Champion in Love (bxb)

CHAPTER 19. Dream of a Snake

By my third and last day at the Asclepius' Sanctuary, I slept little, talked even less, and stopped eating completely. Even if my stomach didn't turn whenever I smelled food, it would be hard to push food or even water through my clenched teeth. The smoke over the braziers lay thicker, choking me, until I tasted cedar and ash. Something sweeter blended with those two smells, but it was cloying, malicious. Mold? Decay? Mushrooms?

I would have stirred the coals, to try to get rid of the miasma, but I was too exhausted.

While Victor's soul lingered in his body, he lay motionless. Every time a soft breath filtered through his slightly parted lips, I feared it would be his last. The next one came, and my chest eased for a split moment. One more...

One more, and that would be it. He would expire and the priests would command me to carry his body to the graveyard, the way I had carried the rich girl. It would be my fault too, because I didn't figure out what I must do.

"Praise Asclepius. Praise. Asclepius." Hoarse whisper tickled my throat. Shivers replaced a hot flush, then another wave of inner heat replaced shivers, making sweat ooze through my skin.

Feverish, I saw a shadow separate from my body, an exact copy of me. I followed the apparition with my gaze to the exit from the Sanctuary, where it vanished. Victor's body was on the pallet, motionless. I squeezed his hand, and a weak pulse trembled in his wrist. No change.

Mithras' bull, I was losing my mind. As painful as going mad felt, I prayed for the hours to slow down. I wasn't ready to let Victor go. I clutched his hand tighter. My fingers were so swollen and calloused from carrying buckets of refuse and water, scrubbing and purifying, I couldn't tell if his skin warmed or if I was deluding myself.

The weak light that precedes dawn, lined the entrance. How bright would it have to become for the priests to exile us from the Sanctuary? The muted red of the rising sun or the white of the full day? Whatever their trigger was, the dawn was coming too soon.

Victor didn't wake up in time. Maybe I should have said my farewells, when I had a chance, because now... now it was too late. The light was gaining both strength and color. Lo! The screen's outline glowed crimson.

"Stop!" I yelled at the sun. I was so mad at Apollo who drove it. I was mad at everything, even Victor. "Fight, damn you! Stop pretending that you're not a fighter. You are my champion! You can't just die!"

My shouts woke the biggest snake I had seen so far. Even in a temple full of snakes, this serpent stood out as something monstrous, so I had no idea how I had missed it before.

It glided out of the north-western corner of the Sanctuary without a single hiss. It didn't have to shake its rattle to draw attention; it was the King. The other snakes gave way to it. Unlike them, the Serpent was blacker than night. Its tail could have been smoke, never really solid enough to have an obvious end. The smell of cedar, tinged with the acrid one of burning cloth spread from it.

I should have jumped to my feet, raised an alarm, but weariness weighed my body down as if my bones became lead.

The Serpent came closer and closer, menacing me with its green eyes.

Green? All other snakes had purple irises slit with a black pupil.

It didn't behave like its minions either. Once it reached my folded legs, its triangular head lifted off the floor, higher and higher, extending its body until its eyes were level with mine. Like it was trying to make damn sure I remembered its eye color and wouldn't doubt myself afterwards.

As if I ever would! It made sense, Senators, that a green-eyed snake came for Victor's soul. I had no luck with green eyes all my life. Fragments of my past flickered in their depth, the ones I wanted to bury the most. Yet, I couldn't look away or lift a finger.