Unsaid Promises

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 10

Kel awoke clearheaded and warm. Snuggling into the blankets that weighted her to the bed, she used her Yamani training to push back the dull throbbing of her hurts. She vaguely remembered arriving at Windsgrace on the edge of the Naxen boundary and listening as Dom gave the order for Third Company to break camp just outside the gates. He had then led his horse through the quiet streets of the town in search of lodgings for himself and Kel. She smiled at the hazy memory of him tucking her in after one of the serving girls had helped her ready for bed.

A soft clatter of porcelain interrupted her focus and she cracked an eye to see a stranger set a kettle and a pair of tea cups on the small table by the window. Familiar footsteps and the heavy sound of boots on the wooden floor came closer and she waited for Dom to speak to the maid in hushed tones before the discomfort in her back forced her to shift on the bed. The young servant curtsied and scurried from the room as Dom smoothed the blankets before taking a seat on the edge of the bed.

The two watched each other as the minutes passed in comfortable silence. Kel couldn't pick one specific moment when things had changed between them. She no longer saw him as Neal's cousin or another friend. He was the one who made her laugh and could see past her mask. He was the first one she looked for in the mess hall and the name she listened for when news came into New Hope. He knew when to treat her as a knight and when to see her as a woman. She bit her lip as she realized she was in love with him.

Starring into his eyes, she considered the effect of them to be the equivalent of drugs.

She no longer felt anchored to earth.

His hand reached out to cup her chin, sliding along her cheek before brushing her hair out of her eyes. The sound of footsteps on the stairs outside the door and a sharp knock fractured the moment and Dom's hand pulled back as if he had grasped live coals. She grinned recklessly at him as a blush crept up his neck.

She made him nervous.

And she had no idea.

He grinned back at her as two servants entered the room carrying a large basin of water which they poured into the small tub waiting in the corner of the room. Kel raised an eyebrow at Dom.

"Mistress Grebe has offered to help you bathe and then redress your wounds. The men are downstairs enjoying breakfast. The mistress will send for me when you're finished and we'll see if we can get some nourishment into you before we take to the road again" Dom explained as he rose from the bed.

Kel nodded and watched him leave the room, closing the door behind him. It took a serving girl and the mistress of the inn to help her into the tub. When she was finished, they gently wrapped her in towels and helped her back to the bed where salve and bandages were reapplied. Kel pretended not see the looks of horror that passed over the women's faces at the sight of her injuries. When she was dressed again, the younger girl expertly pulled a brush through her hair and braided it into one long plait that reached between her shoulder blades.

A quick rap at the door announced Dom's return and the mistress pulled it open and let him enter with a bowl of what smelled like broth. Kel quietly thanked the women as they bundled up the used linens and left. Kel rolled her eyes as Dom sat opposite her on the bed and began swirling the spoon through the broth before lifting the spoon to her lips.

"I thought we agreed before we left Steadfast that I was capable of holding a spoon" she sighed, opening her mouth and accepting the watered down liquid. She wrinkled her nose at the taste.

"It's not exactly breakfast food. The cook only put it on the stove at daybreak" Dom told her, understanding her reaction. It was almost tasteless. "And if you want to try the spoon, that's fine." He gave her the spoon and repositioned the bowl so she could reach.

They sat in silence for several minutes with only the sound of the spoon hitting the bowl mingling with the echo of horses and men in the yard below her window. When she had finished, Dom set it aside. Watching her face, he weighed his next question.

"How do you feel?" he asked gently, listening for a hesitation in her answer. She narrowed her eyes, seeing the sideways glance he gave the bags full of supplies.

"Awake" she retorted, hoping he would put Neal's demands aside and listen to her. He let a grin play across his features before sobering up.

"Kel, you know what Neal said" Dom sighed, heaving himself to his feet and running fingers through his hair. Kel watched it fall back into his face before looking into his eyes again. Dom recognized the look on her face. "How bad is the pain?" he asked, resigned.

She grinned, knowing he was about to give in.

"Tolerable. Honestly" she insisted.

Dom looked her over. Her cheeks held more color than they had the past few days and she was sitting up by herself with no pillows supporting her. More important to him, she was coherent and that would disappear with the drugs. He had missed her and that was what broke his resolve.

"Do you promise to tell me if you want to stop?" he asked, seeing her smile light up her face. When she said yes, he sighed and gave her a nod of agreement.

Going to the landing outside her door, he called for someone to take their bags to the waiting horses. When a young boy that Dom had recognized from the kitchens hurried to deliver their bags to the wagons, Dom turned to help Kel into her boots and jacket. When she was ready, Dom swung her up into his arms and carried her downstairs and out to the courtyard.

Wolset called a greeting that Kel decided was slightly too energetic for the early morning as Qasim handed her up to Dom. Settling back into the woollen folds of Dom's cloak, Kel shifted and wriggled until she found a comfortable position.

Closing her eyes against the sympathetic stares of the men, Kel felt a shiver go through her and Dom lifted her hood up in response. Feeling the steel of his arm guards wrap around her waist and hold her to him, Kel gave in to sleep before they had left the gates.

Dom smiled and turned his attention to the conversation happening among his men.

Good fortune held out for the rest of the day and into the next. The roads stayed clear of traffic and the weather had held despite the darkening clouds overhead. The men at the inn in Dovesfield, where they had sought shelter on their second night, had predicted snow but the skies had been clear when the sun rose and Dom and his men had opted to forge ahead on schedule.

Now Dom was thinking that in his rush to reach Corus, he had failed to judge the situation properly. Logic seemed to abandon him where Kel was concerned. On instinct he tugged the blankets around her tighter, seeing her murmur in her sleep. Wind whipped the group harshly, pulling on the manes of the horses and finding gaps beneath armour as tiny white flakes of snow began falling.

Qasim pulled his horse up beside and Dom and watched the sergeant think. The tight line of his jaw gave away his worry and Qasim knew he was factoring in the distance before they reached the next town. Finally glancing at the Bahzir, Dom let the question hang unanswered between them.

"The next village on the main road is about forty miles" Qasim told him. "We could send scouts down the secondary roads, but this close to the mountain reaches means we could get snowed in."

"You think we should keep going?" Dom inquired, still thinking.

"I do, Sergeant. They're only flurries for now. As long as we reach Bears Meadow before night fall we should be fine. The inn keeper back yonder only mentioned light snow. It's not predicted to get violent." Qasim said as he dug a map out from under his cloak. Using a finger, he followed their route between Dovesfield and Bears Meadow. "If we have to we can stop and make camp where the river runs off the mountain, but I think we all agree it would be better to have the Lady Knight inside."

Dom merely nodded and touched Kel's cheek. It was warm and he relaxed slightly. She had been exhausted that morning when they left the town and they had only been on the road for an hour before Dom had felt her tense with pain. She had drank the medicated tea without complaint and had yet to waken despite it being past noon.

Less than hour after his conversation with Qasim, Dom noted how the wind had picked up and where scattered flakes had melted as soon as the fell, they now began accumulating on the edges of the roads and the branches of trees. Snow had reached the north in the days following the battle, but Dom and Raoul had hoped that it would be weeks before it reached the south-east side of the mountains of Goldenlake and Queensgrace. Luck was not with them and here they were in the midst of an early winter snowstorm with an injured knight and minimal supplies.

Calling the halt, Dom turned his horse so that the wind was at his back in an effort to protect Kel. The men ranged around him in a tight circle, mimicking his efforts. They recognized the tense way he gripped the reins and offered no witty comment.

"I need men to ride ahead and check the roads. If they are clear enough to ride through untroubled then keep going until you reach the next town and inquire for lodgings. Take whatever they offer and tell them to expect us. See if you can find a healer, just in case." Dom waited for the murmurs to quiet before continuing. "If you encounter problems on the roads or the visibility gets worse, turn around and come back. If that's the case, we will find shelter and sit it out."

Addressing five of the men, he sent them ahead before reorganizing the lines to allow for a swifter speed. Watching the scouts vanish into the folds of swirling white, Dom nudged his horse forward again.

Three of the scouts returned just over an hour later. They had reached the river that ran from the mountains just in time to find a group of woodsmen from Bears Meadow trying to move a fallen tree that blocked the bridge. The men of the Own had remained to try and help them move it, only to find that the bridge had shifted and nothing more than a single man could cross without fear of it giving way.

Two of the men had stayed with the woodsmen who knew of an abandoned logger's cabin just off the road. They offered to share the cabin and the surrounding clearing with the travelling party in return for help with the bridge when the weather cleared. Dom groaned when he heard the news but thanked the men for finding shelter. Following the scouts off the main road and onto a logging trail, he sighed in relief when smoke through the trees signalled warmth, food and shelter.

Discreetly removing a glove and laying his bare hand against Kel's cheek and forehead, he winced at the warmth. Earlier he had taken it for a sign of warmth, glad that she hadn't been feeling the wind and cold. Now he feared what it indicated.

A chill or infection, Neal had warned him.

Dom cursed and caught Wolset's attention.

"Is it normal for Neal's medicines to last that long?' Wolset asked quietly, noting the flush on Kel's cheeks and calculating that she had been asleep for more than eight hours. She was unnaturally still.

"It's not his medicines" Dom said through gritted teeth as the trees thinned and a clearing appeared in front of them.

He saw Wolset's worried look as they halted in front of a log cabin that wafted warmth. The men and woodsmen who had been waiting called over the wind to direct horses towards a hastily erected shelter that was to act as a stable. Qasim slid from the saddle and took Kel from Dom who was telling Wolset to find someone to take their horses and find their bags. Qasim's hand brushed Kel's face as he tried to pull her hood tight against the snow.

"Dom, she's-" he started when he felt the heat coming from her.

"I know" Dom replied in a tight voice, taking her from his friend. "Situate the men and then come find us."

He didn't wait for Qasim's nod before taking the bags Wolset had found and crossing the snow covered ground to the door that one of the townsmen held open for him. The heat inside hit him first but Dom made little note of it before following the man to a small room at the back where a fire already blazed.

Shutting the door, he and Wolset stripped Kel of her boots and jacket before placing her beneath the piles of blankets on the bed. Wolset left to find a kettle while Dom checked and rechecked her bandages. The one on the back of her shoulder where the sword had exited was oozing blood but they appeared clear of infection. Which left the fever unexplained except for a chill.

Dom wanted to kick himself for letting that happen.

Replacing the blankets, he restocked the fireplace and waited for Wolset to return with the tea.

The next time Raoul gave them leave, Dom was going to argue in favor of the desert.

A/N: So two chapters in one day...and maybe another tomorrow depending on feedback. For those of you rolling your eyes at the drama, don't worry...

-Jez