by Billy Wong
"What about you?" he asked, putting Julie on one shoulder. With an anguished cry, Rose forced herself to stand again, and leaning on each other for support they limped together back to his manor.
Chapter 3
"Will she be okay?" Rose asked pleadingly as the town doctor stitched Julie's wound closed. The girl's breathing was scarily shallow.
"I don't know. I don't think the bolt hit the organs—she has you to thank for that—but the wound's large and deep, likely to get infected, and she's lost a great deal of blood. It all depends how strong her will to live is now. Pray for her, and make her know you need her."
"What about Rose?" Brandon asked.
The doctor studied her with wide eyes. "I don't know about you. I've never seen somebody hurt like you still alive, let alone coherent, and here you are sitting up more concerned for your friend than yourself. I suppose you'll live if those tales about you are true. You don't sound like you're dying, though that bolt looks uncomfortable."
"You have no idea."
She sat there by her motionless student, her head drooping tiredly on her chest while she held Julie's hand in her own. "You ready to have it pulled out now?" Brandon asked.
"Just do it," she breathed.
He grabbed the bolt and warned, "This is going to hurt like hell," before dragging it out of her torso. She shrieked and fell over on her side on the bed beside Julie's, pressing a hand to the wound while she tore at her hair from the pain with the other. Blood spurted out and soaked the bedsheets as she lay moaning. She looked up at the horrified Brandon, who just stood there staring at her, needle and thread in hand.
"Sew me up before I bleed to death, idiot!" Rose snarled without real anger as the doctor began work on the back side of her wound. "Julie?" she said hopefully when the girl's eyes opened to regard her.
"Are we in heaven?" she asked in a delirious tone.
"I'd hope," Rose mused with a grimace, "that we wouldn't still be in such pain when we go to heaven."
Her voice became a whisper. "Rose, the ballista went right through you..."
"Yeah, it hurt. Don't give up. I took it worse than you, so don't you dare disappoint me!"
Julie smiled and reached a hand weakly towards her, but to Rose's dismay didn't have the strength to keep it up. Her voice sounded hopeless as she said, "Thanks for your sacrifice."
Rose reached out herself, took her hand in a strong though trembling grip, and growled with blood running from her mouth, "I'd rather it not be in vain. Be strong!"
The redhead's only response was to pass out, and Rose looked to Brandon. To her annoyance, he grinned. "You're going to have some nice new scars. You freak, I never heard of anybody surviving a direct hit from a ballista before, let alone getting back up to fight."
She sighed. "What else is new? Brandon, I'm scared. Derrick's going to freak out when he learns Julie's hurt, and if she dies..."
"He already knows she's hurt, the nurse told me he was watching and fainted when he saw you two shot. But she's not going to die. What, you're going to let her?"
"Not that simple."
"What about your healing magic? You're a mage, aren't you?"
Rose chuckled sadly. "If I'm a mage, you're a surgeon. I'm nowhere near that advanced. Derrick knows a little healing magic, but it's really hard to use, and takes a lot of strength he still doesn't have right now."
"What about you? How are you doing?"
"I can barely see, and feel like I'm going to die," she admitted. Seeing his worried face, she added, "Hopefully, it'll pass. It always has. This isn't even the worst I've been wounded, I'm sure."
He gawked at her for several seconds before asking, "What was worse than a ballista bolt combined with the spears you took?"
She smiled, showing bloody teeth. "There's a bunch of fights that might've been worse. Direct hits from dragon fire, bite, stomp, and more. Run through between the breasts and knocked off a roof while already suffering from numerous other wounds. Pinned to the ground with two claws the size of swords through the torso. Tons of poison delivered using pointy things. Getting cooked by a storm's worth of lightning bolts. Falling hundreds of feet in a monster's mouth through a marble fountain after having acid sprayed all over me. This is at least in the top ten, though... maybe twenty."
"You indestructible little Meatball..." He hugged her lightly. "Don't let this one be the last, okay?"
"What, you mean you want me to get horribly hurt again?" Then she began to cry, and Brandon looked at her with surprise.
"What's wrong?"
"I don't want it to end like this. After all we've done, to die here to a bunch of mere beasts..."
"You're not going to die." He stroked her fluffy hair. "You were running around slaughtering fagres minutes ago. You'll be okay. Only top twenty, right?"
Rose drooled blood as she explained, "Not from the wound. But more of these things just keep coming, how much more can we take? We're all badly hurt—even you, don't deny it—and have so few men left. What'll happen next time they attack?"
"I don't know. But if we're going to die, we ought to enjoy what time is left as best we can, right?" He bent and kissed her gently, heedless of the blood in her mouth. At first she tried to push him away, but there was no strength in her arm. To her surprise, the kiss calmed her somewhat, and she stopped struggling. "That was good," he breathed after releasing her. "Don't die."
She laughed crazily and said in a shaking voice, "If Julie was awake, she would've tongue-lashed you for that."
"Get some rest," he advised with a smile, and left the room presumably to get some of his own. She closed her eyes, said a quick prayer for Julie and the rest of them, and tried to sleep.
Before she could quite doze off, a voice brought her to full, anguished consciousness. "Rose?" the newly awake Derrick asked. "What happened? How bad..?"
She opened her eyes to regard him in the bed past Julie's, face stricken with worry, and realized Brandon had been considerate enough to place her next to her man. Gritting her teeth, she raised herself on her elbows to see him better. "Julie got very hurt," she said with guilty tears welling up in her eyes. "We don't know if she'll make it. I couldn't save her, Derrick, though I tried to shield her. I failed you both."
The scholar took a look at her armor, which lay at her bedside, and saw the hole all the way through the strong plate. "Rose, what happened to you? The bolt went through you?! You shouldn't be sitting up."
"Why do you care? Your girl might be dying because of me!"
Though obviously distraught over Julie's condition, he said, "It's clear you did all you could to save her. I mean, you would have sacrificed your life today if you were anyone else. Such an awful wound it must be... You needn't blame yourself for this. You couldn't have done any more."
"I could have kept her out of harm's way. We both knew she shouldn't have been out there, she didn't know enough and wouldn't listen and now..."
Derrick met her shameful eyes. "I love her, but it was she who erred in judgment. Don't waste your time feeling guilty. You've got better things to do with your mind."
She smiled bitterly. "I'm glad we'll part on good terms if this is the end, my friend."
"What are you talking about? You're not going to die, and I'm not going to die. How can you even think of giving up over a little ballista bolt?" He winked as he spoke the last few words. "You were never so worked up over a wound before."
Rose giggled, though she felt stupid doing it. "It's not the bolt! I'm just scared of what'll happen when more enemies come. We're rather banged up."
"It does seem pretty bleak, but we've seen bleak before and you never gave up so easily. What's wrong with you?"
She reconsidered the situation and found herself agreeing with the scholar. This wasn't any worse than some of the things they'd been through together; if anything, it was better for the stupidity of their enemies. "I think maybe it's you guys being hurt, which makes me despair. When it was just me, or me and Finn, getting h
urt was something to take in stride. But I can't stand knowing I dragged you and Julie into this to suffer so. And I don't have Finn here to comfort me, and don't know if I ever will again..." She started sobbing softly. "Finn, I miss you... I'm sorry, Derrick. You're right, we'll make it. We always have." But even aware of the reason for her distress, she could hardly overcome it, and the words rang hollow in her ears.
"I never knew how badly you hurt inside. I thought you were fine, that you could take handle Finn being a dragon until you found a cure."
Rose wiped her eyes. "How could I? He's not at my side at night, he's not in my daily life. I only see him once in a while, and even then we can't enjoy each other's company as we long to. We're no closer to curing his dragonhood than when he first changed, and I don't know if we ever will be. It's agonizing to think our kids will grow up without a father, and now, maybe without a mother either. What will happen to Jacob and Amber if we all die here? I should never have agreed to take both of you along. I'm so stu-"
Derrick stopped her. "You're prophesying our doom again. Don't do that, you're the strongest of us all in spirit and body. If you break, who'll lead us to safety?"
She shook her head, sniffing. "I may be strong, but I've also taken the most hurt. How can anyone stand this pain? I love him so much, and he loves me back the same. Yet it's impossible for us to be together; even after all we've achieved, changed the world and felled near gods, still we're held apart by one mistake—it all feels so futile!"
He frowned. "You think no one else has ever lost their love? At least Finn is still alive, and loves you. That's more than many can say of the soulmates they once had. I know your heartache's deep, because I'm already suffering badly and you've been fearing for your love much longer than me. But you can never give up hope, not for your love or your life. You taught me that, taught us all that. Your passion, your desire for life has always awed all to see it. Even falling hundreds of feet with a giant monster landing on top of you didn't do your iron will in. It surely can't die this easily."
He was right, she knew. She smiled now at her friend and reassured him, "It's not dead. If my will was really broken, this hole would have killed me already. Thanks for giving me the boost I needed, though. Should we start thinking about what to do next?"
"You expect them to attack the town again, right?"
She nodded. "That's been their way."
"Could we evacuate?"
"Where?" She felt ashamed to realize in her earlier despair, she hadn't thought of that very simple option. She'd been too hung up on herself to even try to think of a solution. How stupid she was! "Brandon did mention a fort somewhere around here."
"If it can hold everybody, that'd be great. What about defending it if they attack?"
She shrugged. "It is a fort, so hopefully it'll be hard for the fagres to do much for a while. One problem might be keeping everybody fed, considering the fort's made for a garrison of soldiers and not a whole town of people."
"There isn't a full house of soldiers now." Derrick smiled. "Maybe the only upside of this county being undermanned."
"All of Kayland!" Rose corrected, and they shared a brief laugh. "So if we have the villagers take their food with them, we should be able to last a little while. Damn, this is going to be rough on them. Let's hope there'll be enough food to go around."
"And maybe if the fagres attack overzealously like they have been, we'll be able to deplete their population from inside too. So you agree this is the best solution?" When she nodded, he said, "Okay, let's tell Brandon and get this started as soon as possible."
Rose lay there, waiting. After a time, she turned to Derrick. "I thought you were going to tell him?"
"I'm still too weak to get up right now."
"And me?! I just got an arrow the size of a pike through my body!" But before Derrick could reply, she was already rolling herself out of bed.
#
Rose felt a bit of pity as she watched the townspeople miserably walking away from their homes with all they could carry on their backs, not knowing if they'd ever return. But she herself was in a great deal of pain as the bumpy ride jostled her torn body, and wondered how Julie held up. The girl had looked no better in the morning, and come down with a fever as they'd all feared. If only somebody could go fetch the healing device from Rose's hometown of Hullel... but a small group traveling through the area would be at much risk. Now Derrick and the doctor kept watch over Julie in another wagon while Rose rode with Brandon in his personal carriage, the big nobleman sitting uncomfortably close to her despite the width of the seat.
"How are you doing?" he asked. "Is your wound any better?"
She shook her head, her torso full of fire. "It's only been one night. Of course it's not much better." She was glad, though, that she never got infections. The ballista bolt had been quite filthy.
"Shouldn't you lay down, then?" he asked. She'd be tossed around even worse on the floor of the vehicle, and said as much. "Why not lay down on the seat, with your head in my lap? I'll hold you steady."
Rose knew he'd take pleasure from such contact, but did feel terrible sitting up, and it could be more comfortable to do as he suggested. "Okay, I'll give it a try. You better not take advantage of an injured woman!" Thus warning him, she shifted into his desired position.
"Ah, that feels good," he said without a second thought, and squeezed her hair. "So where do you think Graham went?"
She was glad at least he didn't talk about his ideas for them. "I have no idea. Maybe he just wandered away from the rest of us and got killed?"
"We searched all around afterwards. We didn't find him, obviously."
"Could the fagres have taken him?"
"I've never heard of them doing that, as all I've seen them do is kill or be killed, but it is a possibility. But if that's what happened, then he's almost certainly dead."
"Was he your friend?"
Brandon shrugged. "No, not really a friend. He never cared enough for people to have what we'd call friends. But we were associates, and have traveled and fought together before. We probably shouldn't dismiss him as dead. He has disappeared at strange times before, only to reappear at a yet stranger one."
"During battles?"
"While walking, even. He's a mysterious sort. He even told me once, 'the ways of the druid are not for the human world to know.' Mystifying, huh?"
From what little she'd seen, she had just thought him shy. Apparently, he also wasn't very considerate. "But aren't druids human? Anyway, annoying is how I would find that."
The count nodded. "He does whatever he gets the urge to, and generally doesn't feel the need to explain himself. Frustrating, yes, but he's not bad when he sticks around. Though once he gets an idea in his head, he's pretty arrogant about being right."
"It's too bad he had to disappear. Maybe he'd have some herbal techniques to help Julie and Derrick."
"And you. Though he wouldn't be too comfortable cooped up in a fort. He's not even the type to go to cities if he doesn't have to."
"Got any ideas for finding the fagres' source?"
He shrugged. "I don't know that we'd be able to do anything if we did find it."
"What happened to your four hundred soldiers?"
"It'll take some time to inform them we've moved to the fort, and probably more than a week for them to get there. We're not exactly ready to launch an assault."
"It'd still be good to know where they are, for the future. Since we've always seen them more or less moving in a straight line to their destination, I think we could figure out the general area they come from pretty easily. Do you have a map?"
"Yeah, there should be one. Hold on... okay, here we go. Ugh, this is too big for looking at in here."
They did so nonetheless, and marked the places the fagres had attacked as best they could. Like Rose predicted, the creatures had all come from one general area, and they narrowed the possible location of their lair to a twenty mile radius. "Start from the center out?"
she said. "I do think it'd be best to wait in the fort for the next attack first, and maybe a few more—wear down their numbers before going for their home."
"And then we'll save Resnick."
Rose grinned. "Maybe all of Kayland... nah, that's me being big headed."
"The rest of Kayland will be better off once we spread our knowledge of dealing with these creatures. I like your thinking. You're strong and smart."
She laughed. "Anybody with half a brain could've figured it out. The hard part's the doing."
"Yeah, but you had the presence of mind to think about it." Brandon pulled her carefully against his belly, and she could tell he enjoyed it.
"Derrick brought my presence of mind back. You think we'll be okay?"
"Sure, Meatball."
She squeezed his hand, making him look down at her. "In case we do survive," she pleaded, "don't ever talk about the kiss we shared. Let's just forget all about it, okay?"
He touched her cheek. "I won't tell on you. But I won't forget it. It was good, wasn't it?"
"It was," she admitted. "But if I hadn't just had my friend injured and a ballista bolt shot right through me, I would've stopped you from doing it."
"Probably. It still happened."
She shook her head. "Yes, but it didn't mean anything. It was just a byproduct of despair, that's all." But though she believed the words, she didn't know that the despair born from her weakening hope for a reunion with Finn wouldn't return. "I don't want to talk about this anymore. You're not my husband, and I'm not an adulterer. There are other women out there for you. You've got to stop before you ruin my life."
"I'll never ruin it if you don't let me. Are there other women like you in the world?"
Rose didn't meet his eyes. "Not exactly like me, everybody's different." Few were as scarred as her, and nobody as hard to kill. "But I'm not available."
He whispered into her ear, "But you're the one I want."
"You can't have everything you want."
"What do you want?"
Smiling as she imagined it, she said, "I want my husband back with me, lying side by side like we used to."