A Fire In The Night

Chapter 6

Once again Ila found herself in the big tent which she now knew belonged to Nathan. She was sitting on his mattress and was waiting on him to bring her some soup his colleagues had made for lunch. She was feeling faint and she wasn't sure if it was from the pain her wound was causing or from the new information she just learned. She was also starving. In the whole chaos and the inconsistent state between reality and fainting she never really ate anything since she arrived here. She was in a lot more trouble than she originally imagined. At first she only thought of the danger the Cato Soldiers would mean for her but as the time past by and she felt herself getting weaker and weaker she realised she had no survival skills. Ila had no equipment to live in a desert for lord knows how long. What will she eat? Where will she get some water? Frowning she came to the conclusion that she had to play all her cards right with Nathan. It was her only chance.

In the hot sun of the afternoon the air inside the tent was barely breathable. For a second Ila wanted to go outside and sit herself in the sand before the tent, but an unsettling feeling in her stomach kept her from doing that. She saw how they all looked at her as she walked back with Nathan. Their smirks changed, they weren't as dirty anymore, but were still smirks. She could read in each of their eyes the endless possibilities that were going trough their heads about how they could use her to their advantage. It was clear as daylight that they all heard the news of what her profession really was and she felt stupid for loosing her temper and shouting it out loud.

Hunched and with crossed legs Ila looked at her folded hands in her lap. She couldn't help but think of her mother and how she would scold her for having such a bad posture. She didn't like to think about it, but she knew her mother would've been disappointed with the way she carried herself sometimes. She had taught her to walk around gracefully, to slightly part her lips and tilt just a couple of millimetres her head every time she was smiling. God how much she had hated courtesy classes back in the day. If she closed her eyes, Ila could almost see her mother before her eyes. Her silky light brown hair flowing smoothly over her shoulders, the tight corset around her small figure protecting her like an armour. Her eyes were always kind, even when her voice got a little more serious. Her mother would spend hours in pavilion in the garden admiring the flowers and enjoying the birds chirping. They would drink their tea together and laugh about trivial things that she now couldn't remember. She knew in her heart that she and her mother had very different mentalities, but as years past by after she lost her, Ila could only remember the good times she had with her. And she tried to burry it deep down every time the thought of how disappointed her mother would have been if she knew that she did not become a lady like she always wanted.

Her thoughts were abruptly interrupted by the sound of Nathan coming inside the tent. Without realising it, she immediately straightened her back and smiled like her mother taught her. Nathan's steps slowed down as he watched her, clearly taken aback of her act.

It always works, she thought with delight.

She extended her arms for one of the bowls he was carrying and he sat himself on the ground in front of her. As she thanked him she didn't look in his eyes. Instead Ila played with the spoon, twirling the soup in its container.

"So..."

The fact that she didn't carry on with her sentence accentuated the fact that she had to come up with a plan. She quickly looked at him to check his facial expression before lowering her eyes on the soup again. He nodded watching, just like her, the bowl. Neither of them knew what to do.

She took a sip from her spoon and could feel the warm liquid making it's way trough her body till it reached her stomach, causing it to growl. She really was starving and she fought the urge to put the bowl to her lips and eat the whole soup in one breath. She had unconsciously decided to behave as her private tutors had taught her. Her best shot at survival was to seduce this man, who was not just anybody. He was the crown prince.