Chapter 2

Conrart dreamed that Yozak had saved him. Of course, it really couldn't have happened that way, but he'd believed it as he slept anyway. He saw his friend's concerned face as he lowered him from his prison cell's ceiling. The broken bones of his ribs shifted as he was stuffed into stiff clothing. His body was picked up and placed down several times, and the space around him went from dark to bright and back to dark several times. He even had the pleasure of hearing Yozak call him drunk, even though he hadn't had more than a glass of wine since he'd gotten over the losses at the Battle of Leutenburg.

But now that he was awake he realized that none of that was possible, but he found that he didn't want to break the dream's illusion. With his eyes closed he even felt the rocking of a ship, as if his friend had really taken him away from that horrid place. He could almost feel his ribs bound tightly to prevent them from shifting and warm soft linens covering his cold form. If he hadn't known any better, he would have believed it was really Yozak holding his hand as he slept on a healer's bed.

Then he heard the words his friend was saying, and they shocked him enough to force his eyes open and dispel the illusion.

"Now, you fucking bastard, you had better open your mother fucking eyes and look at me, or I'm telling your lady mother that you wouldn't eat your peas and she'll kill you so fast the Great One won't have time to see your soul before it passes into that Hell place that Yuri told us about that one time, and…"

Conrart groaned. Was he hallucinating now? He probably wasn't since Yozak had stopped his rant mid-sentence and was giving him a tear-filled smile as he bent down and… what was he doing? Oh, shit, he was going to kiss him! What the fuck? Why was he going to… now where was he going? Yozak was drifting to the left, totally missing his mouth. Oh. He kissed his cheek. Well, that was all right then. The last thing he needed right then was to deal with his intimacy issues concerning his best friend.

"You kissed me," was what he managed to force past his lips, although he didn't know why it was such a big deal. Clearly Yozak was happy he'd woken up.

"Yeah, you big lug," Yozak said with a thick voice. "We've been sailing back home for two days, and the healer I know in Big Cimeron's prison city said that the sedatives and pain relievers she forced into you would be worn off by now."

"So, we are on a ship," Conrart said. Yozak nodded, too choked up to speak. "And you really did tell someone I was drunk."

Yozak wiped the tears from his cheeks and gave a weak chuckle. "So you remember that, huh?"

"I wasn't drunk," he said for no other reason than that he couldn't think of anything else to say. "You should have told them that you were drunk and I was carrying you home."

Yozak gave Conrart a long look and asked, "How much pain are you feeling?"

"I'm actually feeling pretty good," Conrart said with a small smile. "I'll bet the pain medication works differently on demons."

Yozak went over to the pack resting on the chair nearby and started rifling through it. He pulled out a packet of what Conrart assumed was medicinal powder and looked at the name, cursing when he recognized it. "No wonder you're so out of it," he said to Conrart. "You probably won't feel anything until we get home, and I won't even have to feed you any more of this shit for the rest of the trip!"

Conrart started to shift himself into a sitting position since keeping tabs on Yozak's active form was difficult at best when he was horizontal. But, before he could maneuver himself into any form of vertical-esque position – his arms weren't moving properly – Yozak was there beside him pushing him back down. "Captain, you've officially got broken ribs," he said in a mildly irritated voice. "You lie down, or I'm telling your lady mother that you won't eat your peas!"

"Why do you always threaten me with my mother when you want me to do something?" Conrart demanded as he allowed Yozak to settle him back on the bed. He noticed how Yozak kept himself busy by straightening the sheets and folding the heavy blankets that were too warm for the comfortable temperature.

"Captain, do you even remember how scary your lady mother was when you didn't eat your peas? I figured it was a decent threat. But now that I see you are suffering brain damage and can't remember a vast majority of your childhood, I'll stop with the threats and just let you know that if you don't listen to me I'll sic your mother on you so fast you won't know what hit you!"

Conrart groaned and rubbed his eyes with his hands. "She'll probably do that, anyway, seeing how I was kidnapped."

Yozak stopped his busy work and looked down at his best friend. "Captain, are you okay?"

"I'm fine," the brunette said, lowering his hands back down to the bed. "I'm pretty dopey, but fine."

The look Yozak shot him made him freeze. It was almost as if Yozak was trying to figure out why two things didn't quite fit together the way they should – a look he'd had on his face often back when they were children and trying to build their tree house or put together Wolfram's first wooden sword. He'd never seen that look crinkle his friend's nose concerning him, though.

"Captain, do you remember what happened to you?" Yozak asked. His tone was light and careful, but his eyes glittered with an emotion Conrart couldn't identify. Was it fear? Worry? Something else?

"I woke up in my room during the night," Conrart said slowly. "There were men holding my arms and legs, and a cloth was shoved into my mouth and tied there. Then they bound my arms and legs, and then they shoved me into a large potato sack. I'm pretty sure they carried me out through the servants' entrance and took me out of the city by morning. It took half a week to get to Big Cimeron, and King Bastard held this public trial and condemned me to torture. That was yesterday…."

Tears were streaming from Yozak's eyes again as he listened to Conrart, causing the brunette's voice to trail off. "What's wrong?" Conrart asked.

Yozak wiped his tears away, but they kept falling despite his best efforts. He also took in a large, shaky breath and let it out in a huff, clearly trying to regain control of his emotions. "Well, Captain, it looks like there is one huge hole in your memory," he began lightly, although the serious gleam in his eye contradicted the cheery tone of his voice. "It looks like you misplaced about three weeks."

Conrart's jaw dropped. "That isn't possible!" he exclaimed. "I swear it was last night! Or, well, the day before you rescued me. After the trial they beat me and whipped me, but I kept from screaming because I came up with a plan to get out! I couldn't do it because I passed out, and then I woke up here…"

Yozak's hand was on Conrart's shoulder before the smaller man realized that tears were now streaming down his own eyes. He remembered the world fading out, but not in the way that meant he had passed out. Normally when his body overcame his mind it was like tiny black dots took over his vision and his body stopped listening until he was completely unconscious. This time it was like the world went gray, and his mind stopped before his body. "What's the date?" he asked. Yozak pointed toward a calendar with large Xs marking the days that had passed. True to his word, it had been three weeks since his trial – closer to four. "That can't be."

"Conrart –" Oh, that was bad. Yozak never called Conrart by his first name unless he was being serious. He always called him "Captain" or some other random nickname when things were at least manageable. "—you were tortured. I don't know any of the details, but I do know what happened to your body. You were beaten and your ribs were broken. How are your shoulders?"

Conrart rotated his shoulders – or tried to anyway. They didn't move much since they had been wrapped to prevent movement. It was amazing he had been able to almost sit up without realizing earlier. "They were dislocated from the weeks you spent hanging from the ceiling of your cell," Yozak supplied when he saw Conrart's surprise. "I pulled you down myself."

His throat wasn't working. His whole body was starting to ache, but he didn't think any of it was current; probably just memories from the time he spent in that dank cell. His ass hurt more than anywhere else, and that scared the shit out of him. Conrart swallowed thickly before he said, "What else?"

"You were cut," Yozak said softly, as if a gentler voice could soften a hard blow. "You were cut all over in different designs, and it's going to scar."

"What?" Conrart asked weakly. He looked down at his hand and noticed for the first time that they were covered with leather gloves. The medicine that human doctor had given him must have been a doozy if he hadn't noticed that he was covered from neck to toe. He wore a long-sleeved blue nightgown he hadn't seen since his mother gave it to him thirty years before. His hands were covered by gloves and his feet, which stuck out from under the blanket, were covered in knee-high slipper boots. He started stripping off his gloves and got a good look at his mangled-looking wrist when Yozak covered his hand with his larger one.

"It's awful," Yozak warned, his eyes shining brightly with worry. "You can see it if you really want to, but it's terrifying to look at."

Conrart swallowed and continued peeling off his gloves. Yozak backed off, giving his friend room.

The skin was mottled with scabs, many of which were peeling off to reveal pale scar tissue. His hands had obviously been broken again since his fingers were much more crooked than they had been, but a healer had been brought in to fix the bones. If they'd called in a healer for his bones, then why hadn't they healed the cuts? They looked horrible, and keeping them from becoming infected must have been very difficult. Unless…

Unless they healed his bones so they could break them all over again. They could keep breaking them as long as a healer could keep healing him.

Conrart felt sick. He could hear the sound of men laughing at him, the laughter growing louder after each painful crack of a finger bone snapping in half. He shoved his hand back into the glove and looked at Yozak in desperation. "Why couldn't I get out?" he asked, his voice so choked with tears it came out as a whisper.

Yozak shrugged helplessly before he moved over to sit on Conrart's bed. He reached forward and slowly pulled his friend up into a sitting position, pulling him into a hug. Conrart buried his face into Yozak's shoulder as he sobbed, telling Yozak what he remembered between gasps. He didn't see Yozak's face go ghostly pale or how his eyes shone with a fire only hatred could blaze.

By the time Yozak laid his friend back down on the bed, Conrart had cried himself out. He looked up at his friend's cerulean eyes tiredly, halfway to sleep already, and said; "Thank the Great One that you came to save my ass. I don't know what I would have done without you."

Then his eyes closed and he fell asleep, too tired to notice the stricken look on his friend's face. He was out so fast, he didn't hear Yozak say, "I may have saved you, Captain, but I wasn't in time to save your ass."