Chapter 6 – Silvershot
Ebony screamed before she had even opened her eyes. She let all her pain and fear into that one, echoing, chilling sound. She couldn't feel her arms, she could move them, albeit painfully, but she couldn't feel them. The same went for her legs. She could move them, painfully, but she couldn't feel them. It was her back she could feel though, and she wished she couldn't.
The slightest movement made her back feel as if it was on fire. It hurt when she moved her arms, her legs, her head. She bit her lip as she struggled to a seated position, digging her hands into the cool earth for support.
She studied her surroundings. She was still in the Royal forest although deeper even than Lord Padriag had intended to take the Pages. It was so dark here even the trees and grass looked black.
Not that there was much grass were Ebony sat. It was all bare Earth. It smelt of burning too. She ran her hands over the earth and felt a mound next to her. She brought whatever it was up to her nose and sniffed.
"Ashes" she thought, throwing them back to the ground, "Probably human ashes"
She watched the bushes ahead of her rustle, and a large shape loomed out of them. The new shadow.
It crossed to her and stood directly in her view. She let her gaze travel upwards into the silver spidrens evil face.
It held out its leg to her. She looked at it, confused and disgusted. Then it brought the leg smashing across her face.
It hit with its clawed side, and the power smashed her against the forest floor. She felt her cheek with a trembling hand and it came away sticky.
"Get up," said the spidren, "Get up"
Ebony used every ounce of strength she had left. She pulled herself to a standing position. Her weight swayed dangerously, but she faced down the spidren.
"I am Silvershot" it said, voice echoing, seemingly through the whole forest. "I am the sire, the first of all spidrens. And you have angered me more than any human ever could"
"What, what did I do?" she managed to spit out breathlessly.
"What did you do?" he roared, "What did you do? You slaughtered my clan, my children. You gave them no chance of survival. But I got away; got away to make sure you paid. Now I offer you no chance of survival"
"We've got something in common then"
The spidrens leg crashed into her again, sending her toppling to the ground. Silvershot advanced over her, bending his head to her arm.
She gave up. He sank those sharp teeth into her flesh, drinking her blood, and she gave up. Ebony's eyes rolled into the back of her head until all that was seen was startling white. He stopped, and ripped Ebony's tunic with one claw. He cut into her stomach, drinking the blood that poured out greedily.
Ebony whimpered and moaned. She couldn't, she couldn't fight any more. Is this what it had felt like for, for.
"Wait no" she thought, "I can't let this, Mother, Father"
The picture of her Mothers hysterical screaming came into her head. She watched her Father slump onto a chair, ashen. She watched herself and Hattie, as they knelt behind a bush in the shadows.
Then she saw Justard, his face when he told her he was worried, a mixture of amusement and fear. She Rickad's warm smile, Taylor as he flicked a lock of hair from his eyes. She didn't want to lose them. She didn't want to miss the most important moments of their lives. She wanted to be the first Taylor and Hadrick ran to when they were offered places with Knights, she wanted to be there at their Ordeals, she wanted to be at all her friends Ordeals.
And she wanted them to be at hers.
Her eyes shot open. Silvershot paid no attention to her face any more, the blood pouring from her stomach seemed much more important. Ebony let her hand slide down her leg to a slit in her breeches. Silvershot watched the movement then looked up at her. Ebony let her eyes roll backward again. She felt his teeth break new skin as he lowered his head to continue feeding. She felt inside her breeches until her hand connected with something hard. She secured her grip.
Silvershot's head snapped upwards as another spidren approached.
"What" he snapped, blood dripping from those silver spears.
"The others are getting restless sire" it said uneasily, "They want to know when they too can feed on the girl"
"When I have finished and she is dead" he replied, "Now leave"
The spidren turned and scuttled away. Silvershot turned his attention back to Ebony but she was ready on her heels. She lunged, the dagger she kept always hidden under her breeches dug into flesh between the joints of Silvershot's legs. He howled, a shrill, high-pitched howl that echoed in Ebony's ears. But she jumped up and ran.
The howl followed her as she fled blindly through the trees. In her blind panic all pain was forgotten, as she half-ran half-limped forwards. All she thought about was moving forwards, away from the howl that followed her. She could hear the crashing of trees, the ripping of bushes from their roots. But still she ran on.
She didn't see the low branch until it was right in front of her. It knocked her backwards and she tasted blood.
The howl sounded closer.
"You think I'm going to just give up, just run when there's a small chance Ebony might still be alive," Justard roared at his training master. He paced the floor of the clearing, arms gesticulating wildly. He was a frightening entity, more demon than boy, covered in blood and dirt. The scar on his head was freely bleeding and his hair was matted with the substance.
"I can't, I won't leave her. She wouldn't if it was the other way round. We can't, I won't"
"We have to get the injured Pages out of here, Page Sarbrook. We can't let twenty or so boys die because of one Page, whomever they may be. I'm sorry Justard. If there were more than a slight chance I would personally go after Page Salmalin. But I have the others to consider. They need healers, and so do you"
Justard turned on his heels and stormed away.
Ebony lay, bleeding and crying, under a thick buckthorn bush. She could hear what sounded like hundreds of spidrens crash by her hiding place every second. Her whole body shook with fear and effort. She wanted to scream so badly, she wanted to stand up and scream until her lungs burst.
But she couldn't. She lay, face pressed into the dirt, waiting. Waiting until a spidren crashed into the bush and flushed her out of the relative safety it gave. The muscles that she could still feel ached and twitch for her to run, but her mind was worn out. She was exhausted and even her breath was beginning to become laborious.
She froze. She heard Silvershot's voice. It was close, close to where she lay. He let out another chilling howl. Her body jerked. She knew it was for her. It rattled on for what seemed like hours in her mind. He gave another, further away. She could relax slightly, he had moved on.
Justard pushed his hair back and winced. He had forgotten about his head wound. He knelt close to the ground, listening for any unusual noise.
He wasn't disappointed. He could hear howls in the distance. Unnerving and blood curdling, howls of an angry and injured spidren.
He motioned to Rickad and they continued on. They followed a trail of destruction through the forest. Trees and bushes had been battered, knocked aside by something powerful. Rickad was the one to notice splatters of blood on the trail. Their redness dotted the track, on earth and bush alike. As the boys travelled further, the splatters became more frequent.
Justard's face tensed. His features hardened against what he saw. When they found her, the amount of blood loss alone might already have killed her, never mind what the spidrens had in mind for her. He was choking on fear, fear for his best friend. Rickad was silent to, only acknowledging the boy next to him when he saw a new splatter of redness.
Suddenly the blood-curdling howl sounded right before them. They froze, then without a word unsheathed their swords and charged into the darkness of the trees ahead.
Ebony hadn't heard movement from outside for a while. She braved it and stuck her head out of a gap in the branches. All was still although not silent. She heard crashing although it sounded far off.
She pulled her head back into the safe canopy. She didn't want to leave, she wanted to curl up and sleep in this deceptive safety. She had to move though. Lying on her stomach she used her elbows to pull herself from under the bush. Her clothes caught on the branches but she just pulled harder, tearing at the thin cloth, not that there was much left to tear.
She was glad of whatever had happened to her back, it had stopped the feeling in her arms. The strain she'd put on her bad shoulder probably would have finished her by now. The pain in her stomach and back almost had. She would hate to see what she looked like, probably something from a child's scariest nightmare.
She freed her legs from the last of the bushes tangles and used low hanging branches to pull herself to her feet. Ebony's body told her it couldn't run any more but she had too. She broke into a slow jog, not really knowing in what direction she was going. She just hoped she wasn't leading herself straight into Silvershot's path.
She had to duck often to avoid patrolling spidrens. Most seemed careless, they were probably hungry, and they hadn't got their promised feed from her. She continued on, slow jog followed by moments hidden, slow jog followed by moments hidden. It was monotonous.
Hearing angry voices ahead she ran to a bush and hid behind it, listening. Someone shouted and something sailed toward her. She followed its movement overhead and snapped her head down as Rickad landed feet from her.
"Rickad?"
"Ebony?"
He ran to her, enveloping her in a hasty embrace. "You, you look terrible"
"I feel it" she replied, as she heard more human calls, "Justard" she cried crashing into the bush. She fought the branches and thorns blindly in her panic to get to him. What if that was Silvershot, what if he hurt Justard in her place.
She held her arms outstretched in front of her and threw herself forward when she found they connected with air not bush.
She fell, tumbling onto the ground in a heap of limbs. Rickad crashed out behind her, staying on his feet and charged back into the fray.
It wasn't Silvershot. It was a youngster, not wise in the ways of war. It didn't take long for the two Pages to bring it down. Justard ran to Ebony, leaving Rickad to deal the final blow.
He hastily grabbed at her trying to access her injuries.
"No time" she gasped. Her tumble had finally done it. She tried to stand but fell. She tried again but couldn't even kneel. She couldn't feel anything - everything was numb.
"Justard" she cried, "I, I can't move"
"It's ok" he reassured her, panicking himself "We'll help you"
He gently grabbed one arm and placed it round his shoulder. Rickad followed suit. They hoisted her up between them. Ebony felt useless.
"Try and move now," Justard said in her ear.
She did. She put one leg in front of the other, shakily. She couldn't feel her movement though. They weren't making much progress and they needed to leave the forest.
"Can you run?" whispered Justard hearing crashes behind them.
"I don't know," she whispered back truthfully. Then she heard it. It meant more to her than anything else that chilling howl. It spurred her into a run.
Justard and Rickad kept their arms around her and the three ran at the same speed. They steadied Ebony. She stumbled often and it was only their supporting hands that stopped her from falling. The forest was never-ending; Ebony didn't notice that as they ran more daylight filtered through the trees. Rickad saw it though and speeded up the pace. They ran for nearly an hour, that chilling howl always pushing them on. They were running on fear alone now, they had nothing left. Justard was ashen and Rickad was nearly green. Ebony's head lolled and her arms hung.
"I, I can't" Justard stopped bringing them all to a halt. His breath was harsh and rapid.
"Go on" he said, "Go on"
"No" Ebony whispered, "We'll walk. I won't leave either of you"
Rickad didn't speak. He only stared into the distance. "We're there" he said, "We're there"
Ebony lifted her heavy head upwards to where he looked. She saw light, daylight.
"Justard…" but he was up, his arm again supporting her.
They ran, a last effort to bring them to safety. None of them had ever felt this much pain. They would all have rather died then have felt this again. All were bruised, scarred and battle-weary. But they ran, breaking into the daylight. The palace, and safety was a few moments away. The courtyard gate was open and they made for it across the open field.
As they ran through it the sheer effort they had made carried them right into the centre of the courtyard. They stopped, almost afraid to in case their pursuers appeared again.
"Help" called Rickad, "Help"
Hostlers rushed from the stables at the call, in time to see three tattered, bloody and frightening entities collapse to the ground.
Duke Baird thought Ebony and Justard would never wake again, the strain they had put themselves under. Rickad was saved, only one lung had burst under the pressure it had had taken and was quickly mended. He lay unconscious though, his body refusing to wake yet.
As Justard had been rushed to the Duke, his second lung had burst. It took hours of healing to mend them, even when Sir Nealan, the Dukes son was called to help. The Duke had been pallid when he had finished, and Sir Nealan was in bed for a week afterward. Justard had stopped breathing, and the Duke had thought that with the time it had taken to get one lung working, he wouldn't survive. But he fought on, refusing to go yet.
And Ebony. Her back had been badly bruised, so badly Sir Nealan thought she would never walk again, and all the bones in her upper right side had been smashed again. Blood loss, from her various cuts and gashes was horrific. The cuts on her back re-opened and bled often, as did the slash across her stomach. Her face was un-recognisable from the cuts, scratches and bruises that covered it. Bruises covered her whole body and her arms and legs were covered with nicks from bushes. Most of the cuts and gashes had been infected also by dirt in the forest, and her whole body was fighting.
Duke Baird and an army of healers fought for her too. He looked like death walking but refused to leave her and Justard until they were safe, as did Sir Nealan. It took days, but they got them stable. Only then did the Duke rest.
"It's not good," he told Numair, "I'm sorry. I wish I could say something else. It's not looking good for her or the boys. The boy Rickad, we cannot wake. Justard and Ebony are stable for now, but it could all change. Numair her injuries were horrific. I've never seen such a combination on one person, a child at that. But I do have hope. She survived the forest and got herself here. She's a fighter, and she's fighting on"
And fight they did. Three days later and Rickad's eyes fluttered open. Against all his best efforts he was moved to his own quarters away from his still fighting friends. He couldn't move to visit them, and when Taylor tried he was turned away. Healers worked night and day on their bruised bodies.
Justard woke next, minutes before Ebony.
"How long, how long?" he murmured, his eyes flickering open and shut.
"Four weeks "the kindly voice above said, "You've been out four weeks" It took Justard awhile to voice his next question.
"And Ebony?"
"It looks like she's going to be ok" the healer replied, watching the girls eyes shoot open.
A week later and Ebony was propped up in her own bed, awaiting her visitors. Numair had found some way of placing wheels on Justard's bed and everyday he was wheeled into her room. Rickad was walking now and came everyday to. Taylor popped in anytime he wasn't busy with his new Knight master.
On one such occasion he had arrived early and confided in Ebony he had turned down his first because her and Justard had still been unconscious.
"Taylor. Why?" she said sighed.
"I couldn't go without knowing you two were ok"
She didn't care about the pain it caused her. She had thrown herself into his arms.
It wasn't long though before he found himself a new Knight master though. He never told Ebony who had offered first, but he was now Squire to Sir Callard of Monlay.
Numair wheeled Justard through the door. They were in another argument about the history of Tortall, some war or fight Ebony knew nothing about. She sighed and rolled her eyes.
"I can't wait until I can get out of this bed and hit you two over the head with a very heavy book" she called.
"You wouldn't" said Justard, "You love me too much Eb"
Authors Note – Sorry about the last Chapter. I've been through it again. Just a note to say that after tomorrow chapters will be less frequent – about one a week as I'm back at school after half-term. Sorry but I will try and get at least one out every week or so. Thanks for reading!