Chapter 18
"You know," Randen sounded dubious, "I think our luck may be about to run out."
Kyminn looked up from the shirt he was mending. He'd snagged it on a branch a couple of days before and in spite of the jostling of the wagon bench, his stitching wasn't all that horrible. "What do you…oh."
The 'oh' was for the ugly looking clouds moving down in on them from the southern horizon. "I see what you mean. And just last night we were congratulating ourselves on how we haven't had anything more than a brief shower so far."
"Derris says that Jannen's found a place for us to hole up. It's a couple of miles up the road though. Any chance we can speed up?"
Kyminn looked at the sky, then considered his patient. "Derris will be alright as long as they stick to the road. Go on! We'll catch up!" he called ahead to the three Companions.
Jareth flicked an ear in acknowledgement and the three launched into a canter as though sprung, Derris awkward in his tripod gait.
Randen flicked the reins and the horses broke into a brisk trot, restive with the change in the weather.
"Are you okay if I climb back and start breaking out the wet weather gear?" Kyminn balled up the shirt. Mending was going to wait.
Randen nodded, all his attention on driving. "Can you…?" He jerked a chin at the team.
"No problem. I'll keep an eye on them in case anything happens, but it looks like you've got this." Kyminn crawled off the bench and into the bed of the wagon, praying that they wouldn't hit a bump at the wrong moment.
By the time they pulled up to the campsite, Jannen had already unslung the Companions and they were grazing, taking advantage of the brief lull before the weather set in. Kyminn began tossing gear out of the wagon, mostly oiled canvas for rigging shelters for the horses and Companions. He'd also managed to get grain measured out into feed bags for everyone.
"Kyminn, can you help me with this pen?" Jannen had cut brush and was enlarging a clearing to create a shelter for the horses.
Together, they lashed saplings and piled brush to create a barrier to confine the horses, then strung oiled canvas over top as shelter.
"Kyminn!" Randen's shout was distinctly frustrated. "I don't have time to keep trying this over and over. Can you get the team to back the wagon in please!"
Kyminn closed his eyes, his hands holding invisible reins as he reached out to the team. A pull ahead, a turn, straight back, there. Done! Randen waved his thanks and carried on setting up the wagon.
Jannen grinned at him. "I must say Kyminn, that from time to time you are a most useful fellow, aren't you?"
"One tries, Herald," Kyminn said dryly, his eyes twinkling.
Randen, hobbling slowly, was able to unhitch the team from the wagon while the other two finished the shelter for the Companions. The brush they piled around the outside was strictly for keeping the rain out, certainly not for keeping the Companions in!
They were still only partly finished when the skies opened up. They were soaked within moments and by the time the shelters were complete and sufficient forage cut, they were, as Jannen put it, "More mud than man at this point."
"I believe," Kyminn breathed, accepting the mug of tea and bowl of soup that Randen handed him, "That you are officially my favorite Herald on the planet."
"Hey! What about me! I was out there in the rain too you know!" Jannen's attempt at 'hurt dignity' was spoiled by the fact that he was wrapped in a chirra-wool blanket with gaudy slippers on his feet. He too was wrapped comfortably around a mug of tea.
A shrug, since he was too busy inhaling soup. "He's a Herald. You, as you pointed out, are more mud than man, so you don't count." He caught the other Heralds' eyes and the three of them burst out laughing.
The rest of the evening passed quickly. The interior of the wagon was shortly festooned with wet gear and the distinct smell of wet wool and wet horse. They scraped off what mud the could, in the knowledge that they would have to do a better job when space and weather permitted. The wagon was far too small to sleep the three of them, but the space under the wagon provided ample room for Jannen and Kyminn. Randen had taken the time to lay out a piece of canvas and toss their bed rolls down before the weather broke.
"You know," Jannen mused, pulling on a latch in the floor, "I'm not sure why the former owner felt it necessary to have a door in the bed of his wagon, but I suspect it had a lot to do with him being able to slip out by means other than the door. But I, for one, am very glad that I can go down to my bedroll instead of outside in the rain to my bedroll!"
Scene Break
The nearby CRACK of thunder woke Kyminn and he shot bolt upright, smashing his head against the underside of the wagon. His yelp of pain was drowned out by screams from the wagon above. An answering equine bugle echoed from the enveloping darkness.
"NO!" Kyminn added his own shrieks to those of man and beast. He and Jannen collided in a welter of limbs and movement as they scrambled into the open.
"You get Derris! I'll get Randen!" the Herald had to shout to make himself heard. Kyminn didn't bother to reply, darting off through the sheeting rain.
The lightning turned their camp into a garish picture show of rain and shadow and enraged Companion.
Derris was halfway to his feet, frozen where Kyminn had locked his muscles when he realized that the Companion was trying to rise. Muscles bunched and strained under the white hide and blue eyes glared hate at the healer.
:YOU WILL NOT KEEP ME FROM MY CHOSEN!: The unfamiliar mind voice was a bass roar in Kyminn's head, waves of desperation and rage battering against Kyminn's will. Another equine scream of rage shattered the night.
"Stop! Let me help you get up! You're going to cripple yourself!" Kyminn reached out desperately, trying to make some part of Derris hear him.
A squeal and white teeth closed on Kyminn's sleeve, leaving a deep gouge in the skin beneath. Kyminn staggered back, away from the white tower of fury.
:CHOSEN!: Derris's call filled every mind in the camp. Kyminn staggered again, while the horses squealed in panic. Two Companions, Kyminn couldn't tell who, vaulted the brush wall and charged towards the flailing beasts.
:He can't hear you! And he's not listening to us! He's blocked us out!: Jareth had left the shelter and taken up station behind Kyminn, trying to get Derris's attention, to bring his focus back to the here and now.
Certainty blossomed in Kyminn's consciousness, pulling his attention away from Derris. "Jareth! Tell them to force Shadow, that dark bay, into the corner! He's the one that's going to bolt! He's the one that's going to get the others hurt!"
As his Foresight claimed its sip of his strength, Kyminn's gift wavered, just enough.
Derris surged against Kyminn's bonds, struggling to gain his feet, forelegs spread, shoulders bunching with the strain.
Jareth darted forward, locked chest to chest with Derris, pushing Derris's weight backwards, his own forequarters forming a living brace to replace Derris's fragile strength as the Companion gained his feet.
They stood like that, an unnatural tableau. Two Companions chest to chest, one trying to force his way forward, the other holding him back. Derris bugled his fury again as Kyminn's gift reclaimed him.
It felt like forever. Kyminn didn't know what to do, how to reach Derris, how to keep him from permanently maiming himself.
"Kyminn!" Niko skidded to a stop with Jannen clasping a shivering, blank faced Randen before him.
"Get him on Derris!" Kyminn gestured for Niko to move up beside the other Companion.
"Are you sure?!"
"No! I think I can protect Derris, and it's all I can think of to help them both!"
Jannen nodded and together, the two of them wrestled Randen onto his Companion. The Herald's breath was rapid and his eyes glassy, his movements unnaturally clumsy and uncertain.
Slowly, with Randen draped over Derris and a Companion on either side, the bedraggled group made their way the few paces to the Companions' shelter, Kyminn forcing Derris to take only the smallest of steps. Kyminn was swaying on his feet by the time the journey was done.
They settled Randen in beside Derris, the other Companions forming a protective wall of warm flesh around the wounded pair. Jannen disappeared briefly, then returned with bedding for Randen and dry blankets for the Companions. Kyminn simply slumped against a tree, numb and aching.
"Let's get you back inside," Jannen reached down an arm to pull Kym up behind him. Kyminn roused himself enough to ask, "The horses?" He tried to reach out with his mind and cried out at the pain of it.
"Niko says they're okay now. Bryann did a good job of getting them settled." Jannen twisted back with concern. "How are you?"
"Stinking awful," came the gasped response. "If I tell you what to brew, can you do that?"
Kyminn didn't remember being helped off Niko and into the back of the wagon. He roused long enough to tell Jannen which herbs to brew for Randen and which to brew for Kyminn himself. Opening his eyes, even in the dim lamplight, caused stomach churning pain, so he simply curled up and waited.
"Kyminn," a hand gently shook his shoulder. "Kyminn, you need to sit up. You need to drink this. And…oh my. You need stitches." A cloth blotted at the wetness on his face, then again at the pain in his arm.
Kyminn fumbled for the mug. "Do you need my help?" His voice was slurred with the pain of his concussion and the reaction headache.
"No Kyminn. You've done enough. I've got this." Jannen's voice grew distant as blessed oblivion claimed him.
