Page 20 of Her Royal Blood

When I was thoroughly cleaned, dried, and dressed for bed I felt like an entirely new person. I entered the room Janaya and I shared and crawled into the comfortable bed. Sinking down into its softness I was enveloped in warmth. I don't remember falling asleep but I do recall waking up, and it was already mid day.

Chapter 8

Lex

The agony from the pain blooming out of my ankle was unbearable. We were in the middle of the jungle and the heat was stifling. My leg swelled up and every heartbeat throbbed through the injury. Hawk held me up by the shoulders and dragged me through the dirt and tangle of vines. My mind was a blur of fever and delirium. My senses became hazy and unfocused, leaving me nothing but seering agony and disjointed images.

“Now you’ve gotten yourself bitten, ya fool. I’ll never get off this rock if you die. You’d be dead twice now if it weren’t for me. You still owe me. Yes, you spared my life in the pit, but this is gonna cost you and yes, I’m keeping score,” he said as he continued to pull me along.

I barely understood his words, but in my fevered state, I figured he was just ranting to himself. There was no way I’d be able to make a coherent sentence. So I only grunted.

“We have to get you to our pitaya stash, I can draw out the poison with the husk and there’s some deadweed there, helps with the poison. Despite the name, deadweed keeps you out of the grave. It’s for infections and whatnot, but it’s a ways up andyou’re no light load. So stop groaning.” I may not have had all my faculties, but I knew for sure, Hawk was spitting mad.

We walked for the better part of the afternoon stumbling our way through the jungle. When we finally reached our destination Hawk dropped me on the ground. I landed in a heap as knives of agony sliced me on all sides. My head hit the dirt and reverberated with excruciating torment.

“Fuck me,” Hawk said breathing heavy. “Carrying your dead weight through the jungle isn’t as fun as I thought it would be. Fuck, I could use some water. We’re here Buttercup, this is where we keep the good stuff.” His massive frame looked down at me. “I guess I should patch you up. Sooner, I get this done, the sooner I can haul your ass back to camp.”

I wondered if Hawk was becoming as delirious as I was? I heard him chewing like a cow chomping on grass. He spit something onto my leg and the chewing resumed. Over and over again chewing spit, chewing spit, chewing spit. With every glob that hit my damaged and inflamed ankle, there was a patch of soothing coolness.

After the last mushy splash of ooze hit my skin, Hawk wrapped it up in soft pitaya silk that bound to the salve and immediately the distracting pain eased.

“That should do ya, till we get to the infirmary. I’m gonna have to find a way to hide your ass from all the murderers who want ya when we get there, but that’s a worry for then. We’ll be lucky if we don’t miss dinner.”

I was finally able to open my eyes and I saw him sitting up against a tree. He had a handful of Crimson Pitaya fruit in his lap as he hungrily ate two pieces at a time with fruit juice slopping down his bearded chin. He looked at me and glared as if my observations were judgmental.

“I’m fucking hungry,” he said, though I hadn’t opened my mouth. “And I need a high to have enough strength to getyou down that.” He turned his head to the rough and craggy mountain face.

“Thank you,” I was barely able to get out of my pain ravaged throat.

The poison radiated through my entire body and I felt like I was drunk on the harshest liquor, one that burned as it disarranged my stomach.

“Best not to talk,” he said, his face a mess of fruit pulp. “Save your strength.”

Funny thing was, as the poison made its way through my body, all I wanted to do was talk, even though it made me lightheaded and weak.

“Do you know?” I started. “That the love of my life just married a monster? She’s probably been forced to bed the beast and is well on her way to having his abominations.” I mused at the horror of what Aria might have had to face. “It’s because I left her. See I’m supposed to be a king one day and I was going back to my kingdom to make sure I could still king it.”

“I’m serious, Lex, shut the fuck up, you’re high from the poison and you’re gonna say stuff you don’t want me to know.” It was nice that he had my back, but I was going to talk, because I couldn’t resist the insane compulsion to jabber.

“You know Aria has the prettiest tits. Like the rest of her is pretty, so pretty, but she has the best tits,” I went on.

“Like that. See that’s what I’m talking about. She’s a queen, Lex. I don’t want to know about her tits.” He finished eating and threw the pits into a pile near the tree.

“And when she’s about to…” He stood up.

“Nope, I’m not going to hear about the queen being in the throes of ecstasy, Lex. I can’t. You might miss her, but I’m not going to be able to look her in the eye if you continue. Come on. I need to dump you off. I’m not missing dinner for this.” Hegrabbed me up off of the ground and started dragging me down the hill.

It took the better part of the afternoon to make it back down the hill to the barracks. I only knew this because the sun had almost completely set by the time Hawk brought me into the infirmary.

“This is Lex Redveign, almost every prisoner on this rock wants him dead for Polonius. We gotta see him through this black fanged viper bite. It’s bad he’s already got the spins and he’s suffering neurotoxin poisoning. If he survives this, I believe he’s gonna pull us all out of this mess,” Hawk said to the male nurse who greeted us at the door. “He’ll shut this shitshow down.”

“I’ve got a room for him,” the nurse said as Hawk dragged me through the white tent with several cots lined in rows each with a folded blanket and a pillow.

For a prison facility that was basically a shithole, the infirmary was surprisingly neat and clean. The nurse opened a canvas flap and we followed him inside. Within the small space sequestered from the other patients, was a cot and a stand that had bags and tubes hanging from it.

“Put him on the bed,” the nurse instructed and Hawk helped me lie down. “I can’t conceal him better than keeping him in here and putting a blanket over his head. I know none of the staff or doctors are willing to take Polonius’ offer for his head, so it’s just the other prisoners who are a concern. We’ve rejected the mandate to just let Prince Lex die. I’ll keep an eye on him while I’m here and I’ll ask the other nurses to do the same.”

A wave of relief passed over me as soon as I was lying down and hearing that I was going to recover from the bite in relative safety.

---