The officer in charge of their unit stopped to consult with the leaders of the other two units, who'd set up a triage station and command base on the outskirts of town. Ky'ara caught sight of a familiar head of blonde hair working with the healers, and before she knew it, Joran had dismounted and was off to talk to Lauryn. Ky'ara shook her head ruefully, and left the horses tied to the wooden fence that surrounded the town while she went to look for someone who knew what was going on.
“Aye, a scout came back through not long ago, said the advance unit engaged the enemy on the other side of town,” one of the healers told her, “they’re outnumbered, but they decided to try holding off the soldiers so more townspeople can evacuate.”
Ky’ara had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. Calm down, Taren will be fine. He’s got a whole unit to watch his back, she told herself.
“Don’t worry miss,” the young man said, apparently seeing her distress, “the second unit was working its way around to help them...they can’t go the direct route cuz all the townspeople still fleeing are blocking the way, but they’ll get around to flank the enemy soon enough.”
“Maybe, maybe not,” one soldier commented as he overheard their conversation, “I heard the King’s soldiers are fighting without tiring. It’s like they’ve got some sort of magic pushing them on. Didn’t expect the King to throw away his own laws so publically just yet, but I suppose he’s gonna do what he can to win.”
“How bad is it?” the healer asked the soldier.
“The scout said they’re taking heavy casualties. Can’t even spare people to bring the wounded back here...I expect once reinforcements arrive you’ll get mighty busy here.”
Ky’ara’s heart leapt into her throat. Taren needed help, and the reinforcements couldn’t get through the most direct route, but maybe she could. Before she had really thought things through, she leapt the fence and started in the direction the healer had indicated. She wasn’t going to just sit on the sidelines and wait for him to get hurt.
* * * * *
Lauryn nodded seriously while Joran talked, trying to listen while she continued to prepare field kits for the healers who were heading out to bring back wounded men from the battlefield. Suddenly Joran looked around. He must've finally realized that Ky'ara had taken off. Lauryn smiled slightly, apparently she was that distracting. Good to know.
“I’m sorry,” Joran said, smiling ruefully at the girl, “I need to go find her, before she gets herself killed.”
Lauryn nodded, watching him for a moment as he walked towards the town boundary. He stopped to talk to a soldier, who pointed at the fence and shook his head in bewilderment. Lauryn turned back to her work. She might not be able to use magic, but she certainly knew healing herbs more thoroughly than most of the others here, and she was the best healer's assistant they had. The work kept Lauryn too busy to wallow in pity while still giving her time to grieve as it reminded her of the woman who, for all intents and purposes, was her mother. Using her skills was her way of honoring Myrnai's memory.
A little while later a scout came in with a head wound.
“Just got nicked by an arrow is all, but it’s bleeding more than I like,” the scout said as the healer sent Lauryn for bandages while she applied an herbal salve designed to drive out infection. They were saving their magic for life threatening injuries only, wounds like this weren’t worth wasting power on, not until the battle was over anyways.
“Thank you,” the scout grunted as they wrapped his head. “So, I heard that druid girl was here, do you know where she might be?”
“Ky’ara?” Lauryn asked, surprised that people were already referring to her as a druid, “She headed out to the battle I think.”
“She a friend of yours?" the scout sounded curious at the familiar way Lauryn referred to her. Lauryn hesitated only a moment before nodding.
"Shame I didn’t catch her before she left,” the scout said, “She needs to watch her back. We caught an enemy soldier early on and wrung a little information out of him. Said they were sent here to distract us from something else...some plan to hurt her specifically."
"He didn't know anything more?" Lauryn asked, tying off the bandage and glancing in the direction Joran had gone.
"Right about then he started frothing at the mouth and choked to death," the man said regretfully, "must've had a spell on him to keep him from giving away anything important."
They finished their ministrations and sent him on his way. The other healers had already left for the battlefield, and it was unlikely anyone else would come in until they got back, so Lauryn asked the matron if she could take a break. She'd been there all night long already, and she wanted to take a nap. As she looked for a quiet place to curl up, she kept glancing in the direction Joran had gone. The feeling that she needed to go after him wouldn't go away. She wasn't a fighter, what was she supposed to do to help him and Ky'ara, even if she could find them in all the chaos?
She found a comfortable looking corner of the tent, laid her head down, and closed her eyes. The feeling persisted. She rolled over and tried counting the threads in the tent. Sleep refused to come, and finally, she gave in.
The old soldier watched in confusion as, for the third time that day, a young person climbed over the barrier and ran towards the village.
"Crazy kids gonna get themselves killed," he muttered to himself.
* * * * *
Ky'ara raced through the streets of the village, passing men, women, and children who were fleeing in the other direction. She forced herself to ignore her instinct to stop and help the injured ones. Calistra had healers ready for that, and the rebels needed these people to realize they were on the same side. They were unlikely to associate healing from Ky'ara with the organization, so she let the images flash past in little more than a blur as she ran: a mother weeping in pain as she dragged her toddler after her, holding her side as blood seeped out of a wound; an old man struggling to walk as the fleeing crowd surged around him, a teenage boy with a head wound trying to herd a gaggle of children ahead of him.
Up ahead, a little boy wailed piteously in the doorway of a house. No one had moved to help him, and as far as she could tell, his parents were nowhere to be seen. She hesitated only a moment. She couldn't take him to safety herself, not if she was going to find Taren. Did Taren really need her though? He would probably just be irritated that she thought he needed watching. Even without his Keeping abilities, he was still a proficient fighter. She wasn't worried about all the others who didn't have special abilities. But all the others have always known how to fight without those abilities, He doesn't, she thought worriedly.
The boy was just a few steps away. Ky'ara slowed, moving to the side of the road and walking briskly towards him. She grabbed the arm of a teenage girl running the opposite direction.
"What are you—-Let go of me!" the girl screamed in surprise and fear.
Ky'ara yanked her out of the crowd and then let go. "Sorry for being so forceful. He needs your help."
The girl rubbed her arm and glared at Ky'ara. Her eyes flicked towards the boy Ky'ara indicated, and her expression softened.
"Take him and get out of here as fast as you can. You can worry about finding his family after you're both safe," Ky'ara said, giving the girl a little push towards the boy, who had stopped screaming to look at them.
Without waiting to see if the girl would listen, Ky'ara slipped down the alleyway next to the house and made her way towards the fighting she could hear happening just a couple streets away. She slowed her pace, not wanting to be winded when she had to fight. She passed a few stragglers and caught a toothless old man leaving an abandoned shop with a sack of stolen goods. Without stopping, she murmured a spell that sealed the bag shut and attached it to the door of the establishment. The man stood tugging on the thing angrily for a minute before giving up and shuffling off down the street after the others. Ky'ara smiled just a little. If he was actually the owner of the shop, she could apologize
later.
"Ky'ara!"
She looked up. Taren waved to her from down the street, and she felt a rush of relief. He covered the distance between them quickly with long, powerful strides, and grabbed her hand. A tiny jolt went up her arm, and she frowned, feeling a bit uneasy.
"I'm glad you found me!” he said, “Come over here, we need to talk."
He pulled her across the street—away from the shouts and screams emanating from the town center.
"Shouldn't we help?" she asked, trying to keep up with him.
"We will be helping. Trust me, this will make the soldiers leave sooner."
Ky'ara furrowed her brow, following Taren to a little alleyway and wondering what had gotten into him. Why was he being so cryptic? What was so important that he had to talk to her, here, in the middle of a battle? Something didn't feel right... Taren glanced back at her, and she shivered. Her feeling of unease grew.
'Joran? I need you to come find me. Something isn't right, I may need backup.'
"Already on my way.'
"So,” she said nonchalantly, "I've been hoping you would talk to me. Ever since our run in with Amischel last night I've felt like there was something on your mind."
"There has been," Taren answered, looking at her intensely and reaching for her again. She drew back, eying him warily. He hadn't seemed to notice her test. They hadn't seen Amischel last night at all. What was going on? She used the sight. A strange aura seemed to hover around him...was he under some sort of spell?
"What's wrong?" he asked, eying her curiously.
"I told you yesterday, I need some time to work through things." she said, trying to distract him while she figured this out. She stepped back and silently raised her shields, hoping she wouldn't have to hurt him.
A flicker of annoyance crossed his features. "I'm sorry," he said soothingly. "Can you forgive me?" It was Taren's voice, but the inflection was all wrong. She probed the strange magic around him, trying to determine its purpose.
'Ky'ara, where are you?' Joran's voice sounded in her head, distracting her. She felt their connection, he was close. In fact, when she looked up, he was way down the street behind another house. He should be able to see them—this area of town was deserted, there was no one else around to block his view.
'I’m just past the small house with the porch...I can see you, just look a little to your right."
"That's where I can feel you, but I don't see anything but an empty alleyway,” Joran said with frustration.
Ky’ara used the Sight again and noticed a spell hovering around her and Taren a few feet in every direction. From what she could tell, it was designed to hide them from view. A small shiver of fear crept through her. Whatever/whoever was controlling Taren clearly didn’t want anyone interrupting this. She passed the information to Joran.
“Do you think I can still get past it?’
‘I don’t know, I think it’s worth a try.”
“Ky’ara?” Taren said quizzically. “Are you alright?”
"What exactly are you sorry for?" she asked him.
“What?”
“What. Exactly. Are. You. Sorry. For?” Ky’ara repeated, a hint of steel in her voice.
The man started to speak then stopped, a wry smile twisting Taren's lips. "You know, don't you? Shades curse it, I knew this was foolish."
The magic shrouding him vanished and in front of her stood a lanky balding man with narrow eyes and travel-stained robes. Ky’ara stared at him in shock—she hadn’t expected that. He looked at her almost hungrily. “Hello Ky’ara. Allow me to introduce myself…”
Ky’ara didn’t wait for him to finish, she hurled a spell at him and ducked towards the mouth of the alley.
‘Ky’ara?!’ Joran asked, feeling the change in her emotions.
‘Kinda busy,’ she responded, sending him a mental picture of the man who had just revealed himself. A mix of emotions she couldn’t even sort out flooded down the link. Joran was feeling more anger than she had ever experienced him feeling before, but it was tangled up with grief, fear and...anticipation?
“Keep him distracted so he doesn’t see me. You’re going to need help.’
‘Good to know you trust my abilities.’ Ky’ara responded, a little irritated even though she’d asked him to come. She flung herself to the side to avoid a sudden blast of magic from the man’s outward facing palms.
‘That’s not just any old mage, Ky’ara.” Joran said, the odd mix of his emotions flooding the link more intensely. ‘That’s Iregh.”
* * * * *
Calistra watched worriedly as the flood of people poured out of the village and scattered in all directions. She barked orders to her mages, instructing them to funnel the people towards the camp. They didn't have nearly enough accommodations for this many people, but they'd have to make it work. The timing might be miserable, but here at last was a chance to show the people they could help them. With any luck they'd be able to eliminate the soldiers from the village and repair the damage quickly so the people could return to their own homes in only a few days.
"How're our people doing in town, sergeant?" she asked one of the soldiers escorting a group of injured villagers to the sick tent.
"Hard to say," came the response, "We've pushed them back towards the business district, to give the people time to evacuate. Last I saw it seemed pretty evenly matched."
Calistra nodded, biting her lower lip and trying not to think about all the possible outcomes. The soldier saluted crisply and then carried on with his task.
“Don’t worry,” Geri said from where he sat on a crate behind her, “a bunch of half-trained capital soldiers are no match for Taren and Sukylar.”
“I hope you’re right,” she murmured. He’d insisted on joining her here, despite the healer’s reservations about letting him do anything more than lie in bed. After all, it had been less than a week since his seizure. She turned her mind back to the present.
"I just hope I made the right choice, telling the Shaari to stay out of this. I want the townspeople to see that we are here to help, and I didn't want to scare them first. I suppose I could see if the Shaari would help without using any of the dragons, but I’m afraid they’d find offense...and we need them to guard the camp."
Geri shrugged, "If it looks like the soldiers are going to get the best of us, you can always send them out later."
Calistra nodded, grateful for his confident demeanor and logical assessment of the situation. She could always count on him to cut straight to the heart of things.
"Did you see Ky'ara or my brother on your way out here?" she asked.
"Nope, but I'm sure they're out there helping somehow—that's what I'd be doing if this blasted sling wasn't in my way," Geri complained.
"Don't you even think about it.”
“Ah, come on, I’m nearly better…”
Calistra snorted.
He ignored her and continued anyways, “...besides, after defeating a troll single handedly, the King’s pathetic soldiers should be easy.”
Calistra turned to give him a hard look. He grinned at her, a mischievous glint in his eye. She shook her head in exasperation and went back to watching the evacuees entering the camp. Somehow, despite the battle raging in the distance, she felt almost...happy.
* * * * *
Darkness slammed into Ky’ara, throwing her to the ground despite the shields that protected her from magical attacks. This was different than what she had encountered with Ekzhad. His magic had been...slimy. Invasive and consuming and terrifying in its persistent attraction to her own power. By contrast, this magic was direct—brutal almost—yet cleverly deployed in ways that circumvented her own protections. Iregh was clearly a skilled mage with immense power. Luckily, he didn’t have Ky’ara’s advantages.
She had been using the Sight to analyze his magic, and as far as she could tell, his shields were all focused at repelling her magical attacks...and she could sense Joran getting closer.
‘I�
��ll keep him distracted while you find a way through his defenses.’
‘Are you sure purely physical attacks are going to work?’ he asked, ‘Seems to me he’d have his own shield against them.’
‘I’m not sure...but, it’s worth a try.’
Ky’ara braced herself against the next attack, using her sword to deflect the darkness that lanced towards her once more. “Is that all you got?” she taunted, “Ekzhad was way more powerful, and I managed to defeat him. Compared to him, you’re nothing.”
‘Don’t push him too hard!’ Joran’s thoughts sounded alarmed.
“Ekzhad was egotistical and took too much pleasure in drawing out people’s pain,” Iregh replied scathingly, “it made him sloppy.”
His magic was building around his fingertips, and Ky’ara felt a moment of apprehension as she realized how much raw power would be behind the shot.
‘The moment he releases that, he’ll have to focus everything on me. That’s when you strike.’
Joran gave her the equivalent of a mental nod, and she threw another fireball at Iregh. He brushed it aside like he had everything else thus far, and retaliated with an ongoing wave of darkness that caught Ky’ara as she dove to the ground and battered her against the wall of a nearby house. Joran lunged for the mage, tackling him to the ground.
Startled, Iregh stopped chanting his spell. Ky'ara rolled to her knees and then stood up with a groan. Joran and the mage grappled with each other. Ky'ara quickly cast a spell to freeze Iregh in place, but apparently his shields were still up, because it had no effect. She stood helplessly as Joran fought the man, afraid to interfere physically in case she got in Joran's way. She kept looking for a way past his magical defenses, but there didn't seem to be any.
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