Disclaimer: Not mine, but a friend says I ought to be more specific that that, so, I do not own any of the names, characters or places that you may recognise in this fic. I own only: Sara, Cas, Zakit, Emerald, Daric, Arden, Liam, Sanya and Raylon.

Chapter Thirteen

She was dimly aware of the battle raging as she pushed her hair out of her eyes, smearing blood over her forehead and through her hair, the blood of Scanrans, her comrades and her own.

"Kel! Get over here!" Aiden yelled from his post away from the battle.

Regarding Aiden with something akin to suspicion, she nodded and turned away from the battle, which by now was very one-sided. "Everything aright?" she asked him as she approached him. Men on stretchers, both Tortallan and Scanran, surrounded him and assistants scurried to and fro, tending to the most badly injured first.

"Everything is going fine over here," Aiden replied. "But I want you to sit down on that stretcher over there for a few minutes."

"Aiden!" Kel protested. "I've no time, there are still Scanrans out there!" She tried to raise her right arm, but pain shot up to her shoulder.

Aiden nodded grimly as she winced. "I know, but you're injured."

"Not that badly!" Kel replied, making to rejoin the battle.

Roughly, Aiden yanked her glaive from her hands and glared at her. "Sit, now."

Kel scowled at him, but did as he ordered. As she sat, she had to fight not to collapse; she was feeling very light-headed.

"Now, shall we have a look at your injuries?" he asked in an almost patronising voice.

"Oh, go treat someone who really needs it!" she told him, placing her left hand behind her to steady herself.

Aiden said nothing, but he turned around and seemed to be searching for someone. "Ah, Sara, there you are."

A female healer, robed in the white of a novice, turned around, looking almost startled to hear her name. "Yes?"

"Can you take a look at this young lady for me? I've got to go and rescue yet someone else from the field." He left, taking it for granted that she would and ploughed through the fight, wielding his sword expertly, but not killing anyone.

"Morning, my Lady," Sara greeted her as she curtsied and then gently removed Kel's burnoose. "You look like you've got a few nasty injuries."

Kel snorted. "No, Aiden's just being over-protective. I'll be fine."

"Of course you will, my lady, now if you'd just let me…" Sara grimaced as she gently pried Kel's chain mail out of the deep gash in her arm.

Kel gritted her teeth and suffered in silence, hoping that it would all be over quickly. Her upper arm throbbed violently now that the adrenaline from the battle had started to wear off and she watched, feeling slightly detached, as the blood trickled down her arm, making her arm guards sticky. Gentle hands pressed to her injury and out of the corner of her eye she could see the spark of magic stemming the blood flow. Kel couldn't deny that she was injured, but Yamanis were meant to work through pain and keep going. Healers were all well and good, but only after the battle had finished, and yet they were also taught not to disobey the Healers, so Kel knew she was stuck right where she was, being completely useless.

"Now my lady, I'll have to bandage this up, but I want to see you again tonight," Sara told her as she reached for the bandages.

"You're letting her walk off with an injury like that?" an incredulous voice demanded. "Gods, Sara, you expect to pass your exams?"

Kel turned to see a young man in Rider uniform with the green armband to signify his position as squad healer. He was smeared with blood, none of it his, and his long blonde hair was gathered back in a horsetail. His pale blue eyes gave him the appearance of a Scanran, and Kel guessed he must have been born close to the border.

"Oh shut up, Cas!" Sara uttered, but she dropped the bandages back onto the stretcher and turned back to Kel's injury.

"Let me," the young man told her and he dropped to the floor by Sara. "You go and look after someone else."

Sara glared at the blue-eyed man and stalked off, throwing her hair over her shoulder.

The man grinned at Kel. "Sorry about that, my sister can be…difficult at times."

Kel shrugged, not really bothered about the arguments.

The man did not seem to put off by the absence of her reply. "I'm Casson – Cas for short – the Healer in the Fifteenth Rider Group. Who are you?"

"Kel," she replied, straining for any sight of Dom or Zakit in the battle. She hadn't seen them since they – two squads of the Own, Dom and Aiden's – had been attacked on the road back to their fort, guarding a supply train from Northwatch.

"Ah, the infamous Lady Kel," Cas replied with a wide grin. "How's life in the Own?"

"Fine," Kel replied, pulling away from him as she thought she caught a glance of Zakit's dark skin and black mop of hair. She saw someone fall to the floor and her heart stopped until she realised the body wore the rags of a Scanran, not the blue and silver of the Own. Seconds later, she saw Zakit leap over the body as he engaged in battle with another Scanran. She breathed a sigh of relief and sat back down again. "Sorry," she said to Cas. "Thought a friend had been injured."

Cas shrugged. "How did you get this injury anyway?"

"No idea," Kel replied honestly. "I know someone tried to shoot me, but…" She shrugged.

Cas nodded as he continued healing, mending the worst. Deftly he bandaged her arm up and then reached for a sheet of parchment and pen. He scribbled a note and then handed it to Kel. "Give this to your commanding officer."

"What is it?" Kel asked suspiciously.

"Orders for you to be sent home to recover," Cas replied, getting to his feet and collecting together his tools and bandages.

"Sent home?" Kel protested. "Why?"

Cas raised his eyebrows at her. "Have you actually thought about your injury in the slightest? What good will you be when you've got a serious injury on your sword arm? And you're right handed?" When Kel nodded, he continued, "You won't be able to fight or do scribe duties for a while." He turned to walk off. "Oh, and don't forget to give that to your commanding officer, I don't want to find you here this time next week, or else it'll be too late before the heavy snow comes in and blocks the passes."

Kel sighed and stumbled up and over to where the rest of the injured Own's men were waiting, two of them with orders to leave in their hands.

Her saddlebags were packed, Emerald was attached to the lead rein along with the other spare horses and Magewhisper stood impatiently by the gate.

"Be careful," Zakit told her, hugging her tight. "I don't want to hear that you got killed on the way home."

"You won't," Kel told him with a grin.

"I should hope not," Dom remarked as he ruffled her hair. "I'd rather not have to replace a member of my squad, and especially after she hasn't even been with us for four years yet."

"So you don't care about me?" Kel asked humorously. "You just don't want to have to go through the hassle of replacing a squad member. Well, it's always nice to know where you're wanted!"

"Shut up, silly!" Dom cuffed her ear lightly. "You know exactly what I meant."

Kel grinned at him. "Yeah, I did." She turned to see where Daric and Arden were. The other two men were making their way to their horses. "I've got to go." She waved to the rest of the squad who had come to see her off and mounted Magewhisper.

"Kel!" Dom called as she urged Magewhisper into a walk. "My cousin will be at the palace."

"Of course he will," Kel replied, wondering why he felt the need to tell her that. "It's midwinter in just over a month, one of the busiest times of year for a page."

"No, not Meathead, his sister. She's visiting the palace for the midwinter feasts with a selection of girls from the convent. You'll have to find her, she's your age."

Kel nodded, smiled, waved one last time and then kicked Magewhisper into a canter to catch the other two up.

"Hey Neal," Kel said as she slid into an empty space at the table, biting into her bread before she had even sat down.

"Kel?" Neal asked in amazement as he turned to see her.

"Uh huh," she replied through a mouthful of bread. "How are you?"

He ignored her question. "What are you doing here? I thought the Third was still at the border."

"They are. I was sent home on injury leave." She turned to face Merric. "Could you pass the butter please?" He nodded and handed her the wooden plate with the butter on it. She smiled her thanks and spread it thickly on the remains of her bread. "Delicious," she remarked as she bit into it. "I don't think I've had butter in ages."

"Injury leave?" Neal repeated. "You were injured?"

"Yes. We were ambushed by Scanrans whilst guarding a supply train on its way to Northwatch. Cas – a healer – insisted on three of us returning to the palace on injury leave."

"How badly injured?" Neal asked quickly, and Kel saw his fingers twitching, almost like he was certain that no one else could be trusted to heal his best friend.

"Well that depends on whom you want to believe," Kel told him. "I was sent home because I injured my right arm, and apparently it could take a while to be properly healed. The healer said that seeing as it was my sword arm, there would be no point to me staying on the border, so he sent orders to my commanding officer to send me home."

"Who's your commanding officer?" Neal asked curiously.

"Your cousin. Didn't you realise that when we last saw you?"

Neal shook his head. "No, you seemed more like friends than commander and subordinate."

Kel shrugged and she polished off the rest of her stew before she spoke again. "Where are Cleon and Roald?"

"With their Knight masters. Cleon and your brother are due back sometime next week and Roald is spending the winter at Port Legann with Sir Imrah."

Kel nodded and sighed. "Ah well, I'll catch you around. I've got to report to the commander of the First Company whilst I'm at the palace, although I've been given orders not to do anything that involves using my hand, so I think he'll be hard pressed to find me work."

"So you get to laze around while we work our butts off?" Neal asked indignantly.

Kel laughed. "Yes." It was only once she was nearly out of the door that she turned to ask, "Is your sister at court yet? Dom told me to look her up."

Neal nodded his head. "Yes, she's staying with my parents, I'll introduce you to her tonight."

Duke Baird smiled kindly at her. "Keladry! It's been a long time since I've seen you."

Kel nodded. "Yes, your Grace."

His face turned grave. "My son tells me you've been injured."

Kel shrugged. "I'm on injury leave, yes, but I'm fine, really." She grinned at Neal as he came to stand by his father. The resemblance between them was plain to see. "And I thought you would be studying for your big exams," she joked.

Neal smiled and guided her into the room. "Sanya," he called, and there was a muffled shout back. He turned to Kel. "She'll be here in a minute, probably applying the last touches to her make-up, checking her hair is perfect or some other useless thing."

"Neal, be kind," rebuked Baird softly.

Neal's mouth opened in a retort but then he caught his father's eye and nodded submissively. "Yes, Father." He turned to Kel. "You wouldn't let me have a look at your arm earlier, but we've plenty of time now."

Kel laughed and shook her head. "Neal, for goodness sake, I'm fine. I saw a healer as the battle was winding down."

"Yes, but he, or she, may have been rushed and wouldn't have had the time to treat you properly!" Neal told her, rising out of his seat and moving to sit on the arm of her chair.

"I'm fine," Kel told him firmly.

Baird chuckled under his breath. "Which healer did you see? Anyone I might know of?"

Kel shrugged despite the pain that coursed through her arm at the simple movement. "A Rider Healer, I think he said he was from the Fifteenth."

"Casson Loachan?" Baird asked.

Kel nodded. "Cas, yes, and his sister Sara."

Baird grinned. "I trained Cas, until he dropped out in favour of a career in the Riders, and I'm training Sara with another healer. They're both very talented." He turned to his son, "If Casson treated her, I'm sure she'll be fine."

Neal looked imploringly at her.

"You're not going to talk about anything else until I let you, are you?" Kel asked wryly.

Neal shook his head, and taking her question for permission to inspect her arm, he gently pushed the short sleeves of her tunic up to her shoulders and unwound the bandages. "Nasty," he commented calmly. "How did you get it? Sword? Arrow?"

Kel shrugged. "Probably both. I was shot at, I know that, but I hadn't noticed how bad the injuries were until Aiden ordered me out of the battle and to the healer's station."

"You were fighting with an injury like that?" Neal asked in horror.

Kel shrugged and opened her mouth to reply, but a young woman walked into the room.

"Ah, Sanya, at last," Neal said dryly.

"Oh Nealan, what a pity," Sanya replied in an equally dry voice. Then she turned her attention to Kel. "Oh you poor thing, you got injured? Have you seen a healer?"

Kel smiled. "Yes, four of them now." She stood up, straightening her burnoose. "I'm Keladry of Mindelan."

Sanya smiled. "Neal's told me a lot about you, I'm Sanya of Queenscove, Neal's sister. Was there any particular reason you wanted to see me?"

Kel shook her head. "Dom told me you were at the palace and that I ought to meet you, I hope you don't mind."

The girl shook her head, her emerald eyes flashing with excitement. "No, it'll be great to meet someone new. Neal isn't the most inspirational company I've ever had."

With an offended glare, Neal said, "I can see where I'm not wanted!"

"At last, I had thought it would never dawn on him," Sanya muttered. With an almost angelic smile to her father, she took Kel's uninjured arm and guided her from the room and along the corridors to another room. "My room," Sanya told Kel as she pulled Kel through the doorway.

Sanya's room was brightly coloured with big paintings adorning the wall that her bed was pushed up against. As Kel walked in and turned around, she was surprised to see that the wall that the door came from was decorated with weapons. She looked from the wall to Sanya and back again, the brunette did not looked strong enough to use any of the weapons; she had the look of a dainty court lady, not a battle hardened warrior nor that of a woman who used weapons for the exercise.

Seeing Kel's look, Sanya explained, "I can't use them. They just looked really nice on the walls. The only weapon I can use is a bow and even then just because my father and brothers insisted I learnt so that I could protect myself. Neal was determined to teach me how to fight with a knife, but I had no wish to carry knives under my skirts like a thief."

Kel nodded slowly, unsure what to make of her comment about thieves. The Queenscove family were well-known progressives and good friends of the Baron and Lady Alanna, so she was sure Sanya meant nothing derogatory by it, but what did she mean?

"So I'm the complete opposite to you in that, you carry knives, surely?" Sanya's eyes widened and her hands flew to her mouth. "I didn't mean you were a thief, honest! I just meant that we were complete opposites in that I don't use weapons and you do. I wasn't calling you a thief, honestly, I wasn't!"

Kel chuckled. "Don't worry, I won't take offence."

Sanya visibly relaxed. "Thank the Goddess for that! Neal would be ever so mad if I annoyed you!"

"Huh!" Kel snorted. "He's too protective for his own good, I think it runs in the family, Dom can be just as bad."

"And then what happened next?" eager voices pestered.

"Next, the mighty Lioness handed the King of Thieves the fabled Dominion Jewel with strict orders for him to make sure it got to the King."

"She handed the most important object to a thief?" one young voice demanded. "That was stupid! He'd just steal it!"

Lerant grinned slightly. "He didn't. He took the jewel and raced through the hallways of the palace, slaying men as he ran towards the throne room. When he got there, he found the battle raging fully, as hordes of men in Eldorne and Tirragen colours fought with the King's Own men…" he looked up as the door to the study opened and Liam stuck his head around the door. "Can it wait?" Lerant asked, gesturing at the children who sat in front of the warm fire, eagerly listening to his version of the Coronation Day Battle. Every afternoon, some of the children gathered in Lerant's study and he recounted the tales of battles both old and new. Sometimes he told them of the famous battles that the Lioness had fought in, the some of the battles during the Immortals War and sometimes about the border skirmishes that he himself had fought with the Own.

Liam shook his head. "No, it can't wait; the children will have to amuse themselves for a while." He glanced towards the children who were eyeing him with interest. "Can you step outside a moment?"

Lerant nodded and felt worry well up inside of him as he gently placed the child that had been sleeping on his lap down on the rug and stepped outside. "What's wrong?" he asked as soon as the study door had closed.

Liam started walking down the hall, and Lerant followed him. "There's a storm coming in," Liam explained as they ran down the stairs. "A bad one if I'm any judge of it, very heavy snow to add to what we've already got. We sounded the horn and called all the villagers to the castle as usual, but there's one lad missing; a boy of about eight. According to his mother, he went out searching for a dog in the late morning. He'll have been out there for over five hours now. We need to find him."

Lerant sighed and closed his eyes. He had dreaded this ever happening. Searching for someone was hard enough, but searching during a snowstorm was hopeless. He looked out the window where the first flakes of snow were starting to fall. By the time they had gathered together a search party, it would be almost impossible to see further than a few metres. Instead of finding the missing boy, they could very well loose men as they searched. From the look on Liam's face, he knew as well as Lerant did that the search could very well be futile. The child could already be dead.

"Who is it?" Lerant asked as they ran to the Great Hall where the majority of the villagers were sheltering.

"Raylon Elam."

Lerant stopped still. "Little Raylon?" he asked as he face creased with worry. "He'd only just got over the flu!"

Liam nodded. "I know." He tugged on his brother's arm and they continued along. "I've got an idea to help with the searching. You know if horses have to ford a river that you tie them together? Well, can't we do something similar? Space out every few metres and tie each man to the next so we form a long continuous line? That way we can't lose people."

Lerant nodded. "Excellent idea, but do we have enough rope?"

Liam nodded. "We've sixty or seventy metres of it."

"We'll also need lanterns – the kind that can be tied to a belt – and lots of warm clothes for the villagers. We can't have them going out in the clothes they already have. Um…" Lerant ran a hand through his hair as they turned the corner and strode through the large double doors to the Great Hall. "Also long sticks, broom handles, or spears will do and sturdy leather boots, all sizes and enough for all the villagers. We'll need their help as well as that of the Eldorne guard."

There was uproar as they almost ran through the doors to the grand hall that used to host balls and such functions back in the days when Eldorne had the Crown's favour. Men and women besieged both Lerant and Liam as they pushed their way through to the steps at the front of the hall.

"Quiet!" Lerant yelled once he stood on the steps above the villagers. "I'm sure you all know that Raylon is missing and we need to find him. I want volunteers to help in the search alongside the Eldorne Guard. Only those that are well and have been for a few weeks. I don't want anyone out there who has the Flu or any other sickness. You can stay back here and help the servants prepare beds and drinks for the searchers and Raylon. If you are willing to help search, I want to see you at the storeroom now." Lerant turned and ran up the staircase towards his room.

When he returned to the storeroom minutes later and now clad in warm clothes and sturdy boots, he found both villagers and guardsmen changing into the warmer clothes that were being provided and tying themselves together as Liam was instructing them. Grabbing flint from the table, he lit lanterns and tied them to the rope that the searchers wore around their waists. Once everyone else was ready, he tied himself to the very end and made sure that Liam was tied to the other end. Checking he had a compass in his pocket, he started to lead the men out of the storeroom and through the corridors. In any other situation, he would have laughed. They must have made an amusing sight, tied to each other and walking in single file down the grand hallways of the Eldorne Castle.

As they stepped through the wide doors to the outside, Lerant felt the cold biting at his skin and he shivered. Snow fell around him, and the wind whipped it into a frenzy, making it swirl and leap as it covered the old snow in fresh white powder. Taking a deep breath, he placed his spear in front of him, feeling the ground around him so he would not fall. As they walked further from the house, the men began to form a horizontal line and Lerant glanced back, just in time to see the light from the fires disappear in the snow.

"This is bad," he muttered to himself. Then he straightened. "We head out to the fields!" he yelled over the wind. "If you need to contact the person next to you, yank on the rope!" Looking up at the dark sky, he sent up a brief prayer to Mithros, resettled the rope around his waist and walked with a confidence he did not feel towards the fields.

As time went on, he felt his eyes starting to close and then he slapped himself. If he let himself fall asleep, he would die for sure. No one could survive the cold for more than a few hours, Raylon was most probably dead. The thought depressed him and he tried not to think about it, instead he hung onto the hope that Raylon would be alive, possibly just playing at the castle and he had been missed during the head count. Shouts echoed through the fields, desperate voices calling for the small boy. He heard a muffled yell and the rope tightened as someone fell over, then it slackened again. Reaching to his hip, he pulled out a flask, drank a mouthful of brandy and fastened the flask to his hip again.

"Found him!" a voice yelled over the wind and Lerant ran blindly towards the voice. He stumbled, picked himself up and stumbled again. Cursing, he jumped up off of the ground and continued running towards the cluster of lights that shone through the snow. The searchers parted for him as he came towards them and he ducked under rope and crawled to where Liam was examining a clothed child.

"Well?" Lerant asked anxiously as he knelt beside the child.

There was no need for Liam to answer. Raylon lay curled up in a ball, covered in snow. His black hair had been pushed away from his face, which was blue with the cold and fixed in a grimace. His small fingers clutched at the body of a whimpering dog. He looked completely innocent, but very dead.

By late January, snowdrops were pushing through the snow around Raylon's grave. The clearing within the grounds of the Eldorne Castle that had become the graveyard was peaceful as Lerant stood there, his hands deep in his pockets and tears in his eyes. Since Raylon had been buried there, they had lost eleven more villagers from exposure to the cold and three from illness. Seven of the dead were children. Lerant bent down and plucked a snowdrop from the ground. Throwing it at the foot of Raylon's grave marker, he turned and strode from the clearing.
A/N: Just a little note, according to my beta - the most wonderful Anya, a.k.a. Lady Silvamord ::builds shrine and worships her:: - there are three or four words in there that are spelt different depending on the region you live in, so, it's not that I've got an incompetent beta - quite the opposite in fact – it's just I happen to live in England.

Thanks so much to everyone who reviewed the last chapter, and I feel terrible not getting around to thanking you individually, but I want to put this up asap, so I promise, within the next few chapters, I will thank everyone and answer questions.

Just to let you know, it may be a while before I update again, because I'm doing a little writer-y coure-y thingy that demands that I write nothing but what is set of me, so all my fanfiction is going to have to be snuck - is that a word? - in around this and I'll have to hope that no one notices, so...shush. It's between you and me, alright?

Hannah