Once closed, I cleansed the wound again with zakah when Gaal moved away, the healer gooped him up with some salve she promised aided healing (after I made her wash her hands with soap and rinse them in zakah) and then he sat up so she could press a long bandage down his front then roll a clean gauze tight around and around his torso, tying it expertly at the end.

The bodies, by the way, had been removed by young trainee warriors and Packa and Beetus, faces pale, had grabbed the sheet and pillows and pulled up the rugs to take them out as Jacanda went to work wiping down furniture and trunks.

Boy, I needed to go back to the market and buy my girls more gifts. They already went beyond the call of duty and got nothing for it except food, cham and minimal clothing. Wiping up blood went so beyond the call of duty, it wasn’t funny.

Ghost, by the way, was lying on her side at the foot of the bed, napping in a dead to the world fashion and I knew this because, even with all the people and activity around, she didn’t even twitch.

When I put pressure on Zahnin’s shoulder to press him back, he went without complaint but he looked at me when he was fully reclining.

“Can I have some zakah now?”

I studied him. He was not pale. He had never been faint. And his eyes held no pain. None at all. In fact, he looked totally normal.

Boy, they trained these boys to within an inch of their life.

Literally.

I sucked in a calming breath and answered, “Yes, my protector, you can have –”

I stopped speaking when the cham flaps slapped and I was turning toward them when I heard a soft, feminine intake of breath.

Sabine was standing inside my cham and Diandra and Claudine were entering the flaps at her back. And Sabine was staring at her husband and his bandage, her eyes wide, her face pale, her mouth soft. I watched those eyes drift up his chest to his face then I stared as they got bright with unshed tears.

They slid to me. “Circe?” she whispered.

“He’s fine, sweetheart, we’ve fixed him up,” I assured her.

She held my gaze for several moments before she nodded. Her eyes went back to Zahnin who I noticed had not moved and he was watching her silently. Then they swiftly came back to me.

It hit me that she didn’t know what to do.

I was sitting on my knees in the middle of the bed next to her husband and I extended my arm to her.

“It’s okay, you can come to him. He’s fine and you won’t hurt him,” I called softly, her body jerked slightly then she bit her lip.

I held my breath.

Then slowly, foot in front of foot, she walked to the bed. When she made it to the end, she put a knee to it and crawled on all fours to me.

Zahnin watched without a word.

I scuttled back and she stopped when she took my place, sitting ass to calves, knees an inch from his hip.

My feet hit stone at the side of the bed when I heard her whisper, “You are all right, husband?”

“Meena,” Zahnin replied instantly.

A pause then from Sabine, “Are you in pain?”

“Me,” Zahnin answered again instantly.

I heard her soft intake of breath and let out my own when her hand tentatively lifted, then settled lightly on the bandage at his stomach as she whispered, “Dohno.”

At her word and touch, with his gaze warm on his wife, his face soft, Zahnin lifted his hand and her body didn’t move or even tense as she allowed her husband to cup her cheek.

Then she did something that proved I was right about how sweet Sabine was.

She slowly and carefully dropped gracefully to her side and curled up next to him, her head on his shoulder, her hand light on his bandage. As she moved, Zahnin’s fingers slid through her hair so when she was settled, they cupped the back of her head.

My eyes went to his to see his were on me.

And they were communicating.

I nodded, getting the message loud and clear.

His fingers started sifting through his wife’s hair.

“Everybody out,” I ordered softly and I didn’t need to ask twice.

Jacanda quit wiping, grabbed her bucket and scurried. The healer and Bain moved to the tent flaps that Claudine had exited and Diandra was currently moving through. Gaal was already gone.

I wanted to look back but didn’t, it wasn’t right, but I really, really wanted to.

I didn’t need to.

I heard Zahnin mutter, “Thank you for coming to me, my beautiful one.”

Before I dropped the flaps behind me, I heard Sabine’s soft sigh.

And as the flaps settled, I heard Sabine ask with cute, quiet surprise, “Oh my, Zahnin, is that a tiger?”

This was followed by a quiet manly chuckle.

Hmm. It seemed I never shared about Ghost with Sabine and it occurred to me I’d never hosted her at my cham.

I walked toward Diandra and Claudine thinking I was going to have to do that. I’d had lunch or dinner at all my posse’s chams. I was falling down. It was way my turn.

These thoughts were wiped from my brain when Diandra’s eyes came to me then drifted the length of me.

Then they filled with tears.

“Oh, my Circe,” she breathed, I stopped moving, looked down and saw I had blood all over me.

I hadn’t even noticed.

I looked up to assure her I was fine when suddenly the air changed and I heard the thunder of hooves.

My head turned to my left just in time to see Lahn on Lahkan clear the cham closest to us. I had no time to experience shock at his early return, or delight. I didn’t because he was coming at a full gallop and he wasn’t slowing.

I registered vaguely he was followed by a number of other horses but I didn’t pay much attention because suddenly his body was swinging off his horse while Lahkan kept galloping!

“Lahn!” I cried, frozen stiff in panic when his feet solidly hit ground and Lahkan zoomed by me so close, I felt the breeze of motion and a whisper of touch from his tail but I couldn’t concentrate on that either.

Lahn was on me.

Or, his hands were. Travelling over my limbs, my shoulders, my br**sts, my belly, my waist, drifting over the dried blood, he jerked me so my back was to him and did the same.

It finally hit me what he was doing and I tried to turn back, saying, “Lahn, I’m okay.”

I didn’t turn around. He jerked me back around and my body swayed with the force of it and only remained standing because his hands clamped on either side of my jaw.

Then he stared into my eyes and I held my breath because his spirit was there, right there, right at the surface, burning golden, bright and brutal more than it had even after Dortak called out his threats.