Jerico shrugged.
“It’s bearable,” he said. “I’ll pray over it soon, like I should have this morning. Much of the pain is just weakened muscle, and lingering effects of a curse.”
At the stables, he found his horse tied and fed, and the saddle properly removed. Patting the horse’s side, he took a breath and steadied himself. His knee throbbed, the rough travel through the forest feeling like it’d removed every bit of progress he’d made the past few days. He put on a tough show, though, and tried to minimize the limp as he walked back to the center of the hideout. He made it halfway there before he leaned against a home and groaned, tilting his head back with his eyes closed.
“Let me see the leg,” Sandra said, her playful tone gone. Sighing, Jerico rolled up his pant leg, and even he winced at the sight. A purple bruise covered the entire knee. The bones were healed, though the surface of his kneecap was oddly shaped, as if it hadn’t smoothed out upon rejoining. The surrounding skin was swollen red, and when she pressed her fingers against it, he let out a gasp.
“Damn fool,” Sandra said. “You walked all the way through the forest on that?”
“It felt better at the time.”
“Get to your bed, or beside the fire if you’d like. I need to start it soon, anyway. When Kaide and his men return, they’ll be eager for a feast to celebrate their victory.”
“And if they lose?” Jerico asked as he accepted her help, leaning half his weight upon her.
“Then they’ll need food and drink to toast the memory of the fallen. Either way, we’ll need meat.”
The two hobbled to his cabin, and she laid him down on the bed. The relief was immediate.
“Join me when you wish,” Sandra said, shutting the door behind her as she left.
Finally alone, Jerico spent time in prayer, pouring healing magic into his knee. He knew he should have stayed in Stonahm. He was traveling on a leg mere days after an injury most would take months to recover from. But the way the people of the village had looked at him, as if he had been in the wrong protecting that woman… he didn’t want to feel those eyes upon him anymore. As he prayed, the pain subsided, and the swelling lessened. He sighed with relief. Didn’t look like he’d added any permanent damage.
When finished, he ate the last rations from his pack, then stepped outside. The air had a bite to it, and the burgeoning fire Sandra built called out to him. Grabbing a blanket off the bed, he laid it down beside the bonfire.
“I’ll keep quiet so I don’t wake you,” Sandra said as she tossed on another log.
“Much appreciated.”
The crackling of the fire soothed him, and he was halfway asleep when he heard Sandra say his name.
“Jerico… thank you for saving my niece.”
“Welcome,” he said, eyes still closed. He felt her lingering nearby, though, so he opened an eyelid and looked over. She was staring at his leg, still exposed since he had not rolled down the pant leg after his prayers.
“The man, Kren… why did he attack you?”
Jerico let his head drop back to the dirt.
“Kaide told you about that, I take it? Guess there’s no reason to hide it. He attacked me because I might be all that’s left. Karak’s paladins have begun a secret war, one I fear we’ve already lost. My brothers, my home…”
His voice trailed off, and he listened to the fire burn.
“Don’t you hate them for it?” Sandra asked.
“I shouldn’t. Ashhur forgive me, I often do, but I shouldn’t. I can’t hate, Sandra. It’ll destroy everything I am. Maybe that makes me a fool. Maybe that’s why the world will soon move on without me. But I won’t hate them. Pity, yes. Remorse. Sadness. I’ll even kill if I must, and bloody my hands to protect the life of another. But I won’t hate.”
It took her a long while before Sandra could respond.
“After everything that’s happened, I fear my brother knows only hatred.”
“Then I’ll pray for him, if you’d like.”
“Please do.”
Her footsteps trailed off as she left the fire unattended. Jerico prayed for them both, as he’d promised, and then did his best to forget it all so he might sleep.
The sound of arguing woke him sometime later. Jerico sat up, his hand reaching for the weapon he no longer had. Shaking dirt and leaves from his hair, he glanced at the sky to gauge the time. Late afternoon. His knee felt stiff, but the pain had lessened. Standing with his weight on the other leg, he waited for the men to arrive. Sandra joined him not long after, carrying a slab of salted meat.
“They’re angry,” she said, her voice low. “Do you think…”
“Assume nothing,” Jerico said, helping her set up the spit. “Only hope for the best, and pray against the worst.”
Despite his words, Jerico also thought a rough defeat had befallen them, but it seemed that was not the case. When the first of many men appeared, they lacked a single wound upon their bodies.
“It doesn’t matter that I couldn’t have killed them all,” Bellok grumbled as he and Kaide walked toward the bonfire. “Packed together and unaware, I would I have wiped out half of Sebastian’s men before they even knew…”
“Jerico,” Kaide said, seeing the paladin. He approached with his back to Bellok, who clearly did not appreciate the interruption.
The rest of the men were joining them, all grumbling amongst themselves. Most ignored him, though a few, the Irons twins in particular, did their best to greet him warmly.
“I took too long building the fire,” Sandra said. “I’m sorry. I’ve just begun.”
“And what you’ve got won’t be enough,” Kaide said. “Adam, go grab us something more to eat. I think all of us could use a bit of blood in our bellies.”
“Be better if we had blood on our blades instead,” Adam muttered as he headed off to one of the buildings.
“Such dour moods,” Jerico said. “What is so terrible?”
“We had our ambush prepared,” Bellok said, sitting on a heavy log beside Jerico. “We expected only a handful of knights, but instead a good forty marched toward us. With my magic alone, I could have-”
“You could have cooked one inside his armor, maybe two,” Kaide said, drawing his dirk and stabbing it into the log he sat on. “We were outnumbered, and they were armed and mounted. We’d have been slaughtered.”
“We had surprise,” one of the men muttered.
“They can’t stand toe to toe with us!” Griff hollered, and the rest of the men echoed approval.
“Is that what you want?” Kaide asked. “To have charged out of the forest and died, just to kill a few random knights? Which of you, in your plain clothes and leather boots, would have withstood a single blow from their swords? Which of you has the strength to crack a chestplate of iron with only a wooden club?”
The men fell silent, until Adam reappeared, holding a slab of meat.
“I coulda,” he said.
Kaide looked up at him, and for the first time since returning, he smiled.
“I don’t doubt that, Adam. All of you, I don’t doubt you. But I don’t want to lose you, no matter what. The advantage wasn’t ours. One day, it will be, and we’ll break their necks and send their horses running to the four corners of Dezrel.”
“Bet if Jerico was with us…”
Jerico didn’t catch who said it, but Kaide did.
“You got something to say, Barry?”
Of the many men gathered, the shortest of the lot stepped forward, a thin man with a long beard. When he spoke, Jerico recognized him as the amusingly cranky jailor from before.
“Yeah, I do. I bet if Jerico was with us, you’d have given the order. You wish we all was him, don’t you? Wish we had training, fancy armor, and weapons that cost more than everything we ever owned put together. It’s been three years, Kaide. When’s the time gonna be right? When we ever gonna make them pay for what they did to us at Ashvale?”
The crowd fell silent, and the chill in the air was colder than it’d been all night, paying no heed to the fire. Jerico glanced between them, wondering if he’d need to intervene. His place or not, he wouldn’t watch one of them murder the other.