Cowards Illusion

FRAGMENT 10

Delmir had just turned seventeen when his father died. The man was up and moving the day before, as healthy as anyone had ever seen him.

Maesha had been there. Lady Alna had stayed away when her husband was ill. She thought it was just going to be another bout of illness, and he would be fine in the next few days. Halden had asked for Maesha.

The now adult Maesha was always the one to care for Halden. Why the man trusted him after all he had endured, he had no idea. During Halden's sick times, it was the one time Maesha didn't fear him. Halden was much more pacified, and the few blows Maesha did manage to receive were halfhearted.

That night, it started off just like any other. Maesha was sitting in the usual chair, reading, which Halden had been instructed he be taught. He was very slow at it, but the man didn't seem to mind. Maesha was having trouble with a series of words, and Halden motioned for him to put the book down.

Halden was laying still, though his breathing was shallow. Maesha recognized the pain he was in, though the man never showed it.

“Can I get you anything Sir?” Maesha questioned.

“No,” Halden croaked, arching his back off the bed slightly with a wheeze.

“Master Halden?” Maesha looked concerned, standing up and coming to the man's bedside.

Halden let out a gasp, his body taut with pain.

“Master Delmir! We need a nurse!” Maesha shouted, running to the door. “Lady Alna!”

The only other person he had seen take a shuddering gasp like that was his uncle, laying under an old scraggly tree, bleeding to death.

He ran back to Halden's side, at a loss for what to do as the man struggled.

“Get away from him you demon! What did you do?” Lady Alna snarled as she shoved the frail man out of the way.

Delmir came in with Halden's nurse, and Maesha was ushered out of the room.

Delmir came to him that evening, pulling Maesha to him.

“He's dead Maesha,” Delmir told him, crying against the frail collarbone.

Maesha couldn't bring himself to shed a tear.