The Bonds Undone (Sequel to The Sword Unbroken)

Chapter Twenty Five: Apology

Rerdas bent over the little book laid out on the bench in front of him and checked the instructions for the fourteenth time. Bromelene was trickier than a one-eyed fox. He'd already thrown out two useless batches, one of which had grown a fungus all over it at an alarming rate.

It would be worth all the time spent tending the plants and cutting and mashing and testing if he could just get it right. A dab of bromelene worked wonders on scar tissue, and Rerdas knew that most of the battleboxers in the camp had never had access to the expensive cream before.

Dolabari had made him move his experimenting to one of the medic areas at the edge of the training grounds. The proximity to the training legions stung at first, but he could tell she was trying to ease him back into the camp. And since his performance on the parade grounds a few days before, no one had tried to send him away.

He glanced over to watch Dolabari applying a poultice to a nasty scrape on someone's arm. She had to be one of the kindest people he had ever met, and her presence had begun to feel like a gift. Etiana would have liked her a great deal.

Pain struck in his chest at the wayward thought. He knew already how it would move through him. First the landing of the blow. The tiny shard of shock that his cousin was truly gone. Radiating outward, until he wanted to claw it out of his bones. Then reverberations, like the sound of a gong racing beneath his skin and making his eyes water. It passed over and through him in a wave. Sometimes he pictured himself in an ocean, kicking desperately to stay afloat against wave after wave. He knew that he could do it, though it exhausted him.

Eventually the wave rolled away, leaving him hollowed but still standing. His mind cleared a bit, and he reread the line of instructions he was stuck on again. He started to cut the stems of the huddle flowers into pieces small enough to be shavings.

"Uh, fair afternoon," an unfamiliar voice said.

Rerdas glanced up. The dark-haired battleboxer from the parade grounds was hovering just beyond the roof the shelter. The same man who had punched him in the mouth and kicked him in the shoulder. Although, to be fair, he had thrown himself at the battleboxer with every intention to smash his face and none of the skills to really do it.

"Fair afternoon," he heard himself say.

"I'm Sique."

"So I've gathered."

Rerdas winced inwardly. He was using the same lofty tone that he'd imitated on the parade grounds. He tried to shake it out of his voice. "Er...my name is Rerdas. Which you already know. But..."

"I came to say thank you," Sique blurted.

Rerdas blinked. "Oh. Of course. That whole thing was my fault, anyway." His teeth snagged against the raw skin of his lips before he forced himself to continue. "I...I'm sorry for trying to hurt you. I was very, uh, upset." Sweet Eternals, he couldn't possibly understate it more than that.

The battleboxer twitched. A full body twitch that rippled through him like an aftershock. His brow lowered, mouth slightly open and then shut again.

Rerdas thought he might have offended him, but Sique's frown did not seem entirely angry. He looked the way he had on the parade grounds. Taken aback.

Finally he gave Rerdas a tiny bob of his head. "I accept. Fair afternoon to you." He swung away with one last half-look over his shoulder, and trotted back toward his waiting friends.