Chapter 6

“Weldan!” Riulan looked around for the guard sergeant as she tried to hold up the strange warrior. The stranger’s blood was running down his back from a half dozen wounds that he hadn’t even seemed to have noticed before he collapsed.

The release of the strangers weight heralded Weldan’s arrival.

“Get him under one of the tents Weldan. I can’t help him out in this rain. It’s keeping the wounds from clotting. He’s bled out all over the place and I need to sew up those wounds on the back before we lose him.”

As Weldan gathered up the stranger and carried him towards one of the tents in the courtyard he spoke quietly with a simple bluntness, “The Sorcerer Mistrew is dead, lass. His apprentice is in unable to speak of anything but that. So these warriors can’t be his minions. Who are they though?”

Riulan’s step faltered for a moment, “Dead? But how could they still be here then? And if they aren’t Mistrew’s then why did they fight for us and help drive back that army. And their power.” Riulan stopped in astonishment, ”One was calling down lightening and throwing it from his hands as though he were one of the Sorcerer’s himself.” She looked at the stranger in the sergeants arms, “But they can’t be men either so what can they be but demons?”

“No. Not men but they bleed as red as men do. Unlike those black demons we’ve had to face. We’re lucky they decided to concentrate on the gate. All of their forces were centered on the gate feeling that if they could take the gates they could take the walls intact. They sent just enough to the walls to keep us busy there. If it hadn’t been for these three we wouldn’t have held even for that first charge through the gates.”

Riulan nodded even as Weldan laid the stranger down on one of the cots beneath the walls, “I had noticed. They move as though born to battle.” Riulan cut away what was left of the strangers tatter shirt as she spoke and gently wiped away the blood from his back. Riulan shook her head in confusion as she continued to work, “He’s pretty badly cut up. Weldan, hand me those rags. Weldan?” Riulan looked up as she heard Weldan move away from the bed quickly and looked at the Sergeant in surprise as he walked out the front of the tent. As Riulan stopped for a moment she heard the sounds of a ruckus outside. She quickly took the cleanest rags she had and laid them across the strangers back, hoping that the cloth would help the blood clot. That done she looked at him for a moment longer before rising and walking out to where the rising sounds of an argument were coming. She saw a crowd had formed and she suddenly recognized Weldan’s voice. Riulan ran towards the crowd and began pressing her way through it only to see the other two strangers surrounded now by the remaining defenders of the castle.

Galdacil was getting angry by this point, and the arrival of this new gray haired human hadn’t helped matters any. He kept telling them that Narn was all right but that he was being taken care of. Galdacil wasn’t particularly fond of that term and was about to draw his sword when Erimbril laid his hand on Galdacil’s arm, “Wait a moment Galdacil. I think our answer is coming.” As Erimbril finished speaking a young woman pushed through the crowd and stood looking at the two strangers. “Weldan, what’s going on?” she asked quietly. Weldan turned to Riulan with a smile, “They want to see their friend, though the taller one seems a bit hasty and is assuming we did something to him.” Galdacil seemed about to say something before a motion from Erimbril silenced him, and Erimbril spoke instead,“Our friend, healer. Might we see him?” Riulan nodded in surprise and turned, the crowd parting before her as she moved away, Galdacil and Erimbril following closely behind.

Riulan led the two into the tent where Narn lay wounded, Weldan followed closely behind and stood in the doorway keeping the rest of the curious outside. Erimbril looked at the bindings over Narn’s back and the blood, still soaking through the bandages, and splattered over Narn’s body.

“You know your craft healer with bandage and knots but don’t you have any salve or spells to stop the bleeding?” Erimbril looked directly at Riulan as he spoke and Riulan recognized something deeper to the question.

“Spells? None save the Lord Mistrew knew spells, save mayhap his apprentice. It is forbidden for any other to even look upon the books of power.” Riulan replied and looked at the two Fae uneasily. She glanced away and moved towards Narn’s form as she spoke her next words, “Where are you from? How came you to be here?”

Galdacil laughed loudly, causing Riulan to flinch where she stood, “Where we are from probably will mean nothing to you lass. The lands of the Fae have long been hidden from mortal men and will remain so. That your Sorcerer was able to pull us from suggests that there is a danger to our homeland that we hadn’t expected to see again. It has been hundreds of years since our kind drove the last of the Sorcerer’s from our homelands. But tell us lass where are we?”

Erimbril’s voice stopped whatever reply Riulan might have made, during Galdacil’s words he had moved quietly to Narn’s side and was kneeling beside him, “We’ll check the libraries later Galdacil. Let me see to Narn first, he always tends to pick up more scratches than the both of us combined.”

Erimbril’s next words were soft, but their meaning could not be hidden from Riulan, for she had witnessed the green light coming from the Lord Mistrew’s workshop when he was about, working his spells. She had never seen light as blue as that which glowed about the stranger’s hands though. He worked magic, and did so without any of the blood sacrifices she knew the Lord Mistrew required, unless his friends blood sufficed. But that seemed unlikely, for it was upon that very friend that the spell worked, as before her eyes the wounds closed over, healing as though they had happened weeks, even months ago.

“He will be weary, and thirsty. My magics can not replace blood within the body but the skin it can heal and it will prevent the corruption of the demon’s from infecting him.” Erimbril stood easily and looked at Riulan, “You do not know of these magics, as I had feared. Your surprise and fear are honest. Come, take me to your wounded and I will do what I can for them.”

Riulan wordlessly lead Erimbril towards the worst wounded as he finished speaking, and his next words took some of her hesitation with them.

“I am Erimbril lady Healer. We have not come to harm you or yours.”