Chapter 5

"I will teach you to fight!" Lex said. He was carrying two wooden swords with him. "I did not dare to take real swords, but I guess these will suffice. Here, take this."

It felt strange to hold a wooden sword. But the feeling of the wood was nothing new to me. I had ploughed and raked the earth for as long as I could remember. I would not get any blisters in my callused hands.

Soon he was striking me, thrusting his wooden sword against me. "You're not a coward, Amram, I know that. Fight me!"

So I fought him, tried to conquer him with brute force. But he was bigger and weighed more than me. I was trapped beneath him ten breaths later.

When I came around all I could hear was whining voices and cries. My back hurt — especially when I turned around to lie on my back. The stretcher where I was put lay on the ground, and I could feel lumps and stones sticking through the fabric, pinching my skin.

"Good morning, sleepy head."

I looked around, surprised by the familiar voice. It was the beautiful man. He himself lied on a bed — not on the ground as me — and his arm was in a sling. He looked pained; I think he had broken his collarbone or something.

"Yes, you're not alone in here."

"How did you end up here?" I asked him.

He tried to sit up in the bed, but the only thing he managed was to groan and then slide back down in the bed. "Well, it's a long story. Care to hear it? By the way, I think it's better for your back if you rest on your stomach."

"Uhun?"

I did as he told me. Then my back stopped hurting, but I noticed that it felt cold on my back. I realised then that with the cut the Wiliji had given me he had torn open my clothes, leaving my bum bare to the world.

"The view is much better that way", he teased.

"Ha-ha! You're much of a prick, you know."

"Goovar told me to keep you lying on your stomach when she brought you here."

"And you nicely complied with her orders, of course."

"If there's ever a beautiful lady involved I don't mind taking any orders."

"What if I give you an order to quit flirting?"

He laughed brightly. I could see his teeth glistening white, and I noticed that his canine teeth were sharper and longer than of a normal human being. Perhaps there was something more to this man than I had seen before. Maybe there was a reason for him to keep his hair hidden under a hood.

"Well, that will undo the purpose." His smile was serious.

I almost choked. He was really flirting with me, not just fooling around. It felt unusual. The only one who had ever flirted with me before was Alexander, but I think he did it to annoy me — which he usually had no problem achieving. I liked it. The beautiful man was actually flirting with me — of all people! He could have chosen any girl he liked.

"Well, instead of flirting we could always talk..."

He laughed again, this time it sounded more as a low chuckle, as if he liked what I had said. And what he said next proved my idea.

"So you don't disapprove of my advances towards you?"

"Well, you haven't advanced very far yet."

"But I have come a bit, right?"

His smile was serene and warmed my insides. I could feel my cheeks get hot and red. I was sure I was beet-red. I turned away my head to avoid his gazing eyes, then I looked at him again to prevent him from staring at my behind — which he was doing the little time I had looked away from him.

"No one has ever flirted with me before."

"No, you're fooling me."

"Well, alright, there was one who flirted with me. But that was when I was ten years old."

"And nobody has ever since flirted with you?"

"Nope. Well, except you..."

"How come only when you were ten? You're one of the prettiest girls I know, and you escape the worships of men alike?"

"Well, for starters I'm not pretty..."

"Yes, you are", he interrupted. "I am not", I retorted.

"Don't fool yourself", he said almost as if he was angry. And his face went rigid and the look was almost beastlike. I recognised that look from yesterday, but then it had been on the Wilijies I had fought.

"I'm sorry. I did not intend to scare you."

"It's okay. I guess I was unprepared for that..."

"So you know what I am then?" His face now became soft; his features were so beautiful that I got tears in my eyes. I could not believe that he was a Wiliji, but the look he had given me just moments before proved nothing else than that.

I nodded and he sighed. "You're not going to tell anyone, are you? It would not do any good if the rest got to know. It would bring uproar if they knew. They are fighting the likes of me, and I'm in the army fighting for the humans — it does not make sense, does it?"

"How come you are here anyway? Why are you not in Veriton?"

He turned his face away and I could see from the way his chest heaved that he was sighing. I thought he had fallen asleep but after a long moment he answered: "My mother was a Wiliji. And my father was human. And the lineage from my father's side... is royal. My mother sent me here when I became eighteen — that was when all this trouble between Veriton and Aarenion started — because she feared that I was in danger because of my royal blood. Wilijies are keen to the scent of humans. You are supposed to smell... dirty."

"How do they... You can't smell it?"

"Well, no. I don't hold the powers that a full-blood Wiliji has. But on the other hand, my mother fell in love with a human and I don't think she objected to his smell. I think that it's just something they say, Wiliji is a proud race."

"Sounds a lot like nobles saying peasants smell dirty too. In that case I guess it's true, because we normally don't have the time or the energy to bathe."

"And I really need a bath right now... I have never felt a stench like the one I am wearing now."

"You can get your bath right after you're healed, Vicdaen."

I tried to look up at the man who stood by Vicdaen's bed. So that was his name. Vicdaen... While he had flirted with me I had not bothered to ask for his name, and I had not cared to do so anyway.

The man took Vicdaen's arm out of the sling and stroked along his skin. The golden glow that emitted from his hand had to be the healing power.