Thornwyn Mossbrook's Arc

Chapter 23 of 38

Full light came into the trees. The elf breathed. The girl kept her hands on the cloth. Thornwyn lay against his side and watched her leg to see if she could move it. She tried the calf. It moved. She tried to rise. The thigh gave under her and she went down on her elbow. She could not walk. She could not ride far. And the two riders would be back with more before nightfall. She looked at the piebald deer on his side across the fire. His flank rose and fell in small pulls. His long tail lay in the dirt where it had fallen last night. He could not carry them. She looked at the chimera standing over the elf. Antlers wide, wolf shoulders steady, bear chest cutting the wind. It could carry two. Maybe three, at a slow pace. Not four. "Girl," Thornwyn said. "Come here." The girl slid across the dirt without lifting her eyes from the elf. "You will ride with him," Thornwyn said. "On the chimera. West. Keep your hand on his side the way you have been. Do not stop until the trees thin." The girl shook her head once. Hard. "Listen." Thornwyn caught her wrist. "I cannot walk. I cannot cast. If I go with you I slow the beast and they catch us all. If you go now, they catch me alone." The girl's mouth opened. No sound came. She closed it and shook her head again. Thornwyn pulled her staff across her lap. She pressed it into the girl's hands. "Take it. Hold it against him while you ride. It will keep his stitches from tearing. I have done what I can with the wood and the words. The staff will do the rest." The girl looked at the staff. Then at the elf. Then at Thornwyn. Thornwyn turned to the piebald deer. "Stay with me," she said. His ear moved. "Guard the ground where I lie. That is your last work." She called the chimera down. It knelt. She and the girl dragged the elf across its back and lashed him with the pack straps. The girl climbed up in front of him and gripped the staff across his chest. "West," Thornwyn said to the chimera. "Do not turn back for me. Do not answer if I call." The chimera rose. The elf's head fell against the girl's shoulder. The girl looked down at Thornwyn and did not cry. "Go," Thornwyn said. The chimera walked into the trees. Thornwyn watched the patchwork of the elf's coat move between trunks until the color was gone. She dragged herself to the piebald deer and put her hand on his neck. The fire was low. She had a knife. She waited for the sound of hooves from the north.