Lady Moon, Sha'tan #1

Chapter 16: Nightmare

6.30 AM. Dana cursed her alarm clock and dragged her sore body out of bed, wincing. Liam was going to be the death of her. After just a month of training she felt like she had been ran over by a boulder. The nanites couldn’t cope with the amount of lactic acid produced by her overexerted muscles anymore, and she was aching in places that did not belong in an anatomy book. She reached for her clothes painfully, readying herself for the ten full speed roundtrips to the pier and forty laps in the pool she now had to complete as her daily morning program. Then, in the evening, she would endure another three to four hours of torture at her dear Sensei’s hands, until she fell of exhaustion. He must really be enjoying carrying her powerless body and feeding her, she thought, for turning it into a daily routine. At least now they were both dressed. She blushed, remembering the first time he had lifted her in his arms. She could have died of embarrassment at the intimate contact of his skin on hers, but fortunately he didn’t seem to notice.

Dana sighed. She was starting to wonder whether the prize was worth all the pain. Would she really stand a chance to win at the end?

Taking a deep breath, she pushed away the depressing idea, and stepped out of her quarters.

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Dana sat at her desk and stared at the bunch of files waiting for her, wishing hard for them to disappear. All she wanted was to crawl back into bed, and sleep for the next week or so. And she had to cover for Jan’s fencing class later, while he was trying to hammer some fighting skills into her stupid cousin, thanks to Commander Bashir. He had refused to have Jan giving her after hours tuition, on the count that he shouldn’t be working overtime for one useless recruit. He then had come up with the idea that Dana, having no charge of classes and being renowned for her fencing, should be the one helping out. She objected that she was busy enough, but he had already run it through the General, with a bonus: after all, the guilty party was family, she was partly responsible for her. Now she was stuck with it, when she already did not have enough hours in a day.

She reached out for the top folder, informer’s reports freshly arrived with the tide, and spread the contents on the table. A few were filled with useless gossip, rumours of the Occitanian heir insanity or the third son of the Duke of Burgundy alleged sterility, but a couple of them captured her attention. They were from Brittany, and conveyed surprising information. After three weeks of negotiations with the reigning Duke, Prince Elian had left for Normandy. But his behaviour had changed suddenly towards the end of his stay. His men had conducted a swift night attack on the Duke’s castle, neutralising the garrison. It was said to be an exercise but nobody was aware of it beforehand, and the Duke was furious after the Prince’s departure. The defeated soldiers were thrown in jail and their Commander hanged. This didn’t make sense. Why attack a potential ally? That is, unless you don’t trust them, or want to put pressure on them… Three weeks was a long time to make a decision, was the man stalling? And if yes, why would he do that? She paused. There could only be one reason: the Council had a hand in it. They had confirmed to General Andersen that Sha’tans were Prince Elian’s target, according to their spies. And Helland had strong commercial links with Brittany. They could easily convince the greedy Duke to act in their common interest, blocking the enemy on the spot. He would be too happy to oblige, as long as he could do so without risk for himself. The maintenance cost of the static army would ruin the Aranian treasury, whilst giving the Council more time to come up with countermeasures. She smirked. It seemed that the Prince had outwitted them on this one. They were not going to like it.

She quickly typed her analysis and sent it to General Andersen. According to the clock, it was already time for the fencing lesson. She could do the rest afterwards.

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Eddi was running down the corridor. She was terribly late for her sparring lesson, Jan was going to be mad at her. Again. She couldn’t understand how she managed to forget the time. She just took a quick break for a bite and finished a chapter of this thrilling romance book. But she couldn’t stay on a cliffhanger so she read the next one…and the next one…When she looked up at the clock she nearly had a panic attack. Not that she wanted to go there. She hated every minute of it, being alone with him in a room, while he was constantly putting his male hands on her, showing her the right moves. But she was told it was that or being thrown out of the army, and she couldn’t do that to her father, he would be so ashamed. Putting a brave face on, she pushed the Dojo’s door opened.

Jan had got enough of waiting for her. He was exhausted and depressed. He hadn’t slept well since Kate had dumped him, the day after the Midsummer festival. He had gone to see her hoping for a misunderstanding, that what he had seen was not what he thought it was. She had been polite, even gentle, but adamant. They were done as a couple. Jan had tried to get over it, dating, partying with friends, but he kept thinking of her. He sighed. He needed some rest, badly.

Rolling his sports bag into a ball, he placed it on the thick tatami and lay down, using the bag as a pillow. The girl could wake him up when she showed up, he was going to get some sleep.

Eddi’s eyes scanned the room, noticing Jan fast asleep on the floor in the corner. She hesitated, then decided to wake him up. He would probably scold her more if she didn’t, thinking she had skipped her lesson altogether. She went to kneel beside him and shook his shoulder.

Jan was dreaming. He was with Kate in their bed, sleeping, after a well-used night. She was leaning on him, shaking him gently to wake him up, and he grabbed her waist, pulling her on top of him, before dropping kisses on her neck…

“Let go of me you pervert!”

The feeling of small fists pounding his chest caused Jan’s eyes to flip open and take in the whole situation: him on his back, holding Eddi tightly to his chest, his lips on her neck. Horrified, he let her go and started to apologise profusely:

“Look, I’m sorry, I was deep in a dream and I thought you were part of it. I never ever meant to assault you!”

Eddi jumped off him and scooted to the opposite corner of the room, crying and shaking.

“I knew you were a perv, you are no better than Him, you men are all the same, disgusting pigs…”

She went on and on, rambling wildly. He tried to go to her:

“Eddi listen to me, it was an accident, I would never harm you…”

Eddi glared at him with haunted eyes, then grabbed her stuff and ran.

Jan stayed behind, shaken and wondering how to fix the damage. Maybe he could talk to Dana about it. In the meantime, he had to report the incident to Commander Bashir. He cringed. He was in serious trouble.