“It’s beautiful,” I breathe, standing to get a better look. The horses jolt forward, and I have to grab the top of the wagon frame to steady myself. The river is a massive swath of deep blue moving water, and I see a flock of ducks waddling self-importantly on the shore.
“Do you see—”
I’m interrupted by shouts. Elianna urges the horses forward to break through the trees, and we see the rest of our party on foot, engaged in a full-on battle with a group of Zhagarn. Behind them, what’s left of the ferry is in flames. Kaelen shouts something I can’t quite make out. Bern leaps on his horse and gallops back in our direction, wheeling around and drawing his sword when he reaches us.
“They were too busy torturing the ferryman to notice us until we were almost on top of them,” he says grimly, out of breath and panting out the words. “There are only fifteen of them, though.”
“Only fifteen?Only?” I stand to see better, but Elianna yanks me back down.
“Don’t make a target of yourself,” she hisses before she ignores her own advice, stands, and starts hurling her dangerous balls of energy at the enemy. But they’re fighting too closely to our people, and she can’t hit the Zhagarn without possibly striking one of our own, so shegives up seconds later.
“Bern! We’re safe here. Go help them! Fifteen against five is …” I trail off when I see the last Zhagarn fall, impaled by Kaelen’s sword.
“Begging your pardon, Lady Soli, but fifteen against these five is a losing day for the fifteen,” Bern says, his breath evening out.
He’s right. Chitai is calmly replacing her daggers in their sheaths while Andras wipes his swords off on a dead enemy’s coat. Trick holds daggers in both hands, both of them bloody. Neville’s stomping around and looking down at each body, probably to ensure they’re really dead.
Kaelen is staring at me.
“We’re fine,” I call out, and I see the tension in his muscles relax slightly.
“We need Elianna!” he calls back. “This man is still alive.”
“Watch the wagon,” Elianna tells Bern. “Soli, I need you.” She reaches into the wagon and pulls out her valise, jumps down, and races toward the others. I follow her, carefully making my way around the bodies I’m trying hard not to look at.
When I reach the group around Elianna and her patient, Kaelen glances over his shoulder at me and nods. Whether it’s a nod of approval or acknowledgment, I don’t have time to think or care about, because Elianna is already snapping rapid-fire orders at me.
“Soli! Good. Hold pressure on this chest wound while I see what I’ve got in my bag that might help. I didn’t have time to pack carefully before we left in such a hurry, so I’m not sure what herbs and potions need replenishment.”
When I don’t move, she pins me with a hard stare. “Either help me or get out of the way. I need your handright here.”
Neville is on the man’s other side, tying a tourniquet around his leg. I flinch when I see what’s left of that leg below the knee. It looks like the minced pork the cook uses to make sausage. My stomach roils at the thought, but I force down the instinct to run away or retch or hide in the wagon. Instead, I put my handright there. Elianna nods and digs in her valise.
“Good news,” she mutters, retrieving a vial of red-gold liquid. “This still has a bit of magic in it.”
I don’t understand what she means, since she can just add magic right now or even perform magic directly on the man, can’t she? Butthe Sorcerers’ Guild jealously guards their secrets, so I’ve never been able to find much to read about them. I realize I have no idea what Elianna can actually do.
The man’s face is a horror that will surely haunt the edges of my nightmares for a long time. His scalp is halfway torn from his head and hanging down by a flap over his ear. I see other bloody wounds all over the front of his body, and from the pool of blood spreading beneath him, there are more to be found on his back. I can’t reconcile the fresh, clean scent of the river and the sounds of the little family of ducks with the terrible sight on the ground in front of me.
Somehow, unbelievably, he’s conscious. I almost wish he’d faint, if only to escape what must be unendurable pain, but he keeps trying to talk.
“Shh,” Elianna soothes him. “Quiet. There’s no need to talk now. We’re here to help you. Just try to be still.”
With that, she pours a measure of the potion directly into the bloody wounds. Within seconds, the bleeding stops. A few moments after that, the edges of the wounds seal themselves together right in front of us. I can’t help but gasp. I’ve never witnessed magical healing before, and I know I’ll never forget the sight of Elianna, her golden eyes burning with power, performing a miracle on this injured and possibly dying man.
When she stands, carefully placing her vial back into her valise, she looks at Kaelen. “We need to go. We have no way of knowing if more are on their way.”
“What about him? We can’t leave him here,” I protest.
“Yes. We can,” she says, spinning to walk back to the wagon. I can barely make out her quiet words when she passes me. “Our only job is to save Altarra. I shouldn’t have even bothered with him.”
A chill shivers down my spine at the dispassion in her voice.
“You can really leave him to die?” I call after her.
She stops but doesn’t turn. “You can still ask that, after Lil? I’ve gone past counting the life debts I owe. If we go on at this rate, you’ll soon be able to say the same.”
I wrap my arms around myself, huddling against the ice traveling through me at the thought. I don’t want to say the same. I don’t want to owe life debts.
