Richard Parker - Elsewhere

“We’ll need to send a party of men back to the town of Derbyville,” Captain Bodwin began. “It’s the closest wood sou….”

A soft thump interrupted his explanation and he fell from his horse. By the time Ja Brude tracked his movement and looked down, blood was pouring from the arrow wound in the Captain’s neck. The shaft nearly passed completely through the outer third of the man’s throat and the feathers were already matted and sticky with blood. Bodwin’s eyes were wide with fright as his fingers fought to stem the flood. Neither Brude nor King Arden climbed from their horses to help, instead both quickly moved away from the Scar. The exhausted soldiers who were retreating on foot around them, quickly found new energy and ran alongside their King. Brude was dimly aware of jeering coming from up on the Plateau and wondered what kind of a man could have shot an arrow such a distance. It seemed impossible…and to have hit someone, even more so.

They pulled to a stop after traveling maybe fifty yards and turned back to see Bodwin trying to follow. He somehow managed to climb to his feet and apparently pulled the arrow from his neck, for it was gone. He shuffled slowly toward them, right hand bloody and pressing to the wound, and as the last of the retreating soldiers pulled even with him a large beefy Sergeant hoisted the Captain up by one arm and helped him to safety. Brude couldn’t help but wonder why…the Captain was a dead man, anyone could see that. But as the two passed his position, Captain Bodwin was still alive.

“Take him to the hospital tent,” Arden said, trying for the world to sound strong and brave despite his recent scare. He turned back to Ja Brude.

“Find Captain Tillis…we need those shield houses,” the King said. “The sooner we are on the Plateau the better.”

Brude found himself agreeing wholeheartedly.

ǂ

Cyn de Baard was sitting up in her cot, her wounded shoulder was beginning to feel better but the pain in her jaw was still considerable despite the willow bark tea she was drinking by the pitcher. She looked up as Gwaynn entered the tent and her heart betrayed her and began the drumbeat of love in her chest despite her new resolve to leave him and hunt the High Tar of Sinis…she would have to heal in any case. Without thinking or realizing it, she began to smile, but a sharp pain quickly caused her to wince instead. She winced mentally as she caught sight of Samantha following along behind her one and only love.

Cyndar watched as Gwaynn approached, his eyes stayed on hers, never leaving, never straying.

“I am in your debt,” he said, placing a hand gently on her uninjured shoulder then he leaned over and touched his lips to her forehead.

“Krys tells me the Executioner’s intended target was Samantha,” Gwaynn continued.

Cyndar nodded, her eyes tracking to the bitch just behind him only for a moment. She found if she looked any longer, anger began to well up within.

“Thank you Cyndar,” Samantha said without approaching closer. She actually felt sorry and grateful for the woman propped up before her. Cyndar was sitting in a plain white shift, her left arm was held in a sling and her shoulder was wrapped tight with bandages. Samantha could also see additional bandages wrapped around her chest just below the open collar of the shift, but it was Cyndar’s face that caused Samantha the strongest feelings of guilt. Cyndar’s appearance had caused such jealousy in Samantha but now her entire face was covered with either bandages or wounds. The bandages wrapped tightly around her chin and over the top of her head, before coming down around her chin once more. They were wrapped at least a half dozen times holding Cyndar’s injured jaw securely in place. The bandages hid most of her face, but her nose was visible and looked to be broken and there were still dark rings around both of her eyes. The woman before her seemed smaller, less intimidating and Samantha wondered if she regretted taking such hideous injuries for the sake of another person.

“How are you eating?” Samantha finally asked, and even stepped a bit closer. Cyndar looked a bit thin now that she got a good look at her.

Cyndar tried not to glare at the girl before her, not wanting her hatred to appear in her eyes. ‘I’m going to gut you like a fish,’ she thought blandly.

“We remove her bandages, but for the next week or so she will be on a liquid diet,” Doctor Linkler explained from behind them as he entered the tent. “We want to keep her jaw movement to a minimum.”

Cyndar sighed. She didn’t like Linkler at all.

“How soon until she’s up to speed?” Gwaynn asked and Cyndar was gratified that his eyes never left hers.

“The pain in her jaw should subside relatively quickly,” the doctor explained. “And she should be eating soft food again next week, but it will be close to a month before her jaw is anywhere near normal. Even then, she will have to be careful because it will be much easier to dislocate again in the future. Her cuts, while serious, pose no real danger, but the stab wound in the shoulder could cause her to lose some of her mobility in that arm…I’d say three months in all before she can return to the fighting.”

‘Three months!’ Gwaynn and Cyndar thought in unison.

“hmmmphhhh,” Cyndar mumbled, shaking her head to show she disagreed with the assessment.

Gwaynn smiled at Cyndar’s obvious rebellion. “We’ll be heading out onto the Plateau soon,” he told her and gave her good shoulder a soft squeeze. His touch was warm, almost intimate, all the more so because the bitch was present and Cyndar found she still craved the feel of his hands on her. “I’ll need you to help Captain Vosser keep an eye out for the Temple Knights…Zebo will be staying behind if anything deve…”

“Aaaaahhh,” Samantha exclaimed, flinching and reaching for her midsection.

Cyndar felt Gwaynn’s eyes ripped from hers as he looked worriedly toward the red-haired whore.

“Are you all righ…”

“I’m fine,” Samantha interrupted. “I think I just felt the baby move…there it is again,” she added happily. She grabbed Gwaynn’s hand off Cyndar’s shoulder and placed in neatly on her belly. Cyndar glared at her, the Black Horseman looking out from her eyes.

Gwaynn stood very still, not even daring to breathe, but after several moments still felt nothing.

“May I?” Doctor Linkler asked and then placed a flat palm on Samantha’s midsection. “Is this the first time you’ve felt the baby?”

Samantha nodded.

Linkler smiled as Cyndar glowered, but nobody was paying much attention to her at the moment. “You’ll be coming up on the half way point in your term in a few weeks then,” he said and Samantha looked at Gwaynn in wonder…and then suddenly, fear.

‘What if something happens to me?’ The thought came to her unbidden and unwanted. She was going to fight…nothing would stop her from going with her archers. She’d spent too much time preparing to be left behind now.

“It’ll be alright,” Gwaynn said, reading her feelings well, but inside he was just as worried, just as fearful. Before anything more could be said on the matter Krys barged into the tent, followed by Emm, who caught sight of Cyndar and frowned.

“The Toranado have arrived,” Krys said a little breathless.

Gwaynn looked up but did not react to the news. “Good, tell Prince Phillip to make camp for the night. We will continue the march south to the Aleria Pass come morning.”

Krys smiled, he was growing tired of sitting about and was ready for action. It was time to teach the Palmerrio a little about caution.

ǂ

Captain Hothgaard rode at the very head of the column, leading nearly twenty-five hundred Temple Knights on a reconnaissance mission to Manse. The column stretched nearly a mile, as if inviting attack, which was exactly the case. The Massi cavalry were out and on the loose. Word of the Rhondono defeat reached Hothgaard the previous morning. He promptly sent a force of fifteen hundred Knights under the conservative and reliable Captain Tramm in a sweep of the lands west of Cape. He doubted the Massi were still in the area of the battle, but he wanted to be sure, and he wanted to keep the west free of opposition. He imagined the Massi horsemen were already retreating to the safety of Manse and the Scar, but in the hopes of forcing the issue, he gathered a second force and decided to lead it himself toward the base city of the Massi. If for some reason the Massi cavalry lingered on the plains in the west they would find themselves trapped between two forces. And then they would have to fight their way through the Knights in order to gain the safety of the Plateau. Hothgaard doubted the Massi would be caught so easily, after all they’d come back to defeat the Deutzani and the attack on the Rhondono showed that at least someone understood when a potential gain outweighed the risk of defeat. The loss of the Rhondono foot soldiers was a blow, but not a fatal one for Hothgaard and the Knights. They were only a supplemental force to aid in the siege of Cape, but Hothgaard had no real intention of attacking the port city.