Chapter Ten

Sunstroke

My body’s uncontrollable shaking woke me and about a second later, it woke Lahn.

“Circe?” he called, getting up on an elbow in the bed and looking down at me, his hand still holding mine at his chest.

Sunstroke. My skin was chill at the same time it was burning, it was tight and it hurt like hell.

I turned my head to look at him and saw his face awash with concern.

My body was shaking so hard the bed was moving with it and I felt shit but neither of those took away from the fact that that look made him more beautiful than ever.

“Sunstroke, baby,” I whispered.

“Sunstroke?” he asked and seriously, feeling crap and needing to explain why was not a good time not to be able to communicate.

I looked to the tent flaps to see weak sun washing through. It was nearly dawn.

Then I looked back at Lahn. “Diandra,” I whispered as the shaking turned to quaking and my teeth started chattering.

He noticed, his brows drew together under narrow eyes and he growled, “Circe.”

I clenched his hand. “Sunstroke, it’s just sunstroke, Lahn. I need water.” He glared at me with no comprehension. “Shit!” I snapped in frustration and the tremors gliding over my skin didn’t feel nice. “Baby, get Diandra for me so she can translate.”

He looked at my body, mumbled something, let my hand go and then instantly jerked the silk sheet out from under me. Then he threw it over me and its coolness felt nice and tortuous at the same time.

He rolled off the bed on the other side and I chattered, “Wah… water,” to him.

He didn’t go to the jugs. He went to the tent flaps, slapped one back and thundered, “Teetru!”

“Lahn! Water, honey, please,” I begged as he walked to the pile of hides, tossed aside the pillows so forcefully they flew across the tent then he seized the top hide and came to me.

I was holding onto the top of the sheet and shaking my head as he stalked to me and carefully draped the hide over my body.

“No, too much weight, too much heat,” I whispered but his head turned to the tent flaps as Teetru stuck her head in and he paid no attention to me.

He barked orders at her, her eyes came to me then she rushed out of the tent she hadn’t fully entered.

Luckily, in his orders I heard Diandra’s husband’s name.

He turned and scowled down at me. I’d moved an arm outside the hide and was trying to shove it off.

“Too heavy, baby, too hot,” I semi-repeated but he wrapped his fingers around my wrist, gently pushed my arm back under the hides and my eyes flew to him. “No, Lahn.”

“Yes, Circe,” he growled.

Okay, I’d give up on that.

I heard the tent flaps open and Jacanda, Beetus and Packa came in, wearing worried looks.

“Water,” I said, tipping my head to the jugs, Jacanda caught it and hurried to the water. “Yes,” I whispered and kept quaking.

Jacanda poured water and rushed to me but didn’t make it. Lahn snatched the cup out of her hand, sat on the bed beside me, wrapped his other hand around the back of my neck, gently lifting me, and put the cup to my lips.

I drank.

Hydration good.

He kept tipping it to my lips until my eyes lifted to his indicating I was done and he took it away, lowering me back to the pillows.

Then he growled something at me and the only word I understood was my name at the end.

“I’ll be okay,” I assured him.

“Not okay,” he fired back and kept scowling.

I bit my lip then I dropped my eyes and realized he was buck naked.

“Lahn,” I said when my eyes returned to his dark ones that were still painted, “put some pants on.”

He started his next sentence with “Lahnahsahna Circe…” but the rest of it I had no clue except it had the exact cadence of me telling him I didn’t understand what he was saying.

I gave him a shaky smile, pulled my arm from under the hides and ran my fingertips up his naked thigh to his also naked hip.

“Pants, hides, you need to put something on,” I said quietly.

He kept scowling then he surged up, stalked to the table, slammed the cup on it then he went to his hides and yanked them on.

Okay, that went better.

The tent flaps opened, Gaal rushed through followed by a small, round woman with lots of dark hair mixed with gray and she was carrying a small trunk. She looked like she’d had fun that night and had been interrupted in sleeping it off. I guessed this because her complexion was gray and she was wearing what I would assume was a Korwahk-style nightshirt, short, off-white gauze, strapless, shapeless, held up over her breasts by a drawstring tied tight at the front.

Um… that wasn’t Diandra.

Lahn bit some words off at her; she nodded and rushed to me.

“Hey,” I greeted after she bent and put the trunk on the ground by the bed and turned to me.

“Kah rahna Dahksahna hahla,” she muttered, her eyes moving over my face, my shoulders, she carefully lifted the hide and sheet and peered under them then she just as carefully dropped them, turned to Lahn and started talking.

He was standing with his arms crossed on his chest, feet planted wide and eyes piercing her with ferocity and whatever she was saying made his dark glower darker.

She kept talking and he kept glowering.

Then the tent flaps opened and Diandra rushed through followed by a large, older warrior who, like Lahn, had to bend to enter. Teetru followed them.

“Dahksahna Circe!” Diandra cried, seeing me quaking. “What on earth?”

“Too much sun, Diandra, sunstroke. It’s nothing. I just need water and I’ll be fine. Tell Lahn,” I informed her; she nodded, turned and spoke to Lahn.

He spoke back in clipped tones and she nodded and looked at me.

“He has never heard of this, my dear.”

I shook my head. “Well, he wouldn’t. You all live in the sun. Where I come from, we do not. My skin isn’t used to that kind of sun. My entire system isn’t used to it. I tried to tell him, but –”

She cut me off by turning to Lahn and speaking.

His glower got even darker.

Then he barked something at the woman standing by the bed, she said something in return and Diandra spoke to me.

“He’s told the healer to fix you. She’s going to give you something that will dull the pain and help you sleep. She understands what this is and says there’s nothing for it but time.”

Lahn was still snarling at the healer and the healer was replying.

“She’s right,” I said to Diandra but Diandra lifted a hand to me and I was quiet, she was listening.

Then she looked from Lahn to me and started talking and I could tell she was summing it up for Lahn and the healer said far more words than she translated. “He wants you fixed, she says she can’t. The Dax isn’t happy, my queen.”

Well, anyone could see that.

“Tell him it’ll be all right. I’ve had this before. I got too much sun during a vacation in Mexico and I just need to sleep and stay out of the sun a couple of days.”

Her brows knit at my words but she nodded, turned to Lahn and spoke. He spoke back and then snarled something at the healer who instantly bent to her box.

“What?” I asked Diandra and she looked at me.

She shrugged. “He wants you fixed.”

“I will be… in time,” I replied. “Please explain that to him.”

“He doesn’t care, my queen,” she returned.

“But –”

She stepped forward. “Dahksahna Circe, the Dax did this to you. He knows it. He feels guilt. This is not a feeling he understands or knows how to cope with. He might not even understand what it is. Let the healer put you to sleep. The quaking will stop; he will think it’s fixed. Just let him think he found a cure for you.”

I stared at her. Then I whispered, “Oh, all right.”

The healer was at the table, pouring water and tapping some white powder into it from a folded piece of paper. Then she set that aside, picked up a squat, bulbous bottle and tapped some other powder into the cup. Then she swirled the cup in her hand as she brought it to me.

Again, she didn’t make it. Lahn was there, taking the cup, more gently this time, sitting beside me, doing the hand around my neck lifting thing again and he held the cup to my lips, removing it at intervals for me to swallow, then back and again until I drank it all. The liquid was bitter and didn’t taste good at all but I forced it down.

“Shahsha, Lahn,” I whispered when he took the cup away for good and lowered me back to the pillows.

“Nahrahka, kah Lahnahsahna,” Lahn whispered back and my eyes slid to Diandra.

“What did she give me?” I asked.

“A sleeping draft mixed with something to dull the pain. It’s from nature, my dear, not witchcraft. I’ve had it before. It works fast and it’s safe. I promise.”

I nodded and clutched the hides around me in an effort to control the shaking.

Lahn handed the glass to the healer and barked more orders. The man with Diandra, who I was assuming was her husband, Seerim, put his arm around her and guided her away after she and I exchanged nods. My girls drifted out after I gave them reassuring smiles. The healer said a few words to Lahn, left the squat, green, corked bottle filled with white powder on the table, she grabbed her trunk and hurried out.

Lahn took his hides off and slid under the sheet at the other side of the bed. Moving toward me, he turned me to him and gathered my still shaking body in his arms.

I pressed my hands to his chest and whispered, “I’ll be all right, Lahn. I’ll be okay.”

“Yes, okay, Circe,” he agreed on a light squeeze.

I nodded my head against the pillows. “Yes, honey, okay.”

“Honey,” he repeated on another squeeze.

I sighed.

Okay, Lahn could be a dick, a big one, but when you were sick, he didn’t like that and he didn’t fuck around in finding a way to make you better.

Shit.

About five minutes later, my lids got heavy and the quaking turned to mild tremors.

“Okay, Circe, good,” Lahn muttered, drawing me nearer.

I forced my eyes open, tipped my head back, saw his bearded chin was dipped down and his painted eyes were on my face.

“Yes, baby, good,” I mumbled back and fell asleep cradled in a warrior king’s strong arms.