Page 12 of Of Bargains & Betrayal

Wendell chuckled and fetched a few cups from where our other travel wares were unloaded near the fire. He spread them on the makeshift stone bench between us and poured a healthy glug of liquor into each.

Giving mine a cursory sniff probably wasn’t the smartest idea—the acrid smell made my already weather-irritated eyes water something fierce—but it was worth it to see Streja’s face contract in disgust as she did the same.

“Cheers,” she said weakly before holding out her cup.

Wendell smirked. “Cheers, indeed.”

Our cups clinked against each other, liquid sloshing up the insides, and I mumbled my own toast before I made the mistake—or maybe wise decision—of taking my drink back in one gulp. I was no stranger to off-putting potations, but this was especially heinous. My entire mouth burned as if I’d just sipped scalding tea, and the lingering aftertaste had me inclined to believe the spirits were long past their prime. Streja and Wendell didn’t look like they were faring much better, with their winces and wrinkled noses.

“Well,” he hissed, wiping his mouth with the back of his arm while he thrust the bottle at Streja with the other. “I’ll leave that with you two. Make sure you drink plenty⁠—”

“DINNER’S READY!”

Some combination of the long days, the Frost, the liquor, and a full belly had finally taken its toll on me.

I had just barely set my scraped-clean bowl at my feet when I felt the heavy pull of fatigue tug at every fiber of my body, slinging that bit of extra weight over all my joints, like they’d been hung with sandbags. I wasn’t usually the first to vacate any gathering and hadn’t planned for this to be an exception, with how everyone finally seemed to have a bit of life in them, but my body was giving me a pretty damn clear warning I was minutes away from using Streja as a pillow.

Not that she’d likely mind, but still.

“I think I’m going to turn in,” I said to her as I fought—and failed—to hold back a yawn. “I’m fucking exhausted, and that bedroll is calling my name.”

Streja tossed me a small smile, her hazel eyes flickering in the firelight, and she grabbed that cursed bottle of spirits from beside our stone-turned-bench. “One more nightcap, and I’ll walk back with you?”

I groaned but fished my cup up from beside my empty bowl and extended it to her. “Last one. It tastes like rancid piss.”

Streja scoffed quietly but uncorked the bottle and poured us each a finger or two. Our cups clinked together for another time, and I made the best attempt I could at shooting the potent spirit straight down my throat. The awful taste still washed over my tongue, though, and I hissed out a breath in protest. Streja chuckled a bit as she took another swig right from the bottle. I gave her a smack on the shoulder as I stood, just before another full-bodied yawn took hold of me.

“Sleep tight, princess,” our party captain crooned from across the fire pit, and it took every bit of my fading resolve not to turn and flip him off.

These coming weeks were going to be the longest of my life.

I clambered over the rock Streja and I had been sitting on and started towards my tent. It was a damned good thing she trailed after me, because I found my legs as trustworthy as any of the barstool back at the garrison tavern.

“Here, princess. Let me put you to bed.” On my second stumble on the uneven ground, she wrapped her arm across my shoulders and tucked me against her side. “You can crash in my tent. It’s much closer.”

My vision was a little fuzzy at best, between my fatigue, the dark, and grit from the persistent wind, so it took me a moment to realize Streja’s eyes were gleaming with tears.

“Oh, Stre…” I rested my head on her padded shoulder and found it almost impossible to lift it back up. “You’re still stuck with me for a—” I had to clear my throat, “—while longer. No tears yet.”

“Yeah,” she rasped.

“I mean it,” I chuckled. “S-save that f-for—fuck.”

My feet were as useful as two planks strapped to my legs for how my toes couldn’t seem to stop catching on the ground. Embarrassing, really. If it weren’t for Streja’s arm banded across my shoulders, I would’ve been laid out flat on my face in wasteland dirt.

She tightened her hold a little and let out a bone-deep sigh. “Yeah, Nor. We’ll save it. Let’s get you into bed.”

The next steps Streja tried to nudge me into just didn’t happen.

A wave of sickening dizziness swept over me, tilting everything around me, and my legs gave way so suddenly, I half slipped from Streja’s grip. A tremor of pain shot up my bones as my knees met the unforgiving ground, and I couldn’t even force a groan out of my slackened mouth.

Streja cursed, shuffling us both to get her hands under my arms.

When she leaned me back and started moving, the hazy night sky swimming above, realization came creeping in with agonizing slowness.

This wasn’t some alarming mixture of feast, liquor, and fatigue wreaking havoc on my body. It couldn’t be. My mind was still spinning away, my heart fucking pounding, but my limbs were growing numb, my tongue like lead in my mouth.

My body didn’t even feel like my own.