CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
One day passed by and the men were still in an unconscious state, just as they were in part of the following day.
Since the late afternoon, when the five women found the men, the novice first to be at their care, stayed and watched over them — especially Boyce.
She counted away the hours while they just lay there, pale and unaware of existence.
It wasn't until the middle of the afternoon of this second day that Boyce stirred and the young novice was there. She wet a clean cloth and wiped the sweat from his head and face, and watched him slowly open his eyes. As she went to wipe his face once more, he took her hand into his own and felt its delicate softness.
"Can you hear me?" she asked him in a whisper.
"Yes!" said Boyce and he tried to get up but the couldn't.
"You will be alright soon, but now just relax."
He looked around the room, which he was in, and on a window ledge he saw the crow that he had been seeing since they left Besten.
He couldn't take his eyes off the novice and he touched her face once more.
"I am real!" she told him. "My name is Lilith."
"You are very beautiful, Lilith!"
She smiled at him.
She was happy that he liked her appearance because, since that day when she found him and his friend, by the river, she was in love with him.
"My friend?" he asked her.
"He is fine. Some sisters are looking after him!" she told him and he smiled, taking her hand.
"This is the abbey, then?"
"Yes!" she answered.
He held her hand and lapsed back into a deep sleep after sighing with a relieving breath.
"What are you called?" she asked him but he didn't reply.
She kissed his hand that clutched her's. She kissed him on the forehead, too, and stayed with him for another night.
Lilith was slumped on the floor beside the bed. She was asleep but she was still holding on to Boyce's hand.
Boyce stirred and opened his eyes.
He was sore all over and his head throbbed. He touched the small gash on the side of his head, with his free hand, then he became aware of the hand that he was holding. He looked down to where the pretty novice was, her face resting on the bed, like a sleeping angel waiting for a waking kiss.
He stroked her hair and her cheek until she, also, finally woke up and accepted his gentle caresses.
"How do you feel today?" she asked him, getting up off the floor and sitting at his side, on the bed.
"I can imagine how Grenadine feels!" he muttered.
"What?" she asked him but he never answered.
"You are Lilith?" he checked and she nodded. "I am Boyce!"
She smiled at him.
"Boyce!" she repeated. "That's a beautiful name!"
"In comparison to yours, Lilith, mine is but a name like barren dirt."
"I am flattered!" she thanked him with shyness.
"I, also! To wake to a beauty such as yourself is indeed a blessing from God."
"You have been unconscious for a couple of days now. Do you remember what happened?"
He looked around the room and saw a crow perched on the window sill outside.
"It was strange, but we crossed over the River Clains and I heard that crow making a racket." he told her and pointed at the crow. "Suddenly, several men came out of nowhere and the next thing I know I'm gazing into your lovely eyes!"
She took his hands and pressed them into her own.
"You'll be fine, in a day or so. Then you'll be well enough to get out of this bed and walk about."
A knock came at the door then it opened.
One of the sisters that helped to find the men brought into the room a fairly large tray full of food, and she helped Boyce to sit up for eating before she exited the room.
Lilith sat closer to Boyce and gently began to feed him.
"Are you hungry, Boyce?" Lilith inquired.
"Yes, I am!"
Boyce enjoyed the attention being paid only to him by this wonderfully beautiful girl, and as the day carried on and his feeding was done, she sat by his side and spoke with him about all manners of things.
In the late afternoon, when Boyce was telling Lilith about his life in
Besten, the door of the chamber slowly opened and Lloyd walked in.
Boyce saw him and forced himself to sit up. He smiled. He was happy to see Lloyd and, at that moment, was also happy to realize that his trust in the women at the abbey was warranted.
Lloyd had his left arm in a sling and his open tunic revealed a bandaged chest.
"Did you hurt yourself, my friend?" Boyce asked him, sarcastically.
Lloyd smiled and he soon saw that Boyce had no bandages around him.
"How are you faring?" Lloyd asked him, looking at Lilith.
Boyce took Lilith's hand into his and smiled at her as he answered
Lloyd.
"I am fine, but I was told I should rest for a day or so!"
"I was told the same!" admitted Lloyd. "But I am older and must keep moving lest I become immobile."
"Next time, we'll fly!" Boyce joked with his friend and they both laughed.
A nun marched into the room and put her hands on Lloyd's shoulders and turned him around to face the door.
"Out of bed, again! I did ask you nicely to stay in bed and rest.
Didn't I? Now come with me!"
She nagged at Lloyd for leaving his room, obviously not being the first time he did so and both Boyce and Lilith laughed as they watched her parade him out the door.
"You have a strong friend in … Lloyd, is it?" she said, making certain that she remembered Lloyd's name correctly.
"During times like these, one must be strong." he told her, putting his hand around her waist. "He is my right arm, and I am his!"
The crow was still outside the window but it was now no longer quiet. It squawked and pecked at the glass of the window pane and they stopped speaking and looked at the bird.
They were annoyed at being disturbed in such a manner but Lilith didn't show her aggravation.
"Your pet seems disturbed about something!" Lilith said to him.
"It's not my pet!"
Lilith became puzzled and told him that she and the other four women found it hopping around on the ground and on his back when they found them. They presumed that the crow was a pet and let it come to the abbey with them.
"Let it in!" Boyce told her and she slowly went over to the window and opened it, pushing the swinging pane enough to let the crow hop in.
It stretched its wings and cawed then flew right to Boyce and hopped around on his lap.
"It's a very strange bird, I think. I haven't seen many crows, only a few during my childhood, then I see this one throughout my entire trip from Besten." He told Lilith, about his odd feelings towards the bird and the sudden affinity that seems to have formed between them.
"Lilith, will you push that small table over here?" he requested to her and she didn't hesitate to do his bidding.
When she brought the small table to the side of the bed, he took the crow on his wrist and set it down on the table.
They talked and watched the bird make a joking spectacle of itself and this continued through to the evening when Lilith collected some of the dirty compresses that she used on Boyce when he was unconscious.
"I must leave now, Boyce. The Mother Abbes had given me chores to do when you are well enough to be let alone."
Boyce lost the smile that he had on his face. He rolled his eyes and gasped while he stretched out his hand to her.
"But, I'm not well, Lilith!" he cried to her, hoarsely, and she laughed at his sweet attempt to keep her near to him.
"You are a very silly man." she told him then went over to him and kissed him on the forehead. "You're sweet, too!"
"Will I see you later?" Boyce asked her in a solemn voice and he took her hand.
Smiled and nodded.
"You will be on your feet tomorrow and we can walk in the garden." she promised and he kissed her hand while he gazed right into her beautifully large brown eyes."
"Sleep easy and may your dreams be sweet!" she said.
"They will be sweet … I will dream of you!"
Her heart was beating heavily and her quick breaths passed through her like burning spears when she made her way out of the room.
She felt uplifted, as if she was no longer of mortal body but of spirit. She knew that Boyce was beginning to feel for her; it was the same as she felt for him, at the river, and saw his face.
Inside the room, Boyce continued to stare at the doors through which Lilith exited and the crow beside him bounced up and down, flapping its wings and crowing in its unusual 'zoar-caw, zoar-caw' manner.
"She's a gem, crow!" Boyce spoke aloud and the crow continued its usual, strange squawk. "I am pleased to see that you agree with me."
He let the crow sit on his arm and he looked at it for a silent moment before it continued to caw.
"You are a strange bird, crow, and you sound strange, too. Shall I keep you as my friend?" he spoke to the bird as if he believed it could understand him, and the crow cawed back to him as it balanced itself on his arm. "Alright." Boyce continued. "You are now my new companion and my friend. Now, what shall you be called?"
He looked at the bird, in an odd way as if wanting the bird to tell him its name, but the bird just crowed at him: 'zoar-caw, zoar-caw'!
"Very well, crow. I will call you Zoro! Do you like that?"
The crow stopped cawing and bounced up and down on his arm.
"Now sleep, bird. We have a great day before us!"
He set Zoro on the table and he slowly sank down into the bed and fell asleep.