Chapter 6
1642 Words
6
A sharp pain brought me back around. A hiss escaped my lips and I forced my eyes open. My vision was blurry for a moment, but I could make out the familiar shadowy person who had saved me from my would-be rapists. They stepped back into the shadows as my vision cleared.
I found myself in a large, soft four-post bed, and around me was the comfortable decor of wood paneled walls and thick, heavy wood furniture. The floors were covered by thick oriental rugs and there were a few tapestries on the otherwise bare walls. A warm fire crackled in a small fireplace, and windows with soft white curtains looked out on a cloudy but otherwise calm night. A balcony extended out of the right-hand wall of the room, but its view was obscured by the shut doors and curtains. All of this was seen by aid of two gas lights, one of which hung beside the bed and the other was on one side of the door.
The figure stood on the side of the bed opposite the gas lamp and with their back to the soft light of the fireplace so that their front was covered in shadows. “How are you feeling?” he asked me.
I shifted and winced when my head throbbed. “Like I’ve been hit by a train.” My slight movement trigged alarm bells in my head that something wasn’t quite right. I looked down at myself and my cheeks reddened. “When did I get into these clothes?” My soiled pajamas were gone and had been replaced by a long white shirt that stretched down to my mid thighs.
“I removed them while you slept so you wouldn’t catch cold,” he explained with a slight chuckle in his words. “And you may rest assured that my motives were more pure than those of your former companions.” The reminder of my attack made me shudder. The figure took a step forward and the lower half of his face was revealed by the lamp light. “Are you cold? Can I fetch you a blanket?”
I wrapped my arms around myself and shook my head. “No, but you can fetch me some explanations. Where am I? How the heck did I even get here?”
He shook his head. “I wish I had the answer to your last question, but I am as puzzled as you. As for where you are, you are in my house which is located in the city of Tras.”
I blinked at him. “Tras? Where’s that?”
“Is that name not familiar to you?” he wondered.
I shook my head. “No. Should it be?”
He was silent for a moment, and I had a feeling he was searching my face. “Might I ask you a rather unusual question?”
I shrugged. “Why not?”
“Do you recall, when you were a young girl, being out on a boat with four young boys?” he asked me.
My heart quickened, and at his words I recalled my last memories before I blacked out. “Do you. . .are you really Asher?”
The man hesitated before he stepped fully into the light. The soft features of the young lad who had protected me all those years ago had matured into the handsome form of a youthful man approaching thirty. Those were the same soft blues eyes, though with a sadness that came with a life that had known sorrow.
My hand flew to my mouth to hide my gasp. “My god. It’s really you, isn’t it?”
That familiar smile appeared on his lips. “It’s a welcome sight to see you again, Miss Miller.”
I ran a hand through my disheveled hair as my wide airs stared without focus at the bed sheets. “It wasn’t a dream? I was really there?” I lifted my eyes and looked around at myself. “I’m really there now?”
“So it would appear, but what caused you to return the city?” Asher wondered.
I shook my head. “I don’t know. I don’t even know how I got here the first time. One minute I’m laying in my bed and the next thing I know I’m here in this strange place.”
He arched an eyebrow. “During both times you brought with you some rather unusual clothes. What country do you hail from? Fiontar perhaps? Or perhaps your billowing pants you wore indicate the sailing country of Bradach?”
I blinked at him. “I-I don’t know where any of those are. I’ve never even heard of Tras before you told me the name.”
He seated himself on the edge of the bed and studied me with curiosity. For the first time I noticed his hands were covered in thick black gloves. I barely caught a few whispered words from him. “Then can it be that you don’t hail from this world at all?”
I shook my head. “I don’t understand-” He held out his hand and a green flame burst out of his palm.
I yelped and scrambled back where I slammed into the headboard. Asher closed his hand and extinguished the flame. The funny part was I hadn’t felt any heat from the blaze.
“Had you never seen magic before that night those fifteen years ago?” he asked me.
My eyes widened. “Is. . .that what that was?”
He gave a nod. “Of the simplest kind, but perhaps I startled you with the fire.”
I met his gaze and slowly shook my head. “Magic isn’t real where I come from.”
“Interesting. . .” he murmured as he jumped to his feet and paced the room. “Another world. . .teleportation with so many years difference. What could have been the-” He paused and looked to me with a smile. “But where are my manners? Here we are once more together after so long and I have yet to offer you so much as a glass of water.”
“I-I’m fine,” I assured him as I drew the sheets over my chest.
“Are you cold? Perhaps I might stoke the fire,” he offered as he moved over to the hearth.
As he bent over with half of him turned to me I could admire the handsome features. The boy had become a man, and time had not yet taken its hold at the corners of his eyes and mouth. His cloak had been discarded and I saw he wore a black turtleneck with matching pants made of some soft fiber that slightly glistened in the firelight.
He finished his work on the fire and looked up at me. I whipped my head away and tried to hide the blush on my cheeks. A sly smile slipped onto his lips as he stood.
“Time has been kind to you, Miss Miller,” he commented as he returned to my bedside.
I tilted my head to one side. “It has?”
He nodded as his eyes studied me with a hint of boyish mischief. “You’ve gone from a young girl into a rather beautiful young woman.” I couldn’t hide the blush now so I turned my face away. He sat on the edge of the bed and turned his face toward the fire. A soft sigh escaped his lips that made me look at him again. His eyes held a melancholy expression. “Fifteen years. Not a day goes by that I don’t think of that night.”
My heart ached for the handsome man. I slipped my hand across the covers and set it gently atop his gloved one. Even through the cloth his hand felt cold. Asher jerked his hand away and clutched it against himself.
“You. . .you must forgive me,” he apologized as he turned his face away. “My hands are rather delicate since that. . .well, that night.”
My face fell and even with such a small movement I was reminded of my head injury. I winced and reached up, but Asher blocked my hand with his gloved one. “Your wound hasn’t healed yet. I need only a moment more and you’ll be as good as new.”
I flexed my eyebrows and winced again. “I think it might take a little longer than-”
Asher raised his hand with the palm facing my head and his fingers outstretched. A soft green glow appeared from his hand and flowed over me. I felt a soft sensation as though someone was stroking my head. My skin tightened a little and he pulled his hand away where the glow faded.
He smiled at me. “Now you may touch your head.” I reached up and my fingers touched smooth, unblemished skin. The wound had vanished. I gaped at him, and Asher chuckled. “It’s been quite a while since I saw that reaction.”
“H-how? When? Where?” I stuttered.
“Perhaps a story for another day, for a new one will be upon us in a few hours,” he mused as he stood and turned to face me. “In the meantime, feel free to rest. I would venture to guess that your re-entrance into my world was more jarring than the first, and when the sun rises we will talk about what can be done to return you to your own world.”
I opened my mouth to protest, but a yawn interrupted me. I sheepishly grinned at him. “I suppose I am a little tired.”
“Then I will bid you goodnight,” he replied as he drew down the gas lamps and walked over to the entrance. He opened the door, but paused and looked over his shoulder. “Miss Miller?”
“Yeah?” I answered.
“I hope your stay will be a little longer than your last,” he told me.
I laughed. “I make no guarantees.”
Asher gave me such a strange look that my merriment was cut short, but he merely stepped out into a darkened hall and shut the door behind him. I huddled low in the bed and looked at my strange surroundings. The clouds cleared enough that stars appeared in the sky and twinkled down at me. Their beauty, however, was lost in my thoughts as I wondered about Asher’s last, thoughtful look.
I almost had the feeling that he wanted me to stay, not for a few days but for far longer.
- Writer
