In the Company of Knights
Ch. 3
Author: Miss Lizz
Rating: R for life
Disclaimer: Nothing is mine.
She was annoyed as she stalked across the field toward the outer walls. Annoyed at the knights, the prince, herself, she was annoyed at nearly everything. How could they be so callous, so harsh and unyielding to a man so badly injured he could barely move a fortnight after being rescued, a man whom she felt at the very core of her being would do no harm. They judged before knowing anything. Whilst the outer bailey stormed she past, Diana growled angrily.
That is just like a man! She thought in a fine rage, these silent tirades came with an ever-increasing frequency. Her fellow leaguers all seemed to think the same, if that is what one could call what went on in those men's heads. Forsooth, it oft felt as though she fought them as well as evil and injustice. How aggravating they could be.
"Another argument, sister?" Donna asked as Diana stormed into the inner bailey, sending chickens squawking out of her path. Her younger sister was only here for a short time out of her travels around the lands with her own league of knights. It was nice to have her home even for a short time.
Diana smiled, "Whatever made you think that?" She paused for a moment, "I overheard Clark and Bruce threatening J'onn and came to his defense―"
"Who's J'onn?"
At this she started, she had forgotten no one else ad been told his name, no one else knew who he was. No one else had even been up to the tower that she knew of.
"The green man. His name is J'onn."
"He is awake? And talking?" Donna asked in a cross between surprise and delight. "I was beginning to think he might not. You know, he's actually recovered quite fast… I'm glad he's doing so… well…" Her statement was left hanging and Diana noticed that conversations had come to a halt all over the bailey.
Following her sister's gaze to a darkened portal leading to the North wing, she bit back a cry of surprise. There in the doorway, standing on unsteady legs, leaning heavily upon the stone wall to keep his feet, was J'onn. He stood before them warily, naked save a bed fur clutched round his waist, and very feverish if the slightly glazed look in his red eyes and the sweat dripping off his body were any indications.
"Donna." Diana moved quickly towards him. They needed to get him back upstairs before either Bruce discovers him or he re-injures himself. Getting to his side, she stopped suddenly and had to look up.
She never imagined he was quite this… massive. Even hunched and drawn in on himself as he was, she had to crane her neck to look at his face. There had never been a man she had to do that with, he must be near the tallest man on this world.
"What are you doing, J'onn? You are very ill, you must stay abed until you are well." She began and motioned Donna forward again, "Donna, help me take him back upstairs… Donna!" She said again sharply to get the younger woman's attention. Stopping dead in her track to gape was not going to help him.
"I—I can… manage on my own," J'onn said in a voice frighteningly weaker than it had been earlier. "The girl is… uneasy around me… Save you lord the trouble… You should… just… let me leave… princess…" He trailed off as a great coughing fit shook him, causing him to lose his brace on the wall and stagger forward. He would have collapsed had both Diana and Donna not suddenly been there to support him.
He's getting worse, she thought, feeling the scorching heat of his body beneath her hands. I can't let you leave.
Together the sisters escorted the weakening man back to the tower. When it was discovered one of his wounds had reopened during his jaunt down to the hall, they slowed their progress so as not to tear the wound further. Upon reaching the gaping door to the tower room, Diana began giving orders.
"Find Wallace and tell him to start bringing up buckets of cold water to fill the tub, urge him to hurry. Please, go to my chambers and bring back every healing herb, poultice, and anything else you can find and carry, and some clean bindings… and some clothes… and needles with plenty of thread." They lowered him gently onto the bed; he was past the point of exhaustion but remained doggedly conscious. "Please, sister…"
Donna scrambled down the stairs three, often four, at a time, ran pell-mell across the bailey, startling workers and merchants and sending chickens squawking out of her path, finally taking flight once reaching the outside. Wallace should be out on the training field. She hoped he was.
"WALLACE!" Where in Gaea's name was he?
Every knight on the training field had paused in what they were doing at her cry but merely returned to what was being done before when they realized that it was not them she was after save for two knights on the far side of the field. Emerald- and scarlet-garbed figures looked up expectantly at her hurrying form.
"By the goddess, Donna," began her childhood friend with a grin, "I'm not deaf, you needs not shriek like a banshee. What is it you need? Or are you just loath to part from my company?"
She ignored his lighthearted teasing and landed. "Diana requires your aid," she said tensely. Wallace turned serious in less than a heartbeat. "She needs you to bring water enough to fill a tub in the North Tower."
One reddish-gold brow arched skyward in bemusement while from next him came an almost choked sound of amusement.
"Be quiet, Kyle."
Kyle could no longer contain his mirth and near collapsed with laughter. "I am sorry," he burst into a fit of giggles, "No I'm not. You've been reduced to a-a… a water boy!" Laughter bubbled out of him while Wallace scowled.
"The North Tower you said? Does she have a temperature preference for the water?"
"Cold." Then he was off in a blur and Donna turned to a still chuckling Green Lantern, "You be silent. And help me get everything else Diana will need."
He groaned in mock childishness but followed her anyway and used his magick ring to hold everything the young Amazon took off the shelves in her sister's chambers. Jars, sachets, powders, salves, tinctures, oils, herbs, fruits, nuts, thread, needles, bandages, and nearly all else so that by the end of it there was quite a load.
"Were you planning on bringing the walls as well?"
The remark earned him a glare most foul.
End Ch 3
Here's another chapter finished. The next will hopefully be better, I think. Do you want another chapter? Please tell me.
Thank you,
Miss Lizz