Chapter 19 – An Inside Contact

When the soldier from King Urien's army realized that Willow was trying to help heal him he stopped crying so loudly. But he was too distraught to answer any questions even if he did speak her language. So after she had done what she could, she moved to the next man.

Willow could see that he had a deep cut in his stomach. He was angry and knocked away her hands. "Why bother to heal me just so you can kill me later?" he yelled.

Merlin knelt down beside her and began to assist. The man pulled away from him too. Merlin said, "We're healing you so that you can stand trial for what you've done here. If what you did was done for good reason, or under someone else's orders you might not be executed. But if we don't heal you, you'll most certainly die."

"I don't want your stinking Camelot help." He tried to spit at Merlin, but only managed to spit on himself.

"Miss," another of the wounded enemy soldiers called, "If he don't want no healing, I'll take it. I didn't do anything real bad. I'm likely to be worth saving."

The cantankerous soldier began swearing at the young, new soldier who had asked for treatment. Willow glanced at Merlin, he nodded.

She packed up her stuff and moved over to treat the young man. "What's your name?" she asked as she unpacked her equipment beside him.

"Jordey, miss. Thank you for healing me. It's real nice of you." He showed her the deep cut on his leg.

She did her best not to wince. It was deep enough to see bone. She could see that he'd already put pressure on it to slow the bleeding. She cut the cloth away to expose it better. "This is going to hurt, Jordey, but it will help prevent infection."

He nodded. She gave him a piece of wood to bite down on. Then she cleaned out the wound with water and then again with an astringent. "I'm going to have to sew the wound shut, Jordey. It won't close on its own without help." She prepared the gut string and needle. "Jordey, are we safe here? I don't want those children to be attacked again. Should we take them elsewhere? Somewhere safer?"

He nodded. He took the wood out of his mouth to say, "We're part of an advance for an army that will probably come through here. We were supposed to make sure there weren't any of your armies in this direction. One of us was supposed to go back to warn them if we found anything. We weren't supposed to fight or attack. But our leader, Axel–he's the one your soldiers pulled off the girl and killed–he saw the girl in the yard and couldn't be stopped. We only killed the father and older brother because they were attacking Axel. Axel deserved to die. He was an animal." He gasped and put the wood back in his mouth biting down hard.

As Willow sewed, she asked, "How far away is the army?"

Jordey winced and took the wood out. "They're a few miles away. They might not come this way, but if they hear back from the other advances that the other ways aren't safe they'll be here before nightfall. You better move those kids soon, miss." He groaned and put the wood back in his mouth.

Willow glanced up to see that evening was approaching. "Thank you Jordey. I'll make sure our soldiers know that you helped us keep the kids safe."

Tears came to Jordey's eyes. He spit the wood out. "I hate this damn war. It makes decent men into animals. I wish I'd never agreed to fight for King Urien."

Willow rested a hand on his arm momentarily. "Jordey… that's an Ithel name, isn't it?" She pulled the gut string tight to tie it off.

He swallowed and looked scared. "What do you know about Ithel?"

She gave him a reassuring smile. "I healed a woman from there once. I'm from Crab Tree." She applied witch hazel again as an astringent to prevent infection.

Jordey smiled through his pain. "We're practically neighbors. I grew up in Ithel. But I moved to the city to apprentice as a carpenter. They need carpenters in the city."

Willow started to treat his other wounds. "One of the boys I grew up with trades with Ithel. Joel Ranber. Do you know him?"

Jordey smiled a little. "I used to play cards with Joel when he came to Ithel. He's not very good at cards, but he's a real good sport."

She cleaned up a wound on his arm. "I'm surprised an Ithel boy agreed to fight for King Urien. I thought your people hated him because of his blasphemy."

Jordey turned his face away to look out over the field. "The old folks really do hate him and his new religion. Us young' uns don't hold to the religious teachings as strongly as the old people do. But even so, if I was still in Ithel, I would have never joined King Urien's army. My ma is right put out that I did. She thinks that they're a bunch of animals. I thought they were only half as bad as she made them out to be, but after seeing what they did here and how they acted, they're worse than animals."

Willow bandaged the wounds. "I heard a rumor that King Urien is trying to raise an army of troops from Ithel to fight us."

Jordey chuckled mirthlessly. "They'd sooner fight for Camelot than King Urien. They hate this war."

Willow asked, "I wish they would fight for Camelot. We could really use their help. King Lot is starting to attack Camelot from the east now, too. You know, if Ithel rose now against King Urien they could probably win their freedom back from him."

There was a twinkle in Jordey's eye. "That would be a beautiful thing to see."

Willow tied off his bandages. "Camelot would do what she could to help Ithel."

Jordey said, "Thank you for healing me, miss. I have to ask, are you that young healer girl apprenticed to Granny Milli?"

She smiled. "That's me. My name's Willow. We're headed to Crab Tree now. We'll be taking you with us. Maybe we'll see Joel Ranber there. He probably is sticking close to home with all the fighting going on." She packed up her kit.

Jordey swallowed. "Do you think I could talk to him? Ask him to put in a good word for me to the leader of this troop?"

Willow winked and smiled. "I think that can be arranged." Then she looked to see that Merlin had healed the last captive, which only left the loud mouth angry one unhealed.

Merlin spoke with Arthur. Willow joined them and informed them of what Jordey had said to her. Arthur decided that the loudmouth would be left behind. Loud Mouth swore in protest about it and threatened to hunt Arthur down personally. He was ignored.

They took the family, their dead and wounded, and the three treated captives and moved out as quickly as they could. On the way to Crab Tree, Arthur spoke with Jordey about his conversation with Willow. He was very willing to cooperate.

They didn't run into the army Jordey had warned them of. But one of their scouts saw some troops moving off in the distance to the west.

Once they reached Crab Tree, Willow went looking for Joel Ranber right away. She found him burying a box of coins at the edge of the woods.

She cleared her throat. "Joel, could I talk to you?"

He jumped, turned, and tried to act like he wasn't burying anything. "Willow! What are you doing back here? I thought you went off to be a fancy healer for the king." He glanced around and stepped between Willow and the box. "What can I do for you?" He cleared his throat. "Did you get Prince Arthur all healed up?"

"Relax, Joel. I won't tell anybody about your hiding place. And if you don't trust me, then you can bury it someplace else after we're done talking." He chuckled and visibly relaxed. She smiled at him. "There's secret intelligence from the king's spies that King Urien is going to try to raise an army from Ithel to help them fight their war."

Joel's mouth dropped open. He shut it and looked around as if he expected soldiers to spring from the trees and attack him at any minute. "Ithel's really close to us!"

Willow nodded and raised her eyebrows. "Joel, do you think Ithel would fight for King Urien?"

He frowned and shrugged. "Some might. There's always some people spoiling for a fight. It doesn't really matter to them who they're fighting for. They just like to fight. Ithel may have a bigger share of those types than most. Their religion seems to breed it in them."

Willow nodded again. "Do you think Ithel would rather use this time as an opportunity to make an attempt at fighting their way to freedom?"

Joel chuckled. "That would be a good idea. Too bad it hasn't occurred to them."

She stepped toward him. "Would you be willing to be a part of helping it occur to them?"

He took a step away. "Me?"

"Yes, you." She moved closer. "We captured a soldier from King Urien's army who's from Ithel. He says he knows you."

Joel looked around. "Damn it, Willow. Don't connect me with an enemy soldier. I'm no traitor. I know you think I'm not good enough for you, but you don't have to ruin me."

She shook her head. "No, Joel. I don't have anything against you. I would never do anything to hurt you."

He looked at his feet. "Except break my heart."

Willow shook her head again. "Come on, Joel. You never felt that strongly about me."

He spit at the bushes. "I cried my heart out to my granny." He shook his head. "She'll never forgive you." He looked Willow in the eye. "She's not a woman to cross."

Willow's stomach dropped, but she would deal with Joel's granny latter. She stayed focused. "Joel, I put your name forward to Prince Arthur as someone who could help us raise Ithel against King Urien. The captured soldier is named Jordey Trembon. Do you know him?"

Joel spat again. "Jordey? Fighting for King Urien? Why'd he go and get mixed up in that?"

Willow shook her head. "He regrets it now. He says the war turned the men of King Urien into animals. He wishes he had never agreed to help fight. If you help him, we might turn him into a hero by getting Ithel to rise against King Urien, instead of for him. Are you in? You'd be a hero too."

He shifted from foot to foot. "How dangerous will it be? I'm a man of business. I'm no warrior. And I've got me granny to think about."

"Prince Arthur would do his best to keep you safe. But there is some danger. You don't get to be a hero without risking anything."

Joel nodded. "Prince Arthur, did you say? Is he here?" When she nodded, he said, "I'm in." Willow took him to meet Arthur. On the way, she asked, "How mad is your granny?"

He blushed. "Mad enough to put a curse on you."

Joel shrugged. "I don't know. I stay away from her when she dabbles with magic. She offered me a love potion to give to you, but I told her no."

Willow sighed. "Thank you." She wondered if such things really worked.

Joel stepped away from Willow. "But I think her curse had something to do with love. You'll have to ask her." They had reached Arthur, so Willow resolved to visit Joel's granny.

There were long discussions between Arthur, Joel, and Jordey. Merlin was involved with most of them. Willow was involved with many. Especially at the beginning and when she insisted they give Jordey the time to rest he needed since he was wounded. Merlin promised to see to it. After things got over her head with the calculations and the plans, she went to see Granny Mill to figure out what to do about Joel's granny's curse.