Chapitre 627: By the Sea
Aurora drifted out of a strange and impossible dream. She had tried to cross an unending chasm, fallen into it at the hand of a cruel and vile monster, and then been rescued by Reyan and forced to flee from the darkness. Although it had been akin to a nightmare, the Empress smiled.
'Reyan will love to hear that he was the hero in my dreams,' Aurora laughed silently with her eyes still closed.
Shifting, Aurora realized her muscles felt quite stiff. This would not do.
She would have to ask Anna to place more pillows on the bed or restuff the mattress.
'How long have I been asleep?' The words echoed in her mind.
Aurora couldn't remember what had happened before she fell asleep. Had she taken a sleeping draught? Those things usually made her feel groggy, but never this much.
The Empress felt like she had been sleeping for ages. She stretched her arm only to find empty air.
Where was Devrim?
'Did he let me sleep in? No wonder I was having crazy dreams! I better get up and face the day before the whole thing slips away.'
Aurora tried to roll to her side only to realize a problem. She was strapped down!
Well, that wasn't entirely true. It seemed only her left leg was immobile. Her eyes popped open. What was going on?
Over her head, a white canvas was draped across wooden ribs to filter out the light. From the bit of light that seeped through, the sun seemed to be high in the sky. She was lying in a pile of pillows and blankets, but none of them were her own.
Worse, they were boxed in by a wooden frame on all sides like some strange sort of canopy bed that Aurora had seen at some of the nobility's homes.
But this was no nobility's bed. It was...moving?
'Am I in a wagon?'
Indeed, the Empress was in the bed of a wagon. That answer only gave her more questions.
'My dream!' Aurora gasped. The strange occurrence with the chasm...It had really happened.
Her leg had been hurt so badly that she had passed out. After that? It was a mystery.
With great effort, the Empress sat up slowly and examined her leg. It was immobilized as she had thought. A series of long, thin boards ran along the length of her shin and were tied with cords. Around the cords, a fabric was wrapped to keep her leg clean and the cords in place. Finally, a rope was tied to both walls to keep her leg from being jostled.
And also, presumably, to keep her from rolling over and re-injuring herself.
'Do I dare untie it?' Aurora's hands had instinctively moved to free herself, but her mind had cleared just in time. It was better to ask permission than forgiveness in this case.
"Hello?" The Empress's voice came out as little more than a croak. Her throat was so dry. When was the last time she had had something to drink?
"Anyone there?" she tried again.
Aurora paused to truly listen to what was going on around her.
"Have you ever been to the ocean?" a deep male voice asked from outside the canvas.
Aurora did not recognize the person, which sent a small worry into her spirit. 'It is probably just one of the soldiers that I do not know. None of them speak around me unless spoken to.'
"I have only ever been around Valiant," a woman responded.
The Empress relaxed. Although Aurora could not name the person who spoke, she recognized the soothing timbre. And the lady had mentioned Valiant. That, too, was comforting.
"Both of you hush! You'll disturb the Empress!" Brinn fussed from the front of the wagon.
Aurora guessed that she was driving. "You will disturb me more than they ever could with that racket." The Empress joked.
The words were spoken softly, but no sooner were they out of her mouth than the wagon came to a screeching halt.
"Get the Emperor!" The elven princess screamed.
"I think he is still looking for..." Alvar was interrupted by Brinn clicking her tongue.
"I don't care where he is. Do you really think he won't want to know that his wife is awake?"
The front curtain pulled back and light flooded the makeshift bedchamber.
Squinting against the blinding glow, Aurora smiled and waved at the two shadowy forms in front of her.
Things after that moved very quickly.
The canvas at the back was thrown aside and the wooden door was lowered. Four soldiers--all female-- climbed up into the wagon. One released the Empress's leg from being attached to the side and then carried her on the cot out into the open air.
Simultaneously, a cloth tent was hastily constructed to receive her from the vehicle. Waiting for her were a man and a woman. Aurora recognized the woman as the owner of the voice she had heard only a few moments before.
She was the healer of the company of men that was traveling with Aurora toward the South.
"Keep her level!" the man ordered. "Set her down and everyone move back."
The man spoke with such authority that no one questioned him. Aurora tried to grasp exactly what gave him so much power that everyone listened to him.
In the process of being moved, Aurora had laid back down on the pallet to prevent herself from falling. Once she was set on the ground, the Empress attempted to sit up once more.
"Please don't, Your Majesty." The man said firmly with a bow. It wasn't quite an order, but as close to one as he could muster in the face of his sovereign.
"I already was sitting." The Empress tried to argue but grabbed her throat. It was so dry.
"Water!" Sav called to outside the tent of blankets. "We need water."
Barely a moment later, Brinn arrived with a waterskin and handed it to the healer. Kneeling by the Empress, Brinn lifted Aurora's head while Sav tipped the lip of the container to her mouth.
The Empress sipped, coughed, and then sipped again. She felt very lightheaded, but the liquid felt good on her dry throat.
"I was beginning to wonder if you would ever wake, Sleeping Beauty," Brinn teased.
'I wasn't asleep that long.' Aurora glared at the elf. She continued to drink slowly as the people around her moved at an almost blinding pace. There was a nervous energy that she could not quite understand.
"Your Majesty," the man hovered over the two ladies as he came into Aurora's vision. "My name is Rafa, and I am the doctor treating you. With your permission, I am going to check to see how you are recovering."
'Recovering? Oh, he must mean my leg.' Her limb didn't didn't feel great but it also didn't feel terrible. The Empress guessed that some herbs must be keeping the pain at bay.
At the expectant look of the doctor, Aurora gave an affirmative gesture with her hand. Rafa went to work.
Surprisingly, he started by looking in both her eyes. The doctor touched her forehead. His hand was warm.
"No fever," he announced triumphantly.
'Fever?'
"The color of her cheeks is good." Rafa looked relieved.
Sav smiled at him, and Aurora could see a spark pass between the two.
'How...unexpected.'
What was also unexpected was how Sav unintentionally tipped the water too far. Aurora choked on the sudden flow and sputtered over her blankets.
"I am so sorry, Your Majesty," Sav gasped, pulling the waterskin away.
"It is fine." Aurora sounded more herself, but her voice still held the gravelly quality of one who had just woken. "No harm done."
The healer and doctor moved on to check the rest of Aurora's body as her head lay propped up in Brinn's lap. The pair seemed to work in perfect harmony.
"Are they...?" The Empress wasn't sure how to finish the sentence.
"They are something," Brinn whispered, "but I'm not even sure they know what that something is. We picked up the doctor in Secluse when we thought you were going to die. He and the healer have been inseparable ever since."
"Where are we?" Aurora inhaled deeply as she felt the tender prodding of the doctor on her torso. Obviously from the fact that she was in a moving wagon, they had decided to continue to travel.
"We are coming up on the seaside. We were beginning to think you might not wake up. It didn't seem wise to take a sleeping invalid on a boat, so your timing is most excellent. We've really missed you." Brinn poked her friend's head gently.
The Aurora froze. 'Seaside? Boat? But that must mean...'
Brinn confirmed her thoughts. "You've been asleep for weeks, Rory. With how little food and water we have been able to get into you, it is a miracle you are alive at all."
The Empress's confusion was immense. "Did you say weeks?"
The elven princess nodded. "Welcome back. Don't ever do that again."
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone