Lina cleaned up after Brax's treatment and went to check on Sail. The girl was breathing contentedly in bed, her small figure literally disappearing into the blanket.
Lina walked over to her and gently brushed her hair from her forehead with her hand. She stood there for a moment, watching her.
Then she headed to the next room, where Jalot was lying. He was awake, and as soon as he saw her, he smiled broadly at her.
"How are you?" Lina asked, returning his smile.
"Great. So great that I'll probably get up," he said cheerfully.
Lina was literally taken aback that he wanted to get up too, he had barely opened his eyes, but she got over it and calmly said, "Well, you'll have to hold out until tomorrow morning. The hand needs rest and it won't hurt you either."
She went to the kitchen and prepared him another potion.
As she handed it to him, he said, "Thanks. If it weren't for you, I probably wouldn't be here."
He smiled at her and took her hand.
Lina was so frightened that as soon as she felt his fingers curl around her palm, she flinched and pulled her hand out of his grip.
"You're welcome to thank me. I'd do the same for anyone," she smiled and waved her hand to somehow mask her twitch.
Jalot smiled somewhat confusedly and took the potion she was handing him.
Lina let out a silent sigh and thought about how much she would like to lie down for a while, because she was starting to feel more tired and exhausted with every minute.
First, it was the exhaustion from taking care of everyone who was now in the house, and then also mental exhaustion, because all the things she had to deal with herself about Brax were starting to take a toll on her, just like the physical work. She
had already taken the first step outside when she realized that she definitely couldn't lie down just yet. She sighed and turned to Jalot.
"I have to go somewhere, but I'll be back in a moment. Stay here and lie down, please, okay? It's for your own good," she said, feeling like she would soon say this sentence to everyone. At least to every younger man.
Jalot nodded and smiled at her.
"Okay, as you wish," he winked at her.
Lina smiled and went out. As soon as she closed the door behind her, she took another deep breath. She needed that to make Jalot interested in her.
She liked him, but only as an acquaintance, someone she would meet a few times in the village and exchange a few words with. She definitely didn't want it to be anything more.
She went to the stable and saddled Rillan.
The horse greeted her with a cheerful neigh and a toss of its head. Lina stroked his mane several times, but said nothing. She felt as if she might not even have the strength to speak.
As soon as he was ready, she took the dagger that was hanging on the wall of the stable and slipped it into the leg of her boot. She didn't expect anyone to bother her on the way, but certainty was certainty, and besides, she always had it with her when she went somewhere.
She led Rillan out and mounted him. A few dozen feet from the house she saw Burinsfel grazing contentedly. She smiled wearily and spurred the horse.
He neighed and rode away from the house. Lina directed him towards the village. She had to find out where Sail's parents were so they wouldn't worry unnecessarily about her and could take her home as soon as possible.
She had never seen such a girl in the village in her life, so the only explanation she could think of was that she was the daughter of someone who was just passing through the village.
The movements of Rillan's body lulled her to sleep, and after a while of riding she was no longer aware of her surroundings or the road.
Brax heard Lina go out and from her room window he saw that she had left. That surprised him. He had expected her to stay here and go to bed, but then he realized how many times Lina had met his expectations, and he stopped being surprised.
Finally... this could be the opportunity to carry out his plan. Lina isn't here, so he can go down - to the stone for the hammer and to the lake to get rid of it.
Great! - he cheered in his mind.
He got up from the chair he was sitting on and started down the stairs.
He quietly crept to the door so that the man lying next to him wouldn't hear him, and went outside. There, however, he was in for a surprise in the form of Adar.
"Well, of course. How could he," he rolled his eyes.
He and the dog stared into each other's eyes for a while, but Brax couldn't waste any time.
"Go away, Adar," he waved his hand towards the back of the house. "Look, I'm not planning on running away, okay? I just want to do something to make your mistress happy, you understand?"
He felt like an idiot when he tried to explain his actions to the dog, but Lina also spoke to him like a human and so he wanted to at least try.
Adar, however, didn't move and continued to stare at him intently.
Brax was slowly starting to lose patience.
"Well, get off!" he growled at him.
The dog remained motionless.
"Go, damn it!" he shouted at him.
To no avail – Adar didn't move an inch. The man took a breath to calm himself. He stared at the dog for a few more seconds and finally decided to take a chance.
He took a step towards the dog to get around it. He was quite surprised that it let him and didn't even try to pounce on it, didn't even bark or growl.
He stopped considering the dog's behavior the moment his eyes fell on the halved stone behind which his hammer was hidden.
He walked calmly to it and bent down to get the tool. He took it in his hand and set off for the lake. He didn't intend to waste any more time re-deciding about what had already been decided.
His eyes were fixed on the ground all the way, and even though he didn't want to, the past few days were replaying before his eyes again. All the moments he had spent with Lina and also those that had contributed to what he had decided to do.
Within a few minutes he had reached the lake.
While Brax was walking to the lake, he arrived at the Kalat house. He jumped off his horse and knocked on the door.
When no one answered, he went inside. He had the foresight to think that it wouldn't be best to shout at the whole house, so he wanted to peek into the room where Brax had been laid first.
He quietly went up the stairs. He looked around the empty room in confusion.
Then it occurred to him that Brax might be somewhere with Lina, and he smiled slyly at the thought.
Finally, he shrugged his shoulders and went downstairs. He was about to take a look in the kitchen when he suddenly heard the sound of horse hooves outside the house.
He went outside and looked at Lina, who was helping a woman in a simple dress with a white bonnet on her head to jump off her horse.
"Hello!" he said immediately.
Lina turned around in surprise.
"Kalate!" she breathed. "How are you?"
"Well, I'm fine, thanks," he smiled.
"Where is she?" the woman interrupted them impatiently.
"In the room on the left," Lina replied.
She led her to the door and let her enter the room. Then she returned to Kalat's front door.
"Who is she going to? Brax?" he asked.
"No. To her daughter. She got poisoned by a fruit, but thanks to Brax she'll survive," Lina explained to him and yawned.
"Thanks to Brax?" Kalat repeated her words in bewilderment. "Like he beat down a tree or a bush with that poisonous fruit?"
Lina laughed: "No, not really. You probably haven't talked to him much, have you? Well, he needs sleep the most right now, but as soon as he wakes up, he'll be happy to tell you about it himself," Lina chuckled and rubbed her eyes.
Kalat raised his eyebrows and a smile twitched on his lips, realizing that Lina clearly had no idea that Brax wasn't in the room and wasn't sleeping.
"Well, he's clearly had enough rest," he said.
Lina looked at him in confusion.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, he's not in the room. I haven't seen him anywhere. I thought you were together… somewhere," he said by way of explanation.
Lina stared at him in confusion and then ran upstairs. Although she was tired to the utmost, now it seemed as if the tiredness had disappeared into thin air.
Her eyes darted across the room and in a moment she had run through the entire house. She also went to look in the stable and when she didn't find Brax there either, she let out a furious sigh.
She ran out in front of the house and said through clenched teeth: "I'll kill him!"
Kalat looked at her somewhat surprised and walked over to her.
"Look, calm down. He'll be back. He was probably just going for a walk."
Even though Lina's eyes were flashing, she might have calmed down if Adar, who had been standing outside the entire time, hadn't barked.
The girl looked back at him and saw him running towards the stone.
She ran after him.
When she reached the stone, she leaned behind it and saw that the hammer was gone. Compared to the lightning that shot from her eyes now, the previous ones were mere sparks.
She straightened up, her hands clenched into fists, her face showing absolute fury that overshadowed her rational thinking.
She began to walk away from the stone with quick steps, heading towards the only place where she was absolutely sure she would find Brax.
"Hey, what's going on?" Kalat called after her.
"You - stay - here!" she shouted at him.
She walked briskly straight towards the lake. She didn't know why, but she was unwaveringly sure that she would find him there. Maybe because she knew that he didn't know many other places here.
Brax was standing at the edge of the lake, holding his hammer in his hand and following him with his eyes. It seemed to him that she was saying goodbye to him with that look, even though it felt completely childish.
Thanks to Lina's slightly less bandage on his shoulder than yesterday, he could move both hands much better, so he stroked the hammer's head.
"We've been through so much together, haven't we?" he smiled sadly. "We've made a few gold coins together."
But that was in the past. He wanted to be with Lina more than anything else. He was sure of it. If he really wanted that, he had to get rid of the main thing that made him who he was. No more fighting, no more wandering.
He realized with a smile that the real adventure for him would be sleeping under a roof and in one place now. Just like Lorina had once told him.
And what if Lina refused? What if…
Maybe he shouldn't throw it too far if Lina refused, so that he wouldn't have to dive far for it like an idiot.
No, if only – really. He just had to try.
He grabbed the hammer in his good hand and was about to swing it like he had never swung it before.
Lina could already see the lake and Brax. Thanks to the sun starting to set, and also because his back was to her, she couldn't see his face.
So his attitude, and the way he was looking at the hammer, gave her a clear idea that he had cunningly taken advantage of her absence to start training and not get out of it.
The mere knowledge of this made her even more furious. She didn't mean to make a scene, at least not in the way most women in her situation would (she wasn't even sure if any woman had ever been in a similar situation, but still).
For a moment, her mind suggested what she should consider before taking the next step. Whether she would hurt him more or if she swung the hammer. She quickly assessed that the injury to his unhealed shoulder would do far more damage if she swung it than what she was about to do. And that was enough for her.
She crept up behind him and, as soon as she saw him swing the hammer so he could start practicing with it, she clenched her hand into a fist and, with all the force she had never felt before, due to her maximum rage, slammed it across his jaw.
Brax staggered, almost losing his balance.
With wide eyes, he rested on Lina, who was clearly not finished yet. She kicked her foot behind him, and only because the man was still in shock from surprise did she manage to knock his legs under, so that he fell to the ground and landed on the grass in front of the lake. The hammer fell from his hand and landed on the grass with a muffled thud.
Lina quickly pulled the dagger she had there from her shoe. She gripped it firmly in her hand and sat astride Brax's chest. She put the hand with the dagger to his neck and brought her face close to his so that she could look at her own reflection in his eyes.
It all happened in a few seconds, so the man didn't have time to react at all.
Lina was breathing furiously and her eyes were piercing Brax's face like hundreds of sharpened swords.
"You - will never - understand anything, will you? Never!" she shouted at him, even though she didn't want to shout at first.
Brax stared at her in silent shock. Finally, he opened his mouth to speak.
"Shut up!" she shouted at him, pressing the dagger to his throat a little harder.
Her gaze flickered between his eyes, her fury unabated, on the contrary.
"I don't understand how I could have been so stupid and thought that you had changed! You've been acting like an idiot the whole time I've known you!
First you came up with such a stupid thing as going after those robbers with just one other mercenary and then - when you miraculously escaped, you couldn't think of anything smarter than to run after them and yell at them not to run and fight!
Did you realize that I've never killed anyone? I only intervened with those bandits because of you and your 'brilliant' plan! But that's not enough for you. It
's not enough for you to almost lose your life, you just have to keep proving that the laws that apply to ordinary mortals simply don't apply to you! And so instead of lying down and resting, you're doing the exact opposite! You almost died, do you realize that!? I didn't put you in a pile so that you could pile yourself back up again the next time you had the chance!"
Do you want to know what the other way I wanted to make you lie down was? If I hadn't been so stupid and naively thought that your head would light up, I would have put a sleeping herb in your potion every time, so that you would lie down for at least a fortnight straight and getting up would be the last thing on your mind! But I didn't do that. And now, as soon as I take off my heels, you climb out and immediately chase after that damn hammer to practice or remind yourself what it feels like to hold it? So that you don't get out of practice! If I hadn't been so stupid and thought..." she didn't finish because she felt tears welling up in her eyes and she didn't know if they were tears of anger or regret.
She looked into his wide eyes and wished she could hit him again, because she hoped that everything in his head would finally fall into place. However, it was clear to her that it would be unnecessary.
The man had recovered from the initial shock of Lina's attack on him and was now staring at her face. He had never seen her so angry in his memory. And he would never have believed it was possible for her to explode like this.
He realized with horror that the exact situation he had never wanted to get into had just happened. He also remembered that when he had thought of it then, he had not the slightest idea what he would do and he did not know what he should do now. He doubted very much that Lina would be interested in listening to what he had to say to her.
When she presented him with the list of all this, it occurred to him that he probably deserved the label 'idiot'. But he could not. Even though she thought the worst of him now, he wanted to tell her everything, he just did not know how to start. Moreover, he realized that she was still sitting on him, and what's more – she was holding a dagger to his throat.
Lina still stared at him with a certain amount of fury, but she was beginning to feel him slowly leaving her. Instead, simple annoyance had set in. She was about to take a breath to continue her list of insults to his behavior and actions when she realized she was acting like a child.
She exhaled and straightened up, so that she was now towering over Brax and slowly pulled the dagger away from his throat.
"You know what?" she said in a whisper.
With a graceful movement, she swung herself up and stood. She bent down and returned the dagger to the leg of her boot.
She looked at him for a second, then began to dust off her clothes, which were covered in a few blades of grass and bits of moss.
Brax stood up with a little more effort, running a hand over his jaw because the girl had landed her blow with precision and with a lot of force.
He kept his eyes on her, thinking hard about what to do so as not to make the situation worse and at the same time tilt it in his favor.
"I wanted the best for you, but I don't intend to make a fool of myself anymore," she said, without looking at him.
Brax suddenly froze, because what he had just thought of was risky, but he didn't have a better idea.
"If you want - right now, maybe," Lina said and turned to him, "you can go wherever…" she didn't finish, because Brax took a single step closer to her, and before she could do anything, he took her chin with one hand and kissed her.
If Lina had ever been in shock, it couldn't compare to how she felt now. What he had done surprised her so much that she could only exhale during the kiss and stand there frozen.
Brax took her waist with his other hand and pressed her tightly to his chest.
But Lina was much more shocked when she realized that after a few seconds she was kissing him the same way he was kissing her.
With this realization, she tore away from him in horror, her hands pressed against his chest and pushed him away.
As if this had triggered some subconscious reaction in her – she reached out and was about to slap him again.
However, the warrior's reflexes did not betray Brax. Before her hand could get dangerously close, he caught it under the wrist and stopped her.
"Before you hit me, and I might actually deserve it, let me say something," he said, his gaze fixed on her brown eyes. "I promise I won't stop you from hitting me."
He didn't regret what he had just done for a second. Maybe it was reckless and she really deserved the slap, but this way he had at least ensured that he had thrown her off balance a bit and that she would have a much easier time speaking if she didn't interrupt him, or at least he hoped she would. Moreover, he had wanted to kiss her for a long time and this had finally turned out to be a good opportunity.
As he looked into her face, into her wide eyes and still surprised, shocked expression, he began to feel extremely nervous and really scared. Another comparison with his former life occurred to him - what he had felt before the battle was nothing compared to this. And although his life was at stake in the battle, he felt that something more was at stake here.
"Look, I…" he began, "I didn't come here to practice. But you came, so…" He really felt like an idiot. He had no experience with such things – none, and so he had no place to start.
Lina watched him, her heart pounding and her forehead furrowed, as she tried to understand what he was trying to say. But she didn't really understand it. All that
was buzzing in her head like a swarm of bees was the fact that he had kissed her.
Brax took a deep breath and told himself that there was no point in trying to come up with some world-shattering speech, but to say it directly as he felt it – which would probably be best.
"I know I was an idiot – you're… absolutely right about that. But I want to change that. I came here to… get rid of the mercenary vibe. I've been thinking a lot over the last few days… actually – since we met. Especially the last three days. And I… aah," he felt like he just couldn't get the words out.
"I'd like to stay," he blurted out quickly. "Not just here – in the village. I'd like to… stay with you… If you wanted to…" he added into the silence around him.
Lina's mouth opened slightly, and at this moment she wouldn't have been able to say half a word even if she wanted to.
Braxe was somewhat confused by her reaction, because he didn't know how to interpret it, and so he felt he should say something more.
"Thanks to you, I started to look at the world differently – you literally forced me to. The way you treat others, the way you treated me. You save lives, you help everyone… And I don't want to keep killing, going from battle to battle and from one match to another… I used to want people to remember me as the great mercenary Brax, to make them tremble at the sound of my name. I wanted them to remember me by how many enemies I killed, how many battles I emerged victorious with my head held high, and what injuries I was able to fight with… But now – I don't want that anymore.
Now I wish that at least… someone would remember me. But even more. So that I could be proud of myself for something I did… and something that made sense."
Brax was truly inexpressibly glad that it was starting to get dark and it was not so easy to see his face, as he had felt the burning heat in her for a long time.
Lina looked at him with a mixture of incomprehension, confusion and disbelief.
She felt him let go of her hand, which he had held back so that it wouldn't hit him, and now he was looking at her, obviously waiting for what she would say.
The girl blinked and moved her mouth silently.
"You want to... stay... here?" she finally blurted out.
Brax smiled in relief, because he expected that he wouldn't get an answer at all.
"Yeah, I would," he nodded.
He stepped a little closer to her and took her hands.
"I would like to stay... with you too. But if you don't want to, just say so and I will disappear from your life forever," he looked her straight in the eyes, so that she knew he meant it.
He wasn't entirely sure what he would do in that case, but the decision was hers now.
Lina's brain seemed to slow down to the slowest speed in understanding connections. She was confused, more confused than she had ever felt.
On the one hand, she hardly dared to believe what he was telling her, on the other hand, she wanted to believe it and let him hold her in his arms again, another side told her that it was impossible for him to change like this.
Finally, after a few more, especially for Brax, long moments, she said: "You want to change... your whole life that you've had up to now? You want to throw it all behind you and start..."
"Yes, I do," he replied in a firm voice, his eyes never stopping drinking into hers. "Today - that girl... I... I've never helped anyone more than I did her today. I want to do something... useful."
Lina's lips trembled in a weak smile. She was still afraid to believe it.
She lowered her head and her eyes fell on her hands, which Brax held in his.
"But the main reason is... you. I want to be with you because I... I've never loved anyone more," he said and then clenched his teeth tightly together.
His head was starting to spin, but he firmly forbade himself from fainting or swaying in any way. He had to admit that Lina was right, he really wasn't as well as he thought. His heart was pounding in his ribs and his chest was heaving in rapid breaths like after a long run.
Lina wasn't doing any better, but on top of all that, her mind was getting tangled up in it, telling her that he couldn't change like this. She didn't really want to listen to him, but she couldn't completely ignore what he was putting before her.
"Are you absolutely sure about your decision?" she asked him and looked up at him. "I've... been through something like this once. A beautiful promise... then the cruel truth took its place. I don't... I don't want to experience it a second time," she said, tears welling up in her eyes.
"Are you afraid I'll go off to battle and never come back?" he breathed out with a smile, holding her face so he could look into it.
"Lina," he said with a smile, because she hadn't said no, she was just afraid she would end up like her father. "I'm not going anywhere. Everything… that I want and can want is here."
Lina looked past Brax into the approaching darkness. Words like these had been ringing in her head since she was twelve. She never thought she would hear them again, but from someone else, and certainly not from him.
While her body didn't move, her mind was all too vivid. She thought back to everything that had happened at that moment, wondering what would happen if she told him no, if she said let him go, that she never wanted to see him again.
The thought almost made her shiver inside, and she felt a coldness in her chest, as if a piece of ice had fallen there.
And if he said that she wanted him to stay here, and if she believed his words, then he would stay here forever.
From this thought, the ice in her chest turned into fire, warming her from the inside and spreading throughout her body. It didn't burn, it just brought warmth.
Although his stubbornness and stubbornness often really annoyed her, on the other hand, she realized that if he jumped the way she wanted, it wouldn't be the same. It wouldn't be the same as now. Maybe that was one of the things she liked about him.
Then she remembered what her mother had said to her when they had talked about her father. She had told her that she had never regretted meeting her father and getting married. She wouldn't trade those happy days and moments for anything, even if she knew he would jump the way they had ended.
Lina looked into the man's eyes and slowly raised her hand to his face until it touched it. She lightly ran her fingers over his temple and lowered her hand again.
His gaze had been making her face red for a long time, but now it seemed to her that it was literally burning.
She smiled slightly at him and said quietly: "Are you going to tell me the truth? Do you really want this because of what you said? You're not doing this because..."
Brax smiled: "Because I'm trying to appease you, or because I want to repay you for what you've done for me? Or because it's my momentary whim?" "
You've been thinking a lot, haven't you?" she asked, and now she smiled for real.
"It won't hurt from time to time," Brax shrugged and smiled too.
They both laughed together, but Brax then said: "I still have to finish it."
Lina raised her eyebrows in confusion.
The man didn't move an eyebrow and slowly released her hands from his grip. He stepped back a step from her and bent down to pick up the hammer that lay nearby.
With one corner of his mouth raised in a smile, he swung his good hand, circling the hammer twice in the air. Then he let it go.
Brax spun on his heel and was back with Lina in a second.
Neither of them saw where the hammer had landed or heard the sound of the water splashing…