When she returned to it, a pair of smoky gray eyes were staring down at her. They had such a cloudlike quality to them that for a moment Regbi thought she might be staring into the winter sky. But then she remembered where she was and how it was that she had come to be there.
“Welcome back,” Khadan said. His cheeks were pinched pink from the cold and he smelled of it too. An overfull bucket of milk swayed lightly in his hand and spilled droplets onto the floor. That and the light trickling in through the cracks in the door told Regbi that it was morning. “Just in time for breakfast. It’s almost as if you planned it.”
“How long?” she rasped.
“Just enough for the milk to boil. I’ll bring you a cup once it’s had a chance to cool.”
“No—how many days?” Her body had such a sleep-drunk quality to it that it was hard to say.
“Three.” Khadan poured the milk into the pot hanging above the fire and returned to her with a skin of water. “Have something to drink. You’ll feel better for it.”
Regbi managed one greedy gulp before the other shaman pulled the water from her hands.
“Slowly or you’ll make yourself sick,” he commanded, kneeling next to her pallet. “I’ve been giving you enough to wet your mouth, but no more than that.”
Regbi smacked her lips as if to confirm it. There was a bitter taste in her mouth, but her tongue wasn’t dried out. Neither were her lips, which had been slathered in a sweet smelling balm. Regbi noticed that her hair had been battled into a neat braid across her shoulder, at least as neat as her hair could ever be, and that the creases of her eyes had been wiped clean as well. She might have thought it considerate of him if she weren’t so disturbed by the gesture. It was too great a liberty on his part, even if it was meant kindly; she would have preferred that he left her body to gather dust in the corner than tend to it like a child might a favorite doll.
“Do you normally wander for so long?” Khadan asked.
“Sometimes.” Regbi ventured a tiny sip, just enough to wet her throat so she could speak.
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“Sometimes, she says,” Khadan said with a shake of his head. “Give me a warning the next time you think you might. We can prepare you better for it so you don’t wake up feeling so weak.”
“Can I have something to eat?”
“Once you prove you can keep the water down.” He allowed her another swallow before taking back the skin. “You should be careful leaving your body for that long, you know. A little thing like you—”
“What does being little have to do with it? You don’t know me well enough to know what my limits are,” she imperiously croaked.
“No, I suppose I don’t. But if you’re going to entrust me with your body while you’re away, then you should be respectful of what I have to say.”
“Entrust,” Regbi repeated with an incredulous raise her brows. She tried to push herself up from the pillows. Her arms wobbled like the legs of a newborn calf and she fell back into them. “I didn’t entrust you with anything—there was something in that pipe you gave me. An herb or some sort of desert shaman mishmash that made me leave my body.”
Khadan’s brows furrowed together, his lips pursing into a thoughtful frown. “There was nothing stronger in it than tobacco. A couple other things too, but nothing that would do anything more than relax you.”
“Relax me! Bah! More like tear me from my body!”
“I gave you nothing of the sort,” he firmly stated. His voice didn’t rise above its easy-going drawl, yet Regbi swore she could detect an affronted prickle to it. “I’m happy to swear on whatever you would like that I didn’t.”
Regbi stared up at him for a long moment before wilting into the pillows. “Then if you didn’t…” She covered her face with her hands, raking them upwards through her hair. “Why is this happening to me?”
“You don’t have any control over it, do you? Even with your spirit, you don’t…” Khadan said, speaking more to himself than to Regbi. His eyes clouded over with interest. When he stared down at her it was as if he were seeing her for the first time. Or perhaps simply in a new light. “How strange…”
“Don’t say it as if it’s some great revelation; I as good as told you so myself,” she snapped.
“Does this happen to you often?”
He offered her the water skin, but she swatted it away. She was suddenly struck by the full brunt of her weakness and wanted nothing more than to sleep. But the shaman pulled her up by her armpits and rested her against the plush wall of the ger before she could manage.
“Let’s get you something to eat and then you can tell me,” Khadan suggested.