Sephtis

37. Please, kill him.

My mind is a whirl with too many different thoughts. "I never said you were fickle! I meant that all men are! I can not understand your people anymore Eleutheros, I have changed!"

"You may have, but I have not.  I love you Sephtis! It hurts me something sore when you mock my bravery, my strength, and you say I have no heart! I have not come here to be mocked and spurned." He takes my shoulders in his hands and shakes me, "I came to see a wife, a face I love and-"
A dark blur knocks him aside. It is all to fast, all to sudden, and so violent, that before I can blink he is on the ground, Amitz's teeth in his shoulder.  Eleutheros' hand goes for his knife, and Kavah roars his anger from where he now stands bristling and snapping at the base of the stone slab.

Dust flies, the air is full with the growls of the wolf, and the desperate shouts of the man. Then I see Eleutheros lying over Amitz, his knife lifted high, it's wicked edge gleaming in the light. I lunge, gripping his wrist with all my strength, and twist until he drops it with a yell. It skids across the dirt, and Eleutheros swears, and flings himself after it. Before he reaches it Kavah stands over it, the knife between his great forepaws as Amitz is at him again. Eleutheros' moment of hesitation before Kavah's great form has allowed Amitz to tear his claws down Eleutheros pale back. Blood springs forth in crimson stripes.

Eleutheros rolls over and wraps his hands around the wolfs throat. He is panting from the effort, and the pain.
Amitz wrenches free. There is fury in the dust that flys, and there is so much blood and fur, and then Eleutheros is lying on the ground, Amitz's full weight bearing down on his chest, the wolfs forepaws crushing his ribs. The wolf growls, his head hanging low over the fallen man, they are both exhausted. Eleutheros sobs in agony, and fear.  He lifts his lacerated arms to defend himself, but they fall back to the earth. Blood runs down his face as he looks at me, the poison in his system rendering him near powerless, and unable to heal.
"Get my knife, Sephtis please.  Kill him, please kill him."

My face is wet with tears and my reply is a near whisper, "I cannot, I am so sorry."
As I speak, Amitz moves away, his head high and proud as he walks over to Kavah, butting his head against the underside of his kings chin. Dumbfounded, Eleutheros lifts his head, and watches him go; then he collapses on the earth again, his eyes  closed.
I kneel beside him, his wounds are terrible, and I am appalled. He is scratched and torn all over, and Amitz's teeth have pierced the soft flesh below one eye. The eye itself is whole, but blood fills the socket, and runs down his cheek. Dirt and blood is all over him, and his teeth are rattling, for he shakes so much.

I cannot touch him.  The knife glints at me in the dirt, and I can't help but feel the guilt of betrayal. "I am so sorry."

"Not as sorry as I," he says. "I knew you loved the wolves, but I never thought you loved them enough to aid one in killing me."

"He would never have killed you," I say. "He was only defending me, a member of his family. When you took hold of me he thought you were attacking me. He wanted only to stop you, for he was the closest."

"You have more faith in him than I. If I had kept my knife that ugly brute would be dead by now."

"That is the difference between your kind, and the wolves," I say. "Those brutes show mercy."

He sighs deeply, then looks at me through his undamaged eye. To my surprise he grins. "Since you would not be my defender, you can be my healer, and bandage me up." He struggles to sit up, and groans with hurt.
I help him to his feet. He leans on me heavily, his arms about my neck, trembling with fatigue, his breathing shallow. My dress is colored red with his blood.

"There is a stream not far from here," I say. "You can wash there, and I will bind leaves to your scratches to stop the bleeding. Then I can either walk home with you, or you can stay here till you are healed."

"Home, wolf-woman?" He asked as we walk slowly past the wolves. "Which home?"

"To yours, with Droug's village." I say, "I will not go with you to your people, and I will not marry you."
As I say this we pass Kavah, he lies close to Zahar now, and Amitz sits beside them. His fur is grimy with dust and splattered with Eleutheros blood. But his eyes, when he looks at me, are full of secret wisedom, and they sparkle in the rapidly fading light. I wonder if he understands my words to Eleutheros, and is amused, and pleased by them.