Dragon

"No. You won't like the effect, either."

"What—?"

"Here they come!" yelled Rascha, and a mass of javelins flew over our heads, save for a few that landed, point first, in the ground near us. Down the line someone began cursing, very creatively, in a low, even, conversational tone of voice. One of the javelins had fallen about two feet from my right hand, and was sticking out of the ground; it was much smaller than the ones we were throwing, and had feathers near the back, and, at the very end, the wood had a small notch.

"Take a length of green, bendable wood," said Virt. "Put a string to it, and you can use it to shoot those things a long distance. Longer, even uphill, than we can throw our javelins downhill."

"A shield would be nice to have along about now," remarked Aelburr.

"We just going to stand here and take it?" I asked.

"I doubt it. Most likely—"

She was interrupted by the juice-drum. "I recognize that one," I said.

" 'Time to Be Alive,' " said Virt. "We're going to charge them."

"Oh, good," I said.

"Any other ideas?" she said, standing up but remaining hunched over.

I waited for the order to charge. If I got myself killed doing this, not only would it be annoying to me, but Morrolan would be irritated that I risked myself this way instead of doing my job. There just wasn't any good reason to be here. I glanced over at Aelburr and found that he was looking at me. I managed part of a smile and turned my eyes back to the enemy.

Crown walked in front of us, about ten feet down the hill, appearing utterly unconcerned by the javelins falling around him. He waved his sword.

"Give them a good yell as you go," he said. And added, "Charge!"

Well, it was better than just lying there waiting to get a hole punched in me.

So I charged down the hill, sword in hand, and then I was back in my tent with a familiar face looking down at me.

"We were sent help," said Virt. "Otherwise I don't think we'd have made it."

"What sort of help?"

"A platoon of cavalry from one side, three companies of heavy infantry from the other."

"We grind them up?" I asked.

"No, but we escaped."

"Everyone all right?"

"Aelburr took a scrape in the shoulder, but no one got it as bad as you. And Napper had himself a fine old time."

"Oh?"

"He laid about in grand style. I think he took out six of them all by himself."

"Maybe he'll get a decoration."

"Yeah, and we both know what he'd say about that, don't we?"

I grunted.

She said, "How are you doing?"

"I feel fine."

"Yeah, well, they've got you pretty doped up."

"Do they? Really? I feel normal."

"You wouldn't say that if you could see your eyes rolling around."

Now that she mentioned it, I was having a bit of trouble focusing. I said, "My back feels wet. I'm not still bleeding, am I?"

"No blood. They got this gunk all over your back, for the burns."

"Burns? From what?"

Loiosh butted in at that point, saying, "Boss? You okay? You've been out cold forever."

"I think I'm all right. What happened?"

"I don't remember. You got hit by something. A spell. I must not have seen it coming."

"That's two of us, I imagine."

I said, "Where am I?"

"In camp. Top of Dorian's Hill."

"Did we delay their attack?"

"What?"

"The expedition. Burning up their biscuits. Did it—"

"That was days ago, Vlad."

"Oh. My head is scrambled."

Virt said, "You got caught by some spell, straight in the back. You don't remember?"

"I don't remember anything. Well—"

"Well what?"

"I don't remember anything that actually happened. I think."

"You think?"

"Was there a little girl on the battlefield? You know, a child?"

"No, I think I can safely say there wasn't."

"Then I can safely say I don't remember anything about the battle."

"That's probably just as well, then."

I tried to fill in the intervening time. Presently I said, "So their trap didn't work."

"So far, at least. And if Sethra or Brigade or whoever was planning a countertrap, that didn't work either. We're expecting a night attack, though."

"Don't wake me up for it."

"I won't."

"I was kidding."

"I wasn't. You're out of it tonight. Physicker's orders. He also says, by the way, that you're to stay on your stomach all night. I hope you can sleep that way."

"I always enjoy the chance to learn a new skill," I told her.

"As for fighting," she said, "we'll see how you're doing tomorrow."

"If there is a tomorrow."

"Oh, there will be. Somewhere. Now excuse me. The others want to know how you're doing."

"I'm touched."

"If you need help, you can … "

Her voice trailed off. What had she been about to say? See the physicker? Then why didn't she complete the sentence? Because the physicker wouldn't be able to do anything more than he'd done? Just how bad was I hurt, anyway?

"Just how bad am I hurt, anyway?"

"You'll live," she said.

"That's good to know. What else can you tell me?"

"Nothing."

"Okay. Well, thanks for coming by."

"You're welcome."

She left me alone.

"What happened, Loiosh?"

"I don't know any more than you, Boss. Whatever got you, I caught a bit of it myself. I don't remember."

"Are you all right?"

"I think so."

"I don't like it that I got hit in the back, though. I mean, was I run-ningl"

"Maybe, but I don't think you're smart enough for that. More likely you got turned around during the fight. Or—" He broke off.

"Or what?" I said.

"Well, it's possible it was our own people. I mean, if they were counterattacking, reinforcing us, and using spells … "

"Right."

Over the next several months, by the way, I started to remember more and more of it. I eventually got a pretty clear memory of getting hit: the feeling of having my muscles contract almost to the point of breaking my own arms and legs; the feeling that my eyes were trying to pop out of my head; the peculiar sensation of every hair on my body suddenly standing up; and watching the battle progress around me as I slowly fell over. But I still have no memory at all of what led up to it—the time between the beginning of the charge and the point where I was hit is completely gone.

All of which is to say that if you want war stories to tell your grandchildren, don't get hit by sorcery.

There, you ask for a story and you get useful advice out of the deal.

At the time, however, I remembered none of it, and that was scary, too. "Wish I knew how bad I was hurt, Loiosh."

"What good would it do to know?"

"I'm scared anyway. It would be nice to know if I had cause to be."

"Well, Boss, if we can judge by what remains of your jerkin, your back got hurt pretty bad."

I thought that over and decided I didn't care for it, and I suppose I fell asleep for a while, but I didn't sleep well; I had all sorts of odd dreams.

16—A Walk in the Park

"Got it," said Daymar into my mind and into the silence of Fornia, his honor guard, and his sorcerers all staring at me and waiting for me to do something. Relative silence, I should say; there was still a battle moving toward me. Had Daymar actually succeeded? Pulled the information out of Fornia's mind, just like that? Well, I had to believe it.

"Let's have it, then," I said.

"Wait!" said Fornia to those of his honor guard who were moving forward to search me. They stopped and looked at him, while he stared at Daymar, then at me, then back at Daymar. He had evidently felt Daymar invade his mind and he had evidently taken it personally. I wondered if that had pushed him over the edge—if he would now order us killed out of hand. Hell, I would have.

The trouble was, that wouldn't help him any, and would undo the good fortune—from his perspective—of my having arrived here, because, of course, my being here would likely draw Morrolan; so the Easterner's showing up, while puzzling, and thus worrisome, had fit in so well with his plan to have a face-to-face meeting with Morrolan in the middle of the battle and engage him so he could—Oh, that's what was going on.