Across the Midnight Sea

Chapter 20: Safe

Thank you to those lovely humans who cared enough to ask when the next chapter was coming up. This one is for you.

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There was something soft propped beneath his cheek, that was the first thing that Imre became aware of as the fog of sleep receded. His eyelashes fluttered as he slowly blinked. Blurry lines of gentle shadows cast by a bedside candle flickered in the dark.

A hand touched his back and Imre jolted, yanking away. Chains clanked and pain slammed through his wrist and shoulders from the movement.

"It's alight," Adira's voice caused every muscle to lock.

Not Verek, Adira...

Imre blinked.

Adira?

What was she doing here?

What was he doing here?

Where was here?

His muscles trembled with fatigue and against his will failed him so that his stomach flatted against the pallet beneath him and his head momentarily dropped feeling dizzy.

He closed his eyes and tried to orient himself.

Last he remembered he had been tied to the mast and he had seen her face...

He pushed back up on his elbows, the chains around his wrists clanked loudly and he let out a hiss as his shoulders and back both protested the movement.

"Where am I?"  Imre croaked his throat protesting the use of vocal chords that were in dire need of some water.

"You're safe," Adira said pressing on a clear un broken patch of his shoulder encouraging him to relax and lay fully back down.

A part of him wanted to resist, the other part was already starting to feel dizzy again so he bent to her will and turned his cheek against the pillow. While shifting his legs he became aware of iron's there as well. They really had taken no chances of him moving or attempting an escape.

So why was there a cot beneath him with actual cushion, and pillows with soft down?

Both were luxuries he had almost forgotten.

"I didn't mean to wake you," her gentle fingers fluttered over his back and Imre's eyebrows dropped down as he realized that she was cleaning and dressing his wounds. "Your back was worse than I thought. At first I thought it was just dehydration, but I am worried some of these might be infected."

Imre tried to keep his breathing shallow, it hurt less that way.

"I don't know why Verek let you get this bad."

Verek.

Verek was who he had been afraid had pulled him away in the first place. Verek was a danger still only now for very different reasons. 

By helping Imre like this Adira had put herself squarely in his line of sight. There was only so much that Adira's noble background would do to protect her as far as Verek was concerned. She was, after all, a young woman traveling alone at sea.

Anything could happen.

"You shouldn't be here," the words came out strained.

Didn't she understand the kind of danger she was in? Didn't she care? 

"So I have been told," she answered. "Twice."

Did she have no sense of self preservation?

Imre struggled to try and turn his body so that he could face her more fully.