Chapter 8

Sheena woke up the next morning to voices rising and falling near her head. She opened her eyes to the sight of Sophia sitting up on her stretcher at Sheena's side. She smiled down at Sheena when Ron attracted her attention from the other side of the stretcher. “Are you hungry? You must be dying of thirst.”

“I'm thirsty, but not hungry. I don't think I could eat anything if I tried. I'm still too weak.”

Sheena sat up, but she couldn't comprehend what she was seeing. She blinked. “Sophia?”

“Good morning, Sheena. You certainly slept well. You've been snoozing away while everybody talked and laughed.”

Sheena took a closer look at Sophia. Sophia's cheeks glowed with rosy life, and her voice lilted with its usual sing-song melody. Anyone looking at her would never know she was lurking on death's door for the last two days.

Ron took hold of her wrist, but Sophia shook him off. “Will you stop doing that? Can't you see I'm fine?”

“I just can't believe it. I didn't think you would survive another night, and here you are, sitting up and talking like nothing ever happened.”

“Oh, something happened, all right. Just look at my leg. I couldn't walk on that for a million dollars.”

Jasmine squatted down at Ron's side. “How do you explain this? How could she improve so much, so fast?”

“I don't understand it. I have no explanation. Maybe it's a miracle.”

Sophia snorted. “Stop kidding around. There must be some explanation.”

“I'm not kidding around. I never believed in anything like that before. I never saw anything in all my career to justify it—until now. This is about the closest thing to a miracle I can imagine.”

Jasmine stared at Sophia. “I can believe it.”

Rex paced back and forth behind Jasmine. “Come on. We're not going to start talking about miracles when we've got a full day's travel ahead of us. Let's save the falling on our knees in devotional prayer for a better time.”

Sheena got to her feet. “Rex is right. Even if it was a miracle—and I'm not saying it was—we still have to get to Assan Keep. How much farther do we have to go?”

“At least another two days,” Fawks replied.

“Then we better move out. Pack your bags, everyone. Abigail, it's you and me carrying Sophia's stretcher.”

Abigail took a step back. “I don't think I can do that.”

“You're going to do it. You volunteered to come on this mission, so you're going to do your share.”

“I can't carry her. I'm not strong enough.”

“You should have thought of that before you came along. No one asked you to come. Now you're stranded along with the rest of us, so you're going to do your part of the work. The more you do, the stronger you'll get.”

“But I've never done anything like this before.”

“Then it's time you learned. You're the only one left who hasn't taken a turn carrying, so you're going to do it—unless you want one of the girls to take a turn.”

Abigail cast a worried glance at her three young daughters. They all listened to Sheena with wide eyes in rapt fascination to see what would happen.

“Stand there, between the shafts. That's right. Now when I give you the word, pick up the stretcher and start walking. It's as simple as that. If you really need to stop and rest, just tell me. Just remember we've got half the day to walk before Jasmine and Dana take over, so we have to keep up and not fall behind the group.”

Sophia looked over her shoulder and murmured gently to Sheena under her breath. “Don't be too hard on her.”

Abigail squared her shoulders and stepped between the shafts. “No, Sheena's right. I have to do my share. Do me a favor, will you, Sophia? Please lie down, because I don't want to drop you.”

Sophia laid down, and Abigail followed all of Sheena's instructions. Fawks shouldered his bundle and moved out. It dwindled every day with so many people eating out of it. Sheena thanked him in her mind for his foresight in preparing the morlock to feed them on the trail, but she dared not speak to him or even look at him now.

What had become of her? What did he do to her with his lips and hands? She didn't know herself. Aching desires out of her worst nightmares paraded before her eyes. She wanted him to touch her like that. She wanted him to do every wicked thing in the world to her. She wanted him to dominate her the way men like Rollo wouldn't dare to do.

Fawks kept the point all morning. They flanked the mountain Sheena first spotted and circled it to the north. As soon as it fell away to their side, another mountain appeared behind it. Even from that distance, the whole team could see holes dotting its surface. It could only be Assan Keep.

Abigail rose to the challenge and carried Sophia all morning. She stumbled once or twice but staunchly refused to put the stretcher down to rest, even when Sheena suggested it.

Toward mid-morning, Fawks dropped back to the end of the line to walk next to Sophia's stretcher. Sheena lowered her eyes so she didn't have to look at him. She concentrated on her feet swinging over the ground between her stretcher shafts.

He rested his hand on Sophia's shoulder. “How does your wound feel now?”

“It's numb. I remember the first night. I couldn't sleep at all from the pain, but it doesn't hurt at all now as long as I don't try to move it.”

“What about the bumping? Does that hurt?”

“I can feel it, but it doesn't bother me too much. I haven't thanked you for saving us from that creature.”

He waved her thanks away. “You must still try to rest. You'll have a long recovery.”

Sophia scanned the forest on both sides. “I don't want to rest. Every time I close my eyes, I have the same dreams. I can't get rid of it.”

“What is it?”

“I keep dreaming a giant lizard comes along and licks my wound. Its tongue is hot as fire, but it always makes my leg feel better. I know it sounds silly, but I can never dream anything else.”

Fawks shot her a grin. “Maybe the lizard is the miracle everyone keeps talking about. Or maybe you are the miracle.”

Sophia laughed out loud. “Don't start with that miracle stuff. That's ridiculous.”

Fawks turned around. “What do you think, Sheena? Do you think the lizard is the miracle that brought Sophia back from the dead?”

Sheena kept her head down. “I don't think anything.”

“I have a better idea. Close your eyes now and see if the lizard comes back.”

Sophia shot out her hand and gave him a playful slap on the shoulder. “I knew the first time I saw you that you would make a big joke out of this lizard stuff. It was only a dream. It doesn't mean anything.”

Fawks dropped back to Sheena's side. “You've been carrying long enough. Let me take a turn.”

“I'll keep going until noon. That's what everyone else is doing. I'll do my share.”

“Just let me know if you change your mind.”

“You never offered to take over from anybody else.”

“You're different.”

She couldn't hide her burning cheeks with her hands on the stretcher, but she didn't answer. Rex called out to Fawks, and he resumed his place at the front of the company.

Sophia improved throughout the morning, and when the group stopped for their noon rest, she sat up and ate some of the morlock meat out of Fawks' bundle. Ron fluttered around her until Sophia told him to buzz off. “Do you know something? I can actually feel the life flowing through me. I never felt this good before in my life.”

“You might feel good, but you still can't walk. You have a long way to go.”

Sheena shook out her sore hands and patted Abigail on the back. “You did very well this morning. I didn't think you could do it, but you proved me wrong.”

“Thank you, Sheena. I want to do my share, if you just tell me what it is.”

“What about the girls? Do you want them to do their share, too? They could take turns in one place carrying the stretcher for half the day. That wouldn't tax them too much, and it would teach them the value of contributing to our survival out here."

"You're right, of course, but I don't think Ron would agree to that. I don't think he wants the girls carrying Sophia across the countryside."

"Have you asked him? He might surprise you."

"I haven't asked him, and I don't intend to."

"Why not? You're the woman in the family. You could just tell him you made the decision to include the girls in the line-up. He would have no choice but to go along with it."

Abigail blushed. "I never thought of myself that way before. Things don't really work that way between me and Ron."

"Maybe they should." Sheena walked away before she let herself say anything she might regret.

When she strode down the line in search of someone else to pass the rest time with, she found everyone in the company occupied with someone else. Jasmine and Dana sat with Ron discussing the miracle of Sophia's recovery. Rex regaled the girls with vivid descriptions of his counterattack against the morlock and how he subdued it with his secret weapon.

Only Fawks sat alone, as usual. As usual, everyone managed to avoid him. Sheena could spend the rest of her time in this forest avoiding him, too, or she could take the bull by the horns and wrestle it to the ground. She never shrank from confronting her problems before, and she would be cursed if she started now.

She took a deep breath and sat down next to him. Without saying a word, he offered her a handful of the preserved meat. She took it and started chewing. The luscious flavorsome juice filled her mouth. Every day aged the meat to a more tender, savory delicacy.

Sheena studied the grain of the meat in her hand. "Do you ever eat anything besides meat?"

"Of course, we eat other things besides meat, but this is all we have at the moment. Don't you like it?"

"I love it. It's delicious. I only wish I knew how you did it."

"You saw what I did. There was no magic trick to it."

"Was there a magic trick that made you suddenly interested in Sophia?"

His head whipped around. "Are you jealous of her? Are you worried I'll substitute her for you?"

Sheena snorted. "I only wish I could, but I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy."

He gasped, and his hand flew to his heart in mock dismay. "Sheena! I'm wounded. Tell me you didn't just say what I thought you just said."

"Get serious. I'm asking you a question, and I'm not leaving you alone until you answer it. Why are you so interested in Sophia now? You wouldn't look sideways at her before.”

He got serious. His eyes pierced her to the core. “That was before.”

“Before what? Before you kissed me last night?”

He shrugged. “Call it whatever you want. Things are different now."

"Did you do something to help her?"

"Something like what?"

"I don't know. Maybe you knew some medicinal plant all along, and you used it to heal her when none of us was looking."

"I told you and your doctor friend. I don't know any medicinal plant."

"That's what you said, but I can't think of any other explanation for the way you're acting. You're suddenly interested in her when you wouldn't discuss her wound at all. You're talking and joking with her like you've known her for years and actually care what happens to her. What happened to change your attitude toward her?"

"I always cared about what happened to her. I never wanted to see her die. I'm just happy she's feeling better now. She looks like she'll live, don't you think?"

This time, Sheena fixed her own eagle eyes on his impenetrable mask of a face. "Now I know you're lying. You had something to do with her getting better. I know it."

"What could I possibly do to make her better than your own doctor couldn't do?"

"I can't explain it, but I know it's true. If you didn't do anything to help her, you know what caused her to recover like this and you won't tell me."