Page 12 of Tashama
She opened her eyes, only able to see their actions in a hazy, ghostlike fog.
The sergeant returned with the brass box and handed it to the healer. He dug around in the container, then pulled out a thread and a needle. Afterward, he slipped the threaded needle through her skin. The silver sliver moved in and out…in and out…with a calm, methodical manner. She turned her head when one of the wounded men climbed off his bed.
“They’re not injuring our women now, are they?”
The sergeant folded his arms. “She’s not one of us.”
Tashama opened her lips slightly to speak, but found the words wouldn’t come.I am too, she tried to say.
After wrapping her arms in the leaves and covering them with a linen wrap, the healer moved his chair next to the cot. She stared at him through the mist, and her eyes locked onto his.The prince…why can he not be kind like you?Her thoughts drifted to the palace where Aleron had sat on his desk.
Muscular legs with just enough hair to make them sexy…not beastly.She sighed deeply.
“Is she awake? She cannot be. Nobody can stay awake after drinkingthetea.” The sergeant shuffled his feet.
“She’s not awake. Just dreaming.” The healer turned to the private. “Give me some of those cold compresses.”
“But her eyes are half open. She watches you; she watches me.”
The healer shook his head. “She hears not a thing, nor can she see. When she awakes, she’ll remember nothing.”
Balthazar, where are you?Tashama wrinkled her nose as the pungent odor from the compresses touched her nostrils.You could have given that sorcerer of Aleron’s a taste of his own magic.She smiled broadly.Then again, I could have, too. No,Balthazar said, be careful…be careful. But he wasn’t supposed to abandon me either.
She tried to roll onto her side. The healer and sergeant turned her onto her back.
The healer applied the cool compresses to her eyes. “These will help to draw out the discoloration from her skin.”
“Did they beat her?”
No, Tashama attempted to answer, but her lips wouldn’t obey.
“I cannot imagine so—they don’t beat our men.”
“Where’s the woman?” a voice boomed.
“Lower your voice, General,” the healer warned.
A cold, wet cloth wiped her cheek.
“Did they do this to her?”
No, Tashama tried to respond.
“She’s sleeping. I had to sew her wounds. Questioning her isyourline of business.”
“Fightingis my line of business.”
Tashama felt the warmth of the general’s body drawing close.Aleron,she thought,your body next to mine…your breath on my cheek. How I long to be held tightly.She reached out to touch him. Hands pushed her grasping fingers away.
“The damage?”
“She had cuts on her arms—some deep enough to require the needle.”
“From swords, daggers—what?”
Glass.
“We’re not certain. I’ve never seen such a weapon before, like shards of ice that don’t melt.”
