Anne Bishop - Bridge of Dreams

She didn’t answer. Probably couldn’t, since she was puffing while dragging something into his little room.

“Daylight,” he muttered. Finding her shoulder, he held her still while his other hand traveled down her arm to the soft bag. “What have you got in here? A body?”

“Clothes. Shoes. Our things. Zeela was attacked outside our rooms. We were afraid to stay there. She’s hurt.”

He found a strap and hauled the bag farther into the room—and Sholeh with it. Then he closed the door.

There were too many questions he wanted to ask, but he heard her breathy efforts not to cry. “Where is Zhahar?”

“She needs to rest, so I’m in view now. Sh-she’s hurt too. Not cut like Zeela, but the wound is showing through on her too.”

Lee’s heart jumped. The wound was showing through ? “How badly is Zeela hurt?”

“Bad. A knife slice along the ribs. It’s still bleeding.”

Now he swore in earnest. “Why didn’t you get to the infirmary and have whoever is on duty summon Meddik Benham?”

“And say what?” she cried. “How can I explain Zeela being here without Zhahar or why I have our things? We trust you to know about us, but…”

“I know how to keep family secrets,” he said. “Sit in the chair. Zeela needs to…” He hesitated, trying to remember her phrasing. “Zeela needs to come into view now.”

He didn’t wait for her agreement. Feeling his way to the door, he opened it, winced a little at the soft light, then began moving down the hallway, fingertips brushing the wall on his left, traveling over other doors.

The door at the end of the hallway opened.

“Lee?” Nik’s normally friendly voice held a challenge and warning. “You’re not supposed to leave your room until first call.”

“I need to see the Shaman, and you need to fetch the Meddik. Now. ”

“Look here—I know Shaman Danyal has been lenient with you, but…”

“A woman is hurt and needs Meddik Benham. Fetch him now! ”

The hallway lit up so bright that Lee ducked his head to protect his eyes. A heartbeat later, thunder rattled the building.

He braced a hand on the wall. “Guardians and Guides, that’s never happened before.” At least, not in response to his temper.

“You go back to your room,” Nik said, sounding shaken. “I’ll fetch— Shaman!”

“What happened?” Danyal asked, huffing a bit as if he’d run to the building from wherever he’d been.

“I’ll explain,” Lee said. “Nik is going for the Meddik. Zeela is in my room. She’s been hurt.”

“Tell Benham he’s needed here,” Danyal said.

A moment after Nik dashed off, Lee felt Danyal approach—and wondered if he or the Shaman had caused that flash of lightning and the thunder that followed.

“What’s Zeela doing in your room, Lee?” Danyal asked softly.

“I won’t betray a trust,” Lee replied just as softly, “so I won’t tell you all you want to know. I understand some things about Zhahar and her sisters. I think that’s why they came to my room. Or that was as far as they could get.”

“Zhahar and Sholeh are here too?”

“Yes.” Would I trust this man enough to gamble with my own family? Would I tell him enough to help him guess the rest? “Their full name is Sholeh Zeela a Zhahar.”

Danyal jerked, then said, “Brooks full of bright water. Storms. A summer lake.”

So Danyal had felt something when he was around the sisters.

“Some of the spiritual practices of Zhahar’s people would be compromised if she were to stay in the infirmary,” Lee said. He wasn’t sure calling them spiritual practices was accurate, but that explanation would receive the least resistance when it came to changing the rules. “She can stay in my room.”

“No, she cannot.”

Lee huffed out a breath. “I’m not going to see anything I shouldn’t see, but I can offer some muscle, because I think they’ll need it. Kobrah can help. And I can sit on the porch under my window so I can hear if she needs help without being in the room all the time.” He could feel Danyal’s resistance. “Daylight, man! If Zeela can strip me down and bathe me, I can sit by the bed and watch over her.”

“Zeela?”

Lee shrugged. “It’s amazing how much people let you see when you can’t see.”

Silence when they heard two people running.

“She’s down in Lee’s room,” Danyal said.

“Why didn’t someone have sense enough to bring her to the infirmary?” Benham growled as he trotted past them.

Lee assumed the door he heard opening was his, especially when the Meddik’s footsteps stopped.

“Get a stretcher!” Benham shouted. “Get it now!”

Nik ran.

Danyal’s hand closed on Lee’s arm, guiding him as they hurried back to his room.

Based on the arrangements of dark blobs and gray light, Lee figured they were standing in the doorway of his room.

“How is she?” Danyal asked.

“She has a deep knife wound between two ribs,” Benham snapped. “How do you think she is? As soon as Nik returns with that stretcher, she’s going to the infirmary.”

“Just need a little sewing up,” Zeela said, her voice slurred.

“A couple of hours ago, you might have needed just a little sewing up,” Benham said. “Now…”

“Benham,” Danyal said.

“If you have something to say to me that you don’t want shouted to everyone within hearing, come in. I’ve got to keep pressure on this wound. And who is this anyway? And why is she in a male inmate’s room?”

“She’s Handler Zhahar’s sister. She had reasons to seek help from Lee.”

Picturing the dark look he was getting from Benham, Lee said, “I’m not having sex with Zeela.”

“Tch,” Zeela slurred. “Wouldn’t have him anyway, since he wants to rub skin with Zhahar.”

“Which we haven’t done,” Lee said firmly. Rub skin? He’d been fantasizing about a bit more than that lately, but he didn’t know the Tryad’s customs when it came to having sex. Maybe touching skin, which was unique to each sister, was considered more intimate than touching body parts that were shared?

Nik returned with a stretcher and Denys. A protesting and no doubt frightened Zeela was moved from chair to stretcher and hurried to the infirmary.

Lee wanted to go with them but figured a blind man would be in the way. Besides, hearing the door close and Danyal quietly turning, he didn’t think leaving the room was an option right now.

“What’s that?” Danyal asked.

“If you’re referring to the pack, it’s what they could bring. They ran, Danyal. Something turned sour where they live, and they ran after Zeela was hurt. Took what they could and most likely left the rest.”

“Should I understand that I won’t be able to talk to Zhahar until Zeela is out of the infirmary?”

“Yes, you should understand that.”

Silence. Then, “Where did you come from, Lee?”

“I come from a village called Aurora. I don’t know where that is in relation to this city except the air has less heat there even on a muggy day, and I’m pretty sure the plants look different based on the leaves I’ve felt. But we don’t measure distance the way you do. We don’t travel the way you do.”

“Why not?”

“Because I grew up in the part of the world that was a broken battlefield. I can walk down the road and never be able to reach the neighboring village if it’s not a place that resonates with my heart, but I can cross a bridge and be in another part of the world. That’s the Ephemera I know.” Lee cocked his head. “Does it bother you that she told me some things about her people that she didn’t tell you?”