Page 149 of Of Empires and Dust
Once again, they all burst out in fits of laughter. Erik laughed so hard he started coughing and fell on his side.
“If you keep chasing that bird,” he said through watering eyes, “you’re going to be naked by the time we reach Salme.”
“Ah, fuck off!” More laughter rang out as Dann stormed off to his tent, glancing at Nala, who was still brushing Drunir’s mane.
He pushed through the flap in the tent and tossed his shoe and socks to the ground, letting out a string of curses as they squelched against each other. He laid his bow down on his cot, then snatched the skin beside his bed and popped the stopper. He let out a sigh of relief after taking a deep draught of the cold mead within – the taste of home.
“Commander Sureheart?” a squeaky voice called from the tent’s entrance.
“What?” Dann felt a twinge of guilt at the irritation in his voice when he turned to see young Nala standing there, her hands clasped before her.
The girl had barely seen fifteen summers, and she had the soft accent of Carvahon. For a moment, it looked as though she would bolt from the tent in tears, but she stood firm.
“I’m sorry, Nala. It’s been a long day.” Dann stoppered the skin and tossed it onto his cot, giving Nala his full attention. “What is it?”
Nala swallowed hard and lifted her chin. “Drunir has been fed and watered. I also heated some water over the fire for you.” She gestured towards two wooden buckets, steam wafting from within, that sat in the corner of the tent. “There are towels by your pillow.”
Dann let out a sigh, feeling like an idiot. “Thank you, Nala. Do I smell that bad?”
“No, my lord, I didn’t mean?—”
“It was a joke,” Dann said, smiling. “Thank you. Please, blanket Drunir, make sure he’s comfortable, and then get some sleep. We march early.”
“Yes, Commander Sureheart.”
“Nala,” Dann called as the girl made to leave. “Where did you hear that name?”
“Commander Ilyin, my lord.”
Vaeril. Dann nodded. “Good night, Nala.”
“Night, my lord.”
Dann let out a long sigh and dropped himself to his haunches beside the nearest bucket of steaming water. He removed his shirt and splashed his face and body, running his hands through his hair. He was used to being called ‘strange’, ‘arsehole’, ‘idiot’, and whatever other name a person could conjure, but ‘my lord’ was a new one.
He scrubbed the dirt from his face and hands, then dropped to his knees and cleaned his feet, sighing in relief as the hot water chased the cold from his bones.
The girl – Nala – was sweet and far too young to be marching with the army. Though as soon as the thought crossed his mind, he realised that he had only seen about five summers more than she. So much had happened in the last couple of years. He was barely the same person he had been.
As he knelt there, Dann ran the pads of his fingers over the knotted scar that covered his left shoulder and collarbone. He had acquired myriad other scars in all shapes and sizes since then, marking his arms, chest, back, and legs with pale, smooth skin. But the mark the Fade had left on him in the great hall of Belduar would be the one that stayed with him forever.
His mind drifted to the Fade in the Aravell. The monster that had killed Alea and Baldon. The words it had spoken when it held him by the throat.“Ahh… I thought it might be you. I never forget a face – or a mark.”
Dann had pondered those words constantly since that night. He didn’t know how it was possible, but he was absolutely certain it was the same Fade that had almost killed him in Belduar. It wore a different face, spoke with a different voice, but it had been the same one.
He shook his head and splashed more warm water on his face.
Footsteps sounded behind him, accompanied by a draught sweeping in through the open tent flap.
“What is it, Nala?” Dann rose, drying his face with the towel. When the girl didn’t answer, he turned. “Lyrei? What… Is that my shoe? And my shirt?”
Lyrei stood in the tent’s entrance, a shirt draped over her shoulder and Dann’s missing shoe in her hand. She wore a white tunic trimmed with purple and a pair of tan trousers. Her blonde hair, now far longer than it had been when he’d first met her, was loose over her shoulders.
She set the shoe and shirt on the edge of Dann’s cot. “I didn’t want you getting yourself killed trying to find the shirt… I wasn’t expecting to find a shoe.”
“Damn bird. It’s smarter than it looks.” Dann laughed, drying his hair with the towel. “You didn’t find my flint?”
Lyrei rummaged through her pocket and produced the piece of flint and placed it down beside the shirt. “They always store the things they take. If you follow them, you can find their nests. Though they don’t usually stray this far from the Aravell. I think it likes you.”
