Recruited Mage (13 page)

12 Wounded

Why am I in a bed?
This was the first thought I had on waking, still with my eyes closed. I had yet to move a millimetre then I stretched out my stiff legs, wishing to relinquish in the rarely felt comfort of a bed.

When I stretched I gasped as a searing pain erupted in my chest, the sharp inhalation jarred my chest again, making me whimper in pain. My eyes were wide as I whimpered, every forced breath bringing cutting pain. My eyes darted around the room. All
I could see of the room I was in was a high ceiling that that sloped upwards away from me as if the room was on the side of a building and my back was to the outside wall. I tentatively turned my head to look to my left and saw a man next to me on another bed. The man on it was lying still, too still to be alive and blood was dripping from his bed onto the floor where a poodle of it expanded towards me. I turned by head again to look to my right, noticing the plain white tunic I was wearing. There was another bed, empty unlike the other one but stained red. I could just see to the bed beyond it, my vision was hazy so I could only make out the outline of a thrashing man, his screams only just audible to me, I could barely hear a thing. All I could make out was a faint wail over a ringing silence. I looked at the thrashing man; he was being tended to by two men and a woman. I ignored it though, trying to make sense of surroundings, trying to work out where I was.

Another blood curdling jab of pain made me gasp again and I turned my head back up to the ceiling. Standing over me was a woman with
a sad look on her face; she was not looking at me though but at the body to my left. She reached out a hand to touch my face and I flinched as her hands touched my skin. The woman jumped in surprise and looked straight at me, straight into my eyes. She turned away again quickly and shouted something over her shoulder. She seemed frantic and yet madly happy. She lifted my head in her hands, staring into my eyes and I stared back. All the time she was saying things or shouting them, I could not hear a thing. My eyes drifted from the ceiling then back to the woman. There was now a man behind him, holding a bucket and a cloth that he handed to the woman. She dipped the cloth into the blanket and it came out dripping wet. The woman brought it to my forehead and wiped it. The pain in my stomach was no less painful now and all I could do was whimper and close my eyes as she washed my face. The coolness of it refreshed me, I felt relieved. When I opened my eyes my vision was less blurry and I smiled as I spotted a wart on her nose. Then my hearing started to return, first as a low hum then mumbles and finally to faint words   I tried to focus on what the woman was saying and slowly it came into focus.

“We thought you were dead, “ The woman was saying then someone said something to her.

Who are you?
I mouthed, unable to peep a note.

“
We are so happy you are still alive,” she said looking worried.

She is very kind.
I tried to raise my head up to look at myself,
what damage did the wolf do?

“Just try to relax.” The woman said and stopped me. “You will be ok.”

You should be ok,
rang through my heard.

Diryn? Is that you?

Of cause, she is telling the truth, you should have the best physicians helping you, as far as I know there are only four of you injured, I can still listen whilst you are asleep.
But what about the other two dead ones?

Well,
they were in very bad shape
, the first one died the day before yesterday but they have been working hard on you three and have had no time to change the blankets, only they are allowed in, is what the physician said.

What do you mean the day before yesterday?
The training exercise was the day before yesterday.

I have been asleep for the last two days?

No, unconscious for most of the time but the rest wide-awake. I can see you can’t remember it, strange. You would want to forget it anyway, you screamed a lot.

I suddenly
realised I was being shaken and that I had closed my eyes.

“Sta
y awake, you must not slip away,” said the woman but I did not look at her, instead I looked at the man in black standing behind her.

That is the physician.

The man was tall and had long arms, I felt intimidated as he looked over me, his bony fingers twitching.
His face was old and kind though and he was smiling.

“I am glad you are stil
l with us,” said the man in a soft and calm tone, “I am one of the many physicians of the army but may say that I am the best, usually reserved for officers but as only four of you were injured, I have come to lend a hand. I am sorry but you did not have priority in the last two days, due to your age.” He said sadly

T
hen why have you left the other man now?
I asked silently then realised I could no longer hear any screams.
He is dead?

“You have still had another physician work for a few hours on you
, you should really thank your Assault Group Captain, he is the only reason you received any treatment at all. You were in a terrible condition and a Commander said you weren’t worth the time. I had to follow orders I am afraid but now I am free to help you. I am now going to re-dress your bandages and check your wounds, they are pretty bad, and I am very surprised you are still living. This might hurt.” I winced as he moved out of my line of sight and went to lift my head to watch him but the woman put her arm out to stop me.

“Just relax,” she said,
“it will help him." I yelled for the first time since waking. The bandages, which had supported my stomach, had been cut and suddenly my wounds had to hold the normal amount. The woman cringed when I yelled, so I tried to make her feel better by gritting my teeth, but I couldn’t stop myself from letting out short sharp breaths every time my stomach was touched.

I felt my wounds being dabbed and wiped with a wet cloth. As they were being washed the wounds felt very sticky and I could start to feel them more. I felt eight wounds in total, two lines of three large cuts going from right to left and ending in an even larger fo
urth cut.

It really did bite me hard.

All bar the furthest bottom wound, the bottom big wound were on my ribcage and so were barely deep at all, however a few of the opposite ones on my back hpierced through gaps in my back ribs and were a few centimetres deep. The largest tooth marks were deeper, at least an inch and a half each.

I felt the physician check the wounds. They were very sore. Then I felt him take something of
f my chest. They were small and sticky and I realised they were herb leaves.

“W-what are they?” I stuttered to the physician.

“Just some Volorem Sanitatum,” he said.

What? He has that?
I thought it was unobtainable!

“How did you get that?” I asked, straining to sit up. The pain my chest stopped me and I was left with raising my head, the woman did not try to stop me
. The physician looked at me suddenly with interest. He walked over, all the time looking at me. He dismissed the woman and pulled over a stool from the far side of the room to the bed and sat on it.

“How do you know of this?”
he asked.

“I…
read about it in a book that was being written for a man.” I replied calmly.

“You
read
about it?”

“Well,
yes. Why?”

“You can read?”

“Naturally, I had to.” I replied cautions, now.

“But, hardly anyone can read! Where did you learn it?”

“At the Guild where I lived.” I said, my voice wavering.
Will I ever return?

“Amazing! But what G
uild?”

“The Scribes G
uild. The one in Almon. Why?” 

“I had a manuscript written
there, I will go and get it!” he said and suddenly stood up and walked out, his stride brisk and exited.

For a minute I had thought he had left me there, my wounds open and venerable but quickly he returned, carrying a large book and a small handful of leaves. 

“Here it is.” He said holding the book up and I nodded, amazed at him.

I
recognise that! It is the one that I read whilst Mr Morrin was writing it!

“You read this while it was being made! This is the book that made the herb
and that may be the reason you are still alive and in less pain, you screamed so much and lost so much blood.” I stared at the handful of leaves in his palm.

They saved my life?

“C-can I have some seeds?” I asked cautiously. “I know the seeds are almost impossible to germinate but can I try?”

“But of cour
se boy! I have so many, they won’t grow, and I have nothing to do with them. I thought you would never ask! I hardly ever find anyone into herbs!” But then he looked back at me. “First however I will put new bandages and leaves on you.”

The physician did so and then left and retuned with a small bag the side of my hand, full of seeds. I felt very tired and fell slowly to sleep.

13 Recovering

The next morning passed quickly, I was asleep for most of it and the rest I just lay, doing nothing, trying not to move and
trying eat a meal; a thick stew with bread and an apple. It felt like the best meal I had ever had. I hurt a lot to swallow though and it was a struggle to eat. The room had been cleared up in the night and I woke to find the room empty and clean. I found a note by my side, the first writing I had seen since leaving the Guild. I read it quickly; it was only a few sentences.

Goodbye boy, I am sorry
I did not get your name. I have been called to prepare for the upcoming invasion. You will probably know everyone will be leaving for it the day after tomorrow. Unfortunately there will be no more Volorem Sanitatum as I am taking the plant with me.  Your wounds will hurt a lot. Good luck.

In the afternoon
the Assault Group Captain visited me. The pain had steadily increased so I found it trouble talking.

“I have come to see how you are gettin
g on,” said the captain, smiling.

“Well, I am
doing ok I guess.”

“Good! I heard from the physician that you managed to survive what would have killed most people. I also heard that you saved at least five others from being pounced on unaware by the wolf that would have ended in a lot of deaths. I congratulate you,
we can’t have people dying before the invasion, and we need every man we can get. You however obviously can’t fight and will not be able to for weeks. I have to go and oversee another training exercise now and I will not be able to come again until after the invasion. Good luck.” At that he turned and left.
That was brief!
I spent the rest of the day moaning in pain, the pain slowly got worse and worse.

The woman came to redress my bandages but barely said anything. I once tried sitting up but it put pressure on my stomach and I lay down again instantly, gasping n pain.

I had no idea of passing time inside and I could do nothing but sleep until what I guessed was noon when the woman came again with a meal and asked how I was getting on. I said I was ok and feeling better. I was really hungry though and ate all the food that she brought, ignoring the pain. She redressed my bandages once more and I was happy that I had eaten already as the sight of the stitches and cuts would have put me off eating.

Then the woman helped me sit up and for the first time I could see the room properly as well as
the woman and myself.

Later in the afternoon a girl stuck her head around the door and said she was looking for the woman whose name I found out was Claire. I said I did not know and she disappeared o
ff. Later she came back and sat by my bed. She said that she had been told to look after me for the rest of the day. After a few minutes I asked her name and she said it was Amelia.

We talked for a short while about where I was from but I suddenly found myself waking up with her still there, still talking. I asked how long I was asleep and she just laughed because she had not noticed. I watched her laughing and smiled, she was really pretty and I
realised that I fancied her long brown hair with matching brown eyes.

Amelia spent the next few hours talking, only occasionally asking me questions. She explained that Claire was her mother who was doing this for a bit of money and she was helping
her out. She knew all about what had happened to me, Claire must have told her, and she embarrassed me by saying she thought I was brave. I felt happy with her around and I stared at the ceiling, smiling. The next thing I knew I was waking up again in darkness. I called out for Amelia but she was not there. I realised that she must have left hours ago and it was the middle of the night. I drifted off to sleep disappointed and sad.

I was woken the next day by angry shouting. Someone
in the next room was shouting loudly and I could just make out the words.

“He cannot go! His condition is horrendous, he could not even sit up without help
yesterday, never mind fight!” shouted one man.

“If he does not fight he is nothing but a hindrance to him and we will order him to be thrown out onto the street.” With a deep shock I
realised that they were talking about me.
The invasion is today! But I can’t go on it! I can’t even stand!
After a lot of struggling I managed to sit up and see my chest. The bandages were still clean for once but it was still painful to move.

“If he runs his stitches could spli
t open and he would just die!” continued the first man.

“I am sorry but it is G
eneral’s orders to take anyone who can walk. You can’t disobey orders.” said the second man, sadly. I heard footsteps coming then the door opened. The man who came through was tall and muscular but his face was in a sad grimace. “Up you get lad,” he said. “That or both of us will be flogged.” I knew I had no choice and I tenderly turned to the side of my bed and lowered my feet to the floor. As I stood pain erupted in my stomach and I quietly cried out. The man dumped a clean uniform in front of me and I carefully took off the simple tunic. I took up then new uniform and pulled it on. The shirt made me wince as it touched my chest. It was sore but the pain was not too bad.

The uniform was too big for me and sagged in places. The
Commander looked me over.

“I am very sorry
, it should be over by tomorrow, and then we will be able to think about the next step. Now follow me, I know it is early but if we leave now we should have taken the Islands by sunset and then all we have to do is mop up survivors.” Outside the sun was only just rising, I heard a bird singing as we walked but it was replaced almost instantly by the sound of an army going to war. Looking behind me I saw I had been on the far side of the compound. I could barely recognise the area, the mass of moving men and carts had overflowed from the road and spread out onto the surrounding hills. The only thing orderly about them seemed to be that they were all going in one direction, away from the city and in the direction of the lake. There was a cart in front of us, empty apart from a few blankets.

“Just try to ignore the pain,” s
aid the soldier as I struggled into the cart, only managing because of a few steps built into the side. I sat on the blankets, watching everyone go by. There were thousands of men, mostly marching in small groups but others were just walking in huge numbers. I watched one of the cartloads of food that was stuck in the mud.

However we started off and almost instantly I was jolted sending jabs of pain through me. I instantly lay down which helped a lot but it was s
till painful and I had to grit my teeth for the journey that seemed to last for hours. The sun was inches of the horizon when we eventually stopped. I was already tired as it was a constant effort to reduce my pain as much as possible. When I sat up I saw that we had stopped on a long jetty with two boats on either side. Each one almost fifty metres long, one large slanted sail each. The boats were bulky and wide with flat bottoms know doubt for ramming up on the shore.

As I climbed down the Assault Group marched up behind us. The C
aptain stood at their front as usual, the boy with the golden stripe behind him. When the Captain saw me his face went white with shock and worry and he ran over, as orderly as possible.

“What are you doing here?” h
e asked.

“I had to sir, order of the G
enerals’ apparently.” I said pointing to the man who had brought me.

“Is this true?” The C
aptain commanded of the man.

“Every word, the Generals said they needed every man that coul
d walk in the assumption that if they could do that they could fight.” As the man said this Donal and Detarian ran towards me and I walked forward to meet them, wincing at every step. Donal and Detarian ran to embrace me, but I held out my hand just in time.
That would hurt a lot.

“You are alive!” ye
lled Donal happily and I grimaced.

Just!
I was tempted to say but Detarian beat me to it.

“Samuel” s
aid Detarian shocked. “You saved many of us Samuel, well done, you gained our respect many times over. You look bad, really bad. Why are you out here?”

“Same reason as you.” I spat angrily. “We have to be, disobey orders and it is flogging or worse.”

“But you can’t fight, look at you. You can hardly stay upright.”

I
shrugged sadly. “We will all be fine.” I said hopefully. “I heard someone say will have finished by night fall. It should be a walk over. Apparently there will be hundreds of ships mounted with catapults that will smash the city into submission before we even get to the walls.”

“Yeah, but you
forgot about everything else!” said Donal. “Sea monsters, huge walls, a bit of magic are just a few...”

“Everyone
on board, we are leaving now!” shouted a man from on board one of the ships. The Captain walked over to me and glanced meaningfully at Donal and Detarian who quickly left to go on board.

“I cannot arrange for you not to come but I have made it possible for you to stay on the boat until it is safer, Ok?” I nodded sadly and climbed slowly onto the nearest boat after Donal and Detarian. As I staggered on board I felt a new sharp pain in my stomach and sat down quickly on the nearest bench, one of about twenty along the boat. Donal and Detarian, who had walked on, saw
me, and doubled back to sit next to me.

Underneath the bench were our weapons, a crossbow, a short sword,
and a shield. For the crossbow there were two types of arrows, most of them were tipped with the normal sharp metal, but we were given a single different one. They were normal apart from the tip, which was a small and short jar, no bigger than my thumb.

“That is a refined fire
shot.” said Donal. “We used them yesterday.  They can easily blow a hole in a thick shield, never mind a body.” He said the last words grimly and we all sat in silence. When the rest of our half of the Assault Group was on board, the sail was rolled down. The moment we were drifting away from the jetty the boat started rocking ever so slightly. I had only been on a boat once before on a river and this was a new experience. I walked as carefully as I could to the front of the boat. I looked out to the sides of the boat and for the first time I concentrated on the sea.

The see stretched out to the front as far as I could see. I never
realised how close the camp had been to the sea. I was mesmerised by the waves as they rolled in towards the boat. We were only just leaving the jetties behind us. I realised I had not looked around much when I was on the shore and I looked past the back of the bout to see a line of jetties almost a mile wide. Pouring off them were many, many boats. All around our boat there were already what looked like hundreds of others. Some were bigger and some were smaller. There were long, thin boats, tall, wide boats and many more. The larger boats where different from the others; they had entire floors. Each one had holes in and each of the holes was filled with the end of a long metal tube, which I recognised as the Bombardier. I stared at the Bombardier and the other ships to try and stop me from feeling sick. Then the water became more and more choppy and I was terrifyingly reminded that this the only thing between me and a watery grave, about mile underwater, and it did not please me.

I ended up lying on the deck as it heaved beneath me again and again. There were big waves but it was nowhere near a storm.
You will be fine!

He
y! Stop surprising me!
I yelled silently.

Well how else am I meant to talk to you, there is no way to give you warning.

The rest of the morning went too fast, way too fast for me to like it. The early afternoon went too slowly. Nearly every movement making my jump as I lay on a fetched blanket. My blood was pounding and I was sweating a cold sweat, every muscle screaming at me to run but I knew I could not. Not stuck in a boat.

The sun was halfway to the horizon when
suddenly someone, spotted the Islands in the distance.