Ageless

Chapter 16

What time was it now? Eleven o'clock? Midnight?

Beyond the bedroom window, through the ancient glass that was wavy from age and smudged with streaks of dirt, lay my only concept of time. The sun had sunk underneath the jagged skyline of roofs sometime ago, darkening the sky from its former shade of navy to a deeper purple. My hands reached for my pocket, a subconscious reflex to retrieve my phone and check the time, but found only air.

The bundle of blankets heaped on top of Ko'sa heaved with each breath, soft and steady. Without her sharp, inquisitive gaze and abundance of energy, she seemed an entirely different girl, no longer tough and impervious, but small and susceptible to the entropy of the world like the rest of us. Asleep, her features softened, she could have been any teenager from the public school I used to walk past on my way to work, the ones that played kickball or frisbee out in the yard before class. Today, she could have been staying home from school sick.

Yet I knew the girl before me was in a different stratosphere than those kids chasing each other around, the same ones with smart phones and curfews and mentors that urged them to pursue their passions. Ko'sa lived up in a different world, one that was harsher and deadlier. It had forced her to grow up long before the children I passed on my way to work.

How had Malcolm's ascent to power affected children like Ko'sa? Had he in fact, made their lives worse?

The more I thought about Ko'sa, the more I realized how wrong it would feel to leave her, even for a couple hours to try to see about Malcolm. She was owed more from me, I would take her with me to visit Father Caollin once she got better. If she got better.

I sat on the bed, so lost in thought that I did not notice the door creak open and the figure standing to face me, arms crossed, ready to blow a gasket.

"I don't remember dismissing you," Hugh the innkeeper said, bringing along with him a malaise of dread that made my stomach tighten. "You managed to disappear during a second rush. Genelda too, the type that start trouble if you keep them waiting. Especially when dealing with your type."

I didn't move. "Give me a minute."

Hugh's dark curly hair began to shake, as a vein in his right temple began to bulge. "Excuse me, Outsider?"

"I think she's getting worse," I said. "Right now I have better things to do than serve those awful people."

The innkeeper cleared the distance between us in three rapid strides. "And I have better things to do than to keep you and your friend housed and fed-"

He stopped as his eyes fixed on Ko'sa's immobile body, studied the cheeks flushed with fever, watched her shiver under layers of blankets. The room went silent, except for the sounds of men banging their glasses on the floor below us. He placed a hand on Ko'sa's forehead. "Don't think it's serious," he said after a moment. "Just a seasonal fever, comes with the heat. My daughter used to get 'em all the time, whenever she was out in the sun too long. The best cure is lots of rest."

"She's been through a lot these last few days. Never met a kid as tough as her."

"You two were caught out in the funeral too then?"

"Yeah."

He looked over to face me, his eyes inquiring, now absent of hostility. "Are you her guardian?"

"No," I shook my head, "I only met her a few days ago. She's just some girl I befriended on the road. Truth be told, she's been the one protecting me."

He grunted. It wasn't an impatient grunt, more of an acknowledgment of the situation, as if to understand how lost I felt while the girl sat unconscious on the bed. "You have no children of your own?"