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‘We’re here,’ said Frano, his voice low while he gently stroked my face with his fingers. ‘Keep your eyes closed.’
I screwed my eyes shut against the brightness of the shuttle room. Frano must have removed my goggles.
‘Easy,’ he said, as he assisted me out of the shuttle. I kept my eyes screwed shut the entire time.
Once on my feet, I found that my eyes had adjusted and I was able to see where I was going.
Frano dropped the key that he wore around his neck, twice, but eventually managed to shove it into the keyhole and open the door to his room.
The relief was instant the moment we spilled into the room. Like home, I thought, as a wave of both happiness and sadness rushed over me. I wondered if my mother was missing me or thinking of me at all.
‘I guess they were expecting us,’ said Frano, chuckling. ‘I suppose they would have left us something each night until we arrived home, just in case.’
My gaze rested on the glorious sight that was the dining table laid out with platters of what appeared to be meats and cheeses. My stomach grumbled like a monster.
‘I’m starving,’ I said, limping deliriously towards the food and the crystal-clear carafe of water at the centre of the table.
‘Me too,’ said Frano, who was grinning at my eagerness to get to the food.
Though my leg throbbed, I wanted food more than medical attention. Frano wanted otherwise.
He winced at my blood-soaked bandage and headed straight for the double doors and called out to the waiting guards.
‘Send for the nurse between the hills. We need stitching done and pain medication.’
I reached for a bread roll and groaned as I sank my teeth into it.
The guards’ footsteps died away. Frano came to kneel at my feet and assess my calf.
‘The bleeding has slowed,’ he said, gently guiding me into a seat.
‘Please, slide another chair here,’ I said, pointing to where I wanted it. ‘Raise my leg and rest it there, please.’
Frano propped my foot onto the chair as I’d asked and stared intently at my face.
‘What?’
He frowned and felt for the pulse in my wrist.
‘You’re pale.’
‘I’ll be fine,’ I assured him, but deep down inside I was worried and couldn’t help but want my mother.
Tears prickled my eyes but I quickly brushed them away.
‘Don’t be scared, Nada. I’ll look after you,’ said Frano, brushing away the hair stuck to my forehead.
I sniffed. Embarrassed by my outburst of self-pity but unable to control the torrent of emotion gushing from my heart.
‘Did my mother truly leave me like that? Did she not care to say goodbye?’ I asked, gripped by the melancholy of my raging emotions.
Frano didn’t answer my questions but instead checked the double doors for the guard he’d sent.
‘They shouldn’t be long now,’ he said. ‘The medicinal tea will help with the pain.’
A few minutes later, after the guard had still not returned, Frano busied himself making me a plate of food. Smoked fish and an assortment of pickled vegetables stuffed into a fresh roll.
It was so good that I wolfed it down before I even got to fully appreciate it.
Frano did the same and then poured us both first a glass of water and then a large measure of brandy each.
‘For the pain,’ he said. ‘And because explorers like us deserve a drink after what we have discovered.’
While I sipped my brandy, the far wall caught my eye and I thought briefly of Lukas and how I couldn’t wait to tell him what we’d found.
But Frano, as though he could read my mind, spoke up in a hushed tone.
‘We must not tell anybody what we saw today. Until we understand fully what had happened and whether we are still in danger of coming to an end like the poor people of this city. Let us keep it between me and you, husband and wife.’
‘Husband and wife?’ I said, my insides filling with warmth despite my body starting to feel cold and shivery all of a sudden.
Frano bent to press his lips to mine.
‘Of course. I know we’ve already said our vows in the shuttle, but... I want to marry you, for real... that is, if you’ll take me as your husband.’
The warmth of Frano’s kiss and the delirium from the loss of blood could have contributed to my nod.
‘Yes. I’ll marry you.’
Frano smiled and gently stroked my cheek but paused when footsteps could be heard outside the double doors.
Without a word, he rushed out of the room and reappeared a minute later, a large, middle-aged woman with bright red hair rushed in behind him. In her hands, she clutched what appeared to be the leather straps of a medical bag.
‘Quickly,’ he said. ‘She’s lost a lot of blood.’
The woman carefully unwrapped my leg and I gasped at the release of pressure and the pain that it caused.
Somebody put brandy to my lips and I sipped at it, the liquid burning my throat.
‘What did this? How did she hurt herself?’ the woman said, tutting.
Frano said nothing at first, but when he started to speak I cut in.
‘I tripped... fell on a broken tree branch... it went through my leg.’
Then the room and Frano and everything turned pinkish red and then white, and then finally... black.
––––––––
When I came to, Frano was at my bedside, sitting in a chair, his hand clutching mine.
‘Welcome back,’ he said. Though he was smiling wide, his brow bore a deep crease.
Merely shifting to a sitting position was enough to enflame the pain in my leg.
‘You’re all stitched up, Nada. So, no adventuring for a good month until it heals. Perhaps even longer, I’m afraid.’
Memories of the island, the beauty of the pond and the running water, the butterflies, then running from danger and the skeletal remains of the mermaid, the mass graves and Kraja’s crown, which now sat on my bedside table... Despite the danger, I had to admit, I was going to miss adventuring.
‘I know,’ Frano said, sighing and hanging his head. ‘I’m going to miss it just as much.’
It surprised me that he wouldn’t go exploring himself while I was laid up with the injury.
Resting my weight on my forearms, I managed to slide up into a sitting position. Frano placed an extra pillow behind my back for comfort. The dining table was now laden with orange juice and a bowl of green grapes.
‘But I thought you said—’
Frano shook his head. ‘Well, you’ve obviously forgotten that you are my most important thing. Marin and anything or anybody else comes second.’
My cheeks blushed. ‘What about the mermaids?’
Frano shrugged but his eyes skipped across the room. ‘They don’t matter so much anymore.’
‘I don’t believe you,’ I said playfully, hoping that I was perhaps over thinking things. ‘You can barely look me in the eye.’
Frano grinned and widened his eyes, holding my gaze for a full minute.
‘Good enough for you?’ he said, breaking into soft laughter.
I reached for a nearby pillow and lamely swatted him with it.
‘Okay, I believe you,’ I said, feeling light and fuzzy inside. Just as I was about to laugh, a sharp burning pain gripped my leg.
‘Here, some painkilling tea and some medication.’
I stared at the pills. ‘I’m happy to sip the tea. I don’t like pills. Especially not the one you gave me when we first met.’
I shuddered to think of the days I’d spent in and out of a drug induced coma. It still made me feel ill to imagine strangers dressing and undressing me and leading me to the bathroom.
‘Don’t ever go back there, to island 27,’ I said, leaning forward while Frano placed extra pillow behind my head. ‘Without me, that is,’ I said, easing back against the pillows and shivering at the memory of the icy frost that had chased us away from the island. ‘It’s too dangerous for you to go there alone.’
Frano’s face turned serious. ‘I promise.’
‘Good,’ I said, sighing with relief.
Frano frowned. ‘However, I’ll be leaving tonight to head to the mainland. Pearl business. I hope you’ll understand?’
Though I wanted to protest, I said nothing. It was shocking to me that he wanted to leave my side so soon after our return, and with me so badly injured. Hadn’t he just said that I was his number one concern?
‘What about your back?’ I asked, remembering the terrible frost burns he’d received on the island while saving my life.
Frano stood and raised his shirt and I gasped at the redness of his skin and the welts that were now showing.
‘They’ll heal quickly with the salve the nurse gave me. I’ll be fine.’
He bent to kiss my forehead and stood back, a soft smile on his lips.
‘In a week’s time, when I return, we will have a grand wedding.’
A week sounded far too soon for my liking.
‘But what about my leg? How will I get around the city?’
Frano frowned.
‘The wedding will be held in the castle ballroom. There’ll be no need for you to visit the city. Besides, you’ll be resting most of the time.’
My stomach fluttered in a panic. I didn’t like the idea of being kept from the city for so long. Why was it so forbidden?
‘But when will I get to see the city?’
‘You can hardly visit the city like this, with your leg stitched and bandaged.
‘But I can hardly dance at my own wedding like this so what is the difference?’ I said, growing irritable.
Frano passed me a fancy tea cup filled with a green tinted liquid.
‘Drink this. It’s for the pain.’
I took a sip of the sweet, minty tasting tea, then continued drinking it until the cup was empty.
‘I’m sorry, Frano,’ I whispered, as my muscles relaxed.
‘Don’t be, Nada. You need to rest. You’re seriously injured.’
‘Is it night time yet?’ I asked setting the cup back on its saucer. Without windows in the room, it could have been any time of day. Claustrophobia clawed at me already. If only I could be out on the balcony viewing the city and breathing in the ‘fresh’ air.
‘Where does the air come from?’ I asked.
Frano smiled. ‘Vents.’ He pointed to two locations on the floor of the room where metal bars stretched across narrow square shaped holes. ‘Oxygen vents that lead to fresh, mainland air.’
‘How did they get there?’ I asked, thinking about the control panel and my theory about this entire place being an alien aircraft.
‘It’s a mystery. This entire domed city is a mystery. But it’s a mystery that I intend to unlock before the day I die.’
‘Me too,’ I said, my head feeling drowsy.
Frano smiled. ‘Goodnight, my love.’
‘So, it’s night time?’ I sighed and shook my dizzy head – the tea was strong. ‘You said you were leaving tonight.’
‘I will. But very late. You must rest. I will kiss you goodbye while you sleep.’
A smile tickled my lips.
‘Then I’ll lie awake all night and be ready to pounce.’
Frano’s laugh echoed long after he shut the door.
I laughed too.
But when my laughter died I could not help but wonder if my future husband was telling the truth about going away on pearl business.
Time trickled by, and I tried to amuse myself with the books Frano had left on my bedside table, but my head was too foggy from the special tea.
Not long after I put the books down a maid came by and took my empty teacup. By the time she left my lids became heavy and I drifted off to sleep.
Sometime later, I woke to warm lips brushing against mine.
Smiling, I slid my hands around his neck and drew him in for a deeper kiss – I wasn’t about to let Frano go easily.
He groaned softly and kissed me back, but there was something different about the way that he kissed me, more eager and inexperienced than usual.
When I opened my eyes I froze, my fingers entwined in his dark hair.
I wasn’t kissing Frano.
I was kissing Lukas!