Fifty-three

Talia was waiting for Bane at her door, her father's blanket around her. Her infectious smile filled Bane with bottomless gratitude for her recovery.

Once he was inside her cell with the door locked behind him, Talia grabbed his hand and towed him over to the brazier in triumph. Melisande smiled up at him.

"Sit here." Talia directed him to a spot next to her mother. "See, we got blankets from your charpoy, so now we have even more."

"No," he smiled. "You sit between us, so you will be warmest. We don't want your sickness to come back, do we?"

Happily Talia obeyed, and Bane settled next to her on a woven mat, draping his two blankets over top of theirs so they were all snuggled together in a nest of delicious warmth.

"Here." Melisande handed him the cup of weak tea that she and Talia had been sharing. "Finish it." When he started to decline, she shook her head at him, then smiled when he accepted.

As soon as he drained the cup and set it aside, Talia crawled into his lap, her irrepressibility causing him to laugh. Her shift left a gaping void between Bane and Melisande, but as he wrapped his strong arms around the child, Melisande settled against him and rearranged the blankets to maximize their body heat. He no longer shivered.

For a long moment they said nothing, staring at the brazier, the hiss of the coals barely detectable over the noise of the rain behind them in the shaft. Bane smiled, feeling a pure contentment that three years ago he would never have thought possible. He kissed the top of Talia's head.

"Ba-ba," Talia broke the spell at last, speaking softly, suddenly serious. "Why were those men so mean to Mama today?"

Bane gave her a gentle squeeze and kissed her again. "When men are unhappy, they get mean."

"You're not mean."

He considered. "That's because I'm happy."

"You are?"

"Yes, and you know why?"

"Why?"

"Because I have you, you and your mama."

Talia smiled at him. "And we have you."

"That's right."

She squirmed, settled tighter against him.

"Ba-ba?"

"Yes?"

"How come those men didn't have clothes on today?"

"They wanted the rain to wash them. It feels good."

"Did you take your clothes off to wash, too?"

"Not today, but I have on other days."

Talia's lips twisted in thought, and Bane could tell she had been pondering these mysteries all day. She often saved up her inquiries until the evening when she would ask the same questions of him that she had asked of her mother earlier in the day. Now she stirred amidst the blankets, peering downward beneath them.

"What are you doing?" he laughed.

"I'm looking."

"For what?"

"To see if I have one like those bad men. But it's too dark; I can't tell."

Bane and Melisande comprehended at the exact same moment, and they both reached for Talia to shush her before she could blurt anything more. Talia blinked at them in surprise, Bane's hand over her mouth, her mother's alarmed face close to hers.

"What?" Talia said, muffled by Bane's palm, sudden concern furrowing her brow.

"You must never talk of such things," Melisande whispered.

"Why not?"

Melisande glanced at Bane, stammered, "It's not safe."

"Why not?"

Bane slowly removed his hand from Talia's mouth. He had never anticipated that she would broach such a topic at this early age. Using a tone meant to scare, he said, "If those bad men knew you were different…down there…they would try to hurt you."

"Why?"

"Because they don't like anyone who's different. That's why your mother doesn't want you to leave your cell without me. And that's why you have to keep this a secret. It's the only way to stay safe. And it's the only way you can keep coming into my cell or visiting the doctor. Do you understand?"

The gravity of his words caused her to shrink against him, drawing the blanket close. Her glance reached toward Gola, his snores from behind the shielding blanket now growing louder than the monsoon. Then she looked to her mother, and Bane knew Melisande regretted having to use terror tactics to safeguard her child.

"It's all right, habibi," Melisande assured with a wavering smile. "We won't let anyone hurt you. But you must promise me and Bane that you will never talk about this to anyone."

Solemnly she nodded, her eyes appearing even larger in her frightened face, and whispered, "Promise."

Melisande cupped Talia's tapered chin in her hand and kissed her. Bane could smell Melisande's fear.

Talia's lower lip jutted out, and she looked sadly downward. Bane hugged her tighter.

"No long faces tonight," he said. "What if I tell you a story?"

Talia perked up. "What kind of story?"

He teased her by withholding his answer for a long moment, instead staring up at the ceiling as if in thought. "A story about a lost boy who goes in search of his father."

"Does it have a happy ending?"

He looked at Melisande's relieved expression and smiled, "Of course."

###

When Bane awoke on his charpoy, deep in the night, he knew it was not the rain that had disturbed his rest, nor was it Talia; the child lay asleep on the other side of the bars—he knew her breathing patterns as well as he knew her face. But what he did not detect was Melisande's even respiration. He listened, pushing aside the drone of the rain, which had slackened since he had returned to his cell. Then he heard her.

Immediately Bane left his charpoy, making not a sound so Talia would remain asleep. He padded to the front of his cell, softly spoke Melisande's name so he would not startle her. She was just on the other side of the bars, huddled in the front corner, and when she heard him, her quiet sobs abruptly halted.

"What's the matter?" he whispered as he sank to his haunches. "Why are you out of bed?"

She ran a sleeve across her face as she sniffed back her tears. "I didn't want to wake…Henri." A stray sob escaped her.

Bane reached through the bars, took her hand. "Did you have a nightmare?"

"No…I haven't been able to fall asleep. I just keep thinking about what…Henri said."

"What do you mean?" He sat and leaned back against the front bars, closed his other hand around hers to warm it.

She hesitated and moved as close as she could to him, lowering her voice even more. "I just don't know if I can do it."

"Do what?"

Melisande paused in frustration then broke with convention, saying, "She's already asking those questions. I just don't know how I can make her understand why we have to deny who…what she really is. She's only going to keep asking things. As she grows up, it will be even harder to disguise her. And it seems so cruel to do so, to not let her be herself."

"I know, but what choice do we have?"

"If she stayed always in our cell, like I do, then—"

"Do you really want her to live that way?"

She squeezed his hand. "No, of course not. I wouldn't wish this on anyone, let alone my own child."

"Then we need to stay the course. Besides, you could be worrying about something that may never happen. I mean, one day we'll escape, maybe one day soon."

With little hope, she said, "But only two men have tried to make the climb in the past year. It seems so hopeless; what if no one ever tries again?"

"I will."

"Bane, no—"

"I've just been waiting, until I'm strong, until I had grown more. And I am, I have." He paused. "Truth be told, I could have climbed before now, but…well, I guess I've been here so long and…and, well, it's been easier to be here because of you and Talia."

Melisande gave a small, worried gasp at the sound of her daughter's name, for neither had dared even whisper it since the day she had revealed her secret. But he knew she enjoyed hearing it as much as he did because she squeezed his hand again, sniffed back the last of her tears.

"This is my home," he continued, almost to himself, speaking words he could not curtail, admitting to himself as much as to her the realization that had come to him over the past year. "I know that probably sounds strange to you—"

"No. I understand. This is all you have ever known. This is where your mother was."

"I guess I've been a bit afraid to leave. Maybe that's really why I haven't tried the climb again. But, since I fought Omar…well, I feel confident now."

"Why would you be afraid to leave? You have always talked about finding your father. The story you told tonight—that was about you, about your hope."

"Yes, it is my hope, but…well, who says it will really happen? Maybe he's dead. Maybe he doesn't even want to know me. Maybe he's forgotten about my mother; it's been so long."

"Oh, Bane, don't think that. Of course he hasn't forgotten her. And he would want to know about you. You can't give up on that."

"But if I escaped, if we escaped, I might find him, but I would lose you and Talia."

She turned to face him and reached her other hand through the bars to clutch his hands. "That's not true. After all we've been through together, the three of us, we would never forget you."

"But you have a family…your husband…"

"You are a part of that family, Bane. Of course you could come with us, wherever we go, but I assumed you wouldn't want to because of your father."

He shifted to face her as well, the dying embers from her brazier allowing him to see the curve of her cheek, the corner of her eye, their hands still joined. "I do want to find my father. Of course. But, like you said, after all we have been through together…"

"Perhaps my husband will be able to help you find your father."

"But you said your father exiled him?"

"That was over three years ago. So much could have changed by now. And you don't know my Henri." She smiled, the tears long gone now. "He will do anything I ask of him, even if it means defying my father again. When he finds out we are alive, that he has a child…" She touched Bane's cheek. "When I tell him all that you have done for us, he would never deny you."

Her caress made him smile as did her change in mood from deep sorrow to hope. The thought of being able to remain with her and Talia, and the idea of Henri Ducard making possible a reunion with his father filled him with new hope, new strength, new resolve. Perhaps now was indeed the time to attempt the climb once again. This pit did not have to remain his home. He could find a new home, a real home, beyond the cold shaft. Even if he was unable to find his father, he would not be alone in that mysterious, frightening world beyond these subterranean walls. He would have a family.