Ch#74
74
He tilted his head to one side. His broken senses occasionally malfunctioned.
Waiting for the ringing to subside, he brushed past the woman and stepped inside the tent.
Perhaps she had been burning herbs all night again; the dim space was heavily permeated with the bitter scent of smoke. Yet, beneath it, there was a strange smell mingled in—the kind one might catch from fruit just on the verge of rotting.
It was an odd scent that had begun to emanate from the woman’s skin at some point.
He held his breath for a moment, then slowly inhaled the air. Then, he called out to her quietly.
“Thalia.”
No answer came. However, he could feel her presence.
He stepped into the cluttered space strewn with bowls, wine bottles, and water cups, his eyes moving busily. His feet came to a halt when he saw a heap of clothes piled next to the disheveled bed.
He crouched before a large chest sitting in one corner of the tent.
As he carefully opened the lid, a small figure curled into a ball came into view.
Once again, his body suffered a bizarre reaction. It felt as though he had been kicked in the solar plexus by a horseshoe.
Steadying his churning insides, he placed a hand on her shoulder.
The woman, who had her head buried against her knees, looked up.
Beneath lashes soaked heavy with moisture, eyes of a high-purity blue, untainted by any impurity, were revealed. Clear tears blurred over skin as transparent as a creature living in the deep sea.
He cupped her damp cheeks, stroking her slightly reddened chin, before gently tilting her cowering head back.
Whether she had been scratched by something, a few thin gashes marked the nape of her slender neck. As he examined them closely, a cracked voice flowed from between red lips that looked as if they were steeped in blood.
“The monsters… did you defeat them all?”
He looked back into the woman’s eyes.
Her deep blue irises, submerged in water, wavered precariously.
He remembered the first time he had encountered these eyes.
It was the very first color he had seen on the day he regained his sense of color.
Feeling a sensation as if the back of his throat were tightening, he took a long breath and lifted his stiffened body.
Supple, soft arms wound around his neck as if it were the most natural thing in the world. A thin sound of weeping dampened his taut skin.
“I thought I was going to be taken away again.”
Varkas tightened his arms around her.
That will never happen again.
The words hovering at the tip of his tongue flowed back down his throat. Since the accident, he found himself frequently swallowing his words in her presence.
The words he swallowed and swallowed again began to pile up inside him like layers of sediment.
Frowning at the uncomfortable sensation of a stone pressing against his entrails, he gently stroked her narrow, intermittently trembling back.
Her stiff body gradually relaxed, clinging to him softly. When he pulled her head slightly away from his shoulder to look at her face, he saw her eyes closed as if from exhaustion.
He toyed with her drooping golden lashes with his thumb, then adjusted his hold on her sliding body and scanned the room quickly.
He saw a coat hanging from a tent pole. Snatching it, he draped it over her body and stepped outside.
As he strode quickly across the campsite, several mounted warriors busy dismantling tents cast curious glances his way. He pulled the cloak up over the top of her head.
These men had been sending her looks like hungry stray dogs since before she had even reached five kvets (about 150 cm) in height. And this woman, though she feared it, would occasionally expose herself defenselessly before their eyes. As if she wouldn’t mind being bitten to death.
He pulled her even closer to his chest and quickened his pace as if to shake off the bothersome stares.
Entering his own tent, he laid her on the bed, and her body—which had grown noticeably thinner over the past few months—caught his eye.
A sigh filled his throat.
The irritating part was the fact that her gauntness was driving her beauty in a dangerous direction. Varkas, sliding his gaze along her thin nape, wasted shoulders, and prominent collarbones, turned his eyes toward the tent entrance.
A young squire who had followed to attend to him was stealing glances at her. His half-dead nerves stood on edge sharply.
He dismissed all the servants and fastened the entrance securely. It wasn’t a particularly good idea. The inside of the tent became filled with the sweet scent she emitted.
He swallowed hard at a strange thirst that felt as if his throat were burning.
Running a rough hand through his damp bangs, he cast an irritable look, and her pale cheeks, stained with tear tracks, filled his retina.
Words she had spat out in terror years ago echoed in his mind.
“He… he said so. That he has no choice but to keep… keep looking for me, as if he’s addicted…”
He bit down firmly on the soft flesh inside his cheek with his molars. He tasted a faint hint of blood.
Tapping his temple with his fingertips, he picked up his coat from the corner of the room.
When he stepped outside, the fishy scent of blood filled his lungs.
As he breathed it in deeply as if to wash away the murky smell stuck in his throat, a Barakan warrior, already fully armed, approached him.
“Preparations are mostly finished. We can leave immediately once your tent is packed. Shall we dismantle it now?”
“In an hour.”
Varkas spoke in a low voice after a brief pause.
“We’ll set out after catching our breath.”
A trace of an amused smile crossed the man’s lips.
He shrugged and replied in a casual tone.
“As you wish.”
The man turned away immediately to relay instructions to his subordinates.
Varkas sat on a water cask and looked out at the Norden Plains, faintly visible through the dense rows of trees.
A gust of dry wind scratched roughly against his cheek.
A somewhat familiar scent spread through the air.
When had he smelled this before?
As he searched through his hazy memories, the howl of a wolf drifted from afar.
He turned his head.
The mournful ringing stretched out long from the edge of the forest.
Her weakened body could not withstand the long journey, and she suffered from a continuous fever.
Staring up at the swaying ceiling, Thalia tossed and turned, gasping for breath. The carriage moved at a speed barely faster than walking, but even that slight vibration was nothing short of torture to her.
Thalia clutched her head at a throbbing pain that felt like her skull was splitting.
Just then, the sharp sound of a horn echoed from outside. Had they finally reached their destination? She dragged herself up and looked out the window. Through her fever-dream vision, the scenery of a vast plain came into view.
Thalia’s eyes widened at the unfamiliar sight. A deep green grassland stretched out endlessly as if meeting the sky. A sudden gale swept over the lush fields.
She opened the window to cool her burning face with the chilly wind.
“That over there is Kalmore.”
Startled by the voice that suddenly spoke, she turned her head to see a man riding his horse right beside her. He drew closer and offered a friendly smile.
“My name is Tyrone. I introduced myself before; do you remember me?”
She kept her mouth shut tight, sending him only a wary look. The man’s smile faded slightly. After a moment of searching her face, he continued gently, undeterred by her cold reception.
“You seem to be in very poor health.”
“…”
“We will arrive at Raedgo Castle soon. Do you see the walls over there?”
The man pointed ahead.
Thalia followed his fingertip with her eyes.
At the edge of the horizon, she saw grayish-brown castle walls that looked as if they were molded from ash and sand. She leaned her head out the window to see them more clearly.
Raedgo Castle looked as though it had been constructed by stacking massive boulders.
Thick outer walls, built without ornamentation, completely surrounded the foot of the hill, and above them towered large and small turrets and fortresses composed entirely of straight lines.
She reflexively covered the nape of her neck.
Perhaps it was because the place where she was to live from now on looked excessively desolate. A chill ran down her spine.
