Strange New Eyes

Chapter Eighteen - Homecoming

Aysel woke as slowly as ice melting in the spring, trickle by trickle. She noticed the steady up-and-down rhythm of movement first, and took a few hazy moments to ponder how it felt. Down and forward, up and back, like a boat rocking on a fast-moving river. It was cold like a river, too, especially around her mouth. The air she breathed in chilled her lungs. She closed her mouth and took a breath from her nose, but it seemed to be covered by something. She moved her face against it; it was a soft cloth smelling of smoke, sweat, and old blood.

She opened her eyes, but they too were covered by the cloth. She moved her hand to try to push it aside, but her hand refused to move. She tested the other one, but it was trapped too, and her legs as well. Sleep began to fall away from her as fear and claustrophobia set in. She had been bound too many times in the past few days to do anything but let panic wash through her, thinking that Enrick had decided to tie her up instead of kill her, thinking that she had died and this was the punishment the Ancient Ones had chosen--

"Aysel?"

She stopped struggling at the sound of Dunyasha's voice. She had saved her, hadn't she? Or had it just been another trick?

"Aysel, are you awake?"

The world tipped around her, then exploded into light as the cloth was pulled away from her face. Staring down at her was Dunyasha, looking more haggard than Aysel had ever seen. Her dark mane of hair straggled around her face, which was streaked with the crumbling trail of dried blood, but her eyes, though they were ringed with grayish dark circles, practically glowed at the sight of Aysel's face.

"You're awake!" she shouted, and tackled Aysel in a hug. Aysel gasped as Dunyasha pulled her from the ground and clutched her tight. She was making a strange gasping noise in Aysel's ear, and when she pulled away, Aysel could see her face was wet with tears.

"Aysel, you're awake!" she said again, half laughing and half sobbing the words. "Oh my stars, I was so worried you wouldn't wake up. I was so worried you wouldn't wake up." And she wrapped her arms around her again, shaking with emotion.

"Could you..." Aysel's voice sounded as though she was speaking through a throatful of rocks.

Dunyasha lifted her head from Aysel's shoulder and immediately said, "Anything."

"Could you let go?"

"Oh. Of course. I'm sorry." She pulled back. "Here." Without needing to be asked, her hands were busy unwrapping the furs and red crimson cloak she had wrapped around Aysel. "I'm sorry for making it so tight," she said as she finally freed Aysel's arms. "I was worried you'd freeze to death. Oh, stars," she said with a laugh. "You're not dead!"

"Enrick tried to kill me," she said. The words tasted false in her mouth. She pulled herself up so she was sitting and pulled the wrappings around her shoulders. "He tried to kill me."

Dunyasha's smile fell. "I know."

And at her words, she crumbled. Her shoulders slumped forward as if she was caving in on herself-- that's what it felt like, as if someone had scooped out her insides and replaced them with darkness. Darkness like the cave where someone she thought had been her friend had held her down and tried to end her.

But he hadn't. She hesitated before she said, "You rescued me."

"I did."

"So what you said back in the main cave, about siding with your uncle and killing my people..."

"A lie," Dunyasha said. "I knew Uncle wouldn't trust me fully, but I thought that if I could get him off his guard even a bit I'd have a chance to destroy his supply of powders. But then one of the guards said something about if Enrick was strong enough to do it, and I started to worry about you. I went to find you, fought off the people Uncle had sent with me, and got to you just in time." A smile broke over her face again. "I was so frightened you wouldn't wake, but you did and--" she started forward, then stopped. "Do you want to be hugged right now? I know you've just gone through a lot so I wanted to ask before I--"