by Shelley Cass
“What are you doing?” he asked, frowning up at me from where he laid. “You can’t fight Vulcan, you’re about to pass out!”
I gripped my sword as tightly as I could with bloodied fingers. The pain shot from my radiating arm, but I charged ferociously towards the warrior standing over Noal, skidding to a halt and ramming my blade under the soldier’s sabre as he dropped it down.
I shoved my face into that of the startled warrior. “Back off,” I spat, and drove my sword at him so hard that he had to stumble backward and defend.
I continued to pound after him and he had to desperately parry and block, until he stumbled and went down.
Despite the fact that he had been about to kill my brother, I gritted my teeth and didn’t deliver the fatal blow he had expected. Instead I slammed my hilt into his head, sending my fourth opponent into unconsciousness.
I staggered around to face Noal, who was leaning up on his elbows, pale with exertion, and sweating from his close call.
“Are you hurt?” I demanded, worriedly striding back across to him.
“No,” he puffed. “You made sure of that.” I saw him smile at someone over my shoulder and I looked to see Kiana standing there, with a scene of struggling or unconscious soldiers behind her.
“Sounds like you did well,” Kiana told me.
I was feeling sluggish, but I managed a smile. “You took your time getting here.”
“We’d gone further than Nova expected. And I regret that.” Kiana eyed my battered face, which was pulsing with heat. Then her eyes went to my crimson shirt sleeve. “You look a mess.”
“I feel a mess,” I grimaced and extended my good arm to pull Noal to his feet.
Instead, he quickly reached up and put a steadying hand on my chest as I swayed. Kiana rushed forward and I felt her quickly grab me from behind to help me stay upright too.
“Perhaps you’re as bad as you look,” she said, and Noal clambered to his feet to quickly help her.
“It’s a stab wound!” a worried voice called. Thale watched us from where he was bound a distance away.
“Some soldiers just didn’t seem to understand the concept of a good fight without killing,” I sighed and glared at the bearded warrior.
“What exactly happened?” Kiana asked as she helped Noal to lower me to clear ground.
“It was a dagger to the arm, along with some armour spikes,” I admitted as Noal sat beside me. “I was fortunate it was nothing more.”
“My dagger was edged with a toxin,” Thale croaked. He was looking decidedly conflicted over whether he was betraying his comrades by helping us – or if it would betray his conscience not to. “It is a Krall toxin that thins the blood and weakens a foe.”
“Let me see then,” Kiana said, sitting down on my other side.
I wearily closed my eyes while Noal kept me sitting upright with a hand on my shoulder. Kiana unsheathed her own dagger, cutting away the torn remains of my sleeve.
“Oh DISGUSTING!” I heard Nova say and I opened my eyes with an effort to see the Nymph flitting down to sit on the bearded warrior, Thale’s chest.
Kiana and Noal were staring at my arm.
“I saw this one do it,” Naira said matter-of-factly, also sweeping down to sit on Thale. “Then that one finished off the job,” she added, nodding her pink hair toward the unconscious Nikon.
Thale was assuming a green tone.
I squinted at my arm myself and winced at the sight of the torn skin all around the original stab wound. It looked like it had been scraped away with a peeler. Muscle was exposed and the dagger hole had torn wider after my exertions with Nikon. The blood was still leaking down my arm in fast streams, creating an odd tickling sensation that mingled with the hot throbbing feeling.
“Lucky the spike ones aren’t that deep,” I commented. “And lucky the dagger wasn’t very wide, so it’s a small cut.”
“But not so lucky, the dagger was a long, curved one,” Kiana said. “It has gone right through, and has left an uneven trail.” She turned then to the guilty faced Thale. “Is the toxin Krarx?” she demanded of the bearded soldier.
“Nothing so immediately deadly,” the warrior answered quickly. “It’s Kilto.”
“Don’t be too hard on him,” I sighed. “I think he’s going to go through the awakening that Thorin went through.”
Vidar led the other Elves across to us then.
If they’d been in a fight to the death, I was certain that the Elves would have been untouchable and unscathed. But after this restrained battle, I saw that even Quidel, Rendor and an Elf from Kiana’s team had managed to get assorted bruises, scrapes, bloodied noses and slits across chests that bled with a thick, luminescent silver colour.
It appeared that the Krall men had been smart enough to flood such powerful Elvish opponents in groups while Noal and I had faced only independent foes before Kiana had arrived.
“Sorry I won’t be able to help you carry our captives home,” I grinned at the Elves.
Vidar knelt down, examining my arm and face before he lifted my shirt a little to reveal my side, which was scraped raw and already black and blue.
Noal hissed sympathetically. “Perhaps you shall have to be carried yourself,” he told me.
I noticed Kiana was pulling cloth for bandages out of a pack to bandage my arm and exclaimed in surprise. “Is that your healing pack?”
She nodded with relief. “I found it with the rest of their bags. They must’ve kept it for me while they searched.”
I winced as I felt the pressure of the bandages tightening around the wounds, and noticed that I was now leaning almost completely on Noal – my nose inches from his chin.
“Gods,” I heard Thale utter sickly. “I just don’t understand.”
Nova and Naira glanced down at him in curiosity from where they were still sitting on his chest.
“You’re going into shock. It’s something mortals haven’t heard of yet, but they do it all the time,” Nova told the warrior helpfully.
“This will help.” Naira flicked her hand and a globe of light appeared from her palm and floated gently down to absorb into Thale’s forehead so that his eyes closed at once.
I stared at Naira blearily while Kiana wiped at my burning face, but the Nymph just shrugged and yawned.
“We can’t really afford him to blow his top off right now. I just put him to sleep. Deep sleep.”
“Ready?” Kiana asked Noal over my shoulder, who I felt nod.
“Great,” I said wearily, as Kiana got up and took my good arm in her hands so that I could sit forward and Noal could stand as well.
Then together they helped lever me to my feet.
I felt as if someone had packed my arm full of lead, but I stayed quiet as Noal slung my good arm over his shoulder, and wrapped his own arm around me.
“We’re organised,” Kiana told Vidar.
“How exactly are we going to bring everyone else back to the City?” Noal asked, glancing at the soldiers who were littering the Forest floor.
“We’ll take care of that.” Nova stretched luxuriously. Then the two Nymphs shot up from Thale’s chest and whizzed about the clearing.
They first untied all of the bound men, and then they pelted little balls of light into the foreheads of each of the passed out men – and like puppets, the band of soldiers got to their feet.
“Clean up,” commanded Nova, speaking to the unconscious men lolling on their feet, and immediately they began to take shuffling steps, shambling around to pick up all dropped weapons and discarded packs.
“Now follow,” ordered Naira, and at once they formed a line with the two Nymphs as their leaders.
“There’s only fifteen of them, and their minds are blank at the moment,” Nova confided with a pointy grin.
Noal shook his head with wonder. “I’d sure hate to be on your bad side.”
I just concentrated on walking as the party began to leave with the strange procession of sleeping Krall warriors ma
rching ahead of us.
I managed to march for a while, but keeping up became such an effort that eventually I heard Noal call out to Kiana as I finally slumped against him.
“Just need a quick rest,” I mumbled as she ran to my side.
Then I saw Nova bringing a ball of light to her fist.
“No you don’t!” I said, trying to swat her away, but she easily flitted around my arm and pressed the glowing ball to my forehead.
My eyes were closing when I heard Vidar step comfortingly close. “Don’t worry Raiden. With my power I can support you.”
Chapter Twenty Eight
Noal
We found Thorin and a crowd of Elves and Nymphs waiting for us when we finally descended the slope into the City.
Thorin stared at his puppet-like comrades as they paraded past him at Nova’s command, but Asha whirred gleefully up to meet me and showered my face with kisses before contentedly burrowing into my arms.
“They’re fine,” Kiana reassured Thorin as the other Krall warriors were marched toward his original cell – with Naira now perching disinterestedly on an unconscious warrior’s bald head, examining her reflection in it.
“They escaped with only minor bumps, even if others didn’t,” I added, looking back with a frown to where Vidar had paused.
“What’s wrong?” Kiana asked with concern, moving to Vidar’s side as he laid Dalin on the grass.
“He’s waking up,” the Elf replied in surprise, and Asha and her fellow Nymphs noticed Dalin for the first time.
Asha sat up hurriedly in my arms, her face switching from contentment to bewilderment. “What happened to the Raiden?” she asked, eyeing Dalin’s blood soaked shirt as Thorin and our welcoming party came closer.
“He was stabbed with a poisoned dagger,” Vidar explained. “But the Nymphs put him to sleep, and he’s not meant to wake for hours,” the Elf added with raised brows.
Flash and Rebel landed next to Vidar to examine Dalin.
“His broken nose may now have a broken cheek bone added to it,” Rebel observed with a crinkled up expression.
“So Nova and Naira put him to sleep?” Flash asked with amazement. “That’s incredible! Not many can wake up from that before they’re meant to.”
Dalin’s eyes weren’t open but his bruised features creased with a frown. “Oh Frarshk,” he moaned, and struggled to sit up against Vidar.
“What is it Raiden?” Rebel asked with concern.
“It’s not that incredible at all,” Dalin answered mournfully. “Nobody could sleep through all this chatter.”
His skin was so pale that the scar along the un-bruised side of his face stood out and his green eyes were feverish when he blinked at us.
“Well grumpy or not, I’m putting you back to sleep,” Flash told him, and pressed a glowing palm to Dalin’s forehead before he could protest.
“I’ll get Chloris to come to the Raiden’s tower,” Rebel said as Vidar hoisted Dalin back up.
“Do you know the name of the poison on the blade?” Thorin asked while we followed Vidar and made our way to Dalin’s bedroom in our tower.
“Kilto,” Kiana replied while Dalin was set down. “Which I know is not the worst toxin of Krall, but which will need attention.”
Kiana began to unwind the bloodied bandages she’d tied around Dalin’s arm as soon as Vidar had left to report to Chloris.
“What are you doing?” I asked her, pushing Dalin’s hair back from his pale, marked face.
“Chloris will want to inspect and clean it,” she told me, gently pulling the cloth away from the wounds.
Thorin winced when he saw the mess of holes and spike wounds. The skin gaped open like torn meat. “Ouch,” he wheezed in sympathy. “It’s gone right through.”
“Ouch,” I agreed, feeling queasy as I looked at the bloodied mess again myself.
Kiana inspected his ribs and the gashes along his face more closely now. “At least he won’t need stitches for the face.” She lightly drew his eyelid up to inspect his swelling eye then. “And the damage around his cheek shouldn’t cost him his vision.”
Dalin tried to turn in his sleep, but I pressed him gently down to still him.
“Is there anything I can do?” Thorin asked earnestly, but Kiana shook her head.
“I could definitely help to heal this, but Chloris is much more experienced, so I’ll leave him in her hands. It’s fortunate it happened in the Forest. In some less medically able villages, this kind of wound would have become infected enough for the victim to need to lose the arm.”
I shuddered as I was reminded of the struggle Agrudek suffered over the loss of his hand, but turned as we heard Chloris ascending the steps.
“The Three are keeping me quite occupied of late,” she smiled at us as she climbed into the room. Ailill was following her.
“I only just removed the stitches from his leg,” Ailill remarked dryly, and I noticed Thorin ducking his head awkwardly at that.
“More stitches?” I asked, mortified on Dalin’s behalf.
Ailill examined the dagger wound. “Only some,” he told me while Chloris nodded. “To seal up both ends. Now shoo,” Ailill told us. “Give us some peace.”
“Can’t I stay with him?” I asked the Elf.
“We need a sanitary environment,” he remarked with the ghost of a smile.
And when Thorin put a comforting hand on my shoulder to guide me from the room, I followed glumly.
Chapter Twenty Nine
Kiana
“I would have preferred to give them more than a day to settle down,” I told Thorin as Noal, Asha and I led him to the patch of ground that would open into what had once been his cell. “They have hardly started their first night in the City yet.”
“I can’t stand listening to them yell the Forest down anymore,” Thorin said tensely. “They might start to feel threatened enough to actually take their Krarx.”
“You’ll try to make them see the truth?” Asha asked Thorin curiously, swinging from her grip on Noal’s hand while the Granx sat on her forehead. “A mass awakening?”
“I’ll try to settle them and prepare them to hear it from Kiana,” Thorin grimaced. “I don’t think I’m inspiring enough on my own.”
“We need you with us in case we have to put any of them back to sleep in a hurry,” Noal told Asha. “And because we love your company,” he added.
When the patch of grass disappeared to reveal the ladder, Asha, Noal and I waited quietly in the side room while Thorin cautiously approached the vine barred door.
Almost as soon as the vines had parted there were cries of disbelief.
“Thorin!” they yelled, and I heard the sounds of scrambling feet as they ran to hug him and thump him on the back.
“We thought you were dead!” came one voice.
“Where’ve they been keeping you?”
“Are you harmed?”
He cleared his throat with an uncomfortable cough. “I’m not being held prisoner.”
And suddenly the voices of glee and welcome faded to silence.
“You’ve joined them?”
“No. Well, yes. But it’s not like that,” he fumbled to explain. “They’ve accepted me as a friend.”
“You’ve betrayed us then?” one soldier accused.
“No, they wish to be friends to you too,” Thorin explained.
“How can they be friends?” protested another. “We are being held captive!”
I heard Thorin trying to be patient, perhaps remembering his own reaction not so long previously.
“Look around you, this room is more like a Palace bedroom than a dungeon. They’ve given you food and water, they’ve even bandaged your wounds!” he pointed out.
“So they aren’t trying to kill us yet, they’re even feeding us,” argued a voice. “They’re magical beings! Who can say what they’re planning? Perhaps they’re fattening us up like livestock!”
Asha clasped a hand over her mouth to keep from giggl
ing while the Granx waved about on her forehead.
“They’re not farming you all for food,” Thorin managed to sound placating.
Noal was trying to appear serious but he was failing too.
“They ambushed us!” argued another.
“Yes, but none of you are even really hurt,” Thorin countered. “We know that’s strange. An enemy doesn’t pause to kill.” I heard him take in a breath. “Instinctively you know you aren’t in any danger. Otherwise you would have eaten your fatal dose of Krarx, as all Krall soldiers have been trained to do if they have any doubt.”
“Clearly we didn’t think to eat it because we plan on fighting our way free of here,” someone stubbornly replied after a pause.
“You thought you could easily escape the magical beings who have so effortlessly thwarted our every move in the Forest?” Thorin asked dryly this time.
“Well that just reminds me of another reason why they must be enemies,” came another’s voice. “They’ve captured the girl we’ve been trying to rescue for so long.”
I shrugged at Noal and Asha before I crossed to lean in their doorway, finding a much bigger room than before, with many more beds and people in it.
“Actually, I’m not a prisoner here either,” I informed them, and fifteen pairs of eyes flew to the door to stare at me.
“It’s her!” someone whispered.
“Kiana,” I supplied.
“Kiana!” they echoed wistfully, and Thorin blushed, likely recalling that he’d reacted very similarly.
“You’re not being held prisoner?” one soldier asked from where he was sitting on a bed.
I shook my head. “You’re not either,” I told them all. “You’d be freed if you wanted it.”
“What?” Confusion was now beginning to enter their eyes.
“It’s true,” Thorin affirmed grimly.
“And you weren’t searching for me because you wanted to help me. It was because I’d escaped you and your King. It was in fact the Elves and Nymphs who saved me from you and from the arrow wound your General had given me.”
“Stop!” a bald man groaned, growing pale.