Chapter 12 - Flight

She didn't want to leave. She wasn't ready to be a wizard and wasn't ready to go on some strange quest with a warrior she didn't know and had seen in a vision. What she had seen of him in the vision didn't make her feel better. She asked herself again if the things she'd seen were certain, or if maybe they were what would happen unless they succeeded. Or maybe they were what would happen if they went on the quest instead, she supposed, doubting it all once again.

"Remember, only clothes for traveling," Nordithet insisted, bringing her back to her present circumstances. Most of her wardrobe had been brought with them from home. Between the time it took just in travel back and forth and staying here for about a week, they had brought as much as they could. She had found that irritating when they'd left home but was thankful for it now.

She dumped all her clothes onto one big pile on her bed. He reminded her yet again that they needed to hurry. She started sorting her clothes by comfort, taking all the ones she didn't like and tossing them unceremoniously back into the open wardrobe cabinet.

"Still too many," he said, gesturing at the backpack and shoulder bag that everything would have to fit in. The shoulder bag was already mostly full with magic supplies and the ominous looking notebook and spellbook. He had already reviewed all of that, and reassured her that in the notebook was an inventory page that listed it all out along with intended uses.

She further weeded it down to just three full outfits. She had already put on her favorite outfit: brown trousers and a comfortably loose dark green blouse with satin collar and cuffs. She had thick socks and her road boots. She also selected a pair of shoes that would work well enough with any of the three outfits. She bundled it up tightly. Nordithet helped her fold the blanket from her bed and then helped her get it all in the pack.

"There will be other supplies prepared with the horses," he explained. "I'll carry all that." He closed his eyes for a moment. "Your father is downstairs, your mother is in her room already. Come, we must hurry if you still want to say goodbye."

She grabbed her gloves and thick traveling cloak and followed him out of her room. She paused for a moment, to look back at the heaps of clothes strewn between the bed and the wardrobe, the large trunk left open and empty at the end of the bed, and all the other things that were left around the room. While she'd remembered to throw in a couple other items, such as a hairbrush and ribbons for her hair, it seemed as if she was leaving so many of her things behind. She didn't even want to think about the books and other items she'd left behind back home. She wondered if she'd ever see home again.

"Jetha, quickly!" Nordithet reminded her in an anxious whisper. She closed the door behind her and continued down the hall after him.

They took the servants' stairs down - a narrow passageway of old, rickety steps that somehow still managed not to creak when stepped upon. They led back down to the first floor in a long curve, with doors leading out on each level they passed. At the first floor, she saw that the stairs continued downwards to the basement where the wine cellar and the jail cells would be, according to her friends. Nordithet opened the door, however and they stepped out into another hallway, dimly lit with candle sconces here and there. He led her to a room not far down the hall, which turned out to be a small sitting room. In it, her father stood, facing a small fireplace although no fire was lit in it just then. He turned when they entered, and the flickering candles showed her father's face, filled with worry. Her eye suddenly welled up with tears that she was unable to stop from rolling down her cheeks. Within moments, her father had his arms around her.

"Oh Jetha," her father said softly. "I had so hoped that this day wouldn't come until you were fully ready for it."

"Father, I'm scared," she admitted, not wanting to ever let go of him. He pulled back a little and lifter her chin with his hand, turning her face up towards him.

"You can do this, Jetha. Whatever it is, I know you can do it. I want you to know that I am so proud of you. Your mother is too. She may not always show it, but she is. She's wanted to protect you in her own way, just as I have. But now it's time for you to spread your wings and become the young woman you're meant to be." He wiped the tears off her face. "I love you so much."

She buried her face in his shoulder again, her tears renewed.

"I love you too, father," she said into his shirt. "And mother too. Make sure she knows that?"

"I will kitten," he told her, using a nickname he hadn't used since she'd been a very little girl.

"There is not much time," Nordithet said quietly. "I'm sorry."

"You'll need money, Jetha," father said, pulling a coinpurse out of his pocket and putting it into her hands. "Be careful to keep it out of sight. Divide it into thirds and put it in different places - some in your pack, some on your person, and some hidden somewhere else. Just to be safe from thieves. Especially in larger towns or cities."

"I will father," she told him, putting the purse into her pocket. "Thank you."

"I'll accompany you to the stables," father told Nordithet. "I will not leave her well-being in some stranger's hands. I will meet this man, Ullden before I let her leave with him."

They walked out a servant's entrance to the an inner courtyard of the keep. They carried no torches or lamps. Nordithet warned her to watch her step as best she could. There were a few stars but no moon to be seen in the gaps between clouds.

There was no one about as they moved out to the main courtyard of the keep. It was a large open space with buildings built out from the walls. Nordithet led them past some of the buildings. Windows were shuttered up tight against the night, and she didn't hear any indications of activity in any of them.

Distant thunder echoed through the courtyard as they approached a large building that she assumed was the stable. There were large double doors at the end, and Nordithet paused at them before pulling one side open enough for them to slip through.

She followed father inside. Nordithet came last and closed the door behind him. A pair of lanterns near a stall further in cast a pool of light on the hay-strewn floor. The creepy seer woman Vera paced nervously between the lanterns. Nordithet walked quickly ahead and she and Father followed.

"About time you showed up," Vera said. "I don't like tonight. There's a ill smell of wickedness in the air, and bad omens."

Ullden stepped out of the stall. He looked taller in the lamplight, she thought.

"So you must be Ullden," Father said, frowning.

"I am, sir."

"So why you over anyone else?" her father asked.

"Why anyone? Why your daughter? I don't know why me. Maybe it's just because I happen to be here at the time. Maybe it'll make sense later, maybe not. Vera, who I trust, and Jetha here, have both seen me in visions. Vera's also known Jetha was coming. I can only assume it's something important, and I've not backed down from important things before."

"I don't know you, Ullden," father said, stepping forward. "All I know about you is what Nordithet has been able to tell me, and under any other circumstances it would not be enough to allow you to leave with my daughter. Nonetheless, the Gods themselves seem to favor this action, if Nordithet, whom I trust is understanding things correctly. But Nordithet will not be with her on this journey. You will. How do I know I can trust you to keep my daughter safe?" Father had an edge in his voice that Jetha rarely ever heard him use.

"I suppose you don't know you can trust me, sir," Ullden answered. "I can only give you my word. I didn't ask for this duty. I came here on an entirely different matter. But I have known Vera for a long while now and I've never seen her so sure on one of her visions before. I have my reasons for agreeing to protect your daughter on this journey, Gods willing or not. It is not a task I take lightly, I assure you, and once I agree to do something I follow through with it. I promise you, sir, I will do everything in my power to keep your daughter safe."

A chill ran down Jetha's spine as she watched to two of them, their eyes locked, each with a different expression on their face. Her father looked angry, as if expecting Ullden to suddenly sprout demon's horns right there in the stables. Ullden looked determined. She realized that she believed what Ullden had said, however. Something in his tone felt sincere. She stepped forward to try and intervene when father suddenly nodded and put out his hand.

"Very well. I will hold you to that promise, Ullden." The two clasped hands for a moment before each stepping back again. Father then turned to Jetha again.

"You'd better put that cloak on before the night air chills you," he told her, stepping forward and taking the cloak from where she had draped it over her arm. She quickly put her gloves on while he put the cloak around her shoulders and fastened it in front. As he pulled the hood up onto her head, she looked up into his face and saw his eyes welled with tears. It was all she could do to keep her own eyes from overflowing again as he leaned down and kissed her forehead. Then he stepped back, taking a large breath as he did so.

Ullden brought the horses out of the stall. He brought one over to her. It was gray with white spots. He helped her up onto the horse, explaining to her in the process how to do it herself. She told him that she had ridden before, but thanked him for being thorough.

Ullden hopped up aboard his horse with a bit of a jump. His cloak moved aside some in the process and she saw mail armor and the sword at his belt. Vera and Nordithet took positions ahead of the horses and led them towards the stable doors, which Father opened.

There were figures gathered outside. The wizard Odinous was leading them. Most of the figures held torches, and the light of the torches kept her from seeing much about the people themselves. It looked to be about a dozen total.

"I thought you might try something like this," Odinous said loudly. His voice echoed in the stone-walled courtyard.

"Go!" Nordithet told her and Ullden. Ullden reached over and grabbed some loose rein from her horse and started the two horses off.

"Stop them!" Odinous bellowed to the gathered crowd.

"No," Nordithet said loudly, stepping forward holding his staff. That was all she was able to see before she had to turn to watch where she was going. Ullden got the two horses to a gallop and they got past the men before they could form a ring around them.

She heard voices behind her calling out to shut the gates. Hoofbeats rang on the packed ground as the two horses thundered towards the still open gates. She saw the iron bars of the portcullis starting to lower ahead of them. Ullden smacked her horse and it sped up, racing forward.

She was sure they weren't going to make it. Even with men having to turn the wheels to make the portcullis come down, the row of bars that spiked out of the bottom seemed to be falling far too quickly.

"Lean down!" Ullden yelled across at her. His own horse had begun taking the lead, and he reached back and grabbed loose rein again, practically hauling her horse forward faster. She swore she felt the iron brush against her back as they barely managed to get through the gate before the portcullis slammed down into place against the ground. She pulled her horse up, pulling the reins back from Ullden, and spun around to look back through the gates. She saw flashes of light, and there was a curl of smoke now coming from the courtyard. In the darkness, however, she couldn't make out which shape belonged to whom. She wished she had a spell ready to help her see what was happening.

"We have to go," Ullden said, bringing his horse alongside her. She said nothing, but held up a hand to stall him, seeing more flashes and wondering which wizard was casting them.

"Jetha," Ullden said, grabbing the wrist of the hand she'd held out. "We don't have time for this."

"Father and Nordithet are in there!" she protested, turning towards him in surprise.

"Nordithet is the younger, stronger wizard of the two. He'll be fine. They won't hurt your father, Jetha, he's one of the guests of the party. Nordithet was prepared to stall anyone who tried to stop us, but we have to make use of the time he's giving us. We need the head start."

He was right. She knew it. But the thought of leaving like this was far more heart-wrenching to her than the idea of slipping away under the cover of night had been. She turned her head back towards the fight, taking one last look, as she pulled her hand free of his grip.

"Alright," she said, pulling the reins of the horse together. "Let's go." A tear slid down her cheek as she urged the horse into a gallop again. It took some time before her eyes were dry again, but she'd managed to collect herself by the time they slowed the horses down to a trot.

"I don't know if they'll follow or chase us," Ullden said a few minutes later. "I suspect they might." He grew quiet after that. Jetha had a lot of questions she wanted to ask him, but didn't think it would be a good time to pester him.

He kept them at a quick pace, alternating trotting with a slower gait. She knew there were names for each of a horse's gaits, but she didn't remember what they were.

"We'll travel as fast as we can in this light," Ullden explained. Clouds covered most of the sky, blanketing the world in darkness. There were some stars showing here and there, but no moon. She could see him as a figure more than anything else, and she could see that there was ground beneath them, but that was about it.

She found herself thinking back to one of the other tutors that had come and gone back home. The horsemanship teacher--she couldn't remember his name--had been there mostly for her brothers. She did manage to get some lessons, although not as much as they had. Mother had been reluctant about it, but father had insisted it couldn't hurt to broaden her education. Now she wondered if maybe then she was already being prepared for something. That had been three or four years ago.

That thinking also led her to notice that she wasn't riding side saddle like mother would insist on. For the pace they were setting, she was pretty sure sitting the horse like Ullden was was probably the safer method.

It wasn't long before she started yawning. The farther into the night they got the stronger the yawns came. "Stay awake," Ullden warned her, "we don't need you falling, and we can't afford to stop just yet. They won't be able to follow us until daybreak. We need to cover as much ground as possible before then. The more we can keep moving, the more likely we are to stay ahead of them."

"Do you think they'll chase us? What do you think's going on?" she asked fearfully.

"I'm not entirely sure what's going on either," he admitted, "but I think that Odinous is arrogant enough that he will give chase. And your tutor, Nordithet, seems too respectful to just turn him into a cinder. While I can respect that, it means that we've only bought time. There's also the Elar. Vera gave me the impression that there will be Elar coming after us at some point. She didn't say how soon, but I intend to be ready. It would be best if we can just stay one step ahead of them."

She swallowed the rest of her questions for a moment, thinking about the idea of Elar soldiers coming to kill her. She'd never even seen an Elar before, only heard tales that had each been so different in nature that she wasn't sure which to believe. Some had said the Elar were just like everyone else, just living solitary on their island. Others had depicted the Elar to be strange reptilian monsters. Since the war had began, the stories seemed to hover somewhere in the middle, and she'd heard something about them being half-breeds that looked mostly like men but had some of the reptilian qualities of the original inhabitants of their island. All she knew for sure was that if their soldiers were so capable as to take the land they had so far, she didn't want to meet any if she could avoid it. She did her best to blink the sleep out of her eyes, although she yawned again despite herself.

"Drink this, it will help." Ullden said, holding a small corked metal flask towards her.

"I really don't think alcohol is going to help keep me awake," Jetha said, giving the flask a leery look.

"It's not alcohol," Ullden said, edging his horse closer and pushing it at her. "It will help wake you up. It's made from bark and some tea leaves. Vera taught me how to make it years ago and I keep some for moments like this."

She took the flask from him and carefully uncorked it, trying to keep with the motion of the horse beneath her. She sniffed at it, but whatever was inside was masked by an minty scent. She smelled some herbs and and earthy aroma beneath it, but couldn't be sure what all it was. She took a breath and then gulped some down like she might do to medicine. It had a smooth, earthy taste, mixed with mint. There was a hint of bitterness at the edges of it, but was otherwise surprisingly good. She looked at the bottle in surprise.

"This actually isn't bad," she commented, going to take another, smaller, drink of it.

"Not too much or you'll be unable to sit still on the horse," Ullden said, gesturing for her to give it back. "Especially since you're not used to it."

She put the cork back in place and handed it over. "Thanks."

"Sure thing," he said. He popped the cork back off and took a drink of it himself before closing it up again and stuffing it into a pocket on his saddlebags.

From time to time throughout the night, whenever she started yawning again, flask got passed back to her. She kept taking small sips. Occasional thunder echoed from behind them, but the clouds were moving at an angle to them, so Ullden reassured her that she wouldn't get rained on.

They didn't talk much, and eventually she watched the sunrise.

"I'm not usually up quite this early in the morning," she said, feeling the need to explain. "The sun's usually actually up before I see it." She let the horse walk along while she took in the reds and golds striping the sky.

"I've seen a lot of sunrises and sunsets both," Ullden said. He had a strange expression that she didn't quite know how to read. She thought it looked a little sad.

They stopped at a little stream to rest and eat a little. Ullden hopped lightly down from his horse and then helped lower her gently to the ground. He splashed water from the stream on his face, and she followed his lead. He grabbed two canteens from his horse and handed her one. They filled them at the stream before sitting on the stream bank.

Neither of them spoke as they rested. The sun felt warm and reassuring on her face, and she leaned back on the soft ground to bask in it for just a moment.

"Don't do that," he warned her, "sleep'll be far too tempting." He stood up and offered her a hand up. She took it. Once she was standing he led her back to the horses. He took off and folded his cloak. She looked at the armor, which covered him from the neck down. There was even a hood of chain links.

"Isn't that heavy?" she asked.

"The armor? Yes, if I were just carrying it. But the weight's distributed, so it's not quite like carrying deadweight around." He tucked his cloak away on the horse and moved to help her back up into her saddle. "We have a lot more ground to cover in daylight. If they're coming after us, they're already moving," he said.

She took her gloves off and stuffed them into one of her packs before getting back up on the horse. Once she was in the saddle again, Ullden swung himself up into his. She noticed he seemed to have no trouble doing it, despite all the armor.

They urged the horses out onto the road again and headed off at a slightly faster trot again.

"How long until we can sleep?" she asked, after another yawn. The sunlight was helping her feel more like she ought to be awake, but it didn't seem to be convincing her body not to be tired. He pulled the flask out again and passed it over to her.

"We'll need to make it through today at least," he told her while she sipped. "Odinous doesn't strike me as someone who's been traveling around a lot in recent years, which means he'll need to stop for sleep tonight himself. We won't be able to sleep for long, however, if we want to keep our lead. There's no guarantee that he's not using magic to make his own progress faster than ours is. Or, he might be arrogant enough to not care if he kills his horse in his haste. He also might have brought others with him though, and they will need sleep too."

"Oh," she said, handing the flask back. She was unable to keep the disappointment out of her voice, having hoped he might say that they could have a quick nap sometime soon.

"I'm sorry," he said, giving her a sympathetic look. "I know this isn't exactly what you must be accustomed to. We'll be at the church in just a couple of days and then hopefully things will get better. If we get enough lead on Odinous, we can probably take a day's rest there before we move on, assuming the priest doesn't give us too much trouble about coming with us."

He took another sip off the flask himself before tucking it away again. By now, she knew which saddlebag pocket he kept it in. She wondered what other stuff he had in his packs. He had more gear on the back of his horse than she did, but then she wasn't sure what all was loaded onto her horse either. There was a roll of canvas that was probably a tent with bedding rolled into it, as well as a rolled up wool blanket and another bundle that she thought might be more food. She hadn't even had a chance to see what was in her own saddlebags. Her bags had been tied at the top, and she wondered if the horse minded having all that weight and her on top of it.

They rode in silence again for a while, her thoughts mulling over the traveling she'd done in the past. They had always been family trips, to parties or other events that mother had insisted they attend. Servants had accompanied them, and they handled the cooking, horses, and general camp setup. It occurred to her that she had no idea how to set up a tent. She'd been given some brief instruction on how to brush down her horse, and she thought the wool blanket might be to keep it warm at night too. She had been given some limited instruction in cooking, but it had been in a kitchen. She had no idea if cooking over a campfire would be different or not.

A sound echoed through the air. It reminded her of an owl's screech, but it sounded angrier. She shuddered at the sound of it.

"What was that?" she squeaked.

"Let's try not to find out," he suggested, "Come on!" He led his horse into a full run and hers followed. She grabbed on and leaned in close like she had when racing for the closing gate. The hoofbeats made a thundering sound on the grassy dirt.

The screech sounded again, louder this time. There was a part of it that sounded like ripping cloth. She clung to the bouncing horse, starting to worry that she'd fall off and get left behind.

Then she saw a shadow move across her path. She didn't see what it was, but it was a big shadow. She looked up but didn't see anything. Half the sky was clouds. The sun was shining brightly and she dared to look behind her, but there was no pursuit to be seen. Her heart pounded in her chest.

The screech came and she leaned in again to get away from the noise. The shadow passed again and she covered her head with her arms. There was a flurry of noises--a swoosh, flapping of wings, a grunt, and a thud. Suddenly Ullden was on the opposite side of her from his horse and was down on the ground. It looked as though he had tackled something.

It took her a moment to compose herself enough to look back and see what was happening. By then she saw Ullden with his sword out, squaring off against some black form taller than he was. The thing had arms too long for the rest of it, huge wings, and glowing yellow eyes. For an instant, those eyes locked on her. She turned and buried her face in the horse's neck.

She rode until she couldn't hear the creature's screeching anymore. Then she stopped, her heart pounding in her chest. She realized she didn't know what to do. She could only hope that Ullden would be able to defeat the thing, and would follow her down the road afterwards.

What if he doesn't? her mind raced across the possibilities. What if he does kill it, but is too wounded to follow? That thing was so much bigger than Ullden was. Will that armor be enough? A part of her wanted to retrace her steps and check, but the rest of her was too terrified to do more than just sit there on the horse, unable to move.

After a while, she turned the horse towards the way she had come, watching the road for signs of Ullden or the creature.

It felt like hours to Jetha, although the sun had hardly moved across the sky before she saw anything. She had been slowly edging the horse back towards the top of the hill she had gone over, wondering if the top of it wouldn't give her a better vantage point. She hadn't realized how much tension had been building up in her body until she saw Ullden, riding his horse, come over the top of the hill towards her. He was moving quickly, but not fast enough to be trying to outrun anything. She sagged against the horse in relief at the sight of him before urging her horse into a trot to go meet him.

"Are you alright, Jetha?" Ullden asked as soon as they were within speaking range. She saw that quite a bit of his armor was covered in a brownish substance, and that some of his armor appeared to be dented considerably. One piece of the plate armor that covered a shoulder was torn and part of the edge looked as if it was jammed inward. Blood trickled down that arm, and he was wincing at each step the horse took.

"Is it dead?" she asked first, just to be sure.

"Yes," he nodded. "It's dead. While I'm glad you ran, I'd rather you also stay within my sight next time. If there had been more than one of them, I couldn't have gotten to you in time."

"Next time?" her heart pounded again at the thought of another one of those creatures coming after them.

"In case there should be a next time," Ullden said. "Let's hope there won't be. Now, let's stop at that cluster of trees ahead and rest for a bit while I tend to this." He gestured at the wounded shoulder. "I have no way of knowing if that thing's blood was poisonous or not, so I should get it cleaned out quickly. I'll need your help with that."

His tone didn't leave room for question, and he moved his horse ahead, in the direction of the trees he'd indicated. As she moved her horse in behind him, she realized that the brownish stuff all over him must be the blood of the creature. She also realized from her position downwind of him, that it smelled horrible, like something that had died and been left rotting for weeks. She nearly gagged at the first hint of it, and quickly caught up to ride alongside him where she wouldn't need to smell as much of it.

The stand of trees stood atop a low hill. They moved a little inside trees, and Ullden explained that from that position they would still be able to look out of the trees while people not looking closely wouldn't be able to see them.

Ullden hopped off his horse less gracefully than he had been before. She climbed down off of hers, and they both tethered reins to branches. Ullden gathered up water skins and moved to a clear space to sit down.

He had her help him get parts of the armor off. The shoulder plate was strapped onto leather straps with buckles. The chain mail sleeve was also buckled onto the chest piece. It was slick with blood, and some of the links were torn. He showed her how to get the sleeve off.

At first the wound looked very bad. His whole arm seemed coated in blood. He assured her it was less severe than it looked, but that it would need a stitch or two.

The first step was washing it. He wet some rags and had her help wash the blood away. It was an agonizingly slow process. Water helped get the blood away from the majority of his arm, but near the wound itself was a matter of dabbing, which took a considerable amount of time.

Eventually it was cleaned enough that he held a cloth over it while verbally guiding her to additional supplies in one of his bags. She eventually found and handed him the specified bundle. He pulled the cloth away from the wound, and more blood seeped out of it.

"It isn't deep, but it does need help," he said. He indicated a pair of bent needles stuck through part of the bundle. "Have you ever stitched a wound before?" he asked.

"You're joking, right?" Jetha looked at him, with some alarm. She'd been able to keep the queasiness away while she was helping clean up the blood, but the idea of stitching the wound made her stomach churn. "I've stitched cloth," she told him, "but only because mother made me learn to embroider. I've never..."

"It's alright, Jetha," Ullden said, seeming unphased. "It shouldn't be that different, just pretend the skin is fabric you're stitching together just enough to keep it closed. Okay?"

"Oh Gods," she said, closing her eyes for a moment and doing her best to collect herself. Then she snatched up one of the needles. "Where's the thread?"

"Unroll the bundle carefully. You'll find the thread inside as well as a pouch of herbs we'll need to mix with water and pack over the wound before we wrap bandaging over it."

She unrolled the cloth carefully out onto the ground, seeing the pouch he mentioned as well as some other items, including a small spool of thick thread. She picked up the thread and pulled some off the spool before looking around for something to cut it with. She noticed one of his knives and pointed to it.

"May I borrow that?"

"Of course," he nodded.

She used the knife to cut the thread, and then knotted it the way her mother had shown her years ago. Then she moved over and gently pulled the cloth from the wound again. She watched as more blood oozed out of it, and her hand trembled badly as she tried to move the needle into place near one end of the gash.

Ullden pushed the wound closed and told her to go ahead. She held his arm with one hand and placed the needle against his skin. His arm was a little slippery where she was holding it. She tried not to think about why.

"Isn't it going to hurt?" She asked, desperately afraid to proceed.

"Yes, some, but it has to be done. I need your help on this."

"Alright," she said. Just push it through like cloth, she told herself. She tried several times, but her hand just wouldn't do it. When she finally managed to push on the needle it just pressed against his skin instead of piercing. She pulled it away.

"I don't think I can do this," she said.

"You can. You can manipulate energies I can't see or feel and make magic happen. There shouldn't have to be many things in life you can't do."

She tried one more time. She pushed at the needle a little harder, and the skin puckered under it. He told her to push harder, but she couldn't.

Eventually she dropped the needle and turned away. She went to hide her face in her hands and saw the blood on her left hand. She stuck that arm out to keep it from touching anything and cried into her right hand.

"Hey," Ullden said softly. "It's alright. We'll do it together. I'll push it through; you do the knotting. Can you do that?"

She managed to stop crying and nod. He picked up the needle and she looked away. She just couldn't watch. She heard him groan a little, but then he said it was time. She looked at the thread going in one side and out the other, and her stomach got a little queasy. "Now tie it off," he said, "and we'll do one more."

Tying it off was much easier to make herself do than the the thought of pushing the needle through his skin had been. She did her best to keep her hands steady while she knotted the thread and cut it off with the knife. Then she knotted the end of the thread and handed the needle back to him.

She tried to watch while he put the second stitch in, but ended up watching his face more than the process of sewing the wound closed. It obviously caused him some pain - both the wound and stitching it - but he had a strange calm about him that suggested to her he had done it all before. She suddenly found herself wondering how many times he had been wounded in the past.

She tied off the second stitch for him and then helped clean everything up and make the poultice to put over it. Then she wrapped the bandages around the shoulder and tied it under his arm like he instructed her.

"What was that creature that attacked us?" she asked, as she finished tidying things up afterwards. Ullden pulled a couple of tools out of his saddlebags and she stopped to watch as he bent the piece of armor back out and hammered at it a bit. Once it was back in a similar shaping to how it had been before the fight, he put the armor pieces back on, fitting them loosely over the bandages with the leather straps. With his arm wounded, he seemed to have more difficulty, and she hurried over to help him with the buckles.

"It was a Freygond," he told her. "One of several creatures that live halfway between our plane and the plane that demons normally live on. It can exist in both places, just not all at once."

"Are they common? Had you fought one before?" She suddenly found herself hoping that he was accustomed to fighting creatures like that and that it hadn't been sent specifically after them.

"Demons of any kind aren't exactly common, at least not for most folk," he explained. "They usually avoid populated areas. They like harsh wildernesses, rocky mountains--but they especially like abandoned places like ruins. This was the first time I'd seen a Freygond up close. I wouldn't expect to find one out here."

"Did your teacher ever happen to say anything about summoning demons?" he asked her.

"No, he didn't," she answered. "Summoning is one area he stayed away from. Most summoning takes a lengthy ritual. He said that the more complicated, the more chance of error, so he wanted me to wait on the longer, complicated stuff."

"Well, if summoning them takes time, then there's some good news to be had. Hopefully that means he had to choose between chasing us and summoning something to chase us. We may have more lead than we expected. Maybe enough to get to the church without any further troubles."

They continued riding through the day. It took a couple of hours for the yawns to return. When they did, the flask returned as well. They stopped a couple of times for light bits of food. The drink from the flask was losing its power to ward off yawning, and dinner she ate without really being aware of what it was.

She kept nodding off in her saddle, and Ullden threatened that he'd have to tie her in place if she couldn't stay awake. She didn't succeed in staying awake completely, but he didn't follow through on the threat.

Eventually they did stop for the night. They rolled out blankets, some of which were padding under them, and some of which were covers. Jetha fretted while he was setting up, expecting nightmares, but she was asleep nearly instantly once under her blanket.