A Paladin's War Ch. 06

With the darkspawn greatly outnumbered in this skirmish, the fighting was done quickly, though in the way of battles, it felt like hours. Burin panted as he leaned on the pommel of his saddle, his axe lying crosswise across his lap. The monsters were fleeing before a party headed by Finya, while the remaining force set up a rigid perimeter around their king.

Elaina stood there in the rain like a Valkyr warrior maiden out of a bard's tale. Soaked to the bone in rain and blood and surrounded by a hundred dead bodies, she leaned on her grounded mace heavily, her bare chest heaving as she gulped in breaths, all the more noticeable because her shirt had apparently not survived the fighting. Burin almost smiled; even now she was one of the most beautiful creatures he had ever seen.

The drengr closest to her, male and female alike, were eyeing the Paladin with a blend of admiration and respect.

A few feet behind Elaina, Stoneman lay against the base of the wall in a sitting position, though his head lolled on his chest limply. For a moment, Burin feared the worst, but then the man shifted a little, as if coming to his senses after a deep sleep.

Dismounting, Burin went to Elaina, removing his cloak and offering it up for covering. She nodded thanks and took it wearily, slinging it over her shoulders, though not bothering to close it up at the front. Perhaps she was too tired.

"The rest are coming," she said to him, sounding as exhausted as she looked. "I can feel them massing inside the city."

"We are prepared," Burin assured her. "You should find shelter, Elaina arohim, for you and your man, there. You have done enough, this night."

She glanced back at Noah before nodding. "I need to eat, and Noah needs care. Also, there is a girl out there somewhere, probably on or near the Vesovar Road to the west of here. She is Noah's sister, and she is important."

Burin quickly told off two men to see about finding the girl at once. "If she is out there, we will find her."

Elaina thanked him and shouldered her mace before shuffling over to Noah and trying to wake him. He mumbled something unintelligible and failed to open his eyes. Burin shouted for a spare horse and one was presented quickly. As fast as could be managed, he saw Elaina and Noah onto the back of the horse before sending them off the field with a dozen drengr for a guard.

Burin watched them retreating through the lines of armoured Dwarves that parted long enough to let them through. He released a tension he had been holding since learning Elaina was trapped here. I have repaid my debt. Now all that matters is Glinda. A horn sounded then, thin and keening but cutting through the rain like a knife. The darkspawn were almost ready to come boiling out of the city in full force.

He was back in his saddle in three quick strides, axe in hand as he rode out to the fore of the mass of soldiers waiting patiently in the night. Raising his axe, he roared, and heard his men roar with him. Tonight was the night the Dwarves returned to the greater world in truly memorable fashion.

*

Elaina picked her way through the rubble-strewn cobblestone streets carefully, keeping her vala expanded as she searched under a slate-grey dawn sky. Blackened timbers and piles of collapsed stone still slick with last night's rain littered almost every street in the city. At least the rain had put the fires out.

The battle had been won decisively last night, the Dwarves obliterating the darkspawn quickly and effectively, and with minimal losses. By the time Elaina had rested and restored enough of her strength to rejoin the battle, the whole thing had been over. Any remaining darkspawn were fleeing north as fast as they could run, and Burin had riders out searching for any still within reach.

A party of Dwarves had amassed around her shortly after seeing how quickly she found survivors, pointing right to them even when they were trapped in a half-collapsed house or buried beneath rubble. There were too few for her liking. Far too few. Twice now she had come across one of the piles of bodies she'd sensed last night, men and women and children stacked at a street corner where they could be easily retrieved for their meat.

It made her want to be sick. Ravens had already begun flocking to the city, hordes of the black birds massing to pick at corpses that hadn't been cleared away yet.

She couldn't sense the bodies in the same way she could sense living souls; once someone died, the light inside them was no longer there. To her, a dead body felt much the same as a rock or a mound of earth, but she could still feel them, even if she could not tell one from another.

The ones she sought, she had not yet found, and whether that was for ill or good was still unknown. Aros, if they're dead, let them have found it quickly. She couldn't sense them, which meant they had either fled, or...

Two burly Dwarves at a street crossing nearby were crouched beside a thick fallen beam that had tumbled away from what had once been a three-story building. They were trying to lift it off the body of the woman pinned beneath. There was little point; the woman was long dead. Still, she helped them anyway, easily lifting the timber, much to the Dwarves' surprise, at least until they saw who she was. They thanked her politely, and when she asked them why they wanted to free the dead woman, they simply responded that it would not be right to leave her to the ravens.

Nodding sadly, she moved on, wondering if she was wasting her time. No, not a waste of time as long as there were still survivors. She wondered how Noah was faring, this morning; he had taken a sharp blow to the head when coming off that horse last night and had stirred little since. From what she could sense, the bruise on his skull had begun healing, but he had not woken yet. If he ever woke up, she was going to knock him out again for making her worry so. Perhaps now he will not feel so inclined to die, after coming so close to it.

That thought made her worry more about him, so she discarded it for now, focusing instead on what she was doing. Edda was looking after him, anyway. Perhaps she could talk some sense into the man. The Dwarves had picked up the young arohim in the early hours of this morning, unharmed. Aros had watched over the girl, to be sure. Elaina still felt guilty about sending her off alone like that, but against the alternative, the better option had been chosen.

It was as she was clambering over a small mountain of bricks the size of carts that had once been part of the southern wall that she felt the flickering light of someone on the verge of death. Calling for aid, she hurried toward it, leaping up the pile in long strides, her vala lending her balance among the precariously placed chunks of grey stone.

She was halfway down the other side when she stopped and began digging into the rubble, tossing the smaller chunks over her shoulder and dragging or pushing the larger out of the way. Some of them were too heavy to do much more than budge them a few feet, even for her. She was quickly joined by Dwarves eager to help, and soon the hole in the pile of stone grew large. When the hole was nearly deep enough, she halted the Dwarves and gently removed the last brick to reveal a young man trapped beneath. He was barely breathing, his face covered in the dark crust of dried blood mingled with dust turned to mud by the rains.

She could feel a heartbeat, but only just. Moving quickly, she cleared the stone from around him and gently lifted him up as she called for a healer and a triage cart. "Keep breathing, man," she said softly as she carried him out past the collapsed wall. "You'll be well."

His eyes opened then, just enough so he could see her. He squinted against the growing morning light. "It's you," he croaked. "I know you."

"Sshh," she soothed. "Rest." She wondered what he meant, but he could very well be delirious from hunger and dehydration.

He managed a smile before his eyes closed again, cracking some of the crust on his face. "Arohim," he breathed before sleep took him.

Elaina gaped down at the boy in surprise. How could he know? When the cart arrived to take him to the main camp, she gave strict instructions that the boy was to be given immediate attention. Once he was conscious again, she wanted to find out who he was, and what he knew.

*

It was almost dusk when Elaina returned to her tent in the main Dwarven camp, just south and west of Vesovar. The camp was an organised array of grey tents grouped in square blocks. Burin's command tent and private quarters were in the centre of the camp, while Elaina's was only a short distance away. She had been granted a larger tent than the one she and Noah had occupied previously, due to the need for her to remain close to both Noah and Edda.

She entered the tent - a wide circle divided into two halves by a canvas curtain for privacy - to see Edda leaning over her brother, softly dabbing his forehead with a damp cloth. The concern on her pretty face was plain even in the little remaining daylight that penetrated the canvas.

Noah lay on a generous pile of blankets for comfort, covered by a white sheet that shrouded all but his face. Elaina could see no change in the man; his red-bearded cheeks were still too pale by half, but her vala told her that he had healed a little more during the day while she'd been in the city.

Edda's grey eyes regarded Elaina sadly. "He still has not moved," she whispered as she put the cloth back in the wooden bowl beside her brother. "Though he sometimes mumbles things, like he's having bad dreams."

Elaina knelt opposite Edda and reached across Noah to touch her shoulder. "You are here with him. That is all that matters. He is healing slowly, I can tell."

A hopeful look crossed the girl's pretty face. "Truly? I was fearing the worst."

Elaina's head swung a little. "There is no need to fear, I think. He is getting better. Knocks to the head can take longer to heal than other hurts."

Edda frowned down at Noah and tucked the sheet in tighter under his chin. "It's because of you, isn't it? That he is healing? That fall would have killed an ordinary man, wouldn't it?"

It wasn't really a question, and Elaina nodded. "I think so. Some of my gifts passed to him when we melded. Not much, but enough, I think."

"Could I do this for someone?" Edda asked, curious. "Help them to get better when they're sick?"

Elaina smiled. "Yes, perhaps," she told the girl kindly. "But the melda is a very sacred thing, not to be done lightly. It creates a bond between people stronger than blood."

"What am I going to do with this thing inside me?" Edda said. She looked a little scared, and felt it too.

"I'm going to teach you how to use it," Elaina replied seriously. "For without training, you will be a danger to yourself, and those around you. Especially in these times."

"You mean the Heralds?"

Elaina nodded. "Yes, and many other dangers, too, which you do not yet know."

Edda's gaze dropped back to Noah. She appeared to be thinking deeply. "I could have saved them," she said quietly as she smoothed Noah's hair back. It was an almost identical shade to hers, a deep auburn that turned red when it caught the light. "I could have helped you last night, too. If I was trained, I mean."

Elaina said nothing. The girl needed to work through this on her own.

"He always looked after me, you know," Edda said absently, her eyes still on her brother. "And Orra, too. Even when we were being a nuisance. We squabbled, sometimes, but he always apologised, after. He used to tell us stories before bed, and sneak us up extra supper, sometimes, after ma and pa went to bed." Those grey eyes hardened, then, and a fierce light shone in them. "I want to learn," she told Elaina firmly. "I will learn."

With a nod, Elaina stood. "Well, then, let's be about it."

Edda looked surprised. "What about Noah?"

"He needs his rest. We will remain in the tent in case he wakes, but while we're waiting, we may as well get started, ey?"

She looked back at Noah reluctantly, but then nodded and stood to face Elaina. "Alright. What should I do?"

"Remove your clothes."

Edda blinked in confusion and put a hand over her slender bosom. "What?"

"Early training is done naked," Elaina explained. "That is how it is done, and how it has always been done."

Edda's eyes bulged. "But... What about Noah?" Her pale cheeks reddened in embarrassment.

Elaina waved off her protests impatiently. "We will be behind that screen, girl." She pointed at the curtain that halved the tent. "Obviously, we will not be parading you around naked in front of him. If he wakes, we will warn him. It is perfectly safe."

Still blushing, Edda accepted that and slipped through the curtain. Elaina followed, suppressing her grin. She hadn't seen that look since Aran began his training, the same look that she was sure she herself had adopted when Henley had first told her to undress. At the time, she'd been certain she'd made a mistake to trust him, but he soon had allayed her fears despite the unconventional nature of the teachings.

Elaina followed her own instructions and disrobed also, and a few moments later, she and Edda were kneeling opposite each other in the other half of the tent, safely concealed from Noah. Elaina made a note of the way Edda's eyes kept dropping below her face, each time her blushes deepening. Perhaps the girl favoured women over men, but then, many women in the presence of a female arohim discovered they had at least some proclivity towards other women. Not all, but many, in Elaina's experience. It was less so for men, for some reason, but she had still seen it happen.

"This moment is an important one, Edda," Elaina told the girl firmly. "And before you begin, I must know: are you willing to dedicate yourself fully to this life? It is not an easy path we walk, though the rewards are plentiful."

Edda nodded a little uncertainly, and Elaina smiled. "That is good. You have a great future before you, Edda Stoneman. Now, let us begin."

*

The army of Dwarves remained camped at Vesovar long enough to be certain there were no more darkspawn poised to flood from the depths of the world, at least not in this region. The foothills and the mountains beyond remained quiet over the following days, and Burin ordered the march north when he was satisfied.

Elaina split her time on those days between training Edda, nursing Noah back to health and having long discussions with Burin. The king was a good man, knowledgeable and wise, though astonishingly hard-headed when he wanted to be. His focus had shifted back to the recovery of his sister, which Elaina had to keep reminding him depended on an array of other factors if his quest was to be successful.

Overall, Burin was pleasant company, and with Noah still bed-ridden - her meldin had still to open his eyes since his fall, but he was most certainly healing more every day - she found Burin to be her next best choice of companion. As was only natural, she found herself in bed with him by the fifth day, and a few more times since.

Where Burin tied up her evenings, Edda tied up her days. The girl was smart and capable and a quick study, but she seemed possessed of a desire for speed, which was hindering her early lessons rather than helping. Despite this, she was coming along just fine. Elaina suspected the girl would be roughly as strong as she herself once fully trained.

The young man she'd pulled from the rubble in the city remained asleep. The healers said he was coming along but had taken serious wounds including a cracked skull. Elaina checked in on him often, eager to learn who he was, and what he knew. She had sensed no evil in the boy, which only heightened her curiosity; he had seen her before, somewhere, else he would not have recognised her, but how he knew she was arohim had her stumped.

On the ninth day after the battle, Noah finally opened his eyes. Elaina had been partway through a lesson in the tent with Edda when she sensed the minute movement on the other side of the curtain. If she hadn't been only a few feet away she might have missed it entirely. That lesson had been cut short so she and Edda could welcome him back to the waking world. Teary hugs and kisses had been bestowed upon him by his sister, and Elaina had welcomed back in her own special way as soon as they'd been private.

"I was being foolish, I realise," he said to her on the tenth night as they lay together under a blanket beneath the stars. They'd slipped away from the camp to a secluded spot where they wouldn't be disturbed. With Edda in the tent, Noah had been reluctant to make love as fiercely as usual, and Elaina had wanted him unbridled. "I was lucky I didn't break my neck. Perhaps I deserve to have."

"No, my love," she'd told him. "You were grieving and did not know where to channel it. I am just glad you survived." After a moment, she'd added, "Well, perhaps you were a little foolish." She held her thumb and forefinger up to demonstrate.

His response had been to attack her with tickles, and then kisses, and then more of that carnal ferocity she loved so much, until he could give her no more without putting himself back in bed for another week.

After than night, he regained strength quickly, and the twelfth day saw him riding again, straight-backed and sharp-eyed, though his ribs still had a way to go before being completely healed. He was proud as a rooster when he discovered Edda had begun her training, beaming and hugging her and assuring her that she would do wonderfully.

It was on the fourteenth night that Elaina finally found Henley in amathani after failing to find him or any of the others up until now. Standing on a precipice overlooking a lush, moonlit valley below, she called out for Aran, Amina and Henley but found no answer. She had almost been about to leave when he'd popped into existence in front of her, a look of relief on his bold-nosed face.

"And where in the Hells have you been?" She demanded of him heatedly. She had plenty more to say, but it was lost when he wrapped her up in his big arms and kissed her thoroughly.

"I've been uncommonly busy," he replied when he finally put her down. "And that is understating things greatly."

"I think that goes for us both," she replied as she manifested a wide, deep, velvet chair for them to sit on together. A small fire appeared, too, which made it feel as if they were at camp but on a chair that belonged in a palace. It was odd, but pleasant. "Tell me all about it, if you have time."

"That I do," he said as he vanished and reappeared in the chair. She took up a spot on his lap, enjoying the feel of being close to him again. He went on to talk of the arrival of Elessir and Andil, and the force of Eryn'elda that had joined his growing army. The Chapel had been largely emptied and the army was now camped at the northern border of the forest, just shy of the Sorral Plain.

The Dwarves had arrived, too, the ten thousand spears that had been sent to help Smythe with the Heralds, and they had set up camp nearby. They were avoiding contact with the Elves, and the Elves were doing the same. Smythe was not sure how long the tentative peace would hold.

"We are coming," she assured him with all the certainty she could muster. "The Dwarves are marching hard. We are coming in from the east, north of the forest border. It is faster to travel across the plain than through the Emerin."

With a sigh, he put his head back. Henley had little patience for diplomacy and politicking; he considered it all foolish most of the time. She rested her cheek against his broad chest and listened to his heartbeat, slow and strong as he spoke. "I just hope I can keep them from each other's throats. It's well enough now, if tense, but when another ninety thousand Dwarves arrive..." He changed the subject suddenly. "Have you heard from Aran or Amina? I have not seen either in weeks."