The Centurion's Woman

Chapter 4

ALEX WOKE UP a few times the first two days, typically while being fed, but also when the wagon she was being carried by jostled harder than normal. Her head was too fuzzy to really remember anything from those times, other than the broth and water that was slowly bringing back her strength. Sometimes she thought she heard the odd cawing of the little fledgling crow she'd nursed at the village prior to gutting her attacker, but she never stayed conscious long enough to know for sure.

        The quiet night sounds woke her late – or early, depending how she wanted to look at it – and she finally felt able to look around. The time that had passed between now and back at the pit were blurry, but she remembered the cart so must have been traveling.

        She was hungry.

        The tent was shadowed, but lit by the watch fires from outside. A covered shape on a pallet on the other side of the tent was snoring softly. There were restless sounds of people outside as well, but nothing that seemed strange or frightening. Just the sounds people make when they can't or shouldn't sleep.

        Alex started with wiggling her fingers and toes, then increased circulation by rotating or flexing her joints and limbs all the way into her body core. She could breathe slightly deeper than what she remembered from the day of the battle, so it must have been at least a couple days since. She was able to roll to her good side and push up to a half-sitting position, luckily facing the rest of the tent.

        She was still caked with blood and grime, but at least she was dry now. Someone must have also been swapping out her bedding, it was grimy but not soiled. She took a moment to brace and look around the tent, and then pushed up to sit fully. It left her lightheaded, but she was mostly vertical.

        There were a table and stool in the center of the tent, supplies and other boxes around the edges. Her spot was a simple pile of furs on the ground, probably where the boxes usually sat. From where she sat, the table looked clear of anything except a few papers. In the gloom, it didn't look like there was food anywhere in here.

        Alex debated the merits of possibly crawling outside to see if there were any people with food out there. Her stomach was cramped and growling loudly.

        It took longer than it should have, but she finally noticed that the quiet snoring had stopped. She looked back at the covered shape and could see two dim glints staring back at her. He said something softly in a very foreign language.

        She shrugged with the shoulder on her good side, making sure to not jar the bad rib. "I don't know what you're saying," she whispered back, her voice croaking.

                                                                ***

        Ixillius woke up when he heard movement in his tent. He'd been serving mostly on the front lines in the Legions for fourteen years, and it wasn't because he was careless or inattentive. The half-dead woman he'd had brought along on the trek to Bonna was sitting up, surveying the tent around her. He could see her jaw moving as she stared at the entrance, as if she was clearing the fuzz off her teeth.

        After a moment, she looked right at him. She was not just alive, which was far more than he'd expected, she was fully aware.

        "Well, look at you," he said, quietly.

        She stared at him a moment longer, then shrugged and said something back in a language he didn't know, her voice raw. He sat up and reached for his tunic and belt, dressing quickly. He lit the small lamp beside his pallet.

        "You're probably hungry," he said, standing up and hanging the lamp above the table.

                                                                ***