Her expression went tight. “We need to find Erol.”
She tugged on his arm, and when he stumbled, she supported him with her shoulder. His head was filled with nails. Every step was agony. Venick tried to separate himself from the pain, tried instead to focus on Ellina, the feel of her slight form beneath him, which surely couldn’t support his weight, yet did.
The distance between the river and the infirmary seemed to stretch wider the farther they went, like a door at the end of a hall in a dream. Twice, Venick tried to stop, but Ellina wouldn’t allow it. “Almost there,” she said, then appeared to notice how the sound of her voice gave him strength, and kept talking. “We are nearly there, Venick, you will be able to rest soon, don’t stop just yet, not yet, only a little farther.”
Eventually, Venick couldn’t follow what she was saying anymore. Her words became like the shushof ocean waves, one folding over the next. They lulled him. His body slackened. Every step beat a wedge into his skull.
???
The voice was gentle, but stern. “You walked him here?”
“There was no time to fetch a litter,” Venick heard Ellina reply.
“You should have come for me.”
“I did not want to leave him.”
Venick peeled open an eye. The infirmary. Tall windows to hold the night, a sea of white beds. Erol was stepping forward to squeeze himself under Venick’s other arm, his bushy eyebrows dancing as he spoke. “This was unwise,” he told Ellina as they pulled Venick towards the nearest cot. “Are you aware that head injuries can be made worse with movement?”
Ellina gave no answer, and Venick couldn’t tell if this was because she hadn’t known that and was ashamed, or because she hadknown, and chose to move him anyway.
Erol said, “You can speak.”
Venick drew an angry breath, but Erol spoke over him. “Easy. I didn’t mean it as an accusation, merely an observation.”
“Yes,” Ellina replied. “I can speak.”
They pushed Venick into bed. He didn’t resist, exactly, but strained to stay upright rather than fall back onto the pillows. He wanted to see Ellina’s face. He hadn’t recognized her tone when she said,I can speak,and he wondered—was that because her tone was new? Or was it because he’d become so used to reading her expressions that hearing her voice was like listening to a language whose dialect was unfamiliar, and required extra concentration?
But Venick couldn’t concentrate. His head was so heavy.
“He must stay awake,” Erol said. “Sleep is dangerous for him right now.”
“Venick.” The bed dipped with Ellina’s weight. “Talk to me. Tell me something.”
He gave a sleepy sigh.
“The cove,” she blurted. “In Irek. Your homeland. You said you and your friends used to swim in a hidden cove.”
He remembered recounting that story, but he wondered what it meant to her. Did she know how he had dreamed of sharing that place with her? Why did she think of it now? “Yes.”
“Was it deep?”
He might have smiled at her obvious attempt to keep him awake, if smiling didn’t hurt so much. “It wasn’t too deep.” Another sigh. “But it was beautiful. The grove. The flowers.”
“Fish?”
“Fish,” Venick agreed. The words came from deep in his chest. “Tiny, colorful minnows. Urchins. Giantshroopa.You would like it.” He did smile then, a little, despite the pain. “I always did.”
She kept him talking, asking questions, calling forth memories from boyhood he thought he’d forgotten. As he spoke, Erol drifted away to tend other patients, leaving the two of them together. Soon, though, speaking became too difficult. Venick’s eyes fluttered closed.
“Venick.”
“Just resting.”
“You shouldn’t.”
“Mmm.” He caught her hand. “Stay with me?”
