What about everyone else? The other wards, and the Wardens? Yhkon said they were alright…they had received a message from Grrake while they were in Calcaria saying the same thing. They were alright. They were. She would wake up in the morning and find them all eating breakfast, perfectly well.
She closed her eyes and forced them to stay that way, even as memories from the battle came like waking nightmares, gradually becoming more and more indistinct, fogged by drowsiness. Ahjul’s scream echoed in her mind, just as it had echoed in the canyon…the flash of iron just before pain flared in her torso…
Talea woke to Terindi and Kae knelt over her, saying her name.
Kae grinned. “We were beginning to think you had died after all.” The moment Talea started to sit up, Kae hugged her.
Terindi was next. “We were so worried about you. Are you alright?”
Talea held her close for a long moment. She didn’t feel like the one that deserved worry. “I’m fine…” How could she say it? It didn’t seem right, even to ask if Terindi was alright. It didn’t seem right not to. She could only hope that her friend saw the question and sympathy in her eyes.
Terindi must have, because she bit her lip and looked away.
Silence. Painful, meaningful silence. None of them knew how to acknowledge what they were all thinking, and none of them could bear not to.
Talea pushed her hair out of her eyes and said the only thing she could think of. “Have you guys, um, met Jaylee already?”
“No.” Terindi took a deep breath through her nose, as if thankful for the topic, even if it was another reminder of the other topic they wouldn’t address. “Yhkon said she went for a ride before the rest of us woke up.”
Well what was he doing awake? She nodded and got up. The weeks in Calcaria and the trip back to Zentyre had confirmed her previous observations that Yhkon almost never slept.
Terindi and Kae waited as she got dressed. Without even thinking, Talea turned away as she removed her clothes, hiding the hideous scar on her midsection, even if there was still a lesser scar to be seen on her back. It would always be there, not as gruesome as it was now, but there all the same. She had seen Yhkon’s, plenty noticeable still, the morning she’d woken him after his return from drawing the Kaydorian lance away.
Ready, she followed Terindi and Kae out of the bedroom. Down the hallway that, just last night, had made her shudder with its shadowy corners and closed doors. Now the doors were open, the rooms empty. In the main room, there they all were. All the wards, all the Wardens…except one.
A lump rose in her throat but she gulped it down, giving a small smile as everyone noticed her. A pause. Another painful, awkward silence.
Though the timing of his humor was questionable, she was grateful when Ki grinned and said, “So ya ain’t dead after all!”
With the silence broken, the uncertainty and tension abated, replaced by relieved smiles and greetings. Each of them welcoming her back in their own way. Everyone with a smile. Haeric with a hand on her shoulder; Gustor with an insightful look that caught her off guard; Skyve a mumbled “Glad you’re alright,”; Rikky a hasty hug that was both sweet and awkward; Larak scanned her up and down and remarked that she looked well; Resh gave her a grin. And then there was Wylan. He didn’t so much as look at her until everyone else had made their greetings. Only then did he stand up from his chair, walk up to her, and hold her gaze for a long moment. “I’m sorry,” was all he said. No explanation. No follow-up. He lowered his head and walked away.
It was at that moment that the door opened, and there stood Jaylee. In her new Warden gear, she looked all the more the spunky, feminine warrior that she was: golden brown hair in a loose ponytail, eyes bright, cheeks flushed, a smile curling her lips. It was no surprise when Resh approached her with a strut in his gait. “If it isn’t the famous Jaylee Rhondel.” He cracked another grin, entirely more authentic in its flirtatious interest than the one he’d given Talea. “Missed me?”
Jay lowered her chin, looking at him coyly from the corner of her eyes. “Don’t all the young ladies?”
Resh was going to say something else, but Yhkon practically shoved him out of the way as he, rather brusquely, took Jaylee by the arm and led her toward Terindi. “Terindi, this is Jaylee. Rhondel, this is Terindi.”
Jay flashed a smirk Yhkon’s way that suggested she wanted to comment on his refusal to call her by her first name again. Instead, her expression softened into the kind, empathetic smile that made her so easy to befriend—for everyone but Yhkon. She took Terindi’s hand in hers. “Terindi…it’s my absolute honor to meet you. And I want to meet the rest of you, too,” she cast the smile briefly about the room, before returning it to her new ward, “but I was hoping you and I could get to know each other a bit, first. Would you mind walking with me?”
Terindi glanced at Yhkon, as if for permission. When he neither gave nor declined it, she nodded to Jay, and they left the bunker.
“Well,” Tarol slapped his knee, “dunno ‘bout the rest of you, but I think it’s past breakfast time.”
Yhkon appeared at Talea’s side, leaning in enough to speak quietly to her. “You feeling alright?”
“Not bad.” She eyed him sideways. He looked sleep-deprived as usual. Haggard, maybe even gaunt. She wanted to talk to him—what about she wasn’t even sure. They had hardly spoken anything more than necessary information and questions in weeks. He had, as Jaylee had predicted, secluded himself as much as possible while they’d been in Calcaria. But now, with everyone else around, a conversation wasn’t exactly possible either.
And, having given her a single nod as his acknowledgement, he was already walking away, mumbling something about not being hungry and leaving the bunkhouse as everyone else turned to breakfast preparations.
~♦~
Stepping out into the chilly morning air, Yhkon closed the door behind him as softly as possible, hoping for his departure to go unnoticed. Seeing Jaylee and Terindi walking to his left, he went right, wandering with no destination in mind. It was mere seconds before he heard footsteps catching up to him. Talea, maybe, since he’d left rather abruptly. Or Grrake. Probably Grrake.
And it was. “You alright?”
Don’t I look it? “Yes. Why?”
Grrake closed the rest of the distance between them, standing in front of him with that gentle, concerned expression that he so constantly wore. “As if I don’t know you better than that.” A pause. “Did something happen, in Calcaria?”
Well, at least he hadn’t brought up the fact that Talea had survived, in the miraculous fashion Grrake had predicted. Yhkon paced a few steps, hugging his arms to his chest. Did something happen? No, just the usual. Dia’s visit wasn’t usual, but everything else…everything else was the reason Grrake had wanted to come with him, and had seemed worried when he had declined. “No. Not really.”
His friend frowned, clearly not convinced. “How is Ahjul’s family?”
Yhkon squeezed his tongue between his teeth, shaking his head as he paced back the way he had come. As if I don’t know you better than that. It was Grrake’s subtle attempt to find whatever it was that was bothering him. “I know what you’re doing. So fine. Something did happen—I realized that I…” He stopped pacing. “I shouldn’t be lead Warden.”