The King's Messenger

Chapter 11

Eden flopped on his bed. It was only mid afternoon, but his head felt heavy, his eyelids weighted. The damned headaches- if they could even be called that; they were more like the bastard child of a headache and getting the absolute shit beat out of you- sapped his strength like a leech. Not to mention all the work he'd done. He may consider himself skilled with people and talking, but that didn't make it any less tiring to him. Enjoyable, useful, yet exhausting.

His mind swirled angrily, too furious for him to sleep right away, despite his tiredness. Mostly, he was mad at Fortune; now that the first attack had come, more would follow, possibly even today. He knew the routine; they'd strike at night, too, often, and he'd be perpetually exhausted in some way or another through the day.

Worse, he might get caught out with one. He was lucky, very lucky, that it had just been Captain Torre today. If it had been Lord Bahk, or out in the hall, with servants and guards abounding, or when he'd been in the harbor, looking for Messenger... absolutely disastrous.

As much as he resisted it, fearful anticipation rooted and sprouted in his stomach. He hated the uncertainty of not knowing when the next attack would be, the next bout of mind-splitting pain... He needed to get his artificing tools set up somewhere. It hadn't been a priority for him since he'd been back, mostly since he'd been so overwhelmed with everything else, and partially because he'd been so unsuccessful in the past, but if he had spare time, it couldn't hurt to try to find a solution.

Damn. He missed Estis. He missed his mother, his masters, his love... At least he'd brought Messenger with him. He sighed. Eden would just have to find more people here in Valina, though even that would be put on hold. He didn't dare risk a ride with Adrian tomorrow morning; it was too likely that he'd fall off his horse from exhaustion, or fall off with a splitting headache, or similarly embarrass himself in front of the young lord. Closing his eyes, he let out a breath. He'd have to put everything on hold for a while.

Eden slept for a while without incident. Once he woke, he called for dinner in his room as opposed to eating with his father and much of the nobility. Still no incident. All was fine as he prepared to sleep for the night. Perhaps I'll get lucky, he thought to himself as he drifted to sleep.

No such luck. An hour or two later, Eden wasn't sure, he woke to splitting pain. He lurched up, out of bed, pressing a hand to his face and resting the other on the wall. He took to pacing this time, in an attempt to distract himself in some way from the cursed headache. This one lasted a half hour; worse than the afternoon's, but not the worst-case scenario, all things considered. The only fortune to come of it was that he was able to fall straight to sleep after.

That one small blessing was torn away suddenly when Eden was awoken once more. The first half-hour was another stretch of pacing, wishing for it to just be over. Another ten minutes passed with no reprieve. Then another ten. Then twenty.

It must have been another twenty minutes after that before the headache departed, gone with as much warning as it came. Eden had given up on pacing long before that, sitting curled up against the wall. His eyes, long since adjusted to the back of his eyelids, could make out the forms of his shaking hands in the dim moonlight. Laboriously, Eden pushed himself off the plush rug and dragged himself onto his bed, sitting on the luxurious bedding. His last thought before he drifted off to sleep once again was that he wished he could wash; his nightclothes clung to him with sweat.

Eden woke with the sun, as usual, as it lit up his room in the morning. Blinking at the ceiling blearily, he considered that he might have to get darker blinds. As much as he disliked the idea, he was also exhausted, his head shrouded in a fog of interrupted sleep from the night before, his body heavy. He stared at the ceiling.