Valkyrie's Judgment

Chapter 8

Was she dead?

She tried moving and decided that she couldn’t be. Pain was shooting through every nerve in her body. She tried opening her eyes, but immediately shut them again, as the light burned them.

“Don’t move.” A gruff voice said. She heard someone moving around near her, but she didn’t dare open her eyes to find out whom.

“You got yourself into quite some trouble, girl.” The faceless voice continued.

“Where am I?” She asked. She winced as she heard how hoarse her voice was.

“Some shit-hole of an inn.” The mystery man said. She heard water running, and then someone approached her resting place.

“Sit up, girl. You will feel better after you drink something.” She felt large hands grabbing her shoulders and carefully pulling her into a sitting position. She bit her tongue to prevent herself from crying out in pain.

Something was placed against her lips. A mug. She opened her mouth and the stranger tipped it slowly.

Each swallow hurt, as the water went down her throat, but she immediately felt better when she finished drinking.

For the second time, she tried to open her eyes. They watered as they met the light, but she managed to keep them open.

Looking around, she discovered that she really was in some dingy inn room. She was lying on the only bed in the room. Turning her head, careful not to move too much, she looked at the other occupant.

Aeliss felt her throat constrict as she saw the man standing by the bed. It had been two months since she had caught a brief glimpse of him in that tavern, but she had no problem recognizing him.

Vo’ray Shaw was standing next to her, the mug still in his hands. The messy, dark hair and the scarred face was exactly the same as back then. Dark eyes were boring into hers.

“Feeling better?” He asked. Aeliss just sat there frozen. No reply came to her mind.

“Cat got your tongue?” Shaw asked, while setting the mug down on a small table. “I don’t bite, you know.”

‘You may not bite, but you might kill me in a second.’ She thought, watching him uneasily. She had not been afraid when she saw him in the tavern, but this was an entirely different situation.

“I wouldn’t have saved you from those idiots if I intended to kill you, stupid girl.” He said annoyed. “Would have been much easier to let them do the job for me.”

Aeliss thought about that. “You were the one who saved me?” She asked slowly. Why would he do that?

“Good girl, so there is some activity in that pretty head of yours.” He said. Aeliss watched him as he moved around the room.

“Why?” It was the only question that came to mind.

Shaw mumbled something that sounded like “Beats me.”, but didn’t answer her.

She leaned back against the headboard and closed her eyes. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t make sense of the situation. Why would an assassin save her?

“Three of your ribs are broken. It will take at least a couple of weeks for them to heal.” She heard him say. She opened her eyes and looked down at herself. Much of her body was covered in bandages, many of them bloodied. He had not only saved her, but also treated her wounds.

“Thank you.” She said suddenly. She didn’t know why he had saved her, but he had. The least she could do was acknowledge that.

Surprise flickered over Shaw’s face for all of a second. Then his face went back to being blank. He didn’t answer her, instead merely nodding.

They didn’t speak after that.