Chapter 19

“I have turned again to the place

of abundance of blood-sacrifices;

there, when the day grows old, I am beheld as a god.”

-Aztec Hymn

It was a rough night. The bed was hard and unyielding. The raw linens were coarse and offered little insulation against the cold. Strange smells hung in the air, preventing his mind from imagining he was somewhere familiar and safe. These factors, however, were nowhere near as responsible for Nathaniel’s restlessness as were the nightmares that hung at the edge of his awareness, nightmares of home that threatened to invade whenever sleep approached.

Finally he could take no more. He threw off the linens and grabbed his uniform from the beds...

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