Page 27 of Chaos and Crowns

“Ladies choice,” he offered.

Odelle grimaced. So much for him having some magical radar to sense help. They really were shooting in the dark here. She gestured at the gentle uphill slope leading toward another formation of rocks.

“Let’s head up there. Maybe if we gain some elevation, we’ll be able to see what direction might have civilization.”

An hour later, Odelle regretted her decision. Climbing uphill through the snow was grueling work, although she didn’t relish the idea of slipping downhill on the treacherous footing either. When they set out, Antony and Odelle had conversed, trying to keep the mood up by talking about Odelle’s favorite restaurants, or how a microwave worked. She learned that his favorite food was anything sweet, and he found that her favorite flowers were roses even though she hated to admit it and risk seeming cliché.

“The flower of Aphrodite,” he reflected at her admission, resulting in a moment of silence before Odelle changed the subject by launching into a tirade about the lack of pockets in women’s clothes.

Now though, only their heavy breathing and the crunch of untouched snow broke the silence. It was the type of silence that one only experienced in the truly wild places of the world, where the ever-present din of mankind couldn’t reach. Odelle wished she could quiet her panting, feeling as though she were disturbing something she had no right to.

After another half an hour, Odelle paused, leaning up against a dark, rocky outcropping. No longer hearing her footsteps behind him, Antony halted as Odelle tried to adjust her sock. Even though they were the thicker ones she wore in winter, the biting cold had shrunk her residual limb even more than usual, causing her calf to slide around. The blisters from the night before throbbed in protest. Odelle let out a low growl of frustration at having slowed them down. Sometimes, these things just couldn’t be helped though.

Seeing the problem, Antony sat down on the rock next to her, and kicked off his shoes. Odelle opened her mouth to protest, but he had already peeled off his socks and held them out to her. Something about the matter-of-fact way he handed the garments to her soothed Odelle’s concerns. He didn’t suggest they stop and rest, just solved the problem with the tools available to them. Reluctant to look a gift horse in the mouth, Odelle took the socks and padded the inside of her socket. Antony slid his bare feet back into his boots and they began trudging on once more without a word.

Odelle no longer knew how long they’d been walking. In the gray light and monotonous snow-covered landscape, time didn’t seem to have much meaning. Their progress through space wasn’t much more significant, with each rocky slope giving way to another. All Odelle could focus on anyways was the cold. While at first, her coat had protected her from the worst of it, now the wind reached icy tendrils into her clothes and the chill had seeped into her bones. Any warmth she had generated from physical exertion had long since dissolved. A dull pain throbbed in her back and hips, and her muscles spasmed weakly. She couldn’t even think straight as she tried to reason herself through the discomfort. Was it possible to get frostbite on your brain?

A solid object in front of Odelle nearly knocked her over, but Antony’s arm around her shoulders caught her. She had been too distracted to notice that he had stopped walking, busy watching her feet trekking through the snow and deliriously amused by the fact that she couldn’t get frostbite in her toes.

“Do you smell that?” Antony asked.

Odelle lifted her face to the air, not saying that she was pretty sure her nose was just a decorative ice cube at this point. Sure enough, the wind carried a scent at odds with the frigid landscape—something like burnt matches.

“Sulfur,” Antony confirmed. “We might be near a hot spring.”

Odelle pictured immersing herself in warm water, and tears pricked her eyes at the image. She blinked rapidly as the moisture started to freeze immediately, stinging her skin. She trailed Antony as he began walking again, veering off their former course. He kept his nose in the air, sniffing periodically and following his sense of smell like a very tall bloodhound. Their pace had slowed considerably before, but now they moved briskly, driven forward by the promise of warmth. A slight trickling noise cut through the sound of their walking, growing louder. No longer having to follow Antony’s sense of smell, they pushed towards the sound until a rocky ledge parted to reveal their prize.

A natural pit of dark stones held turquoise water, steam gently rising and coalescing before being stolen away by the winds. Ripples raced across the surface from where a small trickling waterfall fed into the pool.

Odelle lurched forward, falling to her knees at the edge and plunging her hand into the water. She hissed as it scalded her fingers, but the burn was a pleasant one. It was the feeling of cold fingers in the shower, making any warmth feel boiling. She sat sideways on one hip, kicking off her legs as fast as she could manage, stripping off her socks. Then, she scooted forward to dip her calves in the water. The moan that escaped her would have been obscene in most circumstances, but Odelle couldn’t bring herself to care. Not when her sore, frozen limbs were being enveloped in warmth.

A rustle behind her drew her attention, reminding her that Antony was just standing there.

“Are you going to join me, or are you enjoying freezing to death?” Odelle shot over her shoulder.

At her words, he sat down next to her, kicking off his boots and plunging his bare feet into the water. He echoed her earlier groan, and Odelle tried not to watch the way his Adam’s apple bobbed as he threw his head back at the sensation.

Instead, Odelle distracted herself by unbuttoning her coat. She needed to get as much of her body in this water as she could, as soon as possible. Shrugging off her coat, she unzipped the side zipper of her dress and began to shimmy it off over her head. The narrow part of the waist caught on her shoulder, and in her cold, uncoordinated state, she struggled to free herself. As she cursed whoever had invented side zipper dresses, a choking noise came from next to her. Odelle chose to ignore the fact that Antony was laughing at her predicament.

Once the dress was discarded with her coat, the cold wind on her bare skin compelled her to sink directly into the hot spring. As much as she wanted to comply, she would regret having to wear wet underwear later. Odelle reached for the clasp of her bra and hesitated for just a moment, but the painful goosebumps on her skin hastened her decision. Antony had made it clear he wasn’t interested in her before, what would it matter if he saw her bare now? Besides, she was not one to be shy about her form. Not when her pride in her appearance was an integral part of the self-assured armor she wore through life.

Odelle didn’t look at Antony as she shrugged out of her bra and shimmied her underwear down her hips, lifting her legs out of the water to kick them on top of the pile of clothes. Not even a whisper of movement could be heard from where Antony sat.

Not willing to be exposed to the elements and Antony’s gaze a moment longer, Odelle levered herself off the edge and into the beckoning, heavenly water. Sinking down to her chin, she took in a deep breath, letting the steam rising from the surface into her lungs where warmth bloomed in her chest. While she could sit on a rocky ledge inside the pool, Odelle let herself float, relieving pressure from her screaming back and thighs.

Finally, less delirious with cold and able to think about things other than warm water, Odelle leaned her head back against the rocky ledge to look at Antony. While his feet still dangled in the water, he hadn’t moved an inch. He stared fixedly at his knees as if they held the answers of the universe.

“Are you going to get in?” Odelle asked, and then cringed. Even though her brain still didn’t seem to be firing on all cylinders, she realized now that she was suggesting that Antony swim naked with her— a man who had rejected her, and who still had a gaze that made her lose her train of thought.

Antony seemed startled and glanced at Odelle, only to look away just as quickly. She resisted the urge to fold her arms over her chest. He was the one who had pushed her away, so why should she care if her nakedness affected him? Still, seeing some color rise on his already cold-flushed cheeks, Odelle couldn’t leave well enough alone.

“Are you too shy?” she challenged.

This time Antony met her eyes without looking away. While he adamantly kept his eyes on her face, he did offer a wry smile.

“I was young when public bathhouses were popular. If I were shy, I would have died of shame a long time ago,” he commented, starting to unbutton his own coat. “I thought you might be the one to be shy. As far as I know, most of the world isn’t as comfortable with nudity as we were twenty-five-hundred years ago.”

It was Odelle’s turn to swallow thickly, but she didn’t look away as Antony tugged his sweater over his head.