I’d saved it from my own rations that evening. This had been the larger of the two strips and my mouth watered just looking at it.
The horde king’s gaze flashed down to it before it snapped up. Those eyes darted back and forth between mine, his jaw tightening at whatever he found.
“You eat it,sarkia,” he murmured. “Dakkari can go over a week without food.”
“You need the nourishment to heal,” I said. “I know it’s not much…bu-but anything will help.”
The horde king leaned his head back once more and I swore I saw his expression soften at my words. But then a muscle in his jaw flexed and it was gone.
“Eat it,kalles,” came his gruff order. And even chained and wounded, I had the strongest urge to obey him blindly. When I didn’t move, his eyes narrowed and he said, “And you think I am the stubborn one?”
“I’ll save it for you when you are hungry,” I told him, wrapping the dried meat tight and bundling it once more. I placed it back into the pocket of my dress. Before he could say anything, I dipped the cloth into the remaining water and squeezed out the excess.
I bit my lip with indecision before I remembered that I’d split it earlier. Flinching slightly, I felt a flash of my anger from earlier return to me and my spine straightened in defiance. Without hesitation, I moved forward, gently pressing the cloth to the horde king’s temple.
The skin was darkening with bruises already and a long gash was crusted with dried blood.
“Does it hurt here too?” I whispered, dabbing with the cloth which was helping to loosen the blood, though I was highly aware that he was studying me in the darkness.
“I hardly feel it,” was his soft answer.
“Do you feel anything at all?”
The soft question escaped my lips before I could stop it. Right now, he was holding himself as still as a statue and his expression gave nothing away. Not pain from his wounds, not disgust at being this close to me, not even anger.
“Or are you made of stone like this mountain?” I finished, before I lost my nerve.
A soft huff escaped his lips. We were close. I’d leaned towards him to better clean his wound and I realized that I could see strands of black in his red eyes.
“More times than not, emotions get you killed,sarkia,” he informed me. “Rage overcomes you. Happiness lowers your guard. Love is for fools. And lust only blinds you.”
There was a hint of bitterness in his tone and my cheeks heated, remembering those brief moments in the fog.
Still, his words surprised me.
“You’re a horde king of Dakkar,” I whispered, taking the cloth away and dipping it back into the water. “You have the world at your feet. And still, you are this jaded? I thought that particular emotion was reserved only for the rest of us wretched, lowly beings.”
The horde king shifted, moving his head away from the cloth so he could peer at me closely. The weight of his full attention was…dizzying. As dizzying as the endless stream of words that escaped my tongue. I had more words, it seemed, pent up over my lifetime than I knew what to do with.
And it was onto a horde king that I would release them.
“To live is to suffer,Vorakkaror not,” was all he said in response. “I do not have to tell you that.”
My jaw tightened and I leaned back on my heels. “And I wish that there was a world with no suffering. No pain. Only peace and…safety.”
A sharp scoff burst from him. “When you find that fantasy universe of existence, do inform me,sarkia. I know many that wish to find it too.”
“You think me naive,” I guessed. “Don’t you?”
His nostrils flared. For a moment, he went quiet and I took the time to clean the cloth, wringing it out.
“I think for all your suffering,kalles,” he started quietly, “there is still a world that you know nothing about. Of greed and politics. Of war and bloodshed. Of recognizing the darkness in every living soul on this planet and realizing that no one is untouched by it.”
A small, quiet laugh escaped me which made him still.
Then I sighed, bringing the cloth to his shoulder.
“You don’t have to tell me about darkness, horde king,” I murmured to him, bending so close that I couldalmostrest my cheek on his upper arm. “I live in it.”
