Laurel
A pang of guilt pained my heart as I crept from Haakon’s side. He lay in heavy slumber, barely twitching when a butterfly wafted over his face and landed on his knee. The daylight lined his peaceful face, and the ravaged lines of his body. He was healing, but the angry weals and broken skin told me he would spend this day, at least, prone and still healing.
An ordinary man would be dead.
I should stay and nurse him, and keep my promise. But his touch in the darkest hours of the night woke feelings I could not control, feelings best left in slumber.
So I left one waterskin and took the other, and slipped away.
I found the path Ulf had lead me on in the dark. Had it been only one night? I was still tired, my body aching from the fall.
My legs burned after a few steps. I’d lived
