The bodies, by the way, had been removed by young trainee warriors and Packa and Beetus, faces pale, had grabbed the sheet and pillows and pulled up the rugs to take them out as Jacanda went to work wiping down furniture and trunks.
Boy, I needed to go back to the market and buy my girls more gifts. They already went beyond the call of duty and got nothing for it except food, cham and minimal clothing. Wiping up blood went so beyond the call of duty, it wasn’t funny.
Ghost, by the way, was lying on her side at the foot of the bed, napping in a dead to the world fashion and I knew this because, even with all the people and activity around, she didn’t even twitch.
When I put pressure on Zahnin’s shoulder to press him back, he went without complaint but he looked at me when he was fully reclining.
“Can I have some zakah now?”
I studied him. He was not pale. He had never been faint. And his eyes held no pain. None at all. In fact, he looked totally normal.
Boy, they trained these boys to within an inch of their life.
Literally.
I sucked in a calming breath and answered, “Yes, my protector, you can have –”
I stopped speaking when the cham flaps slapped and I was turning toward them when I heard a soft, feminine intake of breath.
Sabine was standing inside my cham and Diandra and Claudine were entering the flaps at her back. And Sabine was staring at her husband and his bandage, her eyes wide, her face pale, her mouth soft. I watched those eyes drift up his chest to his face then I stared as they got bright with unshed tears.
They slid to me. “Circe?” she whispered.
“He’s fine, sweetheart, we’ve fixed him up,” I assured her.
She held my gaze for several moments before she nodded. Her eyes went back to Zahnin who I noticed had not moved and he was watching her silently. Then they swiftly came back to me.
It hit me that she didn’t know what to do.
I was sitting on my knees in the middle of the bed next to her husband and I extended my arm to her.
“It’s okay, you can come to him. He’s fine and you won’t hurt him,” I called softly, her body jerked slightly then she bit her lip.
I held my breath.
Then slowly, foot in front of foot, she walked to the bed. When she made it to the end, she put a knee to it and crawled on all fours to me.
Zahnin watched without a word.
I scuttled back and she stopped when she took my place, sitting ass to calves, knees an inch from his hip.
My feet hit stone at the side of the bed when I heard her whisper, “You are all right, husband?”
“Meena,” Zahnin replied instantly.
A pause then from Sabine, “Are you in pain?”
“Me,” Zahnin answered again instantly.
I heard her soft intake of breath and let out my own when her hand tentatively lifted, then settled lightly on the bandage at his stomach as she whispered, “Dohno.”
At her word and touch, with his gaze warm on his wife, his face soft, Zahnin lifted his hand and her body didn’t move or even tense as she allowed her husband to cup her cheek.
Then she did something that proved I was right about how sweet Sabine was.
She slowly and carefully dropped gracefully to her side and curled up next to him, her head on his shoulder, her hand light on his bandage. As she moved, Zahnin’s fingers slid through her hair so when she was settled, they cupped the back of her head.
My eyes went to his to see his were on me.
And they were communicating.
I nodded, getting the message loud and clear.
His fingers started sifting through his wife’s hair.
“Everybody out,” I ordered softly and I didn’t need to ask twice.
Jacanda quit wiping, grabbed her bucket and scurried. The healer and Bain moved to the tent flaps that Claudine had exited and Diandra was currently moving through. Gaal was already gone.
I wanted to look back but didn’t, it wasn’t right, but I really, really wanted to.
I didn’t need to.
I heard Zahnin mutter, “Thank you for coming to me, my beautiful one.”
Before I dropped the flaps behind me, I heard Sabine’s soft sigh.
And as the flaps settled, I heard Sabine ask with cute, quiet surprise, “Oh my, Zahnin, is that a tiger?”
This was followed by a quiet manly chuckle.
Hmm. It seemed I never shared about Ghost with Sabine and it occurred to me I’d never hosted her at my cham.
I walked toward Diandra and Claudine thinking I was going to have to do that. I’d had lunch or dinner at all my posse’s chams. I was falling down. It was way my turn.
These thoughts were wiped from my brain when Diandra’s eyes came to me then drifted the length of me.
Then they filled with tears.
“Oh, my Circe,” she breathed, I stopped moving, looked down and saw I had blood all over me.