Between Lions and Men

19: two heroes speeding towards you

Krista

I am out.

They tug me free, give me a clean dress, and put me in a bathroom, with a soft bar of soap, and oil for my hair. They tell me to get dressed and quickly now. I do, hands shaking. I scrub the blood from my skin as best I can and tie my hair free from my face. I'm nearly fainting. I've had nothing to eat. Finally I see they put a tray of bread and wine there for me. I eat a little and throw it back up immediately. What are they preparing me for? I don't know. My fingers shake. They are still bruised. I want to run but I don't know where. I do not know what house this is. And if they caught me it would be worse.

"Come," they don't say it in my language, but I understand them. I haven't let them know that.

Two of them tug me out into a sitting room. There are military men there, the one who was keeping me, and then a small group of others. Three new men. I haven't seen them before. Perhaps in town. I don't know.

The one that stands in front is youngest, he has gold-red curly hair, that glints in the firelight. He's dressed sharply, but not too, his shirt is a bit wrinkled with I swear lipstick on the collar. He has soft, grey blue eyes that seem to ripple like the ocean. His face is smooth and beardless. He's small, barely taller than I am, and lean. He looks hungry, like a lion cub batting already dead prey for the practice of it. His eyes rove over me, briefly, but not predatory. Perfunctory. Like I'm a package and nothing more.

The other two are older. One has dark curly hair that is long for the military men, with tanned, or maybe naturally, brown skin, and quick, calculating eyes. He's focused on the other men and barely glances at me. He's small for a man, but broad, with thick arms beneath a bit too tight of a coat. He has the higher rank I think, but is not in charge. I've seen him before, the other girls had said he had never taken a village girl, and berated the men for it. They told me it meaning he was safe and not to fear if I came upon him when I was alone. Is he perhaps here to help me? I doubt that. Not taking a girl is one thing, helping them quite another.

The third man is taller than the other two. He is of similar complexion the second, with straight black hair and dancing eyes that seem to smile without the rest of his face. He's handsome enough, and lean like his comrade. He has the cross upon his shirt. A medical man. His eyes, they stay upon me, inky black and moving steadily up me, assessing my shaking hands. Then he locks eyes with me and nods just a bit, and I can see his neck tense. He's getting me out? They are? That's what he's saying. He moves as though he wants come to me now, but thinks better of it.

"This is the girl you were looking for, isn't it?" the man who took me says, leaning back in a chair, a goblet of wine in one hand.

"I suppose," the fair haired one says, "What's your name?"

"Krista," I say, very quietly, glancing at the others.

"Then it is her yes, my girl was asking after her welfare, that's all, hadn't seen her about," the fair haired one continues. Peleus his name reads. This is Peleus? The one that they all fear so? I knew that Briseis said she belonged to him and he wasn't bad. But he came on her errand? He could pass for sixteen, yet all the men are afraid of him. I thought anything that would scare men had to be worse than they are. He looks like a puppy.

"Well, as you see she's quite well? Aren't you?" the man asks, glancing at me. I know he out ranks all of them. there isn't anything they can do, they tried.

"Yes," I say, squeezing my hands behind my back.

"She doesn't look well," the medic says, still looking at me.

"No, she does not, my companion is correct, and in my extensive knowledge of women and men that is not what well looks like," Peleus says, lightly.

"Why would you say it like that?" the man who holds me asks, frowning.