Empire of Shadows

23.

The light was warm and smelled of burning wood.

The first time he'd fought back to consciousness, shadows filled his eyes and the smell of cedar blanketed the room. But he'd fallen back into the darkness from which he'd fought and the room disappeared completely.

As his brain finally came to consciousness for perhaps the third time, Ketil could feel that he was lying under blankets on something soft. His skin radiated warmth and his hair fell around his face in thick curls. He blinked once, seeing a blurry face above him. She had soft eyes, the lines of her face pulled into a concerned expression. A strand of white hair fell from her braided hair and onto his face. The light from the fire flickered fuzzily and she carefully pressed the back of her hand against his forehead, muttering softly to herself.

"Mom?" He whispered softly as the woman drew back, disappearing from his sight. "Mom," he whispered again, rolling onto his side with a deal of pain. He let out a small grunt as he watched the woman kneel at the base of a bassinet before laying a small baby down inside. She whispered something, making sure the child was swaddled with warm fabric.

She turned to face Ketil and he froze. He didn't recognize the curve of her face, he didn't know those dark eyes. "Back from the land of the dead, are you?"

He squirmed, forcing himself into a sitting position. He let out a gasp of pain as the room came into sharp focus, the warm light of the fire, the warm furs draped over his body. He was vaguely aware that he was wearing little more than underclothes, but the pain that wrapped itself around his body was much more real.

"Be careful there, je alsede." The woman who was not his mother came closer to him and he threw his arm out to stop her.

"No." He pressed an arm against his chest before letting out another cry. "Ah, ah, no." He whispered to himself before cradling his arm close to his body.

"The river spared you little mercy. From what I can tell, your ribs and collar bone appear to be broken. Your ankle was also sprained, but not terribly. You're lucky to be alive at all. When Olve found you, you weren't breathing." She carefully sat on the bed beside him and he dropped his guard a little.

He bit into his lip as the pain became sharper with every panicked breath. He grimaced, squeezing his eyes shut to prevent tears from escaping his eyes.

"There you go, settle down. If you keep that up, you're going to hurt yourself. No one here is going to hurt you." She brushed a hand over his forehead with a small noise. "Lie back down, will you? Get some rest, I've got a stew on the fire. It's no meal for an emperor, but it'll get you back on your feet in no time."

The door to the small hut opened up and a man burst in, a fair coating of snow dusting his coat and hat. He carried a bundle of wood in his arms and laughed heartily as he laid a fat winter hare on the table, a length of wire wrapped tightly around its neck.

"Look at this! We finally caught the devil that's been in the garden during thaw season. Caught him under the woodshed." He took his hat off, brushing snow from his shoulders. "Kaia, you will never believe—" the man cut off with a large smile, laying his armload of wood down beside the fire. "Welcome back to the living, boy. Thought for a moment you might have left us for good."

Ketil was silent.

The baby in the bassinet began to cry slowly and the woman, Kaia, rushed over to pick it up. "Oh Olve, you've woken him. It's taken me long enough to put him to sleep. He's been awful fussy today." She cradled the baby in her arms, looking back to Ketil as she tried to quiet him. "Why don't you speak? You can understand, can't you?"