Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 83946 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83946 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
Vabila finds me with an armful of items at the long corridor for the bathing hall. Or rather, I find her. One rarely needs to question if my sister is where she needs to be or not. She takes herself there, anyhow.
“Change those dressings after you wash,” she tells me. “On your eye, at the very least. Let the air get to your hand, though. I put a roll of wrapping for you. It isn’t much, but it’s clean.”
“How is Selina?”
My sister grins. “I’m talking about you.”
Maybe so.
But I’m not nearly as interesting.
“How is she?”
“Already missing you.”
The news makes me pleased and nervous all at the same time. I drop my sister’s gaze briefly as I try to work through the contradicting emotions, but Vabila is there to calm my unspoken worries in the way only a Mina can.
“No matter the things you say, or how great any differences may seem, she will bend her very perception of the world in front of her if it meant you were still standing there. Bo, you as you are, as you have been. All of you. That is who she wants with her. The present moment is a small thing. You have forever waiting.”
I nod, at least willing to let my sister have the last word on the subject because history and legacy prove to me that she, and those like her, know far better than I about most everything. Looking over the items she gave me, I spy a pair of things I appreciate more than the rest.
“Are those my boots?”
Cut and sewn from fine leather. Trimmed with the fur of my favorite beast. They match the pelt of leather trimmed fur meant to wrap my waist, folded at the bottom of the pile. Between both things, a new item waits for me, too. A belt of supple leather with the finest of detailing and a buckle made of gold.
“I thought you might miss your things,” she says.
She isn’t wrong.
“And the belt?” I ask.
“A gift for you. I feel bad about the eye.”
I grab her arm and pull her in for a touch of our foreheads as my thanks even as we share a laugh.
“Don’t be angry with Halun for too long, and he’s only doing what has to be done,” she says cryptically.
I’m less surprised that she speaks of my quarrel with Halun and more that she describes it as something out of our hands. A situation already in the making.
“Will it be bad?” I ask her.
If anyone knows, it’s my sister.
Vabila only shakes her head. “Bad is a matter of perspective, Bo. Your horrors are someone else’s paradise. Besides, here, your part is mostly done. The best and worst of it, anyway. You have better things to keep your mind, and worries, on. Wash, brother, and then go find your mate. You deserve her.”
Not being able to quite tell myself that fact yet, it’s easier to hear Vabila say so. They’re her parting words to me as she leaves me alone to the bathing hall that I find empty when I eventually enter. I would like to say that I took my time in the bathing hall to at least relax and enjoy the warm, clean water that helps to heal my wounds the moment I slip beneath the surface of the closest bathing pool.
I don’t even pull a privacy screen.
Nonetheless, the hall remains empty as I hiss my way through the painful motions of washing my wounds, and then the rest of my body as well. Neither my claws nor eye leak blood, or anything worse that gives me concern for infection, but I’ll have to be careful. Nothing’s worse than a festering wound that won’t heal. I don’t bother to use any of the strip of ripped fabric to bandage my hand, or the cuts on my arm, as Vabila said. There is just enough to wrap my head twice with a bit left over to shove into the sore, raw socket I know will need air like the rest of my wounds to heal faster.
Just not tonight, I tell myself.
Done in the bathing hall once I pull the plug at the very bottom of my pool to drain the water, I gather my items after dressing in the boots and pelts, and finally peel the square away from my chest. Carrying the same satchel of essential items every member on board is given for the bathing hall, I make my way back through the corridor I first came until I reach High Deck once more.
There, a Hallan male bows behind a desk as he tells me, “Same hall as always, Waliz Bothaki. Call through if you need anything.”
“I may,” I warn.
I’m sure the male is already aware a human is on board and, initially, there may be a few hiccups for my mate as she makes her way around the ship and learns the different purposes for places and things.