"Arabian Nights"
Part 59
by Mel
“OUT!”
Liv shook. Somewhere along the way her veil had come off, her hair was messy and ruffled. Her normally friendly dark eyes flashed with anger and frustration. Her robe lay in a forgotten heap in the corner of the room and the chamber fairly sweltered with the heat she had created. Sweat drenched her under clothes, and her skin was flushed from the sauna she had made.
“All five of you are to leave right this second! There is no way I can even try to burn out this fever if you are all under my feet! Out, out, OUT.”
The boys looked at each other. They were all shirtless, the heat causing their skin to shine with sweat. They had been trying to help Liv, and though they‘d had good intentions, every time Viggo would moan they froze up. Really, they weren’t much help.
Sean sighed, he had spent the whole time trying to keep Orli from collapsing. Of all the boys, Orlando was closest to Viggo and he was feeling this a lot more then the others. He was starting to lose whatever sanity he had left. Jared and Elijah were trying to keep him focused, but he kept breaking apart more and more, so Sean stepped in with his calm voice and gentle touch.
Sean too was in turmoil. It was easy to focus on the boys, to keep their current hysteria at a low level, but sometimes his hands shook. Sometimes his breath would catch. He couldn’t look at Viggo anymore, couldn’t watch him twist in agony as the fever burned through him. Couldn’t watch him fade away before his eyes.
“Come on kittens,” Sean watched their faces fall when Sean took Liv’s side. They shuffled out and Liv smiled tightly at Sean. She went straight back to Viggo’s side, packing heated bricks up against his body, trying to burn out the fever.
The courtyard was remarkably markedly cooler than the room, where the five boys had set up cots for themselves. It had been two days since Sean's talk with Karl. Two days and the man had left his mind completely. For two days he had slept with Elijah in his arms as the young boy had cried silently. Orli’s cot was empty all the time, the other boy had been with Jared and had not kept his feelings silent.
Dominic didn’t sleep. He had a single candle through the night and sat beside their newest addition. Billy was going through the early stages of withdrawal. Dom tried to get him to sleep as much as possible, but when his body craved the drugs that he had become addicted to, the reaction was often violent. There had been a few occasions where Dom had had to call for help to keep the other boy from scratching his eyes out.
Between looking after the kittens, helping Dom with the new boy and the gut wrenching fear for Viggo, Sean was exhausted.
Jared and Elijah looked at each other before Elijah took Sean’s hand, and Jared took Orli’s. “Come on, let‘s go to the gardens for a bit, we can have lunch out there.”
“But-“ Orli began, looking towards the bedroom.
“We have to let Liv work Orli, we’re no help to her at the moment.” Jared told him quietly. “Come on.”
“I’ll look after Billy.” Dom said.
The boys looked as though they wanted to protest, when Sean spoke up. “Thank you Dom, I think he’s only going to get worse shortly.” The grey eyed boy nodded, his face as unreadable as usual. He was very good at hiding what he thought, Sean mused. The other boys however, were not, and looked a little miffed that Sean had made the decision for them. Still, they allowed themselves to be herded out, with promises that they would bring Dom back something to eat.
Dominic worked silently, getting a little heated water from Liv’s store and dipping the cloth into it. He had gone days without sleep before, but he could feel it catching up to him [now]. The Prince was very ill, he could tell in the way Liv moved around frantically. She was doing all she could, but normal methods for breaking a fever were not working. Dominic, for the first time, felt the cold tendril of fear wrap around him.
The Prince was going to die. If he died, what would happen to them?
They would likely be sold. Dominic would quite possibly be beheaded as would have happened, if the Prince had not intervened. Orli and Elijah would be separated and likely become whores to rich nobles. To people who wouldn’t understand them, who would use them and discard them. Jared would go back to work on the streets.
They would all die, Dom was sure of it.
He looked at Billy, whose eyes were vacant. The other man would go back onto the drugs that Dominic was trying so hard to break him from. For some reason, Dom wanted him to see the sky, the sun, before his mind would be clouded over once more and he was sold. Something inside him said it was very important. He just hoped Billy could pull through in time.
Billy was restless. He squirmed on the cot, every time the cloth touched him, he would move, shift away from it, as if it was burning him. Dom was relentless, he continued to follow his movements around the bed, trying to relieve the other boy’s discomfort. When he began to whimper Dom paused, watching him silently, waiting.
His hands clutched at his head, his whole body arching as he cried out, voice hoarse, his face scrunched in pain. Dom crawled quickly onto the bed, straddling the boy, holding him down. He watched the boy scream out as his body craved what he was being denied. He fought Dom blindly, struggling against the hands that held him down. The fits were getting longer, harsher and much more frequent.
It was almost as though there was an echo of what was happening in the bedroom. At least here Dom could help a little. Even if he really couldn’t do anything, even if he couldn’t stop the pain. He’d stopped sleeping, stopped eating. There was nothing he could do for Viggo.
Viggo would die.
He choked back the sob, it coming out in a short gasping hiccup. Tears stung his eyes, falling down onto Billy’s flesh. It was all hopeless. He was hopeless. He couldn’t even save the people he’d come to care for. Come to love. They would all die and there was nothing he could do.
Hands covered his. Dom’s head flew up and he was looking into blank amber eyes.
The Captain of the Caliph’s guard looked as though he had had as much sleep as Dom, which was none. They were haunted eyes, curiously blank. Dom had never thought of them as warm and lively, but there had always been some sort of spark in them. Now that spark had faded from being.
“Karl.” Liv came into the room, she was drying her hands, her veil back in place. “You shouldn’t be here.”
“I know.” Karl stood, Billy had calmed considerably. The fit had past. “How is he?”
Liv twitched, as if she wanted to rush the Captain from the room. “I am doing everything I can. But...”
There was a quiet pause, the Captain looked blankly at her. For a moment Dom thought he’d press for more information, or insist on being allowed to stay. Instead he nodded slowly.
“Thank you.” He turned and left as quietly as he had come.
Liv sighed, visibly relaxing, before bustling around for a moment, checking out Billy, and then ducking back into Viggo’s room.
Dom carefully got off Billy, checking to see if he’d done any damage to the other boy’s wrists before taking his seat again. Something had happened. He had known it when Orli had asked to see Karl. Sean’s eyes had grown cold and Jared had flinched. Sean told them it probably wasn’t a good idea, and that they should stay with Viggo. Orli had, of course, taken it at face value. Dom knew that Elijah had been surprised, but there had been no time to ask with Viggo getting sicker.
They had all let it slide. There had been no time for anything else. They would be told eventually, for now they couldn’t focus on anything but their Prince. Sean would tell them eventually.
Not that Dom really cared, he wiped down Billy’s body with gentle movements. Karl had made it clear that he loathed to be around both Jared and himself. It might be better if he stayed away from them. It’d be a pity for Orli, who adored the man, but Orli had many other things on his mind right now. Between Viggo and the new boy, Orli was running himself into the ground.
Dom wiped Billy’s brow as his face scrunched up in pain again. It was all happening so fast. Too fast for Dom to stop it. Billy’s voice trembled as the pain lanced through him, clawing at his body. Karl was long forgotten as Dom fought to keep the other boy’s hands away from hurting his own flesh.
When the others returned they found Dom asleep, half on top of Billy’s body, the other boy’s hand threaded gently in Dom’s hair.
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