her as gently as a ... thing, small, green, stuck on a branch....
She frowned, trying to come up with the word, but the effort was paralyzingly difficult. The thought drifted away from her, left her with no more than a niggling sense that something was wrong. And then even that was gone.
"Howare youtoday ... goddess?" A low, rumbling bass noise from somewhere in the darkness.
She tried to open her eyes. She felt them begin to open, slowly, like the reluctant movement of a door that had been rusted shut for ages.
She saw something ... circle ... out of focus. No, not a circle ... round. Round, yes. Face. A face fringed by pale golden light. A halo. Angel.
"Wellhellothere." It was the same voice, soft and caressing and intimate. She realized now that she recognized it, that she'd heard it before today. It was the voice that had always been with her in the great, cold darkness, the voice beckoning for her to fightselena. She didn't know what it meant, what he wanted of her, but it was comforting somehow. "Areyoucold?"
Gibberish. Her head started to ache. The raw fire in her throat came back. "... knowwho ... youare?"
She could feel his expectation, his need, and she wanted to do what he wanted, but she didn't understand. Frustration welled up inside her.
She knew he was talking to her. She should be able to speak back to him, but she couldn't remember any of the words, or how to form them, or what to say.
She started to utter a low, growling sound of irritation, but the noise aborted itself, cut off by the harsh, unrelenting fire in her throat. "Wouldyoulikesome ... water?" Water. The word surprised her. She understood it.
39
Yes, water. She had need of it in her throat. How did she tell him so?
The angel leaned closer. He pulled the thing from her throat. The pain was exquisite. She trembled, whimpered.
Then the thing was gone, and the pain in her throat
lessened.
"Hereyougo." Something warm and strong curled around her neck, brought her slowly upward. At the movement, her head started pounding. Hammering pain. She made a small, moaning sound and almost passed back into the darkness.
"Shhhh .. . s'okay . . ."
The angel's face swam before her eyes, wavery and out of focus still. Something cool and smooth touched her mouth. Water beaded on her lips. She could smell it, remember it. Her mouth watered, she became dizzy with the need to taste it, but she couldn't remember what to do.
A hot ache pulsed behind her eyes, left a film of stinging moisture.
"Don'tcry. . . . s'okay . .. here." He pressed the cool surface?glass!?between her lips. His touch was soft and sure and calmed her immediately. The strange moisture in her eyes dried. The clear vessel tilted, sent a tepid flood of water into her mouth.
She sputtered, coughed, then accidentally . ..
Swallowed. That was it. That's what she'd been supposed to do. She drank greedily, feeling the warm, slick water slide down her throat. Finally, exhausted, she sank back into the softness and closed her eyes.
The familiar darkness curled around her, an
d for a second, she was afraid. Afraid she would never awaken again, never see her angel's face again, never hear his gentle voice. Her heart beat faster.
He talked to her. The low, soothing strains of his voice wrapped around her, comforted her immediately. Very slowly, she opened her eyes again.
40
This time she saw him in complete focus, and he was
so handsome that for a second she couldn't breathe. His
hair looked like a gold coin glinting in the sunlight, and
his eyes, they were the color of ... shoe? leaf? She