"Wake up Rolf. Someone is coming."
"What!"
"Shhh. I can hear someone coming up the trail. It sounds like a single rider."
"Untie me, I'll help you fight them."
" I don't need your help. I only woke you so that you could get to safety, and I'm not ready to untie you."
"But I didn't make a run for it last night."
"True, but maybe that is because you slept through the whole night."
"It's still dark, so I couldn't have slept through the entire night."
"True you are. It is still dark, but there is only an hour or so left of night before the dawn. Trust me you slept more soundly then a log on the floor of the forest. Now get to the horses. If there are more than one, I want you to get on your horse and run as far away as you can. I'm not ready to trust you, but I don't want you to die."
"Well that is reassuring thought. I'll get to the horses but I will not run."
"Do what you must then. I'm going to head towards the trail and see what I can see."
We parted company as I headed for the trail. I entered the Swordsman's Euphoria and reached out to the stone around my neck. I could not see anyone near or around the camp other than the three horses and Rolf. I slowly and silently made my way to the trail. The rider was coming from the direction we were going to be heading in the morning light. He didn't sound like he was trying to mask his movement. That could be a distraction to pull our attention to them instead of the danger at our back. I could still see no one. I got to the tree I had slept under nights before and looked down the trail. I could see the lone rider. They were slumped in their saddle and bouncing to the rhythm of the horse's trot. As they made their way closer I could see something sticking from the riders back. It had fletching on it like an arrow. I began running to meet the rider. I could make out the blue tunic of a Targen Knight being worn by him. It was Sir Paljin.
"Sir Paljin, Sir Paljin. It's me Pitre."
There was no response from the man, I ran until I reached the horse and grabbed it by it's reigns. Sir Paljin was slumping forward taking shallow breathes. He was still alive but he was unconscious. I guided the horse and Sir Paljin to the village center and called for Rolf. He came running immediately. He had managed to get his hands untied in his time alone with the horses.
"Since your hands are free, help me get this man down from his horse. He is wounded and we need to try to help him."
"That is a Targen Knight."
"Yes it is, and he is a friend of mine. Now help me get him from his horse so that we can tend to his wound."
Rolf jumped to action and helped me get Sir Paljin down from his horse. We laid him on his side so that the arrow would not have any pressure on it. It was stuck just below his shoulder. It wasn't deep, but with hard riding and panic setting in, he would have bled faster than normal.
"Go to my horse, in one of my saddle bags are some scraps of cloth. Get them and bring them to me. I grabbed the dagger I had taken from the fallen Raider at the Crossing and used it to cut into Sir Paljin's back to widen the wound from the arrow. I pulled the arrow head out fully intact and pressed on the wound as I waited for Rolf to return with the scraps of cloth. I began feeling a tingle in my hand. I looked and I could see the aether flaring around my hands and the area of the wound. I watched as the wound began to slowly heal itself. It started with a bright golden light that leapt from the finger tips to the interior of the wound. It would pulse and as the light dimmed I could see the wound was shallower, than before. It would pulse again, and again it was shallower. As it healed the light pulses with less intensity, until it left only a faint scar in the place of the wound that was the depth of an arrow head.
Rolf came sliding to a stop with the cloth in his hands, and was handing it forward as he looked at my face.
"What is it? Did he die?"
"No, quite the opposite."
Rolf looked down at my hands that were now sitting on Sir Paljin's side above the feint scar.
"Where is his wound? He had an arrow sticking from his back and there is no mark."
"I wish I could tell you what happened, but I don't fully know myself. I watched as the wound closed up by itself after I pulled the arrow from his back."
"That's not possible."
"Do you see a wound where there should be one?"
"No."
"Well, it appears to be very possible then. Help me carry him into one of the huts. They have beds. He needs to rest."
"You mean that these huts had beds this whole time and you let me sleep leaning against and old post?"
"I wanted to stay in the open so that we would hear anyone approaching. You can see how that thinking has paid off."
"Well it certainly paid off for this old chum. He has a healed wound that should have been the near death of him."
"Just help me move him."
Rolf grabbed his feet as I gently lifted him from his shoulders. We carried him inside the nearest hut and laid him on a small bed that was more a platform with a rough spun blanket on it.
"I guess I can trust you now. After all, you didn't run and you helped me save my friend."
"Well, it's true that I didn't run, but I had nothing to do with saving your friend. I only got rags that turned out to be unnecessary. Are you sure you don't know how his wound healed itself."
"No, no idea at all."
I did have a small idea of what happened. Arial had told me that the ancients had used the aether to help heal people. Maybe that is what happened. I was still in the Swordsman's Euphoria when I was helping him. It helped me focus, and my attachment to the aether through the stone probably played a big part in his healing. I did see the aether jump from my fingers to his wound.
"Rolf, that arrow was a Raiders arrow. I thought you said that your vanguard was the only one in the area."
"It was. We were told that we were to roam the countryside taking care or villages that still had inhabitants. The rest of the army is in the Kingdom. They took it over several weeks ago. There is no other vanguard out here."
"Are you sure of that?"
"As sure as I can be. I told you that they don't really give me any information other than what I need to know."
"Maybe he was on his way back to tell me where to go and he was ambushed by scouts."
"That is very possible. The general of the vanguard has scouts out everywhere. I told you that there were a dozen or more men that could take my place, but that was only the men that were with the vanguard. The general has 2 maybe 3 dozen scouts out roaming ahead of the vanguard."
"I guess we won't know the real story until Sir Paljin awakes then."
"Sir Paljin is his name?"
"Yes, he was with me at the Crossing. I told him to warn our caravan of the vanguard."
"It's a strong name. I'm sure he will make it through. He clearly has something watching over him if his wound will heal on it's own. I know his name, and you know mine, but I have no idea what to call you."
"I guess in the excitement of capturing you and trying to get information from you, that I forgot to give you my name. That was very impolite of me. My father would have tanned my hide for not introducing myself. I'm sorry Rolf. My name is Pitre."
"Pitre? Are you the Pitre that killed a wolf as a boy?"
"How would you know that?
"There is a girl that is with the army. She told me of a boy that saved her by killing a large wolf. A wolf that was twice the size of himself. We all thought it was a tale she told everyone."
"What is her name?"
I was terrified and thrilled to ask that question. The only person that would know that story was Arial. The only person alive anyway."
"Her name is Elandra."
My heart stopped. It wasn't Arial. I didn't know an Elandra, there wasn't even anyone in the village by that name.
No comments:
Post a Comment