A/n. Okay, because I was such a bitch leaving it there last time, I'll update two chapters… lol. And a day earlier than I'd said, how nice am I? Thanks Orohippus and Kathy for the reviews...
Chapter 10:
Olivia watched as the flyingbroom flew towards Sarah and the woman yelled to Numair. "Numair, now!"
He pulled the magic back into himself rapidly; they watched as the shadowy magic speckled with white disappeared into his hand, and reappeared around the carriage, shielding them from attacks by the men on the flying hawklike horses. Sarah jumped onto her broom and took off quickly into the air as the carriage rattled towards the road at a speed far greater than they had been travelling at earlier.
The mage steered skilfully and turned onto the road, back the way they had come, and Olivia gritted her teeth to stop their rattling. She met Elliot's eyes and noticed an expression akin to dismay on his face. She knew how much her partner hated being left to helplessly watch as a critical situation unfolded before him, and gave him what she hoped was a reassuring smile, but knew was more of a grimace.
"Hey!" Munch was peering out the back of the carriage as the landscape behind them disappeared rapidly. "I think her plan's working; they aren't following us."
"But now they're following her." Casey pointed out with a worried glance down the road. "How long can she keep it up? They have her outnumbered seven to one, and those people looked pretty powerful, if they had the strongest mage in Tortall worried." She nodded towards Numair, who didn't glance back as he replied.
"They're at least Masters. Probably more advanced than that, and they have a lot of power. If Sarah was at full strength… we probably could have held it. But the shield had me pretty drained, and with her in the state she was at…" He trailed off, focusing on the dirt track they were hurtling down.
Casey turned to Wildcat, who was sitting on the bench beside Numair. "What are they after her for?"
The Shang met her eyes briefly, her face serious. "I don't know, but she'd better be alright." For just a moment, the tough woman's concern for her pupil shone through her closed off face.
The protections on the carriage cast a dark shadow around the landscape; a glance at the mage showed he was unlike most men, he could multitask. As he kept the protections up on the carriage and steered it down the road, Casey saw him hold a speck of magic between his thumb and forefinger, and a tiny voice that she had to strain to hear emitted from the magic. "Numair, what is it?" Alanna's voice sounded tinny through the spell.
"We were attacked by two mages and seven hurroks. Sarah summoned her broom and is leading them away right now; we're on our way to meet you on the road to Greenstone."
"She did what?" The cry of outrage came through the spell.
"It was the only possibility." Numair replied. "They were after her, and neither of us had the strength left to hold them off for long enough for you to get here. It was the only way, Alanna."
Casey thought she heard a grunt of frustration. "Alright, how long until you get to us?"
"Maybe twenty minutes." Numair replied.
"We'll try to make it faster. Just keep heading down the road, and we'll get there as soon as possible." Alanna ordered.
Numair nodded, even though Alanna couldn't see it. "See you soon." And he terminated the spell, focusing once again on the road, just in time for the sound of branches in the tree canopy being snapped to herald the reappearance of the Messenger for the Gods. They watched as she wrapped herself around the trunk of an elm tree, falling from about four meters in the air after letting go of a stormwing's talons; the immortal swooped in for the killing blow, and Numair blasted it with his Gift before pulling over at the side of the road.
Wildcat and Numair jumped off the carriage barely a moment after it had stopped moving, and rushed to the fallen knight. "Sarah!" The man shouted as the Shang rolled her young pupil onto her back.
"She's alive. Help me get her onto the carriage." Wildcat's voice was fraught with anxiety as they hustled her onto the back of the carriage, the mage remaining in the back to focus on the protections and tend to his younger friend while the Shang took over steering.
George knelt beside the lanky mage, surveying Sarah's wounds as their carriage began to move again, rattling down the road even as blasts from the attacking mages pounded against Numair's shield. "She's pretty bad off." He began, and Numair nodded, his dark eyes worried.
The mage examined her closely, wincing at every moan he caused as he jostled her injuries. "As far as I can tell, her left arm's fractured, as well as several ribs, and if she hasn't got a concussion after that fall then I'm the son of a goatherder. Her shoulder's been in better shape too." Numair winced at the view of her face; one side was covered in blood from a gash on her forehead.
George probed the nasty red burns on the back of her legs. "This is probably how she lost her broom, assuming the injuries were obtained before she lost it."
Numair took one glance at her legs, and his jaw clenched, before he looked to the canopy, as though looking through it at the attacking mage, his face filled with fury. A low moan from Sarah was all that stopped him from attacking the two mages directly. Instead he used another speech spell to contact Alanna. "Alanna… Sarah's injured."
At his tone the woman's voice was guarded. "How badly?"
He winced as he mentally collated the list. "From what we can tell, her left arm's fractured, she's got some broken ribs, she's got to have a concussion, the size the gash on her head, but we won't be able to tell until she wakes up. The back of her legs are burnt too, and there are probably a few other injuries that I missed. She fell through the tree canopy."
"Through the… Gods, what happened?! I thought she was supposed to be leading the immortalsaway from everyone." Alanna's voice was thick with worry.
"Something must have happened. What do you want me to do? She's looking pretty bad. I think she's going into shock." He held his wrist against her forehead, noting her cold and clammy skin as she paled noticeably.
"Elevate her legs." Alanna's voice came from the speech spell. "And check whether she's got any abdominal internal bleeding. And if you can, wake her up."
George rolled up her shirt, to reveal a large bruise spreading over the side of her stomach. "It looks pretty bad, Alanna."
"Alright, just bandage up any external cuts she has. Don't try to splint her arm, but cover her legs with clean bandages to stop an infection. Don't wrap it too tightly." The Lioness' voice was strained, and what Numair said next didn't help.
"Ah… Alanna. We only kept the packs with the weapons and rations. We've got maybe two meters of bandages, and that won't be enough."
He could almost hear her grinding her teeth. "Use your shirts if you have to. Use the bandages on her legs. We'll be there soon."
"Hurry, Alanna." Numair terminated the spell once more and pulled off his tunic, using a belt knife to cut strips and wadding the rest, before wrapping both sides of her shoulder to stop the bleeding. George provided his tunic to use on her head, and Numair began wrapping her legs loosely in the clean bandages.
"How is she?" Wildcat asked from the front, and Casey climbed over to appraise her of the situation.
"She's pretty bad off. Her calves are burnt, she's got broken ribs and a broken arm, and she's covered with small cuts." Casey glanced back at the younger woman laying pale in the back of the carriage. "She's got gashes on her shoulder and one on her forehead."
They sat in silence, glancing back only when a choked cough drew their attention; they could see Numair sliding a vial back into his pocket as George and Stabler held Sarah down. "Go check on her." Wildcat ordered softly. "Let me know how she is."
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An awful smell permeated her nostrils; Sarah gagged, before opening her eyes with a wince. "Ow." She whispered.
The faces of Numair, George and Elliot filled her vision. "Sarah, don't try to move." Numair ordered as Elliot backed up to the side of the carriage, resuming his seat.
Groaning, she slowly moved her right arm – her left wouldn't budge, and she almost fainted when she tried moving it – and felt around her waist band. When her hands closed around her wand she groaned again, this time it had nothing to do with pain. Holding the wand up so she could see it clearly, she swore, a long stream of creative invectives, as she saw it in two pieces. "I went to so much trouble getting this damn thing!" Her complaint came out as an angry whisper. "It was made 'specially for the last Messenger to go to that dimension! None of the others worked. Aww… damn…" She felt her eyes close, and Numair slapped her face lightly to wake her up again.
"Sarah." His voice was full of concern. "You need to stay awake. You're in shock. Keep your eyes open for me, okay?"
"You slap my face one more time and I'm going to kick you in the balls." She threatened, and she heard Olivia snort.
Casey's face appeared in her vision, and she almost jumped. "All that training, and you're going to kick him in the family jewels?"
She gasped a laugh, and screwed up her face as pain stabbed through her chest. "Okay, don't make me laugh. Please don't make me laugh. How'd I get in here, anyway?"
"You fell through the trees, with a stormwing hot on your tail. What happened to your Nimbus?" Numair asked, keeping up the conversation.
Sarah set her teeth, taking a few shallow breaths before answering. "I got rid of the hurroks, 'cept the ones being ridden by the mages, they were shielded too well. Then a bunch of stormwings almost took my head off in an ambush." She chuckled. "Turns out they're better flyers than hurroks, they herded me back towards Greenstone and kept me busy long enough for th' mages to land a solid hit. Set fire to my broom and the back of m' legs. Then a stormwing finished off my broom by slicing th' top bit off. It kinda went down hill after that… and now I gotanother thing to buy when I go back t' that dimension, and I aint rich there. Bloody hell, this is shaping up to be a bad day."
"She's a little… insane, when she's only half lucid, isn't she?" Munch's face joined Casey, Numair and George's.
Sarah felt her eyelids get heavier, and Numair began slapping her cheeks again. "Come on, stay awake."
"Don't…" Despite the mage's efforts, she couldn't stay awake, and her eyes closed against her will.
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"This is…" Elliot trailed off, and Olivia gripped his shoulder, squeezing it reassuringly.
"It'll be alright." She murmured in his ear.
"How?" He asked, clearly shaken. "We've been pulled into some weird shit."
She pulled back, unused to hearing him swear. "We need to focus on keeping on top of this. We can't let ourselves be overwhelmed."
"Overwhelmed?!" He turned to look at her in disbelief. "Sarah just fell through the God damned sky! After flying off on a magic broom! After we were brought here by a God, not the Holy Father, which goes completely against Catholicism! And the God won't let us go home! Why the hell can't we let ourselves be overwhelmed?" Elliot was yelling by now.
Numair looked up from his position kneeling next to Sarah; his dark eyes were serious as he spoke. "Detective Stabler. Do you hear those cracks? Those are the attacks of two very powerful mages attacking my shield. Regardless of how easy I may make this look, your yelling is distracting me. Keep it up, and we'll be incinerated by an attack from those mages."
"Why don't you just turn them into a tree?" He retorted.
"Because that would result in a tree on the other side of the world becoming a man." Numair replied, and the sound of hooves clattering ahead of the carriage, distracting them from any further repartee. The mage rose to a crouch, peering out of the carriage to see who it was as Wildcat slowed to a stop on the side of the road. He turned to George. "Watch her." And jumped off of the carriage, hurrying outside.
"I guess the cavalry's arrived." Olivia muttered.
She stood, following Elliot as he stepped down the steps, and her gaze was drawn upward. There was a stalemate of sorts; the men in the King's Own aiming at the hurroks bearing mages and the stormwings that were hovering above them, and the mages threatening spells with their yellow and teal magic pooled around their hands.
Numair and Alanna had them beat, however, in sheer power. The Lioness broke the stalemate, throwing a net of power around the hurroks and their riders, who broke free after a moment's effort. Numair threw a bolt of magic at the male mage; its hurrok disappeared in a blaze of fire, and a stormwing dove to catch him. That decided the attacking forces; the stormwings and remaining hurrok took off, jeering as they flew into the horizon. Numair and Alanna threw bolt after bolt at them until they disappeared.
Olivia and Elliot had watched in awe, even as Alanna bustled past them, a hard look in her eyes as she bounded up the steps to the carriage, disappearing inside. Instead of following the woman into the crowded carriage, they made their way to the side of the road and sat heavily. The events of the previous few days had taken their toll on Olivia and Elliot; they leant into each other for support.
Munch, Fin and Cragen joined them after a few moments, choosing not to mention the position they found the partners in, leaning back against trees for their own support. Men from the King's Own brought them waterskins to drink from, and jerky to eat. Casey and George remained in the carriage, watching over as Alanna tried to help Sarah.
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"Come on, Sarah." Alanna breathed. "Wake up. And stop fighting me." She had one hand on Sarah's chest, the other was stroking a sweaty brow slowly.
"How is she fighting you?" Casey asked, confused.
Alanna's voice was distracted when she answered. "Sometimes a healer finds it difficult to heal someone because they fight them subconsciously. Sarah doesn't normally do it, but she's normally awake to be healed." Frowning, she put more of her Gift into the suggestion to wake up, and Sarah moaned softly, her eyelids fluttering.
"It's easier to heal people when they're awake?" George watched the process closely; he had expected it to be the other way around.
"Nope. Just Sarah. When she's asleep she'll fight just about anything." Alanna answered. "Come on, wake up." When the younger knight's eyes finally snapped open the red head smiled softly. "Did you realise you were fighting me in your sleep?"
Looking around for a moment to gain her bearings, Sarah winced as a wave of pain hit her, soon to be squelched by Alanna. She tried for a grin that came out as a grimace. "So, doc, d'you think this qualifies for a pass on the Midwinter balls, or should we call the hurroks back for another pass?"
"Shh. Don't try to joke; you were never any good at it anyway." Alanna jibed, before placing a hand on her stomach. "I want you to focus on not resisting me. I need to deal with your internal bleeding." A soft purple glow gathered around Alanna's hand, and Sarah's eyes grew distant
Casey and George watched, awestruck, as the bruise that had spread across Sarah's abdomen slowly shrank into nothing. A couple of audible cracks followed, and the younger knight swore. "Damnit Alanna!"
The expression of pain on Sarah's face slowly disappeared as Alanna stroked her forehead again. "I'm sorry Sarah, but you tense up when you know I'm about to heal a broken bone."
Sarah grumbled, but Numair and Alanna were the only ones close enough to hear what she said. An expression of interest crossed Alanna's face. "Where'd you learn those?"
"Last time I visited Leia and the kids Han had some of his friends from his ol' smuggling days around. They had quite the mouth on them- ow!" She cried out as Alanna focused on her arm, binding it to a splint after straightening it out quickly. Gritting her teeth, she cast Alanna a death glare. "Cow."
"Baby." The older knight retorted.
Sarah's face suddenly turned grey, her mouth turned downwards in a grimace. "I'm feeling kinda nauseous."
Alanna's face almost mirrored Sarah's. "That'll be the shock. Don't throw up on my shoes. Here, use Numair's."
Sarah laughed, and it turned into a strained cough. Groaning, she rubbed her chest with her good hand. Casey repeated Sarah's earlier plea; "Don't make her laugh."
The younger woman sent her a look of gratitude. Alanna patted her shoulder. "Sorry. Alright, you should some rest, and I'll deal with your concussion. Just don't fight me, I'm already tired from dealing with your friends."
Sarah nodded and closed her eyes. George peered at Alanna from the other side of the young girl. "What about her burns and the slashes on her shoulder?"
Alanna shook her head, even as Wildcat joined them. She had been unhitching the horses to spell them from their efforts hurrying them to aid, and now she watched anxiously over the younger Shang. "How is she?"
Alanna answered first George's question, then Wildcat's. "The gashes on her shoulder and the burns on her legs will be alright as they are; I'm too tapped to do much else for her right now except make her comfortable. And she's out of the woods now; one of her ribs was poking into her lungs, which was making it hard for her to breathe but it didn't puncture the organ, thank the Mother. I'm about to deal with her concussion, and I've dealt with the extensive internal bleeding. She'll sleep the shock off, and when we get her to Corus Duke Baird can help me heal her properly. Numair, do me a favour and contact Jonathon. He needs to know everything that's happened, and it'd be good if Duke Baird was ready and waiting when we get there tomorrow."
"You'll be arriving tomorrow?" Numair frowned. "When are you leaving?"
"The men are setting up a litter as we speak for Sarah; we'll be leaving as soon as we've got her ready for the trip. You'll all follow later, with the rest of the Own." Alanna turned to Casey and George, staring at them pointedly. "I trust it won't be an issue, staying in the care of Numair while I get Sarah the help she needs?"
Casey glanced at the male mage. "I think he's proven himself. I can't vouch for Elliot… but then, I think you're more of a verbal punching bag for him right now. Sorry."
Numair sighed, holding a hand against his heart in dramatic flair. "I shall take his jibes with good nature. I am forever the martyr."
"Forever the Player." Alanna retorted. For the benefit of the earthlings she explained. "A Player is like a street performer. And this Player should get going and talk to Jon about what's happened tonight. He'll want to know."
"Yes King's Champion. Whatever you say, King's Champion." He feigned a salute and debarked from the carriage, calling up a black ball of magic as he did so.
Alanna sighed, meeting the eyes of the earthlings in dismay. "Sarah's rubbed off on him. You should see him at court functions. Sometimes he doesn't even bother with an intellectual response to slurs against his nature."
"What does he do?" Casey asked; George looked interested.
"Pokes his tongue out at them. It's ridiculous. And he's teaching bad habits to his daughter; she does it to every Conservative she sees when they pass in the halls. Excuse me." Alanna closed her eyes as her breathing evened out and she placed a hand on each side of Sarah's head.
Casey and George took this opportunity to leave, following in Numair's footsteps, to find the mage standing a few meters away, speaking softly into his palm, a light scowl on his face. When they reached the others from their dimension, they were confronted by the sight of Olivia asleep, her head resting on Elliot's shoulder as his rested on top of hers. Casting an amused glance at the shrink, Casey knew he must have guessed, like she had. The two of them had the highest likelihood of detecting a crush between the detectives; George was a shrink and Casey was… well, she wasn't blind like the other detectives of the SVU.
They joined the detectives wordlessly; that silence was shattered when Alanna yelled loudly in the carriage. "He said what?" soon after she stomped down from the carriage, a scowl on her face. "Of all the Gods cursed, idiotic, pigheaded ideas! How can he think of shows of strength when she was nearly killed?!"
Numair followed, a patient look on his face. "He's sending two Rider Groups to accompany us, and he wants the entire Second Company to come with us. Baird will be travelling with the Riders; they'll be here in a few hours, and you said yourself, you've got Sarah stabilized. We need to approach this rationally; if the people that attacked Sarah return, we want as many people as possible here to defend her, if it comes to that."
Alanna shot him a death glare, as though blaming him for joining with the side of reason, and stomped off to terrorize the men of the King's Own. Numair sighed and sat by the earthlings. "And now you know why she's called the 'Lioness'. You'll get to meet Daine sooner rather than later; His Majesty's sending her to speak with the animals in the general area, to try and find out where the mages went."
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Olivia woke up with a start, and realised her head leant against a warm – and bony – shoulder, and someone was leaning their head against the crown of her own. Glancing around she accounted for Munch, Fin, Cragen, George and Casey; only the attorney was awake. When Casey noticed Olivia was asleep no more, she grinned wickedly. "So. You and Elliot."
"There is no 'me and Elliot'." Olivia snapped quietly. "How do I move without waking him?"
"I don't see how-" Casey was cut off by loud exclamations from the back of the carriage, which had remained on the side of the road since Wildcat had parked it there. It had been four hours since the Riders had apparently left Corus, and they were expected at any moment.
Now, however, Sarah limped around the side of the carriage. "Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow." Her face creased with pain from every step. When she saw Olivia and Casey staring at her, she tried for a weak grin. "Good morning."
Elliot snorted and shifted his head; Olivia pounced on the opportunity to shunt his head off of her own, escaping the precarious situation she had found herself in. She only hoped Captain Cragen pretended like it had never happened. "Good morning." She answered Sarah. "Shouldn't you be lying down?"
Sarah shrugged, which set off another wince as she pulled the clotted wounds on her shoulder. "Probably. But all the little aches and bruises are conspiring to make that very uncomfortable." She limped over to a well lit tent, and disappeared behind a flap. The two women could hear her arguing with a man that spoke in hushed tones. "No, Hakim, I willnot go back to sleep. I'm hungry. You know how it is when you wake up from a healing, the stomach comes first…. No, don't! She'll force a sleeping draught down my throat…. Just give me the damn apple, and I'll take jerky if you've got it. Ohh, is that wine I see?... What, no, I don't actually want some; I'm assuming Alanna'd like this camp in one piece come sunrise…. Well if the Riders are accompanying Duke Baird, wouldn't it be better if I was up and about when they got here? We wouldn't want Queenscove thinking I was that badly injured…. Ignore what Alanna said, she's a drama queen. I wasn't that bad off…. Come on… just give me the apple. Thanks Hakim!"
And she ducked out the tent again; this time they saw the wince as she stressed her healing ribs. And now she had two apples and a couple of pieces of jerky, as well as a bag of what looked like trail mix in her hands, and a cheeky grin on her face. As an explanation to the two staring earthlings, she shrugged. "He has a soft spot for women."
As she sat down to eat her food, Numair approached the impromptu camp of earthlings. When he saw Sarah sitting there, eating calmly, he faltered before taking a seat next to her and stealing a piece of jerky. "If Alanna catches you up and about there'll be hell to pay."
Sarah shrugged. "Oh well. I'm more worried about Wildcat catching me. Where is she, anyway?"
"On lookout for the Riders. When they get here I suggest you hurry back to the carriage and play possum, quicksmart." He ruffled her hair. "You had us worried."
"I had me worried, too." She admitted ruefully. "I fully didn't expect a dozen stormwings to attack. Whoever arranged for all this has a lot of connections, and I don't like that one bit."
"None of us do. The fact that someone offered a bounty of an entire village to Spidrens if they attacked you is bad enough, but the idea that they found something to offer the stormwings that would get them to attack the Messenger for the Gods chills me to the bones. And did you notice; the hurroks had slave collars on?" His face was creased with thought; he had a slight frown on his face as he thought.
"Yeah, I noticed. This guy's got a lot of power; do you think it was the two mages that attacked that want me dead, or did someone hire them too?" She asked his opinion; for a moment the earthlings were forgotten, and one by one they began to wake up. They silently listened to his answer.
"If they have the power to enlist Spidrens, stormwings and hurroks to attack you, they wouldn't attack you personally. Someone else is pulling the strings." He answered softly.
"I'd love to know who." Sarah's voice was deadly and quiet; her sharp green eyes serious. Watching her, Casey could see a sudden realisation cross her face. "What about the rest of the Spidren nest? Was it dealt with?"
Numair nodded. "Alanna sent a contingent of the Own after you were stabilised. They came back reporting no casualties… there were a few victims in the cave."
"What?" The sharp enquiry came from Munch; the earthlings had all fallen asleep by the time the Own had been sent out.
"Two women and a teenage boy." Numair grimaced. "I'm told the sight was… unpleasant. There were no survivors."
"The baby Spidrens were too far into their meal, weren't they?" Sarah asked grimly. When he nodded, she slammed her right hand into her knee angrily. "Damnit! I shouldn't have focused so much on the raiders."
"It wasn't your fault." Numair reminded her quietly. "They were taken from a village in your neighbouring fief, not Greenstone, and as far as we know their disappearance wasn't reported. You couldn't have known there were active immortals in the area."
"Mate, you know as well as I do that there are always active immortals in the area." She replied.
Before he could reply, an eagle swooped into the road, landing at Numair's feet with a caw, nudging him with its beak. His face softened, and a small smile played at his lips. "Magelet. You can change back in the carriage; I'll find some spare clothes for you."
The eagle began flapping its wings, to take off again, but Sarah cleared her throat. "Just a minute. Casey, Olivia, Elliot, Fin, John, George, Don… can I call you Don?" Sarah asked Captain Cragen, and when he nodded, clearly confused, she continued. "Meet Veralidaine Salmalin, the Wildmage. She prefers the name 'Daine', though." The eagle nodded to the earthlings before continuing to the carriage.
Elliot frowned. "He married a bird?"
"No. She's human… just a little different to most humans. Give her a minute."
When the woman with shoulder length brown hair, wearing men's breeches and a tunic shirt stepped down from the carriage, she appraised the earthlings with a raised eyebrow. "So you're the people that think my husband is a sexual deviant?"
TBC….