Succubus Tear (Triune promise) (51 page)

“For you, Al’bah…”

She could hear his whispers. She knew his hurt, as he did from the way she treated him.

“Because you love my friend…”

She felt his nearly shed tears as he grinded and smoothed, and worked and reworked the shining silver.

“Even though your eyes carried a hate, a judgment I didn’t deserve…”

She knew the endearment as only a master craftsman could have, as Charlie sanded, polished, and
polished
the metal, even in places where it would not show.

“May Cain treasure you, as much as you treasure him…”

As he placed an expensive finishing chemical that would keep the metal shining for years if not decades.

“Sorry…oh, Charlie, I am so sorry.” Al’bah wept, watching the first real gift she ever received crumble in her hands. “Oh…oh…if I only knew. Please forgive me.”

At last, it was done. Al’bah closed her fingers around a small puff of ash and dust in her hands. She sniffed and wiped her eyes with the back of her hands. “Forgive me, Charlie, I have wronged you. I have misjudged you.”

Al’bah took in a deep sigh and opened her eyes; this time she did not shy away from the sight of her Bond in agony. “My Bond, my love,” Al’bah whispered as she kneeled and placed her hands in his.

“Come back to me.” Al’bah closed her eyes and reached across the spaces and non-spaces of existence and
pulled
.

“No more uncertainty,” she whispered, wiping away scarlet from her eyes and smiling mouth. “Either we are reunited, or we are broken, here and now.”

***

After several-
Moments? Hours? Days? Eons?
-did Al’bah at last open her eyes. On shaking legs she stood, wobbling to the kitchen sink, and threw up. After several moments she washed the blood from her face and patted herself dry with a towel. 

“Charlie, thank you,” Al’bah whispered, settling her head in Cain’s lap. “Your comb is—was—so beautiful. So…”

Al’bah could not go on; her words dissolved into sighing, and her sighs into tears. After several moments, Al’bah at last calmed down enough, and held her breath. Her energy was spent. She was dying. It was all up to Cain now; she could do no more. Either Cain would recover and bring her right along with him, or they would die together.

How aware of breath I am,
Al’bah thought disjointedly.
Heartbeat, breath, sight, sound! Oh! How it all fades, I can feel it fade. Cain, forgive me, I was not strong enough! Cain, please…

Al’bah sighed; her breath exhaled slower than any other, and stopped.

***

“Al’bah.”

“Al’bah,” the voice called again.

With a violent coughing gasp, Al’bah raised her head off of Cain’s lap, still hearing the scream of Taint’s fury ringing in her ears.

“Cain?” Al’bah said, looking into his face that was not only awake but aware of her presence.

“Would you leave me with a broken heart?” Cain asked in a raspy voice, still thick with slime.

“I—Cain, I…”

Cain smiled slightly and closed his eyes.

***

Two days later, Cain slowly became aware that he was staring at a woman sitting across from him. Just as slow was his awareness of being naked. Cain’s thoughts were just about to penetrate the fuzziness that clogged his thinking when the woman spoke, startling him half to death.

“Ah, you’re awake. You’re lucky to be alive there, Cain.”

In spite of his nakedness, Cain jumped to his feet—or at least he tried to. He was covered by several heavy blankets and—

Am I tied to the chair?

All he could manage was a feeble shifting of his body that sent spears of pain though his cramped muscles. After what seemed like forever, Cain opened his eyes; the woman had not moved, still staring at him.

“Who are you?” he asked, amazed at how much energy he had to use to get the words out.

“I am Serenna, Amidres’ Wells’s wife, at your service,” she said with a slight nod of her head.

The fog within Cain’s thinking lifted a little. “Al’bah?” he panted. “She—is she?”

“Your fiancée is safe and well. She must love you very much. But even love has its limits. Staying by your side and caring for you five days nonstop without sleep will take its toll on even the strongest of minds and bodies.”

“Five—” The rest was cut off by cries of pain as Cain tried to get up and was thoroughly punished by his body yet again.

“Easy there! I would say that you’re going to recover, but not if you keep trying to tear apart your body.”

Serenna went to the fireplace and ladled some liquid from the hanging pot into a bowl. She swirled the bowl for a moment and tipped it toward his lips. Cain’s body rejoiced at the warm beef soup that poured down his throat. Serenna alternated between feeding him soup and lukewarm water.

“Thank you,” Cain said, feeling his strength returning, but not nearly enough for him to even want to get up from his seat. “What happened to me?” he asked, trying to look around.

“You? Why, just the worst bacterial pneumonia I have ever seen,” Serenna said, taking his bowl and wiping his face with a washcloth, making him realize how much facial hair had grown since he started his desert trek. “By all rights you should have been dead by now. Yours is the first ever I have seen so ill, and come out alive.”

Ugh! I need a shave.
“How did you know it was—”

“Bacterial? Pneumonia? I used to be a nurse practitioner, so I have a decent understanding of medicine. And because the antibiotics worked,” Serenna said while tossing the cloth away and reaching for a radio. “If it wasn’t, or if it was anything else, you wouldn’t be alive.” She clicked a button on a radio that sat upon a countertop.

“Amidres’?”

“Yeah?”

“Our guest is awake and is aware.”

“Thank you.”

She put the radio down and looked into Cain’s eyes; they were a soft brown, full of care, but with an accusatory edge.

“Cain Lamentson, I know who you are. I know why you are down here.” She said; her voice gained a hard edge as she continued to speak. “My husband believes the story Al’bah tells him, but it is obvious to the both of us that she is leaving out a great deal. So I want to hear you tell the truth to the people who saved your life.”

She narrowed her eyes and placed her face an inch from Cain’s. “Is it true? Did you kill innocent lives?”

Cain kept his eyes locked to Serenna’s and knew the double meaning the question had, and he answered with a heart full of peace. “No, not even guilty lives.”

Serenna’s carefully neutral expression seemed frozen as she slowly withdrew, her eyes blinking a little faster than before. “I will wake Al’bah,” she said as she left the room.

Cain watched her go, and his eyes roamed the room he was in. It was a large house to be sure, built entirely of logs, perhaps cedar, if his nose was correct. The fireplace was actually in the middle of the room, open on two sides, on a stone hearth that surrounded it four full feet in any direction. There was a tangle of blankets on the floor on a spot not too far away from where he was that smelled like Al’bah.

The furniture seemed to have been handmade and had the same color and texture as the floor and walls. The décor was Spartan, but everything from the mantle of the fireplace, the furniture, to the doors—everything he could see—was a work of art that would have made decorations unsightly. There was a flash of movement and a squawky voice.

“Cain! You are awake!” Al’bah threw herself upon Cain’s body and almost toppled the chair with Cain on it.

“Al’bah! Ow!” Cain yelped, as she had started yet another chain of painful convulsions in his muscles.

“Sorry, sorry!” she said, touching his face, kissing his lips. Her eyes were dull, and her skin was no longer the tone of caramel, but rather a pale, muddy brown color that was a bruised purple under her eyes. Even her hair seemed out of sorts.

“Do I look as bad as I feel?” he said with a weak grin.

Al’bah just smiled. “Happy!”
 

“What happened?” Cain said, already feeling sleep creep up on his senses.

Al’bah was just about to answer when Serenna spoke.

“Tell him tomorrow, Al’bah. Cain, you just got over what was almost a fatal infection, and night will be upon us soon. The very act of waking up and speaking, even after nearly eighteen hours of unbroken sleep, has drained you. And you, Al’bah, you have not slept like I asked you.”

Serenna put a thermometer in Cain’s mouth and after a moment took it out. “One-oh-one point six,” she said out loud. “You are not completely better yet. Sleep, and if you feel up to it, you can try to stand and move about in the morning.” She grasped the cloth that kept Cain tied up to the chair and pulled it free.

“I do not want to leave his side,” Al’bah said quietly, never taking her eyes off of Cain.

“I will not force you, but rest, Al’bah. No good will come from staying awake and watching someone sleep when you need it yourself.”

Serenna turned and left the two of them alone.

Cain yawned and involuntarily stretched, but this time the pain did not come at him as savagely as before. His consciousness started to go into the place just before one begins to dream. To the places where memories are the receding tide taking one along to the sea of dreaming. Cain took one last sigh and exhaled a single word before sleep; real sleep took him rather than the black uncertainty of unconsciousness.

“Al’bah.”

***

Al’bah stared at Cain for a long time before she realized he went to sleep. Oh! How grateful she was for Cain to still be alive! And to Serenna and Amidres’, who had taken them in, regardless of knowing about who they were and the fifty-thousand-dollar bounty on their heads.

Al’bah had told them as much as she could, but knew that to reveal everything would be unsettling, to say the least. She settled down on her blankets as sleep came for her.

Thank you,
she said in her mind, hoping the Creator would hear her, hoping that the Creator would know of her gratitude which spilled out of her eyes. To think that the Creator would still show His mercy to the punished! Or perhaps the Creator was just looking out for Cain. Now that was a thought.

Whichever way it was, I am grateful for your mercy, for your blessing. Thank you…thank you…thank
… 

Al’bah fell asleep for the first time in days.

The End of Strength

“Cain! You would do well to remember that Al’bah’s efforts saved your life! If you like, I can give you a check for a hundred thousand dollars and show you the door! Much good it would do you!”

—Serenna Wells

Cain opened his eyes, awakened by the sound of voices, and looked around. He turned his head to see Serenna and Amidres’ cooking breakfast. He looked to the floor and spotted Al’bah still asleep. He tried to push the blankets off and was just barely able to do so.
 

“I—oh! Cain!” Serenna cried out, turning away, making Cain realize he was still naked.

Amidres’ looked up to Cain and then to Serenna. He laughed as he walked out of the kitchen. Cain caught a glimpse of Serenna’s red face just before the door closed. “Don’t know why she is so embarrassed,” Amidres’ said, covering his lower half. “She and Al’bah had seen plenty of you these last couple of days.”

“Hmmm?” Al’bah said groggily from the floor.

“Ah, and speaking of the lovely young lady,” Amidres’ said, offering his hand to allow Al’bah to stand. “You will forgive me if I insist that we get Cain cleaned up?”

“I will do it,” Al’bah said happily.

“Al’bah, you will throw out your back if you keep carrying Cain’s weight the way you do,” Amidres’ said as he slung one of Cain’s arms over his shoulder.

“I am strong, it is better this way,” Al’bah said softly, standing taller than Amidres’ could with Cain’s weight.