Bird of a Cage [BoW 4]

Chapter 7

The rain hadn't started up again. The air was damp and heavy with humid, but the rain was no longer pelting against the tent. From the movements outside, they were getting ready to move. Taidra curled against Feno, fingers tangling in his shirt as the man rubbed his back. Feno was hot against him and smelt of the damp outside. Taidra didn't care. He closed his eyes and tried to drift. His fate was to be his fate. Feno was here. He'd protect him from any blades in the night. The insects buzzed around, and the world seemed to plod on without them. As much as the idea of Sakmi's brats guarding him was reassuring, he trusted Feno far more. It made the fear bubbling in his stomach feel even worse.

The base commander walked into the tent around mid-morning, coughing with a distinct order for Feno to get up. Feno helped Taidra sit before slipping off the bed. The commander watched them with an awkward look in his eyes like he wasn't sure where to look. Feno's touches were tender and loving. Nordsol didn't have a tender bone in his body. Feno didn't kiss him, but his hands lingered on Taidra's shoulders. He was here. Taidra was safe.

"I have received no news from the High Priest yet," Nordsol said, barely able to keep the lie in his voice. Taidra stared him down, meeting his eyes dead-on. He wasn't going to back down from this pig. "I'm sorry, Taidra, but we can't keep taking care of you any longer. You understand. It's not safe for our troops to stay here any longer."

"Taidra is a Namya officer. We can't just abandon him," Feno said, his voice ringing with protectiveness and disbelief.

"Officer or not, we can't risk the lives of all our whole-bodied men on him," Nordsol replied. A dance was forming. Nordsol had practised for this. Or at least, had the sense of mind to think what they may say and prepare for it.

Taidra said nothing. A little too focused on how Feno had worded that sentence. Feno was going to leave him too. The realisation sliced through his chest and made it a little hard to breathe. Nordsol was a heartless bastard who deserved any fate that befell him for his stupidity for allowing the deaths of so many soldiers. Feno was the man he always thought he could count on. Taidra watched the commander shift uncomfortably, his eyes unable to meet Taidra's, instead of looking to the right of him. Everything about the man screamed that he was hiding something, and he didn't need the Dmar spies to know something was not right.

"Inai sent orders about my condition," Taidra said, keeping his voice level. "You don't like them, but Inai sent them."

"I realise you think yourself as a friend to the holiness, but you are no longer part of the Namya. Not with your leg like that," Nordsol said, dropping the pretence to sneer at Taidra. He gestured at the bandaged up leg with a sneer on his face. The entire to cut that hand off flared up in Taidra. He cracked his knuckles as he clenched his fists. "If you'd been on the frontline, you would have been left behind to die but," the man trailed off as Feno started growling. Feno had refused to leave him behind, whispered the A.I. Feno had been ordered to leave Taidra, but that picked him up instead and refused to abandon him. Once was forgivable in the name of not leaving a man behind. Feno would leave him if ordered this time. Taidra focused on the moment. HE couldn't break down now. Not at a crucial moment like this, he needed to be able to fight.

Ravn was nearby. An ominous presence hovering in the background where Nordsol had yet to notice. A blade in his hand and waiting for the right moment. Taidra was safe. His heart was shattering into a thousand pieces, but he was in no danger of being harmed.