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What do you mean?
The Master put their stain on him. He will suffer greatly before the end. Put these herbs in his tea at bedtime each night. It will help him rest. Your Prince will need all of his strength to fight back the Darkness.
The voices began to fade as they floated farther away.
Wait!Brigid tried to detain them.
Beware, fair Queen,they warned.
And always keep faith.
~ * ~* ~ *~ * ~* ~ *~ * ~
Brigid was not the only one who seemed to pull into herself, shutting out her fellow travelers as she wrestled with some internal turmoil. Over the last leg of their journey, from Edinburgh to Inverness, Ben detected a subtle yet insidious change in Sai.
Though Brigid assured them that Sai had been healed of all wounds, including the ones Ben couldn’t see, presumably hidden by his clothes, the dragon prince looked worse by the day.
First, a strange sort of pallor seeped into his marble-like skin, giving it a fragile, bluish hue that highlighted the fine veins beneath the surface. And speaking of veins, the complex lines seemed more prominent than before, standing out in stark relief on the back of his hands, distinctly visible on his face and throat.
Second, the prince would never be termed a man of relaxation and joviality, for his jaw was set with determination more often than not. But now it seemed permanently locked in stone.
A muscle there flexed as if he was constantly grinding his teeth, and his eyes were often narrowed into slits. Fine lines radiated from their corners. Taken together with the ones that were etched between his brows, his face bore more resemblance to a mask of barely suppressed agony with each passing hour.
But Sai only showed this face to Ben while they rode together ahead of the carriage. Ben didn’t think he meant to; he simply couldn’t help it.
In the presence of Brigid and Annie, Sai forcibly smoothed his demeanor into a calm, neutral façade. He smiled. He moved with a self-assured looseness. He looked with such warmth, affection and fierce loyalty at Brigid that no one could mistake his attachment.
The moment he was no longer within the women’s view, however, he turned back into stone. A stone that seemed to be under great duress.
Ben could practically see him cracking. And if stone could bleed, Sai was bleeding out of every pore.
The last night before they would arrive at Inverness, estimated around nightfall by the next day, they stopped at a small coaching inn. It was no more than a manor house with an enlarged stable off the side, and only two rooms to let. But it would do. They had a roof over their heads, tidy, clean rooms, and the best of Highland cuisine in their bellies.
Ben had never wanted to try haggis, but since he was here, in this time period and place, he felt it his duty to give it a go. He could say with absolute certainty, now that he’d partaken of this local delicacy, that he never needed to see, smell or taste it again.
The aged whiskey fared much better with his palate, and a wee bit of dram warmed his belly just right after a long, cold day of traveling.
When the women retired early to their rooms to wash away the dirt, and soothe the aches and pains from their journey, Ben followed Sai out to the stables as he settled the unicorns and borrowed steeds for the night.
They needed to talk.
“All right,” he began, crossing his arms as he leaned against one of the sturdy structural beams, watching Sai go through the motions of watering and feeding the animals.
“Level with me here. What the hell is wrong with you? And why are you trying so hard to hide it from the women?”
Sai didn’t reply, simply shaking his head sharply once.
But that intense, pain-etched mask was back on his face. His movements were stiff and awkward, as if every step cost him strength he didn’t have.
“I can’t help you if I don’t know what’s going on,” Ben persisted. “Don’t be a martyr about this. You can trust me. I promise.”
Sai sent him a black-eyed glare.
That was the third thing that was wrong.
Sai’s pupils engulfed his irises almost entirely. And the whites of his eyes were shot with veins of blood red.
He somehow still managed to hide this in front of the women, mostly by keeping his eyes averted or cast down, but Ben knew what to watch for now. Sai must be in constant, intense pain.
