Battle Mage: Winter's Edge (48 page)

Elzen’s look appeared somewhat whiter at the sight, but the boyish falcon continued their conversation as he shadowed the girl. Noting her bare hands, the young man offered Rilena his sword. At first waving him off, Elzen replied, “Like Sebastian told you, I prefer hand to hand. Swords just get in my way.”

Taking the sword, Rilena winced as her side reminded her of the wound more painfully. Elzen noticed the tear in the jacket and a wet, stain beginning to seep into the upper part of her black pants. Realizing that the young woman was bleeding, he instinctively reached for her jacket. As she tried to stop the boy who was a stranger despite their connection to Sebastian, Elzen slapped her hand away with his left as the right lifted both torn jacket and the two shirts beneath.

“Wow, he got you good,” the mage said with a low whistle.

Hissing as he touched the wound, three of the cat’s claws had left deep gashes which were bleeding steadily, Rilena’s vision nearly blacked out from the intense pain. Her vision returned to see Elzen holding her up and realized that she had gone fully unconscious after all as the girl had no clue how she had wound up in his arms.

“Easy, easy,” the boy said as he gently helped her sit on the ground. “Le’ me take a closer look while you sit down. His claws were probably dirty so infection could set in and worse they may have been poisoned.”

“Mountain lions don’t use poison,” was the girl’s halfhearted reply as she knelt on her legs. There was nothing to lean against and the tent beside them was unlikely to take much weight as it was torn and half leaning from being caught in the attack. As she sat, Rilena’s eyes noticed a body inside of the tent where it had been torn. If she hadn’t spotted the missing sentries, the same might have happened to everyone in the camp, the girl thought as tears welled up in her eyes freezing immediately on her lashes.

“Real mountain lions don’t use poison,” Elzen replied as he pulled her shirt higher causing the blush in her cheeks from more than just the cold. It was stupid to be embarrassed being treated on the battlefield, but the girl couldn’t help it. The cold hitting the blood slickened skin made her shiver even more. His fingers touched the waist of her pants pulling it slightly down exposing more skin to make sure there was no other cuts under the blood.

“I was only hit once,” she protested at his touch. Her cheeks were burning and Rilena was glad that he was only looking at her side. “Just the three cuts. If you have something to pack the wounds until a wizard can heal me, I’m sure that I’ll be fine.

“By the way, what do you mean real mountain lions?” she asked getting back to the statement from before he touched her and disrupted her thoughts.

“Hang on. Heal,” Elzen said surprising her. She thought that no other battle mage had learned that skill. It was supposed to be one of the hardest spells for her guild to understand, since they dealt in killing with weapons the idea was that it conflicted with a healer’s touch. Rilena had heard Bas dispute the idea a few times, though he agreed that it would take someone with a healer’s affinity to learn how to heal.

A feeling of comfort spread from his touch. It felt both cold and warm in such a strange blend, that her mind nearly froze up with shock. The pain of the wound changed so quickly that her stomach churned and exhaustion threatened to push her back into unconsciousness. Sebastian had warned her that both a healer and the patient used energy during the process, but this was the first time that she had ever been healed with magic.

“There,” Elzen stated pulling his red, blood stained hands from her side. Pulling a blanket from the open tent, the boy first rubbed snow on the wound causing Rilena to gasp at the shocking cold on her skin. He used the blanket to wipe away what he could of the blood and water of melted snow before tearing the blanket and wrapped the long piece around her waist knotting it on her right away from the wounded left. “That should keep the cold and wet off you for awhile. You shouldn’t even have to worry about that wound now, so unless you planned on taking off those wet pants, I think we’re good,” he chuckled and Rilena thought the boy looked hopeful that she might.

“I’ll pass. Now the poison?”

“Oh, right. Well these beasts were too smart. My guess is they are creations from the Emperor’s pits. I’ve heard some can change shape between human or orc into these beasts. If they possess the intelligence of a man, what is to say that they can’t use poison to ensure an attack kills their opponent?

“When I healed you, I didn’t find any trace though the wound was already tainted by something that would have made the wound rot if no healers had magic for it. A regular battle surgeon would have missed it and you would have died in a few days probably.”

Listening to the second part, Rilena wrinkled her nose at his blunt appraisal of the toxic wound. “Has anyone told you that your bedside manners are lacking?”

Glancing around Elzen grinned looking like that boy she was sure he was and asked as he spread his hands in mock confusion, “What bed?”

With a sigh, the female falcon asked, “How did a kid like you get put on this mission?”

Pulling some food from his pack as well as a water flask from his back off his belt, the boy took some for himself before passing an end of bread and the water to Rilena. “Well, old lady, at least I brought my sword and food to recover during the battle. You might as well have gone out naked. You have a jacket, but no weapons or food, so who looks like an unprepared child now. I’ll be eighteen next month just so you know. Not just any child could have saved your butt out here. In fact, your next helper is coming right now.”

Boots came running to the edge of the tent and slid to a stop looking at the two falcons sitting on the ground beside the tent.

“What are you two doing? Is everyone all right?”

Standing up, Elzen extended a hand to pull Rilena out of the snow where she still knelt. Feeling extremely tired, the girl was glad for the help.

“I had to heal Rilena, Falconi Ralto, or should I say commander? Other than that we haven’t seen anymore of the critters, since I killed the lion and her wolf ran off,” Elzen answered thumbing down the path at his kill still lying on the ground. “As to everyone else being all right, I couldn’t tell you. So how are you? Been a long time,” the boy finished with a big grin for the falcons’ commander.

“Shut up, Elzen. Keep your jokes to yourself. Either of you know what happened here? The most I have found out is that a woman called out the warning, but our sentries were all men on this shift,” Falconi Ralto interrogated the two quickly.

Rilena nodded and felt her head rush with the movement. Taking a quick drink from the flask, the young woman felt the bread in her hand and knew that she should eat it very soon or another faint was likely from the magic and blood loss. Her voice still a bit hoarse from her spell, the falcon tried to explain briefly. “When I went out to… relieve myself,” she nearly died from embarrassment having to confess those words to a falconi, “I noticed the two sentries here were missing. I wasn’t sure that they weren’t just out of my sight so I ran over just in case. With the hound spell, I heard something, but before I could reach the end of the tents a wolf and mountain lion were on me. All I could do was try using the battle cry spell and hope it could rouse the camp.”

“Lucky timing and good instincts,” Ralto said gruffly despite the positive comment. “Some of the mizard must have rubbed off on you. He also seems to step into trouble before others realize that it’s there.

“Have you found the sentries? The ones on the other side of the camp were killed before I could ask any questions of them.”

Rilena went even whiter and leaned against Elzen finding their heights so even that he was a good match. The boy accepted her weight putting his right arm behind her back. Feeling the strangely comforting touch, she wondered if his spell lingered. “The other sentries were alive when I went to check this side. I’m sorry. Maybe if I had given a warning sooner…”

Elzen interrupted as the girl’s voice trailed off sadly, “We came here to check on them, but other than a couple dead in the tents I haven’t seen anyone else, sir. Falcon Rilena was too injured to check any further and I just finished healing her. We were about to go look for them.”

Shaking his head, Ralto ordered, “No, get her to her tent. If she doesn’t lie down, you’ll be carrying the girl soon anyway. We can take it from here.”

With five other mages at his side, the falconi began his search for the missing men.

Taking the time to eat the bread in her hand that was getting wet with the snow, Rilena followed the path back to her tent as she leaned against Elzen. They began passing others still looking out at the snow in worry. If the enemy would attack them in this kind of weather, what else could they expect; the soldiers of Southwall began to wonder?

Zerra and Dolfeen greeted the mages as worry for the missing girl eased from their faces. Elzen released her, but before ducking to enter the tent, Rilena said apologetically, “I’m sorry that I called you a kid, Elzen. You’re a good falcon. I can tell.”

With a big exaggerated sigh, the boy replied, “That’s what all the girls tell me after they eat all my food.”

Laughing, the mage turned and walked away from the confused women.

Once more, Rilena wished that she had gone with Sebastian to Hala, though Elzen was an interesting new friend, she thought before rolling into her blankets to sleep.

“I won’t allow it!” Marcel Trillon argued loudly. He was the kind of man that assumed if he was the loudest one with an opinion, he would win the argument. Sebastian had never noticed that about his father before, but as the man complained about him taking Katya along with him, the mage realized that he barely knew his father except for old memories from his childhood. “Don’t think that I don’t appreciate you all being here to save Conner, but I won’t exchange one life for another either. If the seekers come and want to take her away, that is one thing, but letting you just take her now… she’s too young! No, she can’t go!”

The rest of his family looked like they were mixed on the matter, even though the final say was probably not in any of their hands. His mother, however, was completely on his father’s side. She didn’t want see her youngest child, the baby of the family, being taken away by wizards, even if one of those hands taking her were Sebastian’s, her older brother.

“But…,” Katya started with tears in her eyes. Sebastian remembered those eyes and figured them to be her way of getting leverage.

Apparently under the circumstances, his parents weren’t going to fall for fake tears either. It was his turn to try, though in fact Sebastian wasn’t sure that he truly wanted to fight for this cause. Maybe letting her have however many months with the rest of the family was the right thing to do. She was only thirteen and he had been almost two years older when he had been called by the seekers. Two years was a lot of time to get used to the idea that would be more obvious as her talents continued to grow.

“I would be happy to take her with me. Maybe it’s better that she can leave with me. With the others’ help, we can help Katya get used to her powers so that no accidents happen.”

“No!” Marcel screamed slamming his hand palm down onto the large table making it creak from the blow. The rest of the family all recoiled from the man, but Sebastian was immune to a farmer’s rage, even if the farmer was his father. The man had given up all rights to him five years ago and been paid a stipend from the guild every month of his service. Sebastian didn’t begrudge the money they received. He didn’t need it for himself and it had helped them during tough times. His brothers, especially Conner who was older, had confessed as much to him.

Before the falcon could bother with anymore reasons, Katya lost her temper as well. “No, yourself! It is not right father! Sebastian and his friends all knew I would be called when they saw me on the porch. You’ve known for months that something is different about me. Like Bas said, I can sit here and wait for strangers to come take me or I can go with my older brother. I’d rather go with him.”

Yara added, “This is also a last chance at a safe adventure for her. We can take her to see Hala and the Winter’s Edge tournament duels, before she has to go to White Hall. Once she’s in the school Katya will only be able to return home once in awhile and the rest of the time she’ll spend studying and training at the school.”

Shaking his head, Marcel started to open his mouth to protest once more.

“No, not one more word, Daddy!” Katya ordered and all those with magic felt her power lash out with the words. The older man’s mouth slammed shut as his eyes opened in shock. “If you can’t accept that I am going to go with Sebastian, you… you… can go jump in a snow drift!”

Sebastian and Yara tried to stop the girl’s words as her powers continued to rise unchecked. Her brother’s hand clamped over her mouth too slowly as the words escaped her lips; Marcel’s eyes widened as he leaped up and ran out of the house. Rushing to the doorway, everyone watched as the elder of the home literally jumped into a snow drift. It wasn’t very high thanks to warmer weather in the east, but he had found snow nearby at least.  Without the bit of snow they had, Sebastian worried just how far he would have run to find a drift under her spell.

The rest of Trillons looked at the girl in sudden fear. With wide eyes of her own, Katya ran out of the house to grip him in a tight, fear filled hug as her father remained stunned.