the normal noises of the woods. She wondered how long she had been lying senseless. The fact that she remained in one piece told her that Sadaiyo had either given up looking for her or hadn’t pursued her at all.
Cautiously, she crawled from her hiding place and emerged into the dark of early evening. She stood up, retied the waist of her trousers, and wrapped her torn tunic around her body as best she could. She reached up to gingerly touch her swollen cheek, bruised in the attack. She expected that she would have other bruises on her body as well.
She had to get to Ashinji.
She decided not to think about that now.
She started walking. She soon realized that she had no idea in which direction the castle lay. Well, no matter. The woods were small; soon, she would reach its edge, and when she did, she would just follow it around until she came to the river.
She stumbled, purely by luck, upon the path that led from the castle toward the stone circle. Her legs began to shake so badly that she thought she might stumble and fall, but somehow, she kept going. She had to reach Ashinji. Only then would she feel truly safe.
She spotted the bridge just ahead through the trees. The sun had already retired below the horizon, and Jelena feared that the guards might have already shut the main gates for the night.
The gates stood open. Breathing a sigh of relief, she hurried across the bridge and rushed past the guards. Before they could question her, she ran for the upper gates. She prayed that she would not encounter any of her friends. She knew she would be unable to muster the strength to make up the necessary lie to explain her disheveled state. Yet, she would have to lie, because no one could know the truth except Ashinji.
The two guards at the upper gate were busy eating their dinners and ignored her as she passed. All the guards at Kerala knew her by sight now, and had grown accustomed to her comings and goings from the lower yard to the castle and back.
The castle gleamed softly in the evening light. The flickering yellow of lamplight spilled out from windows on the upper floors. Jelena made her way to the outer staircase that led up to Ashinji’s apartment.
“ Please be here, my love,” she murmured as she climbed the steps. She pushed open the door at the top of the staircase and stepped into the dimly lit hallway beyond. At that same moment, the door to Ashinji’s chamber flew open, and he came rushing out. He swept her up into his arms and carried her in across the room, where he deposited her gently onto the bed.
He sat beside her and pulled her close. She clung to him, too exhausted even to cry.
“ I knew you were in danger…I could feel it,” he whispered, rocking her back and forth. “I rushed back home as fast as I could and tried to find you, but no one seemed to know where you were! And then Sadaiyo showed up bleeding from a deep wound in his thigh. He claimed that he had done it himself by accident, but…” His voice trailed off, and he continued to rock Jelena in silence.
“ Tell me what happened, love,” Ashinji finally asked.
“ Oh, Ashi,” she whispered.
Numbly, she told him and then surrendered to the dark.
Chapter 30
In a small, halting voice, Jelena told Ashinji everything that had happened. The trauma of reliving the attack seemed to drain what little energy she had left, for after she finished, she slumped against him and lapsed into semi-consciousness. He held her until he sensed that she had drifted off into natural sleep, then very gently began to undress her. Tears stung his eyes at the sight of the ugly purple bruises on her shoulders, back, arms, and face. After he had removed the torn remnants of her clothes, he tucked her into his bed, then undressed and slipped under the coverlet beside her.
As Jelena lay sleeping, Ashinji stared at the ceiling, his mind seething. The intensity of his anger terrified him, and he felt himself teetering on the edge of a dark chasm. It would be so easy to let go, to fall in and allow the darkness to sweep him away into madness. Only the anchor of Jelena’s love could hold him back and keep him from total ruination.
The moon had reached the mid-point of its nightly progress when Ashinji finally gave up all hope of sleep. He kissed Jelena softly, then slipped out of bed and padded across the room to sit on the windowsill. An errant breeze, laden with the scent of night-blooming jasmine, caressed his cheek. He raked his fingers through his hair and glowered into the dark, contemplating murder.
Killing his brother would be personally satisfying, but ultimately disastrous. The penalty for murder was death, so not only would Kerala lose its future Lord, but its only other male scion as well. The House of Sakehera would forever suffer the taint of fratricide.
He glanced over his shoulder at Jelena’s still form.
He considered Jelena’s account of how she had prevented Sadaiyo from raping her. Somehow, she had managed to use her ‘blue fire’ energy.
In three weeks’ time, Lord Sen would depart Kerala, bound for the capital, to attend the king’s council. Both Sadaiyo and Ashinji were to accompany him.
Jelena stirred and called out his name. He returned to bed and kissed her for reassurance.
“ I love you, Ashi,” she whispered and drifted off again. He smiled. Only those who loved him called him by his nickname, with the singular exception of Sadaiyo, who never called Ashinji anything without attaching a measure of scorn to it.
Just before sunrise, he closed his eyes and managed to sleep a little.
Haggard from the long, restless night, Ashinji stalked the castle grounds, searching for Sadaiyo. He had left Jelena curled up in a nest of coverlets, still deeply asleep. After what she’d been through the day before, he doubted she’d wake any time soon. Her traumatized mind and body desperately needed the rest.
