“I haven’t decided yet,” I admitted. Instead of feeling ashamed, I made sure to fix my eyes on him. “But as soon as I develop my plan, I will make sure it burns your very soul. That, I swear to you.”
It must have meant nothing to him, just the vain promises of a silly girl, but he had not met my determination yet. He did not know that when I took an oath, I would live and breathe it. Like the time, I graduated from university in two years and only slept four hours a night for the entire period, or when I promised myself not to break any more hearts and never touched a man again.
This time he truly chuckled, allowing the echo of his voice to clink alongside the rain drops that kept pouring over the both of us.
“If you made an enemy of me already, girl, you might as well enjoy some comfort.” Saying that, he leaned over my bed and moved to reach for my shackle. I didn’t have time to shimmy outof his way when his hand touched the metallic chain and yanked it in less than a second, ripping the tie apart and setting my wrist free.
The relief of full motion after three days overpowered my senses, and I didn’t have time to study what had just happened. My eyes must have played a trick on me because I could have sworn the metal turned orange for a second, as if melting for a beat before coming back to its original temperature.
When I looked over at the support bar, I noticed it was twisted, dipping in the shape of a fist.
“What are you doing?” I tried to shout but it was too late. My body swung in the air and over the man’s shoulder, who lifted me without permission as one would a sack of potatoes and started walking away with me towards the other side of the tent.
His shoulder blade pushed into my ribs and his wet skin connected to mine and for a moment, just for a small instant in the large universe of the passage of time. I felt my heart flutter. Until I realised what was happening.
Anticipating this nonsensical situation and unwilling to participate in hinting at any sort of romantic scenario, I shouted while hitting his back to ensure the receipt of my message. “Don’t you dare throw me in the bed.” I barely had time to finish my sentence when my body dropped with a thud.
“I wasn’t going to. My bed is sacred. You will stay on the floor tonight.”
I groaned at the pain in my tailbone, those furs did nothing to alleviate my fall, and he didn’t show any care towards my body either, throwing me from the height of his shoulders, which was probably six feet.
“What’s this supposed to solve?” I whimpered and took full advantage of having two free hands to massage my lower back.
It was an unfortunate move, because it must have given him the idea and my freedom came to a quick stop when the mancaught my right hand and wrapped a leather binding around it, which he then proceeded to tie to the wooden leg of his massive bed.
“Is this really necessary?” I sighed but did not protest too much. It was still a bind, yes, but it was an improvement compared to the metal and this leather bind was long enough to allow me to rest my hand in a natural position.
Instead of a reply, he threw me one of the blankets from his bed, burying me under its weight and I had to struggle for more than a few seconds —much to my shame— to detangle my limbs from the weight of the fur cover. By that point, he was already in bed, turned to the side, his back to me, without paying me any importance.
“Are you truly trusting me to be by your bed while you sleep?” I asked the question without thinking, too surprised by his nonchalant attitude.
Dahr did not turn, but his reply came out playful. “Sleep now, March. We’ll fight more tomorrow.”
“Are you expecting me to sleep down here?”
“It’s dry, you will be warm and if you reach the weapons, you can even try to kill me in my sleep. I think that’s a pretty good deal for you, don’t you think?”
I huffed but did not respond.
Because he was right.
The fact that I had spent the most comfortable night since my arrival into the drake camp did not dissuade my determination to hate Dahr. On the contrary, now that I had a few hours of rest and my hands and my entire body were comfortable again, I started using my remaining energy to plan ways to annoy him.
I did not want to overestimate my power or even try to reach for the weapons as he had suggested, which I spotted covering the table as soon as dawn hit. He seemed to be an intelligent man, so I had no doubt in my mind that his challenge was unachievable. He wouldn’t have given me enough space in my leather binding to be able to reach the table, nor would he put himself in danger like that.
I wasn’t trained with a knife, but as a sculptor, I knew my way around a chisel and had enough strength in my hands to break stone. I didn’t count the hammer that I used to push through with the chisel, I was hoping an adrenaline spike would be enough to allow me to injure should I be put in a position of dire need.
Instead, I thought of other ways I could at least minimally inconvenience the man. Scanning the information I knew, he arrived at the tent late in the evening and was interested in nothing else but sleep. And making sure I constantly interrupted that throughout the night, especially since I was so close to him, didn’t seem like a difficult task.
After I allowed enough silence for his breaths to even out and the entire surface of the tent to be fully engulfed by dark tendrils of night, I started having a coughing fit. Faking one, at least in the very beginning, because my dehydrated throat took it upon itself to continue for at least an hour, until my raspy coughs depleted their energy and stopped.
I considered this a small victory, because even though he struggled to keep silent and tried to return to his rest, the man couldn’t control his sighs and annoyance.
“Do you need some water?” He rasped at me when his tension reached a high point, but just then, when I knew he had to step on his pride to stop the situation, I halted my noise and went to sleep.
Just for an hour or two, because once I rested enough, I started struggling and making all the noises I could release while wrestling my bonds and trying to escape. This took a more physical toll on me than I would have liked, and it wasn’t as effective, because it earned me a simple grunt from the man.
Just before dawn, I started singing. Without caring that my voice was raspy and annoying, even to my own ears. The more terrible, the better.
