Branded Mage (14 page)

Almost in a daze
, he allowed Eloen to drag him to where Darryl lay on the ground. He had taken a bad blow to the leg and was bleeding badly. His face had already lost a great deal of color and his eyes were only half open staring blankly into the sky.

“Can you help him?” Eloen said
, her voice expressing far more concern than her face.

Thad knelt down next to Darr
yl. The injured soldier turned his head slightly, giving him a crooked smile. “I don’t know.”     

  
Closing his eyes he focused his attention much the same way he did when he was examining the magical properties of an item he created. He didn’t really see, but could feel the things around him in a much more profound manner. His eyes were limited to what he could see on the outside, but his magical senses could detect things down to their smallest parts. The only downside was, it took tremendous focus and mental fatigue always followed quickly if overused.

He could see Darryl’s blood in his body as a bright glowing golden color. He could see that some type of tube carried the golden fluid through the body. He wasn’t sure how the tubes worked
, but he figured if he could fix the big tube that had been cut Darryl might live.

Thad placed his hands on Darryl’s leg and poured magic into his body as he envisioned the wound knitting itself back together. Remember
ing back to the time he had accelerated the growth of a small apple tree back at Joan’s farm, he altered his influence on the magic.

Speeding up Darryl’s own healing abilities was a delicate thing. He had to form the magic into extremely small sections
, allowing the skin and muscles to grow around it. To Thad, the whole process took forever and was a massive strain, even though to someone watching from the outside would simply see the wound disappearing in mere moments.

Opening his eyes
, Thad wavered for a moment before falling on his side blood running slowly from his nose, eyes, and ears. His head hurt as if someone had went at it with a mallet. He could feel as someone cradling his head. He forced his eyes to focus, and Eloen’s worried face came into view.

Her eyes were brimmed with tears, and her lips were moving franticly though he couldn’t hear her voice.
He felt the wetness on his cheek as one of her tears dropped down and hit lightly on his face.

Turning his head slightly
, he could see a small amount of color had returned to Darryl’s skin. He wasn’t moving, but Thad didn’t have the energy left to check to see if he had lived. All he could do was pray to the gods that his friend still drew breath.

He turned
his attention back to Eloen. He could see her face had grown even more frantic. He tried to speak, but if any words escaped his mouth, they were lost to his ears. He lifted his arm slowly and placed his hand gently on Eloen’s face. He gently stoked her cheek with his thumb and tried to smile.

Eloen grabbed his hand
, taking it in her own and squeezed it tightly, giving him a somewhat apprehensive smile. He wanted to reassure her that he would be fine, but another spike of pain shot through his head making him wince. He knew he had pushed himself way past his own limits. He slightly feared he might have brought around his own death.

The last thought in his mind as he slipped into unconsciousness was that he owed Eloen an apology for not keeping his promise not to overwork himself. He was sure she would be furious with him when he next opened his eyes.

CHAPTER XI

Thad’s head hurt as he opened his eyes. He found himself laying down on something soft. He knew from past experiences that it was probably not a good idea to try and sit up, so he turned his head slightly, trying to take in his surroundings. It looked like a tent, but it was hard to tell if the walls were moving from the wind or if his eyes were playing tricks on him.

He tried to
call out to see if anyone was around, but his voice came out more as a harsh whisper that hurt as it past his lips. He tried to call again, but all his effort accomplished was sending him in to a coughing fit.

Luckily someone heard his
movements and two young soldiers rushed into the tent to his side. They both looked haggard, as if they had been working on very little sleep. He tried to talk to them, but his voice was wheezy and undecipherable.

“Master
Torin you’re awake.  Greg, go fetch Captain Eloen. She wanted to be notified as soon as he woke.”

One of the soldiers ran for the door
, while the other nervously paced the room. Thad pantomimed drinking from a glass and was happy when the soldier quickly handed him a canteen from his waist pouch.

Thad
drank heavily from the offered canteen. The water was a balm to his dry throat. Every swallow hurt slightly and more than once he coughed as the water stuck in his throat. The soldier looked at him worriedly as Thad wiped off the water that had spilled from the corners of his mouth.

“Do you need anything else Master Torin?” The soldier asked
, taking his canteen back.

“Something to eat would be welcomed.” Thad said hoarsely.

“As soon as George returns I will see to that straight away sir.”

Thad pushed himself up slightly
, but as he expected, his head started to spin. Thankfully the soldier in the room grabbed his arm and helped steady him. He helped him rearranged his pillows so he could sit up fully without fear of falling. His head hurt slightly more sitting up, but lying on your back gets old really quick, and it makes conversing with someone somewhat awkward.

Eloen burst into the tent a short time later
. She rushed over to his makeshift bed.  Her face was laced with worry and she looked as if she hadn’t slept in days. He gave her his best attempt at a charming smile, hoping to extinguish a small portion of her anger.

“You m
ay return to your assigned post.” She said dismissing the remaining soldier offhandedly.

Thad watched as the soldier ducked through the tent flap, disappearing and leaving him alone with the infuriating woman. Looking back to Eloen he expected the berating and insults to roll from her lips like water from a broken basin, but instead she dropped to her knees sobbing loudly. She tried to speak, but it came out garbled and undecipherable. After a short time she composed herself and the torrent of tears quelled into a thin trickle.

“I’m so sorry. I was just afraid to lose another friend. I……. didn’t know it would take so much out of you.” She choked out
, staring down at the floor.

At first her words left Thad feeling confused. Slowly it donned on him that she was blaming herself for his current condition. While she had been the one to take him to Darryl, she hadn’t forced his hand. Darryl was one of the few people he counted among his friends
, and he was more than willing to do anything in his power to keep him alive.

He was at a loss of what to say.
He knew that she wasn’t in the mindset to listen to reason. He might not be the smoothest person when it came to dealing with the fairer sex, but he wasn’t that far gone.

“How is Darryl?” He asked
, sincerely worried about his friend.

Eloen lifted her head from the matt dabbing at her eyes with the corners of her tunic sleeve. “He came a
round last night. He’s still weak and running a bit of a fever. We’re afraid he might have caught a chill, but with any luck he will pull through.”

“That’s a relief to hear. It was
the first time I ever tried anything like that, and to be honest I hope I don’t have to do it again anytime soon.” Thad said joyfully.

Eloen refused to smile
, but at least she had stopped crying. Thad wasn’t sure why, but whenever he heard a female cry his stomach knotted up and it made him feel as if he were evil, even if he wasn’t directly involved.

“How long have I been asleep?” Thad asked
, trying to change the subject.

“A little under a day
, it’s not quite midday yet. It’s been a busy night as well. Many of the renegades that escaped have been popping up and taking shots at us from the tree line. So we have had to send some of our better protected soldiers into the woods to keep an eye out for them. So far, that seems to be working. We also sent one of the scouts back to the estate to alert the duchess of what has occurred. I’m hoping auntie will send some replacements. Luckily we only lost about a third of our number. It could have been much worse.”

“So what has everyone been up to since I’ve been
lying comfortably in this bed?” Thad said, finally drawing a sad smile from Eloen. 

“We have been trying to dig graves for our fallen in the cold ground. It hasn’t been easy
since we only have a few spades and the ground is still partially frozen. We also have to build a pyre for the dead enemies. Right now, we have men searching for any dead wood that can be used. Ballard and the rest have been taking shifts trying to give Callen a decent burial.” She said, her voice breaking slightly at the mention of Callen.

Callen was one of her men
, though Thad had not talked to him much. He kept mostly to himself, but always had an interesting tale for the fireside at night. He knew that Eloen had handpicked all of her soldiers and that any death among them must hit her hard. She always seemed so strong and hard, but she treated everyone like she was their big sister even though she was the same age or sometimes younger than the others.

“I didn’t know about Callen. What happened?” Thad
asked, placing a reassuring hand on Eloen’s shoulder.

“
When the battle first engaged, everyone formed up as trained. Anyone with a bow fired arrows toward the areas where the enemy was shooting from. Our group and any others on horses, with the exception of the other captains, were to ride through any oncoming attackers to help disperse them. When they rushed us, we began our assault. On the third pass, one of them latched onto Callen’s leg and pulled him from his horse. He lost his weapon in the fall and when we found him, they had cut his throat. We figure they gave up trying to get through the armor you gave him. Honestly the armor you gave us has saved our lives more than once.”

“I’m sorry to hear about Callen, but I’m glad to hear that I helped keep
some people safe. I just wish I could have helped more. If I had only done a few more a day, more people would be alive.” Thad said sullenly.

Eloen’s face contorted with anger. “Don’t you dare do
that!”

“Do what?” Thad asked confused.

“Don’t you dare blame yourself for every death. You’re not a god. If you put all that weight on your own shoulders, sooner or later you’re going to break. What you should be focusing on is the lives you helped save, like mine. Did you know, one of the arrows was aimed at me, but because of your armor it stopped a few inches from my chest and flew off harmlessly? I love the innocent part of you, but you can’t blame yourself like this. All it will do is pull you down.”

Thad was shocked at how
she responded to his words. She had a point, it wasn’t entirely his fault. A large portion of it belonged to the people who had attacked them. As well as to the current governmental situation, but hopefully the queen’s new laws would help in that regard.

As he thought about what Eloen had said
, it hit him. She had said she loved him. Well the innocent part of him, but what did that really mean. Looking at her face, still contorted with anger and a touch of sadness, he wasn’t sure she even realized what she had said herself.

“What did you say about the innocent part of me?” He said
, knowing full well what she had said, if not what she had truly meant. He hoped the change in subject might sway her anger, even if just a little.

For the first time he could recall
, Eloen blushed. The normal brusque demeanor of a soldier was replaced by that of a shy twenty year old girl. The look was somewhat fetching on her. What Thad first thought would be a good laugh had turned out completely different than he expected. Eloen was acting coyly and every second she didn’t answer, his heart beat a bit faster.

“I………. well I………..” Eloen mumbled. Her face
was turning from a light red to so bright, Thad was sure she could glow in the dark.

Instead of saying anything
, she leaned down and gave him a kiss. Not the rough quick kiss that she had the past two times, but a lingering kiss that made his breath stick in his chest. He tried his best to return the kiss, but he feared he had done very poorly.

Eloen pulled back
, giving him a chance to breath. Smiling at him she ran her fingers through his shoulder length blond hair. “Now, I just have to find a way to get you away from that little princess.” She said sighing wistfully.

Placing her hand on his neck she pulled him into another long kiss. Her lips were like fine velvet as they caressed his. His body tingled and his heart jumped around in his chest far faster than it had during the battle
, leaving him slightly light headed. When she pulled back he fell forward slightly. He only stayed upright thanks to her hand that quickly caught him across the chest.