Trojan Slave (Book 1)

Chapter 31

Chapter 31

The storm shook the tent around him. The flames flickered wildly. The wind howled, drowning out all other sounds. Turning his head a little, his line of sight drifted in the darkened spaces. Shadows loomed ever closer. The darkness slipped into his mind.

Closing his eyes, he saw visions of a storm, a storm so long ago now. Darkness had crept in then as well, but at that time, he had a light to keep the shadows at bay. The memory did not have the same effect, and yet in such similar circumstances, they intruded in his mind. His melancholy took over, as an echo of emotions from that night brushed against him, but never truly let him relive them.

There was a flash in his mind of golden skin in the darkness, dewed with droplets of rain and rivulets of water running paths across chilled skin. Moans and whispered words. Seeing the sensual movements and undefined shapes in the darkness. His fingertips tingling as he tried to recapture the feeling of damp skin, wet hair tangling around limbs, and hot breath heating the air between them.

Turning fully to his side, he stared blankly at the canvas wall of his tent, the only barrier between him and nature. The torrent of water and harsh wind battered against it, trying so hard to reach him and make him know that he was always so close to the edge. One slip and he could find himself tumbling into the afterlife.

And that – that was unacceptable.

Closing his eyes once more, he was unsure when reality actually became dream or if the two had actually merged together. The storm still howled. The wind still shook his tent. But the shadows were being held back by a column of light, the most unexpected of sights in the middle of his tent.

The column slowly merged into the form of a woman. The light was fluid, constantly changing and flowing. It was both indescribable and terrifying. It was almost as if it came from the gods. But it seemed so recognisable, yet indefinable. Tendrils of lights floated as if long hair on a breeze. Though while it could be heard outside, the air around him and the light was still, the only movement coming from his own breaths.

He could face an armed army unafraid and certain he would either live or die as the gods decreed.

Yet here in a dream, he felt a fear that ran deep, a terror that shook him to the core. He did not know what it meant or whether he was awake, asleep, or if he had in fact died.

His surroundings melted away.

He found himself standing in a burning city. The sky black was above them, heavy with clouds, darkening the area around him further. Columns of smoke rose thickly into the air, the taste of it on his tongue and clogging his nostrils.

Screams of women and children, cries of the dying, clashes of swords, and thuds of flying arrows and bodies falling to the ground filled his ears, deafening in the intensity. He was swept up in the terror of the area, showing where the feeling had come from, but what he did not know was if it was his emotion or the emotions of others flowing through him.

He turned slowly, almost as if he was moving through water. The air was thick. He watched as buildings collapsed inwards as fire ravaged through them. There were the people running past him, never looking his way.

Was this a premonition of things to come?

**

Elpis awoke with a start, sitting up and looking around wildly as the blankets bunched at her waist. The children were her first priority. She could not hear them with the sound of the waves crashing against the cliff below them and the rain and wind lashing against their home.

Kicking herself free of the tangled mess upon the bed, she quickly made her way to where the twins still lay, dead to the world. At their most peaceful and inactive. Her heart beat calmed somewhat. But a sense of...something...indefinable still had her in its grasp. Taking a deep breath, she tried to focus on the present, not the dream that was unravelling quickly and floating away on the air.