Rune and Ruin

19 - Follow the Shadows

391 B.C.E. - Ruins of the City of Caere, Island of the Fyrrin, Coast of the Tasurian Peninsula, Spring, Month of Maius

Thania

"It has depth," I mutter angrily, tossing the fluffed blankets back onto our bed. I slept for a day. Slept and slept, but my men did not. I can't remember much, but I know that those three males took turns in the bed with me, not one of them sleeping for more than a long nap.

It does, the goddess insists with laughter in her voice.

It makes me smile until I remember there is little to be happy about. "Everyone is scared," I say out loud as if the goddess and I are having a normal conversation between two women, nothing more. It makes me laugh at myself. I've been alone in our room for only moments, the first time I've been alone in days, and I decide to carry on a conversation with a voice that exists only in my head.

Fear moves souls.

"Yes," I concede. "Or, it paralyzes them. Even if it moves them into action, what will that be? War? In this instance, I can imagine men trying to steal all those women who are marked. Floria is only ten years old. Imagine if she is taken?"

Images like a waking nightmare attack my mind. I was young when the Falerri leaders bartered me away, but not a child. What if the war had come to the valley a few years earlier? Would the barbarian shapers have driven me into Falx's arms when I was too young to survive a demon?

No, that's silly. Falx isn't much older than I am. He would have been a child, too. His father's arms, then?

I swallow down the bile that surges forward at the thought. Sweat beads on my forehead. How awful.

There are two sides to war; the goddess repeats the common saying.

It makes my hands pause on the bedcoverings. I wonder if others have heard the gods' voices. Is that how the saying came to be? Or... is the goddess merely repeating something? No, that's presumptuous, assuming that we mere mortals said it first.

"Thania, love," Falx kneels next to me, taking the blanket from my hands and whipping the covers on the bed. I gaze at the bed in dismay. He can never get the covers smooth and in order. It's like some strange curse he's been dealt. "Love, you're sweating." He prods me to my feet, then loosens the ties covering my chest. Taking a damp cloth from the washing bowl, he wipes my face and neck, cooling me down. "Are you sure you don't want to rest more?" he frowns at me. I'm sure I look terrible. "A bath?"

"I'm fine," I wave off his concerns, staring into his sharp blue eyes and finding comfort in how clear they are despite the tiredness I know he's feeling. "Leda?"

"With my mother and Marcus, where else?" he says sardonically. Leaning in, he presses his mouth to mine in a brief kiss before pulling away. "Gods forbid I get any time with the little mite, myself."

I can't help but smile. I think... no... I know I underestimated the importance of children to the Tasuri. Lady Namilee's immediate and seemingly bottomless love and adoration for Leda is only one example. The invaders treat all the orphans well, even those without a drop of Tasuri blood. I don't regret fleeing from Falx, though. Everything has been different since he conquered Caere. Better.

"I have to meet with the other females," I say quietly.

"The Hatrencu has them well in hand," Falx says as he takes my hand and we walk from our rooms in the back of the temple. "Both the Banditiccia and the Mount are covered in warriors. Everyone is as well-guarded as we can manage."