of his lower lip.
Eventually he put a hand on Ravenna”s shoulder, pulling her close. “How powerful are
you, Ravenna? And how badly do you want to save this land?”
CHAPTER SIX
Isembaard
Isaiah had torn a strip of cloth from Hereward”s robe, twisted it around a pebble, then tied
it across her neck and under one arm so that the pebble pressed down on the still-oozing vein.
He sat a few paces away, looking at her, wondering if he dared risk using a little of the
water they had left to wash his hands.
He decided Hereward would need it more.
She looked as close to death as any could get without actually stepping over the
threshold. She was white, her skin cold and clammy, and she was too weak to stand. Blood
encrusted the upper portion of her body, from her chin to her waist and belly. She was shivering,
her body trying its best to warm itself.
“I”m sorry,” she whispered, as she had been whispering every so often these past hours
since the One had vanished.
Isaiah had not responded to her once. He had attended her as best he could, and had then
moved away to sit by himself.
Hereward did not blame him for isolating himself from her. She had known nothing of
his true nature, and still knew little of it now save that he”d given up a great deal for her.
A woman he disliked.
Just to save her life.
A wave of nausea and dizziness threatened to overwhelm her, but Hereward fought it off.
“Isaiah,” she said, clearing her throat to make her voice work properly.
He made no response.
“Isaiah, leave me. Get to Maximilian as fast as you may.” She paused, fighting off
another wave of dizziness. “I will just hold you back, and—”
He turned to her at that. “I have given away that which is most precious to me, beyond
the gift of life itself, in order that you may live, and you say, „Just walk away”? If I”d known
you”d wanted to die then I would still have my own life intact!”
“I”m sorry.”
“The One wanted to torment me. He wanted me to ruin myself for a woman for whom I
cared nothing. The ultimate cruelty. If you had been Ishbel I would not have minded. But you—”
“Isaiah, I am sorry!”
“Stop telling me you are sorry! I never want to hear it again! I am the one who is sorry,
Hereward.”
Isaiah stopped, taking a deep breath.
“And now I am sorry,” he said. “None of this is your fault. None of it. I apologize for
what I just said to you, Hereward.”
She was crying quietly, unable to look at him.
He hesitated, then rose, fetching a small flask of water they”d kept filled from the rapidly
emptying barrels on the riverboat, and squatted down by Hereward.
“Drink something,” he said. “You will be thirsty with all the blood you have lost.”
He put the flask to her lips, and Hereward held it and took a sip.
Then she began to gulp as she realized how parched she was.
“That”s enough,” Isaiah said, taking back the flask. “You”ll make yourself ill.”
Hereward wiped her mouth, smearing it pink from the dried blood on the back of her
hand. “Who are you, Isaiah? What is going on? What is happening?”
“It is a long and sad tale,” he said, then sat down by her, checked the compress on her
neck, and began to speak in a low tone.
CHAPTER SEVEN
The Central Outlands
Axis went in search of Inardle once BroadWing had left to fly back to Maximilian. He
supposed there were other things he could have been doing, but none of them would have been
much use, and he needed to find Inardle.
Very badly.
He was still furious at Eleanon”s stupidity, and he thought that he might actually kill him
if he”d left Inardle to die back at the ambush gully.
But in the end he found Inardle just before dusk, and Eleanon”s life was spared.
She was huddled by herself a little distance from the main group of Lealfast. Axis almost
fell over her by accident as he was moving toward a section of the Lealfast he hadn”t yet
searched.
“Inardle!”
She was curled on the ground, wrapped about her belly, her wings askew behind her.
Both her body and wing posture instantly told Axis she was hurt, and badly.
“Inardle.” Axis crouched down, putting a hand on her shoulder, trying to roll her over.
She resisted a moment, then uncurled slightly.
Her arms, belly, and chest were covered with blood, but at least her eyes were bright.
“Where are you wounded?” Axis said.
Inardle moved a hand slightly, over her lower rib cage, and Axis pushed it gently to one
side and lifted back the sodden material of her tunic.
There was a long, deep gash running from her lower rib cage across the top third of her
belly.
“Anywhere else?” he said.
“One of my wings,” Inardle said. Her voice was unnaturally calm, and Axis wondered if
she was in shock. “I managed to get back here, but I do not think I can fly again for a while…my
wing…”
Axis quickly checked her wing—a sword had sliced deep into its underside close to her
back. He thought it was possible the blade had cut one or more tendons in the wing and that she
had managed to get this far was a miracle. But at least it wasn”t bleeding much, and was thus not
fatal.
But the belly wound…
He rolled her very carefully onto her back, ignoring her soft cry of pain as her injured
wing momentarily caught beneath her, and examined the wound over her belly more carefully.
“This needs to be stitched,” he said, “and we need to pray the blade didn”t slice open any
of your internal organs.”
He rocked back on his heels. “We have only one physician with us, and he has only two
assistants. He won”t have time to see you.”
Axis looked up, called over one of the soldiers that Georgdi had left behind, and asked
him to find Zeboath and beg a needle and thread from him.
“I have spent years in the battlefield,” said Axis to Inardle, “and I didn”t always have a
physician with me. I have stitched more battle wounds than I care to remember. I may not do a
pretty job, Inardle, but I can do something for you.”
Axis realized suddenly that Inardle was silent. “Inardle?”
She gave a little nod of acknowledgment, but did not speak.
“Nothing in your chest hurts?” said Axis. “Your throat or upper back?”
“No,” she said, finally, and Axis felt himself relax a very little. She cleared her throat.
“Eleanon? Have you seen him?”
“Yes.”
“Is he injured?”
“A little. Not enough.”
“Eleanon—”
“Has murdered with carelessness thousands of your people, and injured everyone you can
see about. There are thousands who have died, and who will die, Inardle.” Axis paused. “He”s
had no battle experience at all, has he?”
Inardle turned her head away from Axis, and did not reply.
“Stars, I suspected it, and still I sent him into danger. I am a fool, Inardle.” Axis paused,
looking out over the mass of Lealfast spread over the plain. It was growing dim now, and the
individual Lealfast were turning into indistinguishable lumps under the darkening sky. It was a
complete disaster, with Armat on his way to turn it into a greater one.
“Inardle?”
She made no reply.
“Inardle, I know the Lealfast use the Star Dance in a manner I don”t comprehend. The
way you move invisibly through the air…the way Bingaleal vanished after his assassination
attempt on Isaiah. Can you not do the same now? Everyone here is vulnerable. Armat is heading
this way, he can”t be far away now, and there are more soldiers—” Many more. Thousands more.
“—moving down from the north. We need to get everyone to safety.”
“When we are bloodied,” Inardle said, lifting a bloodstained hand slightly, “we lose the
ability to vanish into the air. We really can only travel invisibly when we are whole. We cannot
fight in that state, and if we are wounded…then no. It is too powerful an enchantment to be
worked when we are distracted with other matters.”
Shit, Axis thought. “Inardle, can you call your brother here?”
“Yes, but—”
“Call Eleanon here. Now.”
“He didn”t answer before, Axis, when I tried. That”s why I asked you if—”
“Call him now, and let him know that I need to see him, and that you are badly wounded.
Call him. Now! ”
She closed her eyes, and Axis felt a little disturbance in the Star Dance about him.
Just then the soldier arrived back carrying a little pack.
“Zeboath said there is suturing equipment inside, as well as a poultice and some
antiseptic swabs.”