Alex hurdled a fallen tree as he continued his retreat, tearing limbs from the trees in front of him as he put as much distance as he could between himself and the lutin camp. Lucy tried her best to keep up, but her magic reserves were spent, and her natural strength was rapidly fading. As a child, she did not have much left to give, and she was falling behind.
Fortunately, Alex stopped before she had to ask him to. He turned and watched as she covered the distance between them as quickly as possible, standing with an arrow at ready, watching for any signs of pursuit while his companion recovered. He had many things that he wanted to ask her, but he didn't want to rush her into it in her current state.
Lucy took several deep breaths before saying anything herself. "Gerard... Lois," she gasped, trying to form a coherent sentence.
Alex nodded. "Gerard stayed behind to hold off the shaman. I haven't seen Lois since he threw the dagger at the beginning of the battle."
"He... He ran interference... Gave the other lutins a target while... I fought the shaman."
"Well, at least that seems to preclude any treachery on his part. That either means that the lutins took him, or he was delayed coming back around. Lucy, there's a chance they might still be alive," he said, looking at her. She was brushing her chaotic hair from in front of her eyes, coughing slightly as she tried to breathe faster than her lungs could handle. "We might have a chance to go back and try to get them out of there."
Lucy continued to gasp for air for a few moments before responding. "I'm spent," she finally gasped, her voice breaking as she spoke the words. "I have no energy left to run, and my duel drained my magic. If we return, I will be of no use to your plans."
"We can't just leave them to die!" Alex said. He had meant it as some sort of inspiration, but it came out sounding hollow, wreathed with the pain and guilt he felt at the prospect of two deaths in his patrol.
"Returning may mean more death," Lucy whispered. "I don't want to lose either of them, but I can do nothing to help them in my state. I will go with you and aid you in whatever plans you may imagine, but I cannot give what I do not have, and I have precious little."
Alex looked back through the woods the way he had come, straining his eyes in a vain hope that he would see the missing members of his patrol coming to through the branches together. No such vision appeared, however, and he was left to make the sort of decision that no commander ever wished to make. He could either return, hoping against hope that some plan could be devised to conquer to lutin encampment and reclaim his remaining team members, or he could move south, hoping that a rescue team could be sent in time to rescue what little might remain of the two after weeks of torture.
Lucy's words, though he tried his best to refuse them, held true. She was completely exhausted, and would be of little use beyond a second pair of eyes in any rescue attempt. His own state was hardly preferable; while he had not received any personal injuries in the fight, he had used much of his strength in the escape effort. His own contribution to a rescue mission would be negligible, and there was still the matter of a shaman that had to be dealt with.
"I... We will continue moving south as quickly as we can." Alex felt as though he had just signed the execution order on the two men they had left behind. There was no time to lament the situation now, though. If they had any chance of saving their friends, they would have to move now. "Hurry, we need to find someone quickly if we have any chance of sending a rescue party."
The two companions continued their southward trek, all thought of stealth abandoned as they focused their limited energy on moving as quickly as possible. They hoped that they would somehow find someone nearby to help them, but moved with a desperation born from a conviction that help would not be found north of the Dike. Any chance of success rested on haste, and they were not going to leave that to chance.
Lois held his breath for a moment, eyes fixed on the shaman as he lay on the ground. After watching his dagger drop the target, only to have him stand back up a moment later he had not been certain that even a poisoned dart would fell him. He hoped that the shaman would stay down, but he wasn't going to bet on it. While he made sure that no miraculous resurrection was forthcoming, the lutins fled in terror through the forest around him, their stumbling flight and terrified cries getting progressively quieter as they left. As the last few voices fell to silence, Lois released the breath he had been holding and carefully unloaded a dart from his blowgun and replaced it on a ring in a special pouch. A dagger had not done the job, but poison seemed to keep the shaman down.
He began to return his blowgun to its own position, but paused to note some new damage that it had sustained. Two punctures had been drilled through the hollow tube right where he had blown into it, and a few small channels had been dug around it breadth, marking his tight grip on the weapon. He noted the punctures from his teeth with some chagrin; using a blowgun with a muzzle was more of a challenge than he had expected.
He retired the weapon to its pouch and jumped from the tree he had used for cover, cushioning his fall carefully to make as little sound as possible. He approached the fallen form of the shaman first, sliding into a kneeling position by the lutin's head. He drew a dagger and made sure the deed was done, several times in fact, before he sat back, taking a breath before cleaning and replacing his dagger.
Lois moved over to Gerard then, quickly checking to make sure that the stag was still breathing. He seemed stable enough, so Lois moved down the man's body, checking for any obvious injuries. He had not arrived until the damage was already done, so he was not certain exactly what had caused the man's collapse. He found nothing on the upper body, but found his answer before he even moved to check the lower body. One of the stag's legs was bent in a decidedly unnatural direction, and streaks of blood told the ermine that the break was reasonably severe. He carefully checked around the injury for any signs of bones protruding, but found none that were still breaking through. He found several cuts; likely, the lutins had handled him roughly enough to cause the injuries without permanently puncturing the skin. That didn't make the cuts any less concerning, but it was somewhat easier to deal with when there was no bone that needed to be carefully maneuvered back into the leg.
A careful check down the leg revealed that the fracture itself would be complicated enough. It wasn't a simple snap; from a clear point of impact, the bone had been nearly pulverized, and the surrounding area also sported multiple fractures. Lois winced. He knew enough field medicine to save a life, but he lacked the medical skills to properly care for such a break, and also had no magical skills to help him explore the fine details of the problem. He would try to stabilize the injury, and hope that someone with medical expertise would find them in time to repair what Lois could not.
It took Lois several minutes, but he managed to get a working splint in place, using bandages in his supplies and a suitably straight piece of firewood to keep the leg steady. With this done, he took a few breaths before considering his next course of action.
He wasn't sure where the others had gone. The last he had seen of Lucy, she had been engaged in heated combat with the lutin wizard. Worst case scenario, her body was somewhere nearby. Best case scenario, she had beaten the wizard back and been unable to totally deal with the other lutins, and had taken a tactical retreat to regroup. In between those was the possibility that she had been defeated, but had fallen somewhere on the battlefield, alive but injured.
The assassin ran a quick scan of the battlefield and the surrounding trees, but didn't find the child mage anywhere. That left Alex, and that last he had seen of the lynx, he had been with Gerard...
/Gerard's face is drawn taut, tense with pain, anger, defiance. He spits a defiant challenge to the lutin; pain in every word, but only physical pain. Panics only when the lutin shows the fetish stone.../
Lois snapped back to reality, remembering the key facts about the short encounter he had seen between the shaman and Gerard. The stag had been in pain, but he had shown no sign of pain beyond that in his leg. The ermine sighed. If he read the signs correctly, Alex was alive the last time the stag had seen the lynx, and Gerard seemed confident of his chance of survival.
Whatever the fate of the other two, Lois still had to make sure that neither he nor Gerard would come to any further harm. He glanced at the stag and grimaced. If he had been awake and able to help with his good leg, the assassin realized he would still have trouble getting anywhere. There was nothing to be done for it, though. They couldn't stay in the clearing; any lutins who had been separated from the group when they fled could return at any moment, and a gathering of vultures was sure to attract any nearby encampments.
Nothing remained but the obvious, as hard as it was. Lois stood behind the unconscious stag and lifted him as well as he could, bracing himself so that he could check on his splint. It seemed to be holding, and didn't seem to be obstructed in any way. With a deep breath he began to pull, walking backwards several steps before taking a small breather. No complications had come out of the short pull, so Lois started quickly with another section of the clearing, making slow progress towards the edge of the clearing.
Several more times he progressed in the same way, with Lois taking a moment to breathe and check the splint before attempting each successive pull. It took him the better part of ten minutes, but he finally had his unconscious friend deep enough into the forest to feel comfortable. He quickly returned to the lutin camp and cut out a large section of cloth from the tent, measuring as well as he could from memory and using his dagger to slice cleanly through the material. He returned to his comatose friend and used the tent material to cover him, as well as giving him a more plane surface to work on as he began to use quickly harvested branches from nearby trees to help the stag blend into the surrounding vegetation. Personal cover was secondary; once he had everything set up, he would watch from the trees and make sure no one stumbled over Gerard as they went on their way.
Once that was done, Lois settled into the tree, watching and waiting, while at the same time hoping that he would be able to stay awake himself. The fight had been taxing, and the injuries he had sustained, while under control, had still contributed to his exhaustion due to blood loss. He would give it his best shot, though. There was no way that he was letting anyone get to Gerard on his watch.
Gerard was slow to come around when he finally did regain consciousness. He lay there for several minutes after he first opened his eyes, wondering where he was and trying to remember why it mattered. Once his brain finally started working again, it quickly went from wondering where he was to making rapid-fire assumptions about his surroundings. He could see some sort of material in front of his eyes, and quickly came to the conclusion that the lutins had captured him and stuffed him inside a bag while they decided what to do. The only sane response to that conclusion was to try to escape, and so he tore at the material in front of him, expecting it to be a futile attempt.
It took him a few moments to realize that he was staring up at the tops of the trees as soon as he began to tear away the material, and he shifted to see that the strip of material had apparently been part of a camouflaged setup on the forest floor, designed to hide him from prying eyes. Somewhat more secure now that he understood that he had not been captured, he looked about himself until something rustled in the bushes behind him. His hand went to his sword, but it was not there. His scabbard was empty.
Fortunately, Lois came up beside him a moment later. "How are you feeling?" he asked, voice quiet enough to not travel, but loud enough to communicate.
"Stiff, tired..."
"How's the leg?"
Gerard instantly wished he hadn't asked that question. Somehow, his mind had managed to ignore that part of him until now, but having his attention drawn back to it caused a lance of pain that made him grimace, almost to the point of crying out. He pulled back to improvised blanket that was still thrown over his lower body, and looked for a few moments at the splint Lois had thrown together.
"Well, it was feeling much better before you mentioned it. I believe I forgot about it until then..."
Lois nodded as he thought through the situation. "I don't think moving on that leg will do you any favors," he commented. "How long do you think it will take them to get a search party this far into the north?”
Gerard winced a bit as he tried to sit up straighter. "Usually, we might see someone within a week, assuming Alex and Lucy make it back as quickly as they can. I wouldn't expect any such luck in this case, though. Not only were we attacked about this time last winter, but the Duke is having his wedding the evening before the Yule celebration. Anyone who can be spared will be keeping a tight watch over Metamor's walls to keep our lord and his guests as safe as possible. Metamor doesn't take losing men lightly, but in this case their reaction is more likely to involve a toast in our honor than a patrol checking our last known position."
Lois nodded his understanding. "Well, that doesn't entirely nix the possibility of finding a cave and waiting it out, but it does make it look far less attractive." He seemed to be nibbling his lip for a moment, stopping when he realized the added complication of having much sharper teeth. "All right. At present our best bet is to move south on our own. Staying here is a death sentence in our current condition." He gave a wave to his own, slightly blood-stained armor, and then to Gerard's leg.
Gerard nodded before responding quietly. "Listen, I promised my wife I'd be back to celebrate Yule. While I'm still alive I mean to keep that promise."
Lois sighed a bit. "Any way we slice this, it's not going to be a walk in the park. Now that you're awake we can go see what food supplies we can rescue from our base of operations, and I should be able to carry everything we need provided we strip the supplies down to bare essentials. That leaves you and that leg..."
"I can shift down into animal form. I don't think that would fix the leg problem, but it would give me two more legs to share the load, and I could limp my way along at a better pace than I could manage with what I have now."
"Possibly, but we have enough problems without having to deal with hunters seeing you and thinking you'd make a good meal. I'm also not sure how the break would react to that. Considering the amount of physical shifting that would require, we're probably looking at shifting bone fragments, increased damage within the leg. Most likely not the best idea if we want the healers to get a shot at saving it for you."
Gerard grunted and shook his head. "Staying like this does us little good either. I'd probably need you to help me along, or we'd have to find a branch to use as a crutch, and either way leaves me hobbling along, with one keeping you occupied and the other involving you finding a good stick we can use; probably several, I'm heavy enough to break even strong branches."
Lois nodded slowly. "Yes, I see your point. That doesn't make it any easier to decide, it just makes our position a little clearer." He almost bit through his lip again as he considered, pacing a bit with his eyes checking the forest for movement.
"I'm willing to do whatever I have to, even if it makes me more of a target. We have to move, and I'll do what I have to if it lets us get moving."
Lois sighed. "All right, I really can't see too many other options right now. I still think we need to do a bit better of a job making sure that no one shoots you. The lutins I expect I should be able to deal with, but when we get to the south we'll have the Keep's own archers to worry about. Do you all have some sort of signal system that would tell them that you're one of them?"
"Mainly it's just a matter of warning each other. We also tend to avoid going feral unless absolutely necessary for the purposes of the patrol when we're out here. That said, the Keep's hunters will most often check before shooting a creature whose origin they do not know. Hopefully that will prove a saving grace in this case."
"I'm still not happy with our chances," Lois said with a sigh. "Not to mention the fact that your leg is unlikely to appreciate any physical shift on your part. Still, if we're going to do it, I want you to be the one that gives the word. Tell me straight up that this is the plan you recommend, and we'll do it."
Gerard looked at his leg and grimaced. Even with Lois' efforts to correct the break, there were still a few areas where the skin fell on his leg in a decidedly unnatural position. He considered his chances one more time. Undoubtedly, he would be able to move more efficiently on three of four legs, rather than on one of two. He also knew that staying in the north for very long would give them far too much chance of being found by other patrols investigating the battle of a few hours ago. The point Lois made about the possibility of being shot resounded with him, but he saw little chance of fixing that. He remembered briefly the strange form he had seen on a few other keep residents that had four legs, but kept a humanoid torso, but quickly decided against it. He would be unfamiliar with that body, and the added size would make stealth far too difficult. Using his full animal form was his only remaining option, so he finally looked at Lois and nodded.
"Lois, I am going to use my quadruped form," he announced. "I need you to help me in this; my change makes me slightly larger, so I'm going to need to remove my splint and my armor. We can save ourselves the trouble of removing the clothing underneath; I don't give any thought for what might happen to it, and it would probably be easier to rip through than to remove with my leg injured like it is. What we do need to consider is that I will feel a lot of pain during the process, so we're going to want to have something for me to chew on so I don't yell or inflict any stupid injury on myself."
Lois nodded. "All right, let's get moving. I want to put some distance between us and this camp before night falls, and we're already losing the sun."
The two men worked together to remove the splint and the armor. Lois gave Gerard a square of leather, which he rolled and stuck between his teeth before attempting the change. He took several deep breaths before nodding to Lois, waiting for confirmation that the ermine was ready to help if his aid should be required.
The shift didn't go any better than the two of them had expected.
"Try to change your leg with everything else," Lois counseled quietly.
Gerard tried, but even then the pain caused him to bite at the leather until he was sure that his teeth, though much more suited to crushing, were about to pierce the leather. He managed to partially shift, but trying to change his leg produced a mind-numbing pain that made him grit his teeth and stop the change until he could finally bring himself to focus on the change again.
Lois did his part, trying to anticipate any problems before they happened and do what he could to stop them from causing Gerard any further issues. The leg shifted in ways that made even Lois feel slightly queasy, but he tried to set the shifting breaks as they went, giving Gerard a slightly less dangerous shift.
The stag nearly collapsed after an agonizing ten minutes of fighting, but he was just short of finishing the change. He was stuck somewhere in between forms, but he had to take a moment to catch his breath. He tried to tell Lois that he was almost there, but he only managed an animal grunt, and even that sounded hoarse around his leather gag. Tears created dark lines from his eyes and down along his muzzle. His chest heaved, but he had almost done it. He wouldn't be beaten now.
Lois seemed to get the message and waited for a few moments before encouraging Gerard to try again. Gerard simply nodded when the assassin quietly whispered his encouragement and, bracing himself, with fully-formed cloven forehooves braced against a tree, he willed his body to finish the change.
He shook as the pain came again, almost convulsing at the pain coming from his leg. He pushed and pushed, but nothing seemed to happen, until he finally simply collapsed on his side, certain that he had failed.
"You did it!" Lois said, his own voice sounding breathless. "I don't know how, but you did it." He moved around and carefully checked the stag's leg. "Well, it seems that the change did very little more damage than the lutins did before they left you be. It looks like we've managed a bit of luck there. All right; take what time you need to recover. I imagine you're absolutely exhausted by now."
Gerard again tried to speak, but realizing his mistake, he simply lay there, taking the ermine's advice. He was going to have to live with being an animal for a while; hopefully it would accomplish the purpose they had intended. For now he needed a short breather, and then they would be on their way.
Lois watched as the stag relaxed some moments later. He quietly checked him to make sure he was alive, but he seemed to be stable. He had evidently either passed out from stress, or simply taken Lois' invitation to take some rest a bit too literally. Not wishing to wake him, Lois retrieved the cloth from nearby and covered the stag as much as he could before camouflaging the rest. He would wait for the man to come back around on his own. There was no use trying to leave with a mentally and physically exhausted partner. With this resolution, Lois settled back in his tree, hoping that they would still be able to leave before nightfall.
Alex collapsed into a guard's arms as he and Lucy finally arrived at outpost after two days of haphazard running from the North. It was only because of how far south the lutin patrol had ventured that allowed them to arrive in that time; they had several times stopped out of complete exhaustion; even running on as straight a line as they could find, their stops had kept them from making it any faster than they did.
Lucy had somehow managed to keep herself together throughout the run, but she barely took two steps inside the gate before her legs folded underneath her. Several of the guards crouched around her, trying to bring her around while others ran for a healer.
Alex coughed a few times before he was able to catch his breath. He gritted his teeth as he tried to recover, and finally managed to choke out something. It was just barely intelligible, and the guards had to tell him to take a moment to recover before he was able to inform them of what had happened.
The request for aid was quickly passed along, and the response had come back by the time that the guards had gotten Alex settled in a room for some rest. The contents of that response brought strength back into the exhausted scout's body, enough so that he threw one of the healers into a nearby wall when they tried to stop him.
Crossed spears greeted him when he arrived at the gate that led to the courtyard around the mansion of the Outpost's commander, but he was going to have none of it.
"Step aside! I have a peace to speak and no one is keeping me from that lion until I've bloody well spoken it!" The guards were saved the trouble of responding to his demands when Nestorius himself stopped just behind the gates and called them off.
"Let him in, I thought he might want to see me."
The guards stepped back, and Alex resumed his stolid march towards the black lion. His ears were back and his muzzle was pulled back in a fierce snarl, suggesting to the lion that he would not hesitate to rip his throat out should he say something Alex didn't want to hear.
"Nestorius, you son of -"
"There's no need for that! We're working for the same thing here; we'd best do it without insulting one another."
"If we are on the same side, than why don't you act like it? I have two men out there, a high-profile lutin patrol with a mage that might be a threat to us if we don't do something now, and you deny me my request for a rescue party?"
"The Duke's wedding is a week away! I have every man available for a patrol out there already, and they're making sure that no one harms our Duke or his bride! If the lutin patrol moves south, they will be stopped; I cannot afford to move anyone right now."
"You can afford to send a messenger out and have a patrol move up into the north and look for them! Please, two of my men are out there, and they may still be alive. If they are, they are probably being tortured. I would have no one subjected to that fate. If you have a few men, a couple of mages, I will lead the rescue party myself. Please, do something!"
"We're doing everything that we can do at the moment. I already told you; we do not have anyone to spare; ANYONE. We have enough men to guard the walls, but we cannot afford to lose any of them. We have to wait for another week before we can do anything, I'm sorry."
"Isn't there something we can do? You're a wizard, you could help!"
"I am in charge of this outpost, I cannot just leave. If I could I would do anything to help, but we have to be careful about this. Moving any of our patrols could let something through, and I will not risk the safety of our lord! For now, rest. Take a few days and head back to the Keep. I'll send someone out as soon as they can be spared."
Alex's chest still heaved, as he fought to retain the resolve to rage against the lion. He could think of no other argument he could use, however, and finally let himself sag, perhaps a bit more than he originally wanted to, as he stumbled back a few paces before finally being able to steady himself.
"All right," he said, once again feeling his strength fully drained. "You swear to me, though, you swear that you will send out a patrol the moment you can spare them. You send a messenger before the patrol leaves to tell one to move north as soon as you can. Can you do that?"
"I'll do what I can. The men may need rest after these patrols, but I'll do what I can."
Alex, finally realizing there was nothing more he could do, turned and stumbled out of the door. He somehow found his way back to the room, falling into the provided bunk in a daze. In the back of his mind lingered a thought he refused to give credence, but one that seemed more and more certain now that he knew he would have to wait. Gerard and Vincent were lost.
Lois awoke slowly, gradually becoming aware of the light that filtered down from the trees. It was far too dark. With this realization he sat up, carefully bracing himself so he wouldn't fall out of the tree. He found, however, that he was no longer in the tree, but sitting against it. He glanced about, trying to get his bearings, but could find nothing familiar anywhere.
"Nervous?" a voice asked from nearby. Lois turned quietly and faced the figure, finding a tall, hooded figure who stood against a tree, hood pulled back so Lois could get some idea of what he looked like. It was a little vague in the failing light, but he could see dark, shoulder-length hair that was tied behind his head, some rough facial hair that made him look like he had been on the run for days. It was a familiar face, one that he had seen many mornings after finally shaking pursuit after a high-profile assassination. The face wasn't just like the one he saw in the mirror then, it was the same face.
Lois decided not to respond, letting the reassurance that this was all just a dream quiet his panic. He dropped the pack that he had been carrying over his shoulder, reaching in to draw out a long-stemmed pipe. He didn't give the apparition the satisfaction of thinking it had rushed him, and instead took his time readying it and lighting it off. He took a few puffs, and then gave a quiet sigh.
"I think we've been through this meeting before," he commented.
"Indeed. Tell me, Lois, the last time you smoked was right after our last such meeting, was it not? Of course it was; I'm you, I know that smoking is reserved for times when I need to still my frayed nerves."
"That's funny, the part about you being me, I mean," Lois said, playing with the tip of the pipe as he tried to figure out how best to use it with his muzzle. "See, last I checked we look nothing alike." He gestured to himself, still Cursed and looking nothing like the much younger, less furry man that stood just off to the side. He ever pulled his tail around to demonstrate the amount of difference between the two of them, grinning around the pipe.
The human laughed, stepping away from the tree. "I remember that pipe," he mused, changing the subject. "I believe it belonged to some self-styled noble, quite a disgusting man if I remember."
"Don't worry, I made sure that it was thoroughly cleaned before I even considered placing it in my own mouth," Lois commented.
The apparition chuckled, shaking his head. He looked Lois over and shook his head grimly. "For a man that has so thoroughly refused to consider returning to the assassin's trade over the past few years, you certainly have no trouble flaunting the spoils of your earlier triumphs."
"There is no law that says that tomorrow's success cannot be built on the mistakes of the past. Refusing to acknowledge my past would be just about as deadly as returning to follow those paths once more."
"You just have not come to realize just how much a part of you being an assassin is," the apparition scolded, narrowing his eyes. "Someday you will again be a terror in the dark, and it will not be our conversations that convince you. It will simply be to you what you always should have been, and always will be."
"If that is true, then why do you insist on prolonging this meeting? Why do you insist on coming here at all?"
The man smiled, stepping back a few paces. "I remain here as a reminder of your past, and an omen of your future. I come here not to convince you to go back, but to assure you that you will go back. You are me, just as surely as you are an assassin. That coat of fur may be a convenient hiding place for now, but it only serves to conceal the man you are." As he spoke these words, his form shifted, changing rapidly in front of Lois' eyes. Where a man had stood a moment ago, an ermine identical to himself stood, smiling at him coldly. "In the end, you and I are one and the same."
Lois jerked awake, barely having the presence of mind to grasp a nearby branch to keep from falling to the ground. He took a few breaths and tried to clear his head, and finally looked down to see if Gerard was still there. He was relieved to see the stag's hidden form under the strip of material.
A few more moments passed, and he finally got his wits about himself enough to check the time of day. Oddly, it seemed little changed. He sighed and dropped from the tree, moving over to his friend. He wasn't certain whether he had slept through an evening, but at this point he decided they had waited long enough to get moving.
He carefully awakened the stag, bracing just in case his friend panicked. The deer's eyes did shoot open in shock, but he calmed as soon as he saw Lois crouched beside him.
"We need to start moving," Lois whispered. The stag nodded, and slowly stood with some help from the ermine. The injured leg did not look particularly encouraging, but a few moments of testing verified that Gerard would be able to hobble about at a high enough pace to make for the Keep. Lois took a deep breath and nodded his approval.
"All right, let's go."
Lois had soon prepared everything they could use in their journey south, and the two of them started making their way slowly south. The going was slow because of Gerard's leg, but there was no helping it. Lois simply hoped that no one saw them out here. He kept his eyes out just in case, but with only two of them he couldn't guarantee that no one would be able to track them down without him noticing.
At least Gerard's form was still graceful enough to limp along quietly. It was something at least, and it gave Lois some hope that they would make it back undetected. At this point it was their only sure hope for survival.
Lois wasn't used to having to go this slow, but he wasn't about to try to outrun Gerard. The stag was doing well as it was, pushing him any harder would more than likely cause him to completely collapse. He had already done so the past two nights, and Lois didn't want to have him collapse while they still had time left in a day to work.
They had now been on the move for the better part of three days, after spending the waning daylight hours of the first getting away from the camps. Gerard had been remarkably tough throughout, refusing to give up until the day was over. Lois gave him some slack; he didn't expect to be able to move at his preferred pace. Still, he often wished that there was some way to go faster. Unless a miracle resulted in the stag's leg suddenly healing, however, such a possibility was looking less and less likely.
More than three days walking, and they had yet to come to the Giant's Dike. Lois constantly deferred to the expertise of his companion, but Gerard would just gesture in the direction they were moving with his head, affirming that they were still going the right direction. The assassin knew that they would be well past the Dike if they had been moving at a good speed, and the delay continued to frustrate him. He looked west, where the sun had long ago disappeared. Stars were becoming clear in the sky as night fell around him. They often continued well after dark because of how far north they were, but, with the Dike nowhere to be seen, Lois decided to call it a night. He relayed his feelings to Gerard, but the stag took several more steps away towards the south.
"Gerard, I said I think we should make camp for the evening," Lois repeated, keeping his voice low but urgent enough to draw the stag's attention. Several more steps made Lois certain that he had been ignored the first time. The ermine stopped walking after the stag and waited, watching as Gerard continued on. The animal keeper was well past him by the time he finally stopped. His massive head drooped, and Lois knew what was going on. He sighed and caught up to Gerard, placing a paw on the deer's flank.
"I know you're exhausted," Lois said, dancing around the true issue. "We'll camp for the night and continue when both of us are refreshed."
Gerard finally relented, carefully curling up on the ground, making sure that he didn't disturb the improvised splint that Lois had put in place. He had added it after the first few hours of moving, and found quickly that going without it had not been a horrible idea either, as the extra weight from the splint made it hard to keep the hoof from drooping into the ground. Adjustments had been made, though, and Gerard had grown used to lying down like this.
The camp was extremely barebones; Lois set up a perimeter that would give them some prior warning if someone entered the immediate area without his permission. Besides that, there was no campfire, no tent, not even a lean-to built for shelter's sake. They already had enough trouble without leaving an obvious trail for someone to follow.
As Lois finished setting up camp, Gerard tried to find a way to rest. He relaxed as much as he could with his leg as badly broken as it was, but the pain was still in the back of his mind. Thinking of other things to try to ignore the pain was counterproductive; each time he tried to put his thoughts elsewhere, he thought of his wife and children in Metamor, a place that seemed so far away now. Alex and Lucy would have more than likely returned to ask for a search team, but Gerard knew better than to expect a reaction. By now his wife had probably been told of the situation. She was probably in their sitting room now, beautiful little hands working at the stitches of some new project, lantern low behind her, refusing to turn it off or sleep in the vain hope that she would hear the door unlock and see her husband return unharmed. She had probably fought off sleep however she could for the last few nights, doing anything in her power to stop her young body from demanding sleep. And each night, she would be disappointed, forced to tell the children that their father had not returned yet.
Wet trails were forming along either side of his muzzle as he thought of this. Gerard didn't know if deer could cry, but if they couldn't it certainly wasn't stopping him. He tried to rub the tears from his muzzle by rubbing it along his foreleg, but he possibly just made the trails more noticeable by disturbing the fur more.
He was too busy trying to control his emotions to notice when Lois returned. He didn't even look in the assassin's direction as he approached, and so was very much surprised when he felt something light landing beside him. Looking over, he saw a pile of grass that Lois had apparently gathered from the undergrowth in the area.
"I noticed you hadn't eaten before you settled down, and I wasn't about to ask you to stand up so soon after laying down," Lois explained, smiling as he dusted his hand off. He sat down, reflexively flicking his tail out to the side, and looked off into the night sky. It was a clear night, something that happened only rarely at this time of year and in this part of the world. Lois looked out into the stars, sighing a bit as he looked for familiar constellations. The stag looked at him surprised for a few moments, and then hesitantly took a bite from the pile of grass beside him before looking back up at the sky with Lois.
"I know this is bothering you," Lois said. "I've seen enough of you to know that you're extremely loyal. You have family, and you've mentioned several times that you told them you'd be back for the Yule. Now we've been trying our best to get back to the Keep in time to keep that promise, and it doesn't look like we're getting there quickly enough."
Gerard nodded silently. His current lack of voice made little difference. He wouldn't have said anything about Lois' comment even had he been able to. He chewed the grass slowly before swallowing. A small part of him wanted Lois to stop, but he realized that he was trying to help.
"I'm not stopping because I don't want to get there as quickly as possible. If we could be, I wish we were there now, but that's just not happening for us, and if we keep pushing ourselves, both of us, then we're just going to get careless at the wrong time." Lois took a breath before continuing. "All right, what I'm trying to say is this; we can't be too far from the Dike at this point. While we're still north of it, we need to keep ourselves fresh so we don't get ambushed. Once we get south of the Dike, though, the Keep will already have patrols out to keep lutins from slipping through. Now, if we run into one, we may have the option of getting a cart and carrying you to Metamor quickly. If we don't, I'll make a deal with you. I'll travel through the night for as many days as it takes to get us to Metamor if there remains any chance of making it before the Yule celebrations begin. Does that sound like a good plan to you?"
Gerard almost dropped the mouthful of grass he had been chewing on moments before. Here was this man, the one they called a dangerous assassin, the one they had been assigned to as a sort of babysitter. During the past few weeks he had been nothing but a supremely competent scout and companion, and now he was offering to break his back to see that Gerard kept his promise. The stag didn't care about any ulterior motives that the assassin might have; at this point he was surprised beyond words that Lois was offering him this.
"Well, will that idea work?" Lois asked again. Gerard finally realized that he had yet to respond and bobbed his head as vigorously as he could. "All right, then. Hopefully we'll get south of the Dike sometime tomorrow, and we'll try to work things out from there. For tonight, finish up your meal and get some rest. If we do get south of the Dike, you're going to want to have energy to spare."
Gerard was more than happy to respond. Almost as soon as he had finished off the meal Lois had brought for him, he was able to close his eyes and fall asleep. For the first time since they had been attacked, he dreamed. It was the morning of the Yule, and his children were opening what few presents he had been able to afford. His wife was standing to one side, concern written on her face. Then she turned as a knock sounded on the door, walking in a daze towards it, then almost fainting dead away when he stood there, arms reaching out to catch her in a hug.
It was clearly a dream, and Gerard was not fool enough to grow attached to those images. Still, he told himself that he would find a way to make them real. He would be there for the Yule, and he would be there for his family. Even if he had to keep limping for days on end, he would be there.
Lucy was still thoroughly exhausted when she and Alex were authorized to leave for Metamor. She would have resisted, but Alex wouldn't be daunted. He had a resolute, yet glazed look in his eyes. He certainly knew what he meant to do, but there was still a pain that he pushed back and tried to hide, but Lucy knew him too well. They had been patrol mates for a year now, and friends since long before that. She had long since learned to read the feline gaze that made many others avoid eye contact.
She trudged along behind him, thankful at least that they were not moving quickly. Although she had taken some time to rest, she had been unable to gather any magic from the lines that crisscrossed this region. It was a common problem she often encountered after fully exhausting her magic supply, and one of the reasons that she spent so much time gathering her magic every day while on the road. She hoped that she would be able to harness the natural wellspring of magic that Metamor sat on, but couldn't guarantee anything. Being ready to regain her magical charge was something she couldn't decide, it simply happened when her body had recovered.
The return to the Keep was silent. Lucy venture to ask about the search parties that could be sent, but Alex wouldn't answer. He simply kept pushing forward, and Lucy knew that silence was never a good answer for her question. She had known that getting a search party together would be hard with the increased patrol activity, but she had assumed that, if anyone could convince Nestorius to do it, it would be Alex. Apparently even he could not move the lion, though.
They arrived at the gates before sundown, quickly moving through the streets of Euper before arriving at the gates to the Keep proper. The guards asked for identification, and Alex took care of the matters at the gate quickly. He told Lucy that he would handle the debriefing himself, and gave her leave to go find a place to stay for the night.
Lucy was on the move so much, and besides spent so much time helping her father, that she had never taken permanent residence at the Keep. Instead she spent her time in the inns, resting there before going somewhere a little more stable while she waited for the next patrol. She had been offered a place to stay in the Keep barracks a few times, but she had never been comfortable with the idea.
She didn't even pay attention to the name of the inn she stayed in after this particular patrol. She dropped some coins on the counter as soon as she heard the price, and let an employee guide her up the staircase to a small, unassuming room at the top. The bed was well furnished, though, and that made it well more than good enough for Lucy.
The child mage sat down, sighing a bit as she tried to relax stiff limbs. Weeks in the field always left her a little worse for wear, but this one had taken her to her limits, and the added loss of two people she would readily call friends made it all the more draining. She focused herself, trying to find the natural streams of magic that always flowed through the Keep.
She finally began to feel them after a few moments. Normally she would be able to use the magic she already had to find a reliable source, but after burning herself out she was reduced to trying to recognize the natural sources of magic around her by their familiar feel. She drew this one in, trying to draw some of it out, quietly focusing on her task. She couldn't bring it in for a while, but kept trying, just hoping that she would be able to capture some of it and get closer to being able to cast again.
Finally she felt a surge of mana begin to flow through her, leaving behind magic that she would be able to use. She breathed out quietly, relaxing much more easily now that the strands of magic were within her grasp, and she could manipulate them.
Lucy sat there for several hours, time passing in a meaningless march as she sat there. She was, perhaps, not sleeping in the most technical sense of the idea, but her body and mind were both resting, and as her reserves of magic started to increase, she began to feel completely refreshed.
It was not yet light out when next she stirred, and she intended only to do so for a few moments. As her eyes flickered, she saw a figure standing before her, a familiar form that took the appearance of a young woman. She had only heard about this apparition by reputation, but her appearance alone made Lucy stand with a start, somehow coming from a legs-folded posture to a standing position in a matter of moments.
"Milady Kyia!" she cried. Realizing who it was she was addressing, she quickly dropped, nearly prone in a bow.
"Beware, Lucy. One should not draw from a stream whose origins they cannot see," a soft voice echoed in her ears. Lucy realized what she meant immediately, and quickly tried to trace the source of the stream she had just been using. Oddly, it seemed to be a natural stream, with no strange draws that seemed to indicate dangerous activity.
"Milady, what-” She stopped as she raised her eyes, meeting nothing but the wall of the inn. She started. The wall did not move, and the apparition made no further appearance. The words of warning seemed to echo in her mind, but still the image did not show itself again.
Lucy stood, thinking perhaps she had been in the middle of a dream due to her sleeplike state. It seemed somewhat plausible due to the fact that the stream had proven innocent of any visible evil, but Lucy was hesitant to dismiss the apparent warning. She wiped the sleep from her eyes for a moment, still staring at the wall before her, until at long last she turned away.
Perhaps it had been a phantom or a dream, but it may also have been a warning, and she kept it in the back of her mind. Perhaps it would come into play at a later date; if so, she needed to be sure that she did not forget it.
There was little chance of that, though, she mused. The start it had given her, dream or no, was real enough to jerk her awake and sear itself in her memory. There was nothing that could be done for it now, though, and so she turned to the matters of the day. Now that she was refreshed, she realized that her haste had caused her to take a room without ever stowing her equipment, or even visiting the baths. She made it her morning's goal to do just that. Vague warnings would wait for later, now she had to return to her life, tired or not.
Alex wasn't certain what he was going to say when he saw George. No doubt the jackal would want to know why the patrol had returned early, and Alex had spent almost the entire trip back to Metamor contemplating what sort of response he could give. One of the first responses he had come up with was to see how many of the patrol master's bones he could break before anyone could get him off of him. Incensed as he was, he could not justify such a course of action. George's orders had been given based on orders he himself had received. Neither could Alex blame any of the people who passed the orders to George. Lois was a possible threat, not yet having shown himself trustworthy at all, and it was going to be hard enough protecting the Duke and his wife-to-be given how much more public this activity was than the Duke's daily responsibilities. Everyone who might want the horse lord dead would like nothing more than to do it on this day, one that would mean so much to the Keep if it succeeded.
No, the fault rested with none of his superiors, and not with Lois himself, at that. It had been a standing policy for years that the Keep would forgive almost anyone the sins of their past if they would lay aside those same sins in their future lives. Lois, as long as he was not asked for by any who he had wronged in the past, had the same right as anyone to try to start from scratch. This patrol was not a punishment as much as it was removing any chance of Lois continuing his past in the worst possible way.
Shifting the blame did him no good. In the end, Alex had been given a job to do, had promised to do that job, and in the process of trying to do that job he had caused the loss of two valuable team members. Questions ran through his head, questions of how they could have prepared better, what they could have done differently, if perhaps there was a way he could have stayed behind, saving both Gerard and Lois, and dying with far more honor than he now lived with. He didn't care if the lutin mage had slowly flayed him alive, he would have preferred it to what he now felt.
And so he turned another unfamiliar corner, finding that it opened out into one more unremarkable hall, but one that had a familiar doorway at one end. He turned the other direction and took a few steps, but stopped. No, he would not hesitate. He had to do this now, or he might perhaps find a way to shift the blame to another.
He walked to the door and entered unbidden, stepping into the small room where George's assistant greeted and delayed visitors while George untangled himself from whatever business he found himself involved in at the moment. As he entered, the assistant's eyes widened a little. She apparently recognized him and somehow knew that he shouldn't be there. If that was true, he admired her memory. Regardless, he introduced himself briefly and asked to see George.
The assistant popped her head into the room and quietly announced Alex's presence. The lynx tried his best to ignore whatever reaction George had to his presence, but he could hear the surprise, perhaps better said, the shock in the jackal's voice when he heard the announcement, and Alex found himself being ushered into the room with no hesitation.
George was elbow-deep in paperwork, clearly not having the time to see anyone, but recognizing that the early return of a very important patrol meant that he had to make time. He shifted some of the papers around so that he had some room to work on the desk. His brow was already set in a worried ridge as he waited for Alex to sit down. The lynx almost collapsed into the chair and sighed deeply, waiting for George to speak first.
"Alex? You're not supposed to be back for several days yet."
"I know. We didn't return by choice," Alex responded. He took a deep breath, steeling himself for the explanation that he now had to give. He started slowly, but before he knew it the tale had been completely told. George sat before him, rubbing his muzzle with one of his paw-hands.
George took a deep breath as he realized what Alex’s story meant. "And Lois? Did you see what became of him?"
Alex shook his head and sank back in his seat, holding his head in one of his hands. If his fingers still had their former length he would have been massaging his temples. As it was, he did whatever he could do to try to ease the pain that he felt. "No, I never saw what happened to them. Once Lucy and I got clear of the camp I recommended that we turn back, but Lucy was physically exhausted and completely drained magically. I couldn't go back and take on the entire camp, even a greatly depleted camp, by myself."
"You don't have to defend your decisions to me, Alex; you've proven yourself trustworthy before. I'm sorry about Gerard. I know that the two of you went through a lot together. As for Lois, I don't know much about the man, but I can see by your reaction that you aren't happy about losing him either. I didn't mean for this to happen, Alex."
Alex nodded. "Almost any other day I would have tried to yell you into a corner, tried to make you admit that you sent them to their death, but I've had too much time to think this over to do that and still feel like I was being honest with myself." His voice was a mix of laughter for the bitter irony of the situation, and sobbing for the loss of his friend. "Right now, if I'm honest I have to say it was my fault. Sending my patrol into that situation was dangerous, and I knew it. The information would have been useful, but the chance of failure was too high to justify the risk."
"Alex, it was a command decision, and you are the commander. That's why we have you out there; it's your job to make the tough decisions." George leaned back in his chair, staring at Alex intently. "I think you're overthinking this. I sent you and yours out there because you're good. Lois has a good reputation where stealth is concerned, and I understand that you thought that you had reason to trust him. If these lutins bore no identifying marks it means that something odd was going on and this close to the Duke's wedding I would have to agree with your decision."
"All the same sir, I do not feel comfortable remaining in a command position when I've caused this much damage through one of my decisions. I want to take this opportunity to submit my resignation, as well as to request reassignment to another unit."
"Alex, we need you out there. You proved yourself in pressure situations during the Assault," George insisted, tapping the desk for emphasis. A paper slipped from the desk and floated slowly to the ground. "Making one mistake in that length of time is a deal I would gladly take from any of my commanders. We're at war, casualties are to be expected. No one wants to say it in so few words, but anyone who is honest with themselves cannot believe otherwise."
"Whether I believe that myself or not, I worked with a group of friends, and I made a decision that put those friends in danger. If you assigned me a group of total strangers to replace the men I've lost, how can you believe that I would be more careful with them? Sir, regardless of what you believe of me, I have no confidence in my own command abilities. At least reassign me until I regain some measure of confidence. You could even promote me after I've proven myself again, but I cannot command in my current state." His pleas were punctuated by trembling gestures and a cracking voice. George considered him for a few moments, and then turned to the door. He called Diane into his office, and she quickly checked to see what he needed.
"Please take down a note for me." The look on Diane's face made it clear that she had probably expected something more along the line of a food order, but she nodded and took a pen and paper. "Write that scout commander Alexander hin'Valius is to be removed from command before his next assignment. Also note that Lucy Aetherchild is to be assigned to the same unit, pending her recovery from her last assignment."
The assistant dutifully wrote the required note on a parchment laid out on a hastily-cleared area of the scout master's desk. She realized that she was writing about the man who sat opposite George at the desk, but did her best to look neutral about what she was writing, although her increased pace seemed to indicate that she wanted to finish as soon as possible.
Her surprise was evident when the lynx gave a small smile and quietly thanked the patrol master. As she finished her job and confirmed that that was all that George needed, she slipped out as quickly as politely possible.
"All right, Alex. Here, just sign this document and I'll make sure it gets done as soon as I can." Alex was more than happy to comply, reading the document first to be sure that Diane had not been clued into writing something else instead. Everything seemed to be right, though, and he signed the parchment, making it as clear as his paws allowed.
"All right, Alex. Unless there's anything else you need, I'd say you need some rest."
Alex nodded, giving a sigh of relief that he had been able to go through with his plan to resign. Now that it was done he agreed with the jackal. "All right, I'll go get some rest. I'll give you a written report if you need it later."
George nodded and motioned to the door, watching as Alex left. He walked as though a great burden had been lifted from his shoulder, but George was skeptical. Alex was a proven commander, one that he would trust with almost anything within his jurisdiction. He would hate to lose him.
As the lynx left, George watched the door close behind him. He looked at the paper that Alex had just given to him, slipping his fingers through his fur a few times, and then scratching at his jawline. Well, even he realized that paperwork had its purposes. He placed the paper on the empty part of the desk and walked over to the other side of the desk. He picked up a huge pile of papers, arranging them carefully into a high stack, and with some aplomb, dropped the entire ream on top of the newly-minted notice of resignation.