Chapter 28
Prayer
Garenth moved his hips slightly to get more comfortable and hoped his movement didn’t awaken Brielle. He listened intently to her steady breathing, which reassured him she was still asleep. Smiling, he lay his head on the bolster as he listened to the sounds of this strange city filter in through the open section in the wall.
I am content.
He never thought he would be able to say that again. To be content meant he was happy. It meant he was ready to face whatever future the gods had planned for him.
I am content because of Brielle.
As if she’d heard his thoughts, she moved in her sleep. Unconsciously, she snuggled closer to his side. His wounded side, supposedly. Garenth ran a hand over the unmarked skin. He hadn’t had a chance to check his back and buttocks, but he could almost guarantee his skin there was as unblemished as his arms and chest.
He rubbed his hairless crown. There was no hair on him anywhere. He was as bald and bare as a newborn babe. No scars, no calluses. He was starting fresh. His past no longer mattered, and would never haunt him again.
My past.
That great city among the sands where he’d once lived was a long distance away. Although this place was strange and potentially dangerous, he oddly felt more comfortable here. Here was where Brielle lived, and at this moment he wanted nothing more than to spend whatever time he could with her.
His previous plans had washed away, along with the stone exterior that used to encase him. He no longer wanted to go back to his home lands. There was no reason for him to return. Not anymore. There was nothing back there for him. He was a man again, not a monstrosity. He could walk among the others without fear, and without initiating fear.
However, before he could stay he had to find a purpose to his new life. He couldn’t live in this city without providing for his own bed and board.
But what could I do?
Up until his imprisonment, his life had centered exclusively around the military. As far back as he could remember, he’d wanted nothing more than to become a soldier. His ultimate goal, to become a commander of a legion under the auspices of the pharaoh. He’d fought and suffered to become an expert with the Khopesh and dagger. He’d endured beatings meant to strengthen his endurance and make him stronger. He’d worked his way up the ranks with repeated offerings of his sweat and blood. He knew no other way to survive.
But if I am to live here, I will have to find another way. I will have to learn another profession. He gazed down at the beautiful woman cuddled against him. But before that happens, I will have to learn your language. One day, Brielle, I will be able to tell you, using your words, what you’ve come to mean to me.
His thoughts suddenly shifted to the man who’d recently been there. The man who called himself Kelling. The man he’d faintly recognized as one of the people who’d found him still chained and bound inside the dungeon. Kelling had taken the bag containing the mother idol with him after he’d reassured Garenth that the vial would be safe.
Garenth stared, unseeing, at the wall on the other side of the room as Minbar’s prophetic words came back to him. As long as you retain possession of the vial I’ve placed in your hand, you will live. He understood what she meant now. The potion she’d made him drink had turned him into the creature in order to prolong his life. With the vial no longer in his possession, his outer shell had begun to deteriorate, until it reached the point where he could shed it the way the snake sheds its skin. He was no longer protected by the stone orifice. His thousands of years of living was over.
Because he was human once again, he would eventually grow old and die. That’s what Minbar had meant.
His gaze dropped to Brielle. The thought of death didn’t frighten him because he’d found this woman. He was more than willing to face the coming years if he was able to do so with her beside him.
Let me stay with you, Brielle. Allow me to be your protector and your lover. Teach me how to face this strange city, and show me how I can make a life here with you.
Turning his face to the ceiling, he beseeched the gods. Give me the strength and courage to face this new land. Give me wisdom to find an occupation so that I may provide bread for my table.
Petbe, you have allowed me to best Serasin. You have allowed me to survive long past his treachery, and thus I have been revenged. But my battle has only begun. The war is not yet over. I am facing my biggest and final foe…this land and this time. So I ask of you, give me guidance so that I may prevail and conquer. Allow me this victory, and I will forever honor your name.
Closing his eyes, Garenth waited to see if the god would answer. He didn’t expect to hear anything, or in any way witness some sort of response. He was shocked when a cold gust of air unexpectedly blew into the room through the opening in the wall.
The wind. Petbe’s realm. A sign, an answer, from the Soul of the Sky.
A feeling of calm came over him. With it came resolve. Now that he had made a decision about his life and the coming days, and the gods had approved, he could face whatever destiny awaited him.
And Brielle. Because my destiny is hers, and hers is mine. We are intertwined…our fates and our souls, the same way we had intertwined our bodies.
At the thought of the way her body had responded to his, the fire in his loins he’d thought had been banked sparked back to life. Fresh hunger surged through him, and he slipped his hand between her warm, vibrant thighs.
Brielle stirred in her sleep as he pumped his fingers inside her, mimicking what he intended to do to her. She chuckled sleepily, then opened her eyes to give him a look that echoed his own growing need. When she rolled onto her back, spreading her legs as she held out her arm, Garenth accepted her invitation with a gusto that would leave them both drenched in sweat by the time they were finished.