I need a bath too

Willy stood over her, looking every inch the god of war. His armor was dented and scarred and dyed red in places with the blood of the fallen.

A small honor guard surrounded him. Raina blinked rapidly and looked up at the sky. The sun was low on the western horizon. The stench of burning flesh saturated the air. She had fallen asleep.

Willy smiled at her. "You look very ferocious, my dear."

Raina looked down at her dress. It had once been a vibrant emerald green. Now it was brown and red with inexplicable black spots in places. "Is that a joke?" she asked.

Willy shook his head. "No. I hear you fought in a spear wall. You're the only woman I know that ever has."

Raina sat up and dusted herself but it seemed to do no good. "It was mostly a lot of pushing."

Willy took off a gauntlet and offered her his hand, helping her to her feet. He brushed a lock of hair out of her face. "That's what most battles are about. Push and kill the poor sobs at the front until those at the back break and run. Then kill them all."

Raina looked around. Stacks of corpses littered the battlefield. The soldiers were collecting them into hillocks and burning them. A thousand funeral pyres were burning simultaneously. Raina had never seen so many corpses in one place. "How many men did we lose?" she gasped.

"Four hundred and twelve."

"That few?" Raina asked. "The battle lasted for hours."

"Men don't die that much in the fighting. It's the rout that kills them."

"What's a rout?"

"It's when an army breaks ranks and runs. Like the Reendeni did. Makes them a thousand times easier to kill."

Raina looked at all the corpses on the field. Nearly all wore Reendeni colors. "How many of them?"

"Seven thousand dead Reendeni. Twelve thousand captured, including their precious king. Laman and Calistarnes managed to slip away. I'll be going after them next."

Willy took Raina's hand and walked her back to the command tent. He walked so much slower. Raina was pleased with that. She couldn't have kept up with his long strides otherwise. She had also twisted an ankle, something she didn't realize until she tried to walk. But she powered through.

Their men waved, cheered, and saluted as they walked past. Willy returned all the salutes. Raina could only nod. She feared her head would fall off from all the nodding.

She had never been so glad to see the command tent. Both her and Willy all but ran into it. Willy's poise evaporated quicker than dew at sunrise as soon as the flaps closed behind them.

He collapsed onto the floor and let out a long exhale. "Get this blasted armor off me!" he roared at no one in particular.

All the men in the tent hurried to obey, fumbling with the clasps of Willy's steel plate. Willy winced as they did. The armor finally came off.

Beneath it was an arming doublet and further beneath was a white shirt dyed red. Raina's heart stopped for a moment but then the shirt came off. He wasn't bleeding but hadn't escaped unscathed either.

His arms, chest, and shoulders were covered by a thousand bruises. Willy winced and hissed whenever any one of them was touched. Somehow, Raina felt every bit of his pain.

Once down to a breechclout, Willy limped to a pre-prepared bath, sank into it, and closed his eyes, releasing a pleasurable sigh.

Raina dismissed the men and followed him. She sat on the rim of the wooden tub and gently caressed one purple bruise on his shoulder. "I thought you couldn't get wounded through armor."

Willy opened his eyes. "Armor blocks cuts. But you still feel the force of every blow."

"How many blows did you take?"

Willy closed his eyes again. "Too many," he whispered.

He looked sad. Raina didn't want to see him sad. The thought surprised her but she tried not to think too much of it. She found herself scooping some water into her hands and pouring it onto his head.

There was a bar of soap nearby. It was white, hard, and smelled faintly of tallow— not the kind Raina herself would ever use but it was the only one available. It needed a lot of soaking just to soften it and produced barely any lather but Raina used it to wash the sweat and grime out of Willy's hair. Then she washed her own face and hair.

Through it all, Willy didn't stir. He didn't stir when Raina pulled the drain plug to empty the tub of sudsy water and didn't stir when she summoned a servant to refill it with warm water.

Raina shook him, fearing he was dead. He was just asleep. He blabbed some unintelligible sounds and went right back to sleep. I need a bath too. I'll be quick, Raina thought. The tub was large enough for two.

She stripped down and climbed in. She washed quickly, emptied the tub, refilled it again, and leaned back to relax in the warm water. Her leg brushed against Willy's but he was too far gone to notice. Raina never felt her own eyes close.