Verange

Chapter 20

Elis turned from the tree and faced the three men before her. “Considering I’ve already slept, I’ll take the next watch.” She knew the third watch was the worst one to take, because before it was your turn, you hadn’t slept enough, and once you’ve finished, there isn’t enough time left in the night to even bother trying to go back to sleep. This would be the second night she had taken it and she saw the concern in Belden’s eyes.

“Elis, I think you should be the one not to take a shift tonight. You hit your head pretty hard when you collapsed. You might have a concussion.” Belden’s eyes were serious. He truly cared for her wellbeing.

“Rest easy, Belden. You healed me better than I could have asked for. You need your rest as well. Besides, aren’t you supposed to stay awake if you have a possible head injury?” She looked at him pointedly and he blushed, realizing his bluff had been called.

“Well yes… But you are our leader on this mission. You must be fresh and ready.” He stood up and motioned to her bed. She shook her head pointedly.

“No Belden. Even without sleep, I can mange well enough. You know that. Plus, everyone has already stayed up much later than we should have. We will have to take turns sleeping in the saddle tomorrow. For now, I will wait up for Heelio to finish and then I will take his place. I will wake you when it is your turn.” She sat down on her bed and stared up at Belden with a slight smile. It was the only way he would give in and sleep. They needed to all be fresh with sleep, not just one of them.

When she glanced over at Hayden, He was already on his bed and looked close to being asleep himself. It took several more minutes of bantering before Belden finally agreed to go to sleep and Elis was alone in her silence. Balue had fallen asleep long ago and Hayden looked to be out cold.

She thought back to her reaction to Hayden throwing his sword and grimaced. She had been pretty harsh. One should indeed never throw their only weapon, but that had been the cause of Keni’s death and it scared her to think about it happening to anyone else.

“Keni! Race me!” Elis was laughing and urging her horse forward and Keni and his own horse sped closer to hers’ threatening to overtake them. Belden was up ahead, his horse being the fastest of the three.

When her horse jumped over a fallen log, she was flung off, still laughing, into the river they were riding beside. Before she could climb out, Keni jumped off his horse and landed in the water next to her. In moments, Belden had joined them as well and they all took a swim in the cool river. They were in no hurry for they were ahead of schedule.

When two strong hands encircled her waist, she looked up to find Keni’s deep green eyes gazing down at her. They had no need for words to express how much they loved each other and for a brief moment, they simply gazed into each other’s eyes.

Keni broke the contact by placing a gentle kiss to her forehead and laughing, a low rumbling sound that warmed her all the way through. “I’ll love you till the day I die.” He said it with a wink, the way he always did. It was sort of a joke between them, since neither of them would ever actually die. Old age didn’t affect them and they were always careful during their trips.

Her arms encircled his waist and she gently kissed his lips. “And I’ll love you even after that.” She replied as she always did and laid her head against his shoulder.

It was only when Belden splashed them that they broke apart and climbed out of the water. “How much longer till sunset?”

She looked up at the sky and made an estimate. “Probably an hour. We should make camp nearby. I’ll go get the horses.”