Painted Blind Part 28

"I can climb. I just can't look down."

The road bounced us a few inches closer to the cliff, and I grabbed t.i.tus's arm. He told me to put my head down and close my eyes. "I'll tell you when we get there."

I did as I was told because I was too terrified to pretend I could sit there like a normal person. I climbed into the back seat, ducked below the windows and closed my eyes.

"Hey, Sleeping Beauty, you're going to miss the ball." t.i.tus shook my shoulder.

I sat up. We were stopped. There were streaks of daylight in the distant sky, but mountains on all sides blocked the rays. "We made it?" Here, at least, it felt like December. Ice was caked into the hubs of the SUV, and my breath showed in white puffs as I climbed out of the SUV and pulled on my parka.

"Only one person in town speaks English. He told me there is a small inn at the edge of town. We're lucky. It has indoor plumbing."

"And the yaks?"

t.i.tus chuckled. "They're everywhere." Opening the back, he offered me a backpack, which I pulled onto my shoulders. He shouldered the other one, and we each carried a bag of food. "Ah, there is one thing."

"What?"

"We have to share a room."

"They don't have two rooms?" I doubted the inn was hosting many guests this time of year.

"They have rooms, but only one comes with beds. It has two cots. There is a toilet and sink in a part.i.tioned corner. It's primitive, but at least there is a fireplace and plenty of firewood."

"Fine." I threw him a glance. "If you behave. You are a man, after all."

At this he laughed. "I'm not the reason I made you lock the door." We reached the inn, and t.i.tus opened the door to our room.

Primitive was putting it mildly. The room had stone walls and a dirt floor. The window had a single thin pane and would have drafted terribly if it hadn't been shuttered from the outside. One thing in the room made up for its other deficiencies. There was a black kettle on a swing arm over the fireplace. As soon as we had a fire blazing, we dumped our meat into the kettle and let it brown before adding vegetables and two bottles of water.

t.i.tus dug through the rest of our supplies trying to see if there was something else to flavor our stew. He made a stack of plastic bags which held foil pouches.

"Hey," I said, recognizing the MRE packets we were carrying for our climb, "those packages should have salt and utensils. Each meal has one."

"You've eaten these before?"

"My dad used to take me camping." One night when a storm hit before we could get a solid fire going, we were stuck in the tent with no way to heat the packets. Dad told me to put it in my armpit. When I refused, he offered to put it in his. I couldn't help cracking a smile at the memory. Even at nine, I preferred a cold dinner to one that had been in an armpit. "You'll hate the spaghetti," I told t.i.tus. "You'd better stick with the beef stroganoff or chicken and vegetables." I took one of the packages and opened the plastic wrapper. It contained a foil pouch, fork and salt packet. "They don't need salt. There's enough sodium in these things to give you high-blood pressure." I opened three more packages and poured the salt into our soup, then repacked the MREs into the backpack.

t.i.tus looked at me curiously. "So, you're used to roughing it, but you're afraid of heights?" When I nodded, he chuckled and shook his head, "And I can climb just about anything..."

"...but you're used to a palace," I finished for him. "Well, if the cot gives you fleas, I'll take you to a vet."

Now there was serious alarm in his eyes. "Maybe the floor is better."

"Oh, I seriously doubt that. Who knows what crawls around here at night?"

He shivered visibly. "Fleas," he muttered to himself.

"Just put your sleeping bag down. You'll be fine."

We lit a kerosene lamp and spread our travel papers on a cot. The itinerary said we were supposed to set up a base camp in a valley at roughly 10,000 feet. It was our destination tomorrow. We could take the yak that far. A villager would walk with us to the location and bring the yak back down.

"It's not going to take us all day to set up camp. Why is that the only thing on the itinerary for tomorrow?"

"We have to acclimate," t.i.tus replied. "The instructions are very specific on this point. We need to spend an entire day and night at the base camp before moving on."

I found a climbing pamphlet among the papers. It was government issued and in English. "It looks like we can still have a campfire at base camp if we haul in our own wood." That was good news. The best thing about camping was getting warm by the fire.

We were carrying three tents. The largest was for base camp. It was large enough to sleep six and had two zip-down part.i.tions. That way t.i.tus and I could share a single tent and have separate rooms. The two lighter tents were for higher elevations. They were small, but tough. If a storm hit while we were on the face of the mountain, winds could gust over seventy miles an hour, and the temperature could easily drop to thirty below zero. Up there we would not have a fire. There was no dry ground upon which to build one, and it was too dangerous to build a fire on a glacier. We might have carried a kerosene stove, but we were traveling light from the base camp up. We had a small, battery-operated pot to boil water. This we would use to heat our food. Above base camp was a leave no trace area. That meant that everything we carried in, we had to carry out.

We counted our food packets and rationed them out, so we knew we would have enough without digging into our packs later to check. Eros had equipped us well. Most of our meals had a full MRE entree, side dish and dessert, each packaged separately. t.i.tus and I decided to stash the side dishes and desserts into the outer pockets of the packs in case we wanted them for snacks or light meals during the day. We also had dried fruit, nuts, jerky, water bottles and lots of energy drink powder.

By the time we packed it all away, even t.i.tus was satisfied that we both had the maps memorized. Our GPS system would help us to stay on the trail, but if it failed, we knew the way.

The last item I repacked was the wooden box. t.i.tus noticed it, and ran his finger over the carved rose. "This is what you're taking to the messenger?"

"Yes. At the final destination, a woman will have the key." I turned the box around so he could see the gold lock.

t.i.tus lifted it with his finger, and his eyes turned worried. I wondered if he knew something about the lock that he wasn't telling me. The look lasted only a moment. "We'll make sure it's well cushioned on the climb, so it won't get broken if we take a spill." Reluctantly, he rolled his sleeping bag onto the filthy cot. "I sent a text to Eros this afternoon."

"To tell him I didn't stay where I was supposed to?"

"And that you tried to ditch me at the hotel." He offered his satellite phone to me. "I thought you might want to see the reply."

She infiltrated the Fortress, faced Theron, was beaten nearly to death and still completed two tasks. Did you think for one moment a woman like that would take orders from you? Remember your place, t.i.tus. And give her my love.

I tossed the phone back to him. "So, he knows we're here."

"He always knows where you are."

"How?"

t.i.tus tapped his watch. I looked at the matching one on my wrist. It must contain a GPS beacon. In other circ.u.mstances I might have been irritated, but on this journey it was comforting to know that no matter where I wandered, Eros could find me.

After climbing into his sleeping bag, t.i.tus pulled off his sweatshirt and T-shirt.

"t.i.tus!" It was bad enough we had to share a room. "Do you think you can keep your clothes on?"

He grumbled, "We never wear shirts in our world. I can't sleep with it on."

"It's going to get cold," I warned. Unless one of us woke in the night to add wood to the fire, it would burn out, and the room would be freezing by morning.

"But, I'm not cold now," he complained.

I slid into my sleeping bag across the room. "Fine, if you answer one question." When he nodded, I asked, "Why don't you have hair in your armpits?"

His brow furrowed. "We don't have body hair."

"None of you?"

"We don't grow beards either. Not until we're old men."

I laid back and stared at the ceiling. "That would explain why Aeas didn't pack me a razor."

I heard t.i.tus chuckle. "I'll put it on the list of things we need for the way home."

Our local guide was waiting for us at dawn. We loaded his poor yak with everything except our backpacks and water bottles, but the beast didn't seem to mind. Our guide did not speak a word of English, Italian, French, Spanish, Latin, Greek, or any other language that t.i.tus knew. t.i.tus finally stopped bugging the poor man and let him walk in peace.

The trail was wide enough that t.i.tus and I could hike side by side. We talked about Italy and warmer weather. t.i.tus was not a fan of winter, but he seemed to be reveling in this adventure. He was surprisingly open, even when I pried into his personal life. He had never bestowed his pendant on any woman, but had some romantic experience with mortals. "Aphrodite encouraged that," he explained. "She'd rather her servants were unmarried, and she expects them to mingle with mortals. She views mortals as toys, so you can imagine her complete outrage when her only son decided to marry one."

"You're terrible," I told him, "going around seducing mortals and then disappearing."

He stopped me. "I'm not what you a.s.sume I am. I didn't leave little t.i.tus's all over Italy. I just enjoyed the company of mortal women. I dated and tried very hard not to inflict heartache on any of them."

"Yeah, sure." I kept walking.

For some reason, the yak took a liking to me. Whenever I got slow on the trail, the beast would speed up and rub his head on me. If he were an ordinary steer, I probably wouldn't have minded, but the yak stank, so I tried to keep my distance.

The road was steep, but before long we reached an open plateau between four peaks. The guide shouted at us. When we turned around, we found him stopped and waving his arms.

t.i.tus pulled the GPS device from his pocket and checked our location. "Oh," he said, "we're here."

The area designated for our camp was flat, hard ground. t.i.tus looked around disappointed. "It isn't much, is it?"

"It's flat, and it's dirt." The snow had melted off and the dirt was dry, so we didn't have to pitch our tent in mud. There was circle of ashes and rocks that had been scattered. We were above the tree line, but to the north was a small cliff, which partially sheltered us from the wind.

After unloading the yak, our guide made a gesture of good-bye and started his descent, probably hoping to get home in time for a hot lunch. t.i.tus turned to me visibly bewildered, so I had him circle the stones of the fire pit and build a fire.

While he stacked the wood and broke smaller pieces into kindling, I unloaded the large tent from his pack, rolled it out on the ground and unfolded until it made a rectangle seven feet wide by twelve feet long. I began pounding the stakes into the frozen ground with a mallet. The fire now burning, t.i.tus stood over me and watched.

"I feel worthless," he confessed.

I stomped on a stubborn stake with my foot until it finally dug into the earth. "I can pitch the tent alone." With a grin I added, "I'll just make you give me a foot ma.s.sage later."

t.i.tus nodded unconsciously the way Aeas did. "Is there anything I can do?"

I showed him how to put the supports together and thread them through the tent's body. When it was standing securely, I laid down basic tent rules. "No boots in the tent. Sit down at the door and take them off, so we don't have mud and snow everywhere." I hauled both our packs into the center room of the tent and designated a bedroom for each of us. After unrolling our sleeping bags, we boiled water on the fire and heated our lunch packets. The sun was shining and there was no wind. Even though the temperature was near freezing, it felt warm.

"It's a long way from a five-star restaurant." I used a pair of pliers to pull a foil packet out of the boiling water and onto t.i.tus's plate. We were having mashed potatoes with bacon bits for lunch and fruit cobbler for dessert. After removing the packets, I put apple cider powder into the water and split it between our tin cups.

He waited for me before he ate. It took me three meals to realize that he did this, but I came to understand it was the nature of our relationship. "It's definitely not as good as the food we had at the hotel," he confessed, "but it's not as bad as I thought it would be."

"The dehydrated ones my dad used to buy were worse. They never absorbed water like they were supposed to, and there were always crunchy spots. This is much better."

While he ate, t.i.tus started to blink more often than usual. He seemed to be panting, too.

"Headache?"

"Yes."

"It's the alt.i.tude. Take a deep breath and hold it. Your body needs to absorb more oxygen from the air."

After a few long breaths, he turned to me. "Why aren't you sick?"

"You live at sea level. I live in the mountains. I'm only five thousand feet above what I'm used to. It's double that for you." I took his plate and trash. "You should rest. Use as little energy as possible until you adjust."

"That's good advice for both of us." He unzipped the tent door and motioned me inside. There was nothing else to do besides sit in the tent and talk. I had the feeling I was going to know t.i.tus very well before this was all over. We left the tent door unzipped. There was only one advantage to winter camping-no bugs.

t.i.tus reached out and took hold of my ankle.

Startled, I tried to pull away. "What do you think you're doing?"

"I owe you." He pulled off my sock.

"I was joking."

t.i.tus paused, his head c.o.c.ked to the side and his expression unmoved. "I'm a servant. This is what I do."

"I don't like to be touched," I persisted.

With his thumb, he began ma.s.saging the ball of my foot. "I've been advised of that."

"And, I'm ticklish. I might kick you," I warned.

He continued undaunted. "No, you won't. There's a pressure point here on your foot. If I keep my thumb on it, it disables that reflex."

This was a fight I was not going to win. Relenting, I lay back against the pack. "You did this for Aphrodite?"

"On occasion, but she's very particular. Anyone who touches her has to do it perfectly, so I've spent a great deal of time practicing on her maid Fauna."

"Interesting. Who usually gives her ma.s.sages?"

"Theron, of course."

"Him? You've got to be joking."

"You've only seen the violent side of Theron. When he wants to be, he is as gentle as a summer breeze. She wouldn't have kept him all these ages if it weren't so." He rubbed my toes, which tickled. "He could probably seduce you given the chance."

I let out a growl. "Not as long as there was breath in me to refuse."

t.i.tus set my foot into his lap and moved onto the next. Minutes pa.s.sed in silence. It felt awkward. t.i.tus looked up only once when a breeze tossed the tent door, then he went back to rubbing my feet as if he enjoyed it.

"Do you think Eros will find me again before we start climbing?" I asked him.

With a wicked grin, t.i.tus asked, "Would you rather he stayed away?"

I considered kicking him in the chest, but I didn't. "If I never see him again, I want him to know I don't have any regrets."

t.i.tus's eyebrows arched as he looked down at my foot. "None?"