Fireclaws - Search for the Golden (9 page)

Ryliss

Kerrik was in a bad way. While I was working on him, my sharp ears picked up the sound of the three wizards hurriedly collecting food, supplies, and gear and loading them on horses in the barn out back. They didn’t even plan on spending the night at the farm, their panic was so great. In the span of a few minutes, they rode off into the night as if the demons of hell were on their heels, abandoning the darkened farm without so much as a curse or a look behind them.

Druids, unlike healers, do not have any special wizard sight to target injuries and afflictions. We just pump life magic into our patient and hope the body puts it to good use. I had barely caught him in time. Thankfully, my first heal managed to strengthen his faltering heartbeat and served to stabilize him. It was enough to allow me the time to seek out some healing mosses that are well known to my people. I applied the largest clump of moss as soon as I excised the quarrel, blood gushing weakly out of the wound in spurts. The pressure patch on the bleeding held just long enough for me to cast a second spell, which closed the wound, at least externally. Shaking with effort, I leaned back and watched a small amount of color return to his face.

Carrying Kerrik the two hundred yards or more to the farmhouse almost did me in. I had already poured every ounce of healing energy I had into him after the others left him to die, and I literally had no reserve strength left. Kicking open the door, I laid him out on a long flat table. Ripping some ratty curtains off the window, I made a pillow for his head with one panel and covered him like a blanket with the other.

I needed clothes for Kerrik and Andi, and the more pressing need of food for us all. Kerrik seemed to be sleeping relatively peacefully at this point. Closing the door behind me, I raced out to the barn to see if they had left behind any chickens or possibly a piglet. When I slid open the barn door, my nose was assailed by the odor of fresh droppings and sweaty fear. I estimated that five horses had been stabled here, and judging by the recent hoofprints in the straw and mud, the wizards took the entire string of them with them when they fled. That made sense as horses were a valuable commodity. Dejectedly, I smelled only equines in this barn, dashing my hopes for a quick meat meal. I was just about to turn and leave, when I heard the mild clump of hooves far back in the deepest reaches of the structure. Peering back into the gloom of the last pen, I spotted two shaggy heads huddled miserably in the corner. Stepping up to the gate, I saw two donkeys fearfully pressed up against the back, averting their eyes from me. I could sense that they were not only afraid, but extremely hungry and thirsty. Apparently, the fleeing wizards considered them expendable, as well, and left them to starve.

Opening the gate, I walked up to them and gently stroked their heads and mumbled words of encouragement. Drawing them out of the stall, I led them into one of the stalls recently vacated by horses; this one still had reasonably decent water and grain still in the feed bins.

“Eat up, guys; this might be the last good meal you’ll get for a while,” I murmured, closing them inside the stall so they didn’t wander off. Both of them made a beeline for the water trough and started slurping noisily. “I’ll be back in a little while to free you…”

On my way back to the house, my inner Jag’uri reminded me that a donkey would be a large, filling meal for everyone, but I quickly squashed that thought. Personally, I felt justified enough eating rabbits, raccoons, and small deer, but most of a donkey would go to waste even as hungry as I was, and I had no way to summon Naurakka. Besides, these two had already gotten a bad deal from life, I couldn’t in good conscience add to it.

Kerrik was still asleep as I started canvassing the house for anything left of use. I did find some clothes that would work; serviceable work clothes. Fortunately, the woman had been slight of build. Food was a problem; anything ready to eat had been ransacked, and all I could find was the contents of a small root cellar. Potatoes, carrots, squash, and many crocks of fermented cabbage. I did luck into a small sack of dried apples, however. Reaching into my belt, I retrieved the bag of dimensions that Rosa had given me when I first started this work. Stuffing as many potatoes and carrots as I could into it, I figured I would worry about how to clean it later. Folded, I crammed this and the apples into my belt pouch. Gathering a few more vegetables into a scrap of cloth, I went back to where I left Kerrik.

He was stirring slightly, but his face had taken on a feverish sheen. A quick glide of my hand over his disheveled forehead confirmed he was burning up. I thought back to the few books I had read on the subject. A fever in humans was the body’s way of fighting off infection. It didn’t seem possible that a full-blown infection had already taken hold of Kerrik in the short time since he was wounded, so I theorized that my healings must have accelerated all the processes.

Reviewing the situation, I desperately needed to get back to Andea, Daffi, and Naurakka; they were probably already worried. But at the same time, both Kerrik and I needed food, and I was unsure if it was safe to move him until his fever broke. Sighing, I lit the small stove in the farmhouse kitchen and started peeling potatoes.

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Kerrik

Waking up was unexpected, especially since my world was still totally dark and I could have been dead and buried for all I knew. Then I realized I was only in a room that was pitch black. Eventually, my eyes adjusted slightly and I could make out a soft glow emanating from glowing embers cached in the bottom of a hearth stove across the room.

“Excellent, you’re awake,” a voice purred and I instantly recognized Ryliss’ precise diction. I heard her move next to me and I took a tentative deep breath, surprised at the clean woodsy scent that clung to her. She leaned over me and stuffed some cloth under my head and shoulders. Then I heard her pick up a dish and spoon and start stirring it slowly. “It needs bacon,” Ryliss said wistfully. “But no matter, I need to get as much of this down you as possible.” Taking a large spoonful, she pressed it against my lips.

“I’m not an infant,” I croaked and tried to sit up. She pushed me back down with a surprisingly strong hand.

“No, but you’re as weak as one. Now, are you going to let me feed you or not?”

“Where am I and why is it so dark in here?” Further remarks were cut off by the spoon finding an opening between my lips.

Ryliss sighed. “You are in a farmhouse recently abandoned by your former cellmates. I am trying to patch you up enough to travel so we can meet up with your sister, who is undoubtedly concerned by now. Additionally, pursuit by the wizard’s men is probable, so we cannot tarry here long, Master Bard.”

“How did you escape from the castle and how did you find me out here? The others decided I was done for and left me behind.”

The girl pointedly said nothing but continued to shovel spoonfuls of the warm potato soup into me. I still couldn’t see her; she was just a dark form looming protectively over me.

“Ok,” I said, “if you don’t want to talk about that, can you at least please tell me if I am going to lose the leg?”

Ryliss gasped, and it sounded like she almost dropped the soup. I felt a cool hand brush some of the sweaty hair off my face and she whispered, “Of course you’re not going to lose your leg.” She firmly grasped my hand and directed it down to the spot on my thigh where the bolt had scored…and there was nothing! No hole, no festering bandage, just smooth skin! Granted, it was muscle sore and feeling pretty bruised, but it was whole.

“How? Are you a healer as well as a disguise artist and swordswoman?”

“None of those, I’m afraid,” she chuckled softly, setting the bowl aside. I strained to see her face, but there was still no light. “Now, we need to get you up and moving.”

I could have listened to her voice all night. Without the visual effects of seeing her disguise as a young farm girl, my unconscious mind was starting to draw a very different picture of my savior. It was a puzzle.

She helped me swing my legs over the side of the table, but just as I was about to put all my weight on my own feet, I felt her stiffen and freeze. Ryliss stood stock still for a few seconds, and then said something in a musical language that I didn’t understand, but if I had to guess from her vehement reaction, was swearing of some type. Instantly, her demeanor changed from kindly caregiver to tactician.

“Kerrik, we have to leave right now!”

“Well, you’ll have to lead, I can’t see a thing.”

“Can you fly?” she asked, brushing off my attempt at humor.

“What? In the house?”

“No outside. Can you use your fly spell?” she growled, dragging me along by the arm. For some reason, my boots felt different.

“I don’t think so, still pretty weak.”

“How about the observation spell?”

“Maybe for five minutes or so…not much longer.”

“It will have to suffice,” she muttered, finally kicking open the door and taking me across the threshold. Once out into the yard, she stooped down and picked up something. Outside, there was more ambient light from the stars and from Ivion, one of our dimmer moons, which had risen to quarter height in the night sky.

“Hey, are those my pants?” I questioned, as I was finally able to see her for the first time. She still appeared as the farm girl I initially met in the tavern, and I watched as she deftly drew her boot knife and sliced the bloody garment in half.

“Yes, did you want them back or something?” she spat, concentrating on her task. “They’re a stinking bloody mess…all of your clothes were.”

I looked down in disbelief and saw I was wearing clothes I didn’t recognize. “Wait just a minute…”

“No time,” she said in a near panic as she dragged the pants parts in one hand and me in the other. Around the back of the house loomed a small barn. Once we made it to the main door, she left me for a second and darted inside, returning immediately with a length of soft rope.

“What are you doing, Ryliss?”

“Buying us some time, hopefully!” In a few seconds, she had divided and cut the rope into thirds and tied one of the sections to each half of the sundered bloody pants. The last piece she wrapped and tied around my chest, exactly as she had done earlier at Verledn’s castle. I watched her work with interest, especially when she went back inside the barn and returned with two shaggy donkeys. As she brought them out, she rubbed their ears and mumbled things I couldn’t understand, finally giving each an affectionate pat on the neck. The two beasts rose up their heads adoringly and almost seemed to nod gratefully at her ministrations.

Ryliss bent down to retrieve the rope ends tied to the pants and gently placed the other end in each of their mouths. Immediately, the two animals tore off in opposite directions, each dragging blood-caked pants parts behind them. In a few seconds, they were completely gone from both my miserable human sight and hearing.

Watching this, I just shook my head in wonder, but now without the distraction, my ears were picking up something faint and repetitious in the distance.

“Hounds, and perhaps not natural ones either from the sound,” Ryliss confirmed, putting both hands on my shoulders and looking me squarely in the eye. “Now, you are going to do the observation spell again, no passengers; you know the drill. The eagle will take you as far as the spell will allow. You’ll want to put down on a rock or the edge of water, something that won’t hold scent well…” She stopped and looked fearfully in the direction of what was now clearly baying hounds rapidly approaching. “Kerrik, can you ride a horse?”

“What? Yes, but how did we get from landing on a rock to riding a horse?”

“That’s not important right now, just be ready to get on a horse once you’ve landed. Just hang on to it and don’t let go; it will know where to go. Now cast your spell!”

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Ryliss

Kerrik floated quickly up into the night sky while I ducked around the barn and took the shape of the eagle. Thrusting myself up into the air, it only took a couple determined beats of my wings to catch up. From a couple hundred feet in the air, I could clearly see three long strings of torches snaking their way in our direction less than a mile away. The raucous song of the hound pack reached even this high up in the air. By my calculation, there must have been thirty or more hunters approaching. As I swooped in, I could see Kerrik watching them with some interest as well, his face pale with fear and loss of blood.

Sinking my talons into the rope, I put all my strength into my wings, towing the wind wizard forward and achieving some air speed. I doubted we would have been visible to the hunters from this distance, but I didn’t want to risk it. Taking the third direction away from the hounds, the donkeys having gone the other two, I pulled us away at my best speed. I silently hoped my donkey friends didn’t hold onto their ropes too long.

In a few minutes, the hunters were left far behind, and out of sight and sound. My ears are not as good in this form, but I believe the last thing I heard before we slipped out of range was an abrupt change in the cadence of the baying. I took this to signify that they had reached my diversions and were now milling about in confusion. At least, that was my fervent hope.

Kerrik’s spell was already starting to wane and flutter, and we were losing altitude quickly despite my best efforts. Barely brushing the treetops, we were lucky enough to come across a small stream burbling rapidly over some shallow rocks, and I turned sharply to take advantage of this gift. A few seconds later, I released the wizard and he landed in ankle deep water. The rocks were apparently slippery as Kerrik staggered in the current and nearly fell but righted himself at the last second, both arms extended like an acrobat. Recovered, he just stood there and waited patiently. I don’t know if it’s his personality or his military training, but I have to grant that he listens well to instructions.