The Gift

Chapter Eighteen

When I awoke in the morning, for the first time in years, I found myself wanting to stay in bed rather than watch the sun come up.  Our room didn’t face the rising sun so I was content to stay there wrapped in his arms.  I traced a finger lightly over his features.  His face had seemed gaunt yesterday but was peaceful and looking more like his old self after a good night’s sleep.  The dark circles under his eyes were fading with the sleep as well.  I laid my hand on his cheek and he turned his face, as though trying to bury it in the warmth.  I giggled softly.

“Stop laughing at me,” he murmured.  He opened one eye then just pulled me closer to his chest, closing his eye.  I giggled again, wriggling against him. I resumed tracing his face with one light fingertip.  “You’re not going to let me go back to sleep, are you?” he asked with a sigh.

“I always wake up early, in case you’d forgotten.”

“If I don’t have to be up, I like to sleep in a bit later.”

“No wonder the men are so lazy.  They’re just following their leader’s example.”

“It’s a good example most the time.”

“Is that why you say they’re destructive?”

“They picked that up somewhere else.”

“Y’know what I think?  I think the band is just a dysfunctional family.  You’re the father, since it’s your band, and they’re all your unruly sons.”

“I think I’ve changed my mind about children.  If I already have so many, I don’t want any more,” he told me.  I laughed and started to get up.  He didn’t want to relinquish his hold on me, though.

“It’s time to get up, lazybones.  We need to go meet up with Damien and then the rest of the band.  I’m sure they’ve gotten worried about what happened to their leader who decided to run off.”

Reluctantly he let go of me and got up.  Gathering clothes for the day, I went into the restroom to change.  When I came back out, he was dressed as well.  He watched me as I armed myself.

“Hey, what’s that pocket?  I’ve never noticed that before,” he asked as I slipped my throwing knives into the pocket on my right leg.

“That’s where I keep my throwing knives.  It’s positioned so that they’re easy to access but doesn’t get noticed until it’s too late.”

“So that’s where they came from.  I had wondered.”

“You don’t know all my tricks.  In our line of work, we can’t afford to let others know all our secrets.”

“I want to know them.”

“Of course you do.  Come on.  I’m hungry and we need to get going.”

We stopped at a stall to buy breakfast on our way to the stable.  After getting our horses, we started on our way back to the Eleventh Isle.  We got to the rendezvous point just in time for lunch.  Tethering our horses to the post in front of the diner, we went inside to eat.

Damien was already there and jumped to his feet when he saw Daniel.

“Christopher!  What the hell were you thinking disappearing like that? Do you know how worried we were?  We looked everywhere for you,” he said, sounding like a worried mother.

“Damien, calm down,” I said, stepping out from behind Daniel, where he’d pushed me when Damien jumped up.

“Who do you think you are to – Freyla!” his eyes widened and his face broke out in a wide grin.  He immediately bounded over and hugged me.  “You found our runaway?”