to look back into the cave where Maia still lay beneath the blankets.
Finally, N'rak made up his mind to take steps to return to his usual daily routines. He explored the area immediately around the cave mouth and discovered that they were among thick trees and foliage here. The ground sloped almost everywhere, and he began to suspect they were on the side of a hill. As he wandered only a little farther, he felt rather than heard some source of running water not far off. He found a small stream of icy cold water.
N'rak breathed deeply and then began his standard regimen of physical exercises, stretching each muscle to its limit, working it to near exhaustion, and then finally flowing through a series of maneuvers simulating his responses to an armed attack from six armed enemy fighters.
He was still more than a match for all but the most capable; still the natural limits brought on by his convalescence bothered him – almost as much as the question of how he had survived at all.
He controlled and slowed his breathing, and while still covered with sweat, he gritted his teeth and stepped into the frigid waters. He washed as best he could and then stepped out, now shivering almost violently from the cold and the exertions. Still, he felt good. He was pleased with how close to being fighting fit he seemed to be – an astonishing thing considering his "fatal" wound. He cleared his mind, filled his lungs, and slipped easily into one of the mental survival exercises he had been trained in. He centered his mind deep within his abdomen and commanded warmth to grow and spread throughout his body. His heartbeat increased and his muscles all strained themselves to create and pump heat. It had the added benefit of significantly increasing his physical awareness. His consciousness narrowed to focus on his injury. His mind tried to take inventory of each organ and blood vessel and nerve as well as the internal pathways of energy he had been taught so thoroughly.
"You are almost completely recovered! It is wonderful!"
Maia stood only a few steps away, a wide smile on her face. The smile was all she wore, and N'rak's concentration was instantly shattered. "I – I am feeling much better, yes, thank you." As always, the sight of her left him dazzled, as if he were staring at the midday sun reflected on the sparkling surface of a shimmering lake. Her physical perfection was breathtaking, and she seemed utterly unaware of it.
"I thought I would join you in bathing. It's been a long time, a very long time."
Some part of N'rak's mind now registered total disbelief. Despite his deadly wound, his apparent unconsciousness for almost two weeks, and his recent immersion in the icy mountain waters, he was experiencing the normal physical response of any warm-blooded man to the sight of such a princess as this completely undressed. N'rak's confusion was all the more so because Maia had never once said or done anything to suggest she even noticed his extreme state of excitement around her although there was really no way she could not have seen. N'rak cleared his throat and tried to look away – with no success.
"I think we should have something hot to eat when I've finished," Maia said, and she walked right by N'rak and without any hesitation on into the mountain stream. N'rak watched this mesmerizing naiad for a moment and then staggered back to the cave to dress and sort himself out.
When Maia returned to the cave, she began heating their meal, making no move to don her black robe. The firelight seemed to dance upon her luminescent skin with all its feminine curves. N'rak finally gave up trying and simply gazed at her with a growing realization that his oath to Tay's memory might soon go the way of his oath to Sur-Pashno's safety. He was scowling to himself about that when he noticed that Maia was looking at him.
She silently went to where her robe lay. She shook it out, shrugged into it, fastened the front, and pulled the hood over her head. N'rak silently cursed himself. She was a beautiful natural vision of loveliness and he had practically slobbered over her. He owed her his life, and much more than that, he owed her a debt for her having trusted him when he so clearly did not deserve anyone's trust.
They ate in silence, and the fire gradually reduced to glowing embers. N'rak's thoughts went to the story Maia had begun telling him before the fateful river crossing. "You said you were sent by your people to look for the one who had left angrily."
Beneath her enveloping black robe, Maia seemed to freeze. "Yes," she finally said. "I traveled to your side of the river. I hid when I could, but eventually I had no choice but to spy." Her hood turned toward N'rak but he still could see nothing of her face. "It felt dirty, but your people are so full of secrets and suspicions and fears. Why is that?"
"Well, I – I never thought we were so unusual – until I met you, that is."
The embers crackled softly.
"I searched for almost a whole season, apart, alone. It was painful to me. I found him, but I couldn't even approach him. He was completely lost to us. So I decided to return to my people – finally. It was slow going. I traveled at night and hid during the day. I never wanted to spy again. It's not how we are, N'rak. It's not how we ever were."
The embers had nearly died now. The shadows had almost completely consumed the cave interior. The cold came too.
"I finally made it. Back to my home. Back to the home of my people."
She drew her knees up to her chest under the robe.
"So what did they decide to do about him?" N'rak asked quietly.
"Have you fought for your king, N'rak?"
The question startled him. "I have trained, trained hard. I have fought, yes."
"And killed?"
"Yes, Maia, I have."
"Did you ever question why you were killing?"
"I was supposed to be able to protect the heir from any attack."
"Soldiers from your side came across. They completely encircled my people, our home."
N'rak's throat tightened.
"They set fires. Everywhere. It was a firestorm. They killed everyone. Everyone. The people couldn't even hide, not from the fires. They were slaughtered at the command of your king. All those lives, all those I loved. They're gone, N'rak. Forever gone."
He felt sick. She had been lonely, had wanted a friend, and he hadn't been able to keep from thinking only about bedding her. He had failed Sur-Pashno, he had failed Tay-Vasani, and now he had failed Maia too, after she had brought him back from death. "Maia, I don't know what to say."
"I went back. I went back to kill your king. I made it all the way to the palace, but then I couldn't go on. I gave up. I was going back to my home to die, N'rak. That's when I met you. I felt something then. Something about you. I supposed it was hope."
"Maia. I felt – no, I feel something for you."
"Yes, I noticed," she said bitterly.
"No, please, Maia, you must see. It's much more than that. I've never even tried to bed you."
"What?"
"Yes, you look incredible, more beautiful than any woman I've ever even dreamed of, but ..."
"What?!?"
"I'm so sorry, Maia."
"I thought you saw me as a monster," Maia said.
"A monster? What? A monster? I couldn't take my eyes off you. You're perfect."
N'rak could hear Maia moving quickly, doing something with the remains of the embers. In a moment, kindling was catching fire. The slowly building fire lit the cave's interior again. Maia took down her hood and turned to look at N'rak, searching him with her blank white eyes. "Perfect? I don't understand. You mean you're not repulsed by my appearance?"
"Re ...?" N'rak broke out laughing. "Repulsed? No no no no no. I thought you were angry, insulted that I was staring at you."
In the space between two heartbeats, Maia was suddenly holding N'rak more tightly than she had ever done and he was kissing her with a passion he had not realized was possible and the fire burned very brightly and the inside of the cave became very very warm indeed.
