Chapter 38: Thirty six

Caw.

Zosimos’s sharp cry pierced the air again, and he swooped down over the cluster of shrubs. His movement’s a clear indication that something was there. 

“Roderick, Killian.” Darius called out, gesturing to the spot Zosimos was flying over.

Nodding, the pair split away from the group, riding towards the shrubs. They only made it a few meters away from the group, when a whistle rang out from somewhere to the right of us. As though conjured by magic, dozens of forms rose up from the ground and began rushing towards us. 

“Raiders.” Markion bellowed, as Basher charged towards a group of three attackers. 

“Kadia, to me.” Dorian ordered, and I spun Arion around, shifting him alongside Dorians horse so his head was positioned at the gelding's flank. 

“Keep circling, let me know if anyone goes down.” 

Following Dorians directions, I positioned my wagasa to cover my left side, and spun Arion to the right, circling behind the chestnut gelding, monitoring the battle. Markion had just downed two of his foes, and appeared to be struggling with the third who was able to dodge his swinging axe. Bastian was off his horse, and I watched as he swung his hammer at a taller opponent's knee, where it connected with a bone shattering crunch. 

Agonizing pain shot through my right shoulder, and I cried out, dropping my wagasa as I slumped over Arion’s neck. Turning my head, I saw the archer nocking another arrow, and was about to call a warning when an orange feathered dart buried itself in the archers neck. Following the darts path, I saw Killian galloping his horse past, his hand raised as he loosed a blue feathered dart towards the raider Conrad was fighting. 

Well, at least he found something to test the poisons out on. I thought dazedly, as I downed the contents of a pain relieving tincture.

“Kadia, can you wait for healing til the battle is done?” Dorian asked, and I nodded with a grimace. 

I feel so useless, I can’t use my darts because I can’t lift my right arm. I should have been practicing to throw with my left. They’re all so far away, I won’t be able reach to them with my fire.

As that thought crossed my mind, a raider broke through the group of fighters, rushing towards where Dorian and I still rode in tight circles. Raising my left hand, I went to fling a ball of fire towards him, but in a fast motion, Dorian flung out his hand in a throwing gesture and a bolt of light shot from his hand, striking the man in the chest. The raider let out a pained cry, faltering in his approach, which gave Killian enough time to send an arrow through his chest in the same spot the bolt of light had hit. 

“What was that?” I wheezed, hand pressed to my shoulder.

While the tincture had dulled the pain I felt, it was still painful to the point that I was verging on tears. 

“Luminous spear, a spell that conjures a spear of burning light that pierces the body without making any external wounds.” Dorian called out over his shoulder as he flung another spear towards an attacker creeping towards Conrad’s  back. 

“How you holding up? Looks like there’s only a few left.” Killian called, riding up to us. 

“Hurry the fuck up then.” I hissed, bringing Arion to a halt and allowing myself to fully slump over in the saddle. 

“Killian, lay a canvas down and stand guard. I’ll get started removing the arrow from Kadia’s shoulder.” 

“Markion got hit too. Upper thigh, he’s snapped the shaft off, so it’s going to be fun digging it out.” 

“Damn that bull, I’ve told him a thousand times not to snap them off.” Dorian groused, as he reached up to help me off Arion. 

“Easy Kadia, I got you. I’m going to lay you down on your stomach.” 

“Hurts, fucking tincture. Not good enough, need to make better.” I rasped as the healer eased me to lay on the canvas Killian laid on the sand between our horses.

“I’m sure you will. The arrow hasn’t penetrated too deeply, so that’s good, I won’t need to push it through. It hit the shoulder blade, which stopped the arrows head becoming fully embedded.” 

“It didn’t break through the bone? What a shitty archer.” Killian scoffed, craning his head to peer back at where the archer was writhing and screaming on the ground. 

“Orange dart, diluted. Only pain, hour then recovery.” I managed to get out through clenched teeth. 

“I know. I’ve left him alive so we can have a little chat about where their hide out is. They’ll have it nearby.” The archer reassured, as Dorian pressed a strip of leather to my lips. 

Biting down hard on the leather, tears rolled down my cheeks in an endless wave, as pain washed over me. It felt like someone had shoved a burning hot poker into the wound, then poured acid over it. 

“There we go,” Dorian soothed, rubbing a hand over my back as the pain lessened and dissipated. 

Spitting out the leather strip, I tentatively moved my shoulder, feeling only a slight ache as opposed to the pain I was expecting. With Dorian’s help, I rose into a sitting position and looked up just in time to see Markion hobbling towards us, leaning on Basher for support. 

“Kads, you okay?” He called out, and I nodded, rubbing at my face with the sleeve of my tunic. 

“Take a seat Markion, I’ll get to you in a moment.” Dorian ordered, jerking his chin to the canvas laid out on the ground, as he helped me stand. 

“Kadia, we need to clean the blood off and get you into a fresh tunic and bandeau. The scent of blood may attract predators. I’ll hold your wagasa up to give you some privacy,” the healer said, and I grimaced, looking around at the others. 

Aside from Markion who’d lowered himself to sit on the spread canvas, the others were searching the bodies of the raiders and dragging them into a pile off to the side. Turning Arion so he was side on to me, and I was facing away from the group. I pulled a fresh bandeau and tunic from my bag as I waited for Dorian to fetch my wagasa from where I’d dropped it when I was shot. 

“Are you okay with me helping you clean the blood off? You can keep your bandeau on if you feel more comfortable.” 

“I’ll keep it on,” I mumbled, pulling off my tunic and laying it over the saddle. 

Using a damp cloth, Dorian wiped the blood from my back and then helped me apply some cooling balm to my back before holding the wagasa up by the canopy to shield me whilst I stripped off my bandeau. As quickly as I could, I pulled on a new bandeau and tunic, letting out a relieved sigh once I was again fully clothed. Grabbing the handle of the wagasa, I took it from Dorian with a grateful smile. 

“Thank you.” 

“Take it easy for a while, try not to do anything to strain the shoulder for at least an hour,” Dorian said, giving me a smile before he moved back to where my brother sat. 

Putting my bloodied clothing into a saddle bag to be cleaned and repaired later. I pulled out an apple for Arion, to reward him for not spooking during the fight and continuing to circle with Dorian’s horse even after I’d been shot. After glancing over to where Dorian was digging around in my brothers leg with a pair of metal forceps, I went to see what the others were up to. 

“Kadia,” Darius greeted as I approached. “How are you feeling?” 

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“I’m okay, Dorian said the arrow didn’t penetrate to deeply.” 

“Yer lucky he didn’t poison his arrows, unusual thing that, though I suppose he dinnae have any left.” Bastian grunted as he crouched over the body of a raider, searching their clothing. 

“Nuthin.” The dwarf sighed, shaking his head as he stood. 

“Then they’ll have their stash close, hopefully Roderick and Conrad find something when they search the bushes Zosimos keeps flying over.” Darius concluded, eyes scanning the surrounding area. 

Hearing this, I turned around to see that my crow was indeed still flying in circles over the cluster of shrubs. Roderick and Conrad were nearing the location on horse back, and I watched as the red scaled Draekin dismounted, walking the last of the way with his sword in hand. A high-pitched whistle sung through the air from the direction of the pair searching the shrubs, and in response both Darius and Bastian quickly mounted their horses riding up to meet Roderick who was waving them over.

 Remaining behind, I moved to where Killian was crouched down beside the bound and gagged archer who’d shot me. 

“How you doing?” The wood elf asked as I approached. 

“Better than I was,” I quipped, eyeing the motionless raider. “The diluted scorcher venom wore off faster than I thought it would.” 

“Nah, I just killed him. Darius didn’t want to wait for the venom to wear off to interrogate him.” Killian said, standing up and revealing the bloodied dagger he held. 

“Oh.” 

“Don’t pity these sods, they would have done the same to us.” 

“I wasn’t pitying him,” I denied, and held up a blue feathered dart. “I was going to jab him with this, so I could watch how the venom and poison interacted with each other.” 

“They’re pretty effective for such a small weapon.” The archer said, passing me the orange feathered dart he’d retrieved from the dead archers neck. 

“The effects will be increased with an arrow, as there is a larger surface, more of the poison is delivered into the targets system.” I informed the archer as we walked away from the raiders body.

“Can I get fifty arrows with the freezing poison, a hundred with paralyzing and ten with the diluted scorcher venom?” 

“Sure, do you have un-dyed arrows? I noticed yours are dyed the same maroon color as our guild flag. If you have white fletched arrows, I can dye your arrows like my darts to mark which poison is used.” 

“I’ve got plain arrows, just encase I need to be more discrete with who I’m shooting.” The archer said with a chuckle, patting the pouch at his waist. 

“I’ll give you the gold and arrows when we make camp next.” 

“The gold can wait, I’ll keep a tab and you can pay me when we return.” I offered with a sweet smile. 

I’m not foolish enough to take his gold now, what if I get killed and someone takes all my money? 

“That's great, I didn’t bring much gold on the trip.” Killian said as we walked back to where my brother was now on his feet and trying to clean the blood from his fur.

“Where are the others?” Markion asked, glancing up at us as we approached. 

“They rode over to the shrubs over ther-, their gone.” I gasped, staring at the riderless horses and searching the area for any signs of the four men. 

I should be able to see them, it isn’t like there is anywhere around here to hide. The ground is flat and those shrubs are the only vegetation for miles. Even if they were crouched behind them, I’d still be able to see them, as the shrubs aren’t big enough to conceal them all. 

As we rode towards the shrubs, and riderless mounts, Roderick’s upper body suddenly popped up out of the ground to our left.

 Letting out a startled yelp, I responded without thinking, flinging a yellow feathered dart at the Draekin, which luckily bounced harmlessly off his scales. 

“Shit,” I gasped, pulling back on Arion’s reins to stare wide eyed at the hunting teams leader. 

“Nice reflexes,” Roderick said, brushing sand off his trousers after he crawled out of the now visible hole in the sand. 

“Where the fuck did you come from, and where the fuck did you all go?” Markion demanded, moving Basher closer to the hole. 

“One of the raiders must’ve been an earth mage, little shits got themselves an underground hide out. I reckon they would have spent a few weeks digging it out.” The Draekin explained, shifting a wooden cover into place and kicking sand over it.

“Once it’s covered like that, you wouldn’t even know it’s here.” Killian observed, sounding a little impressed. 

Disappointingly, neither Markion nor I were allowed into the underground hide out, because we were ‘recovering’ from an injury. My protests that I felt fine fell on deaf ears, and I could only watch longingly as Killian disappeared into the tunnel with Roderick. Dorian also remained above ground, and we rode the rest of the way to the shrubs where Roderick said the entrance to the hide out was located. 

As we reached the shrubs, Zosimos flew down to land on my thigh, surprising me a little as he normally landed on my shoulder. 

He must have seen me get hurt. I realized, as I stroked a hand over the birds soft feathers. 

“You did good Zos, if not for your warning we would have been caught completely off guard.” 

 Caw.

Shoving a hand into the bag strapped to my thigh, I pulled out a leather pouch that was filled with dried meat and offered a piece to Zosimos who took it gently from my fingers. 

“I see Bron gave you extra rations.” Markion commented with a chuckle, and I nodded with a soft smile. 

“He did, but this is Zosimos’s. Bron made it with no salt or seasoning, so it’s safe for him to eat.” 

 The Orc in charge of the kitchens had pulled me aside before we departed, and stuffed one of my saddle bags so full of food it would take me months to eat it all. I wouldn’t protest the extra food though, as it was comforting to know we had an abundance of supplies in case of emergency. 

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