Through the Darkness

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Ealstan was still shaky on his feet. The young Forthwegian gauged how sick he’d been by how long he was taking to get better. He also gauged how sick he’d been by the medicine with which Vanai had helped him break his fever.

When his wits came back, he scolded her: “You went out. You shouldn’t have done that. You shouldn’t have taken the chance. The Algarvians might have grabbed you and. .” He didn’t want to go on.

Vanai glared at him. Her gray-blue eyes flashed. People said Kaunians didn’t get so excited as Forthwegians. Living with Vanai had proved to Ealstan that people didn’t know what they were talking about. “What should I have done?” she demanded. “Stayed here and watched you die and then tried to go out?”

“I wasn’t going to die.” But Ealstan’s comeback wasn’t so persuasive as he would have wanted, even to himself. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been so sick. When he looked at himself in the mirror, he saw how the flesh had melted from his swarthy, hook-nosed face. Circles almost as dark as his eyes lay under them.

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