“Leee-ving,” said Sebrahn.
“And so will we. Soon.”
Alec felt a bit stronger today. Since he was up already, he decided to attempt a walk around the room, keeping an ear out for Mydri’s heavy step on the stair just in case.
He was dizzy and unsteady on his feet, and took a few falls in the process until Sebrahn came over to walk beside him. Then Alec kept a hand on the rhekaro’s shoulder to steady himself, and they walked slowly back and forth between the bed and the door. It felt good to move, even if occasionally the floor seemed to pitch like the deck of a ship under sail.
He grinned down at Sebrahn. “I hope I don’t need one of your healings today.”
Sebrahn immediately held up a pale forefinger. Alec gave it a gentle squeeze. “Thank you, but I was just joking.”
Sebrahn cocked his head slightly to one side, and his eyebrows drew down just the slightest bit.
Alec stared at him in surprise. On a normal person’s face, that look would have indicated confusion. “Joking. I didn’t mean that I did need … Oh, hell. Never mind.”
Sebrahn stared up at him for a long moment, held out his finger again, and then brought it back to his chest. “Jok … king.”
Alec laughed. “Well, sort of.”
Sebrahn did it again. “Joking.” This time his face twitched as he tried to approximate Alec’s grin.
“I’ve often found that a sense of humor is a sign of an intelligent mind.”
Startled, Alec turned to find Seregil leaning in the now open doorway. “Sneaking up on me?”
“I came to warn you that I can hear you staggering around up here. Lucky for you, Mydri got caught up in conversation down at the quay. You’re looking a little pale. Let’s get you back to bed.”
“I can do it!” Alec protested, then turned too quickly and fell on his face before Seregil could catch him. Sebrahn sprang to his side and crouched there. When Seregil reached down to help Alec, Sebrahn hunkered lower and hissed at him.
Seregil stepped back in surprise. “It’s only me. He’s the one who fell over.”
Alec sat up and gathered a handful of Sebrahn’s hair, giving him a not-so-gentle shake. “No! Bad! Go to Seregil.”
Sebrahn’s face was blank again as he rose and walked to Seregil’s side. The older man took the rhekaro’s face between his hands. “I wouldn’t hurt Alec. I never will. I love him. Love?” He looked to Alec, who only shrugged. Seregil gingerly gave Sebrahn a hug. “Love. You can trust me, little one.” He pointed to his own chest, then to Sebrahn’s. “Trust.”
Sebrahn cocked his head again, then touched Seregil’s chest and rasped out, “Serigl.”
Alec laughed. It was how he’d taught Sebrahn his name, and others—by pointing. Apparently that was the only way Sebrahn was going to interpret the gesture from now on.
Seregil lifted the unresisting rhekaro in his arms and deposited him on the window seat. Then he did the same with Alec, lifting him onto their bed and stretching out beside him. “So,” he drawled, sliding a hand down Alec’s side, then up again, rucking up the rumpled linen nightshirt as he went. “Getting our strength back, are we?”
Alec shivered under his touch. “Yes, but it’s still daylight outside, Sebrahn is staring at us, and you left the door wide open. Again.”
Seregil nuzzled his neck. “I’ll close the door.”
Alec grabbed him before he could make good on that. “And I need a bath.”
“All right. You shall have one.” Seregil sighed. “We really are going to have to do something about Sebrahn, though.”
“I know. Now, bath?”
“Yes, my lord. At once, my lord.” Seregil laughed as he headed for the door. “But I still say we’re going to have to find some way of dealing with Sebrahn, and not just because I don’t want him staring at my ass when we’re—”
“I know!”
“It’s like having a dog around. Always underfoot.”
“Don’t say that!” Alec called after him, but Seregil was already headed down the stairs.
Within the hour servants brought up a small brass tub and steaming cans of hot water from the kitchen.
“Sebrahn first,” Alec insisted, fully enjoying handing out a few orders after all the ones he’d been suffering.
“Let me, then,” said Seregil. “You’re too wobbly and you have more than enough bruises.”
The rhekaro had no bodily functions, and no particular smell, but he still got grubby. This was his first real bath, but he showed no sign of fear as Seregil mixed cans of warm and cold water and poured it over him. Sebrahn just sat there while Seregil washed him with the cloth, then lathered his hair. When the bath was over and he had Sebrahn wrapped in a flannel, they both smelled nicely of rose-scented soap.
Seregil gave the rhekaro an uncommonly fond look, surprising after their earlier exchange. “I forget, sometimes, how much he resembles you. And even more so now, thanks to Thero. I suppose it’s almost like seeing you at that age. Now then, your turn.”
With Seregil’s help, Alec sank into the warm water and rested his head on his bare knees, letting Seregil scrub his back and wash his long hair. “Don’t you think I should cut some of it off?” he asked yet again as Seregil’s finger caught in a tangle.
“It’s up to you, talí, but I like it,” Seregil told him, as always.
“Then you have to grow yours out again, since you seem to have forgotten the problems.”
“I am, but I can’t do it quite as fast as our little friend can.” He pulled the chair over to the side of the tub to keep him company as Alec took over with the cloth.
When Seregil sat down, Sebrahn climbed into his lap. Seregil smiled down at him.
Sebrahn is as much pet as child, thought Alec. A pet that can kill. Seeing the two of them like that, he wondered, What do I call this? A “family”?
But he knew better, and that brought a now familiar tightness around his heart. He brushed it aside. Later. They’d figure things out later. Right now he was just going to enjoy the damn bath!
“Are you all right, talí?”
“The water’s just getting cold.”
Seregil helped him out and wrapped him in a large flannel. Alec leaned against him, the water dripping from his hair onto the floor around his bare feet and soaking the front of Seregil’s shirt.
“I do feel better.”
“You smell better, too.”
Seregil’s warm, deep chuckle vibrated against Alec’s heart. Taking him by the hand, he drew Seregil back to the unmade bed. “Sebrahn, go look out the window.”
The rhekaro obeyed the now familiar order at once.
Alec glanced at the door, making sure it was closed. Satisfied, he gave Seregil a push and tumbled them both into bed, pulling Seregil on top of him and holding him tight.
“What’s this?” Seregil asked, smiling down at him.
“If you have to ask, then it’s been too long,” Alec said with a chuckle of his own. “I keep telling you, I’m getting better!”
And Alec must have trained the rhekaro well during the long days up here, Seregil thought later, for Sebrahn never took his gaze from the harbor as they rolled and surged and moaned together, tangled in Alec’s long wet hair.
When Alec woke up again some time later, it was still light out, Seregil was gone, and Mydri was looming over him. “My, aren’t you energetic.”
The look in those dark eyes left him completely tongue-tied as he waited for another upbraiding, but she just shook her head. “How do you do that nightrunning business with such a guilty face?”
Sebrahn squatted at the end of the bed, eyeing the healer with an intensity that made Alec nervous. Sebrahn had already been told that the various household members were friends, but if he’d turn on Seregil, all bets were off.
Mydri shook a colorful little rag and yarn doll from her sleeve and placed it in Sebrahn’s hands. “A gift for you, little one. Be a good—rhekaro and let me see how your Alec is healing.”