The Centurion's Woman

Chapter 11

NOT MUCH TIME had passed when Ixillius woke her up again. Alex noticed that she felt less sore and stiff, and was now pleasantly achy. The exercise that morning had done her good.

        Ixillius still looked apprehensive, and now smelled strongly of wine, and Brasus and the shackles were both gone. The heavy leather and metal band rested hard against her collar-bones when she sat up and she fiddled with it for a few moments to see if she could move it to a more comfortable place. Not succeeding, she felt to see if there were more holes at the buckle so it could be tightened. He tried to stop her as she unfastened it and she had to bat his hands away.

        "Ixillius proprius Alex, yes, I know," she told him impatiently. Alex chuckled and shook her head at the sudden worried look on his face from where he knelt beside the pillow. She snugged the collar to the smallest hole in the band and made it fit like a choker necklace. She had to put two fingers under it to pull it uncomfortably tight, and her head and shoulders still moved easily with the full range of motion she had right now. In a few weeks the bulk may be a hindrance, but by then she should be able to figure out how to work around that. It was a lot more comfortable up high like this.

        Alex pushed back the blanket and slid her legs over the edge of the cot. She still needed to move carefully, but figured this would be a lot easier than trying to get up off the floor. Sleeping on the bed had been a gentle treat, which was apparently over. As she braced her hands on the edge of the cot to start pushing herself up, Ixillius's arm dropped across her lap.

        The anxiety was coming off him like a stink, and suddenly she felt her stomach drop. Something was wrong. This was why he'd just today put the collar on her. Something had happened and he had no way of telling her, the language barrier was too great. Alex pressed her hands down onto his shoulders, fear clawing at her that this small place of safe recovery was about to tip her out. This respectful (and respected, she thought, remembering how all the men under his command acted toward him on the last day of the trip here) soldier was going. She was going to be without male guardianship in a time where a good woman was worth less than a bad horse if she wasn't doted over. She definitely didn't fit the culture as a good woman, and she wasn't healed enough by far to enforce her own place as an equal to the men. She barely noticed his armor was missing as her fingers curled into tight fists, clutching his shirt.

        Something in his expression changed, but he looked down before she could see what. He closed his hands around her waist and laid his head in her lap. Alex scanned the room for a way to talk to him. The plates! He'd been doodling in the gravy left on the plates after he'd eaten his midday meal. The plates were gone, but the table stood bare, and she'd spilled enough water on it while washing to know that the surface discolored when it was wet. It would be like drawing on one of those tranquility boards her clients sometimes brought to help them on whatever spiritual journey they thought started with survivalist camping. Being someone who usually had little emotional or spiritual baggage, she accepted too much at face value, Alex had always thought the boards were overrated.

        She grinned ruefully and slapped Ixillius on the shoulder, pushing him to let her stand. He moved slowly when he did finally move, and sullenly glared at the collar she was wearing. Alex rolled her eyes and stood up, grabbing his hands off her waist and pulling on him to stand up. Everything about him looked darkly irritated, but she didn't have time to waste playing sweet. In her life, she'd learned that playing sweet only had two consequences: bad, and worse. Right now, she needed to know why he was irritated, and this idea might just be crazy enough to let them talk.

        She left him at the table and poured some water into a cup. Dipping her fingers, she turned to the table and drew two stick figures. One she drew a line for a sword coming from the right hand and gave another line as a cloak, the other she drew a short line across the neck.