The Bounty Hunter

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Sixteen

The physician had warned against letting Safita strain herself for the first couple of days after she came round, a rule which Finred enforced wholeheartedly; although her leg bore very few signs of the cause of her fever it wasn’t entirely healed and was, according to Master Rhyson, still vulnerable to another infection. Safita, of course, was set completely against this and railed against Finred when he pushed her down as she tried to stand up. Her legs were weak after so long without exercise and she disliked being so inactive, moaning constantly to her companion that she felt trapped and restless.

For his part Finred was ecstatic seeing her awake again and clearly unharmed; apart from a burning and blistering anger at not being allowed to do anything and the time that they had lost Safita was perfectly fine and he could not complain since she reacted exactly how he had expected her to.

“How long was I delirious?” she asked the first evening after she had awoken, leaning back against the bedstead and shutting her eyes, tilting her nose into the air.

“We have been here for three nights but you collapsed not long before that,” he replied as he watched her nose crinkle in distaste.

“So long… well I suppose that there’s no point in us trying to intercept him any longer… We will have to head straight on to Scaera and find him there,” she sighed.

“We are doing nothing of the sort until you are deemed well enough to travel,” Finred said forcefully as she shifted slightly in the bed.

“I am fine now! I wish these physicians would stop coddling their patients… I am made of much sterner stuff than most people,” she complained. “I do not like this; it’s wasting time.”

“He doesn’t know that though,” he replied. “In fact the physician doesn’t really know anything about you. He has no idea who we are and the landlady thinks we are married.” His words were cut off by a coughing laugh as a strange expression crossed Safita’s, as if she was unable to decide whether to shout or smile. “Why on earth not?” she exclaimed. “If they knew I was the Spider they wouldn’t dare to stop me!”

“Yes but I would. Anyway while we’re here we must observe the rules of etiquette and polite society,” he said as Safita crossed her arms and pouted slightly.

“Don’t be so stuffy Finred; nobody here gives a toss about all of that. Still I suppose it’s far too late now,” she grumbled, “and I will have to stay here for far longer than I want.”

“You were delirious Safita!” he pointed out. “The physician thought that there was a chance you might die – though they didn’t feel the need to tell me about it,” he added under his breath.

She harrumphed and glared at him. “I seriously doubt that I was that bad Finred. You’re just trying to scare me now.”

“Really? Because the only word we managed to get out of you was ‘Nell’ and that wasn’t even a word of sense,” he replied as her face paled, leaving her eyelashes resting against her cheeks as dark as shadows on untouched snow.

“Nell?” she repeated quietly, her voice coming out as a quiet moan and her fingers lacing themselves together in her lap. “I- I said that?”

“Many times,” Finred answered, his voice softening when he saw what a state he had reduced her to. “What does it mean?”

She turned her face away from him, looking towards the door as her dark hair tumbled around her neck and shoulders, her teeth kneading her lips as her hands tightened into fists and clutched the sheet around her. “Nothing. It means nothing. Nonsense, just like you said,” she whispered. “Maybe once, long ago it meant something but now…” she shrugged slightly, the small movement lost in the sadness which clung to her, “I don’t know. I’m not sure of many things now.”