Chapter 11

Horace could be defined with many characteristics such as loyalty, bravery, compassionate, merciful and many more in opinions of those who have met him, however he also had a habit of being extremely impatient as warriors in definition were men of action. Holding his sword in a sweeping action he charged out only to be dragged back by Will who was hiding behind a towering boulder.

"Will what are you doing?" He asked furious. Adrenaline was pumping hard through his veins and he knew that the moment to launch a good attack was when there was a sufficient amount of energy inside him, so that it made him fast and reactive. Horace though did have enough common sense to whisper as Will obviously didn't want to be found.

"Wait we should stop here and see what's going on." He said patiently.

"Wait? We've seen all there is to see Will, or can you not see what's happened to Evanlyn?" Horace argued. For he was right as Will had already noticed. There was a huge amount of blood loss on one side of Evanlyn's stomach as the red liquid made its way down her clothes, drenching them with more blood trying to burst free from her wound. Will assessed the danger by scanning his eyes effortlessly around the immediate area and had already concluded that her wound was a dangerous one since not only was the cut piercing but the weapon that damaged her was pulled out of her stomach again, making the blood able to run more freely out of her wound. He was thankful that he had the sense in bringing his medical kit which was strapped across his shoulder.

"We need to find out if there is anyone else here Horace. What good will we do if we rush out only to be hurt or killed? Who will help Evanlyn then?" Will whispered quickly as he formulated a plan in his mind.

"So what do you suggest we do? Let the stabbers get away and then let her die because we're waiting here prancing around for no reason?" Horace retorted, anger rising inside him.

"No. There is no immediate danger from what I can gather there's only one man around and I'm pretty sure that it's Slagor." He replied. At first the initial shock of seeing the slimy Skandian once again was enough to make him scream in animal terror but he quickly controlled himself and hid behind the boulder to see what the sly man would do next. Slagor, he could see was circling Evanlyn while laughing at her pain. Will felt livid as he saw her scream with agony and no help was being given. He could hear his heart pounding in his ears and his blood rushing in his body. He quickly explained what had to be done to Horace who, at first was seething with impatience but then nodded his understanding and brought the first phase of the plan to action. It was a simple enough plan, but one only someone with a cool head would have had the patience to make. Horace ran out of the protective cover and swirled his sword, acting as if he were a pathetic swords man making the swirls clumsy and holding his sword loosely. Slagor turned to face the newcomer and his face made Will sick. It was a mixture of delight and anger and the conflicting emotions played across his square face, making him look more troll like than he did before. Evanlyn turned to face Horace, her eyes wide with surprise, gurgled trying to tell him to run away but only blood poured out of her mouth instead of words. Slagor laughed louder than he had done the entire day. They began to circle around each other trying to find a weak spot in the other one's armour. Then Horace attacked. Sloppy untimed strokes were given from him which served to make Slagor laugh harder, the strokes were easily blocked by Slagor's massive shield and with one rough swing with his shield he had Horace completely knocked over. He stood in front of the muscled boy that seemingly had no skill with his weapons.

"You really shouldn't have done that boy. I am one of the best Skandian fighters in this Kingdom. But it was sweet that finally someone had the decency to come and try and rescue this serving girl, though it is a shame that it had to be someone as pathetic as you." He raised his broad sword above his head to stab downwards as a dangerous killing stroke but before he did he asked. "Any last words before you never see the light of day again?"

"Yes. I'm not the pathetic one you are you oaf, and you fell right into our trap." Horace's facial expression changed from fear to confidence in a blink of an eye as he saw Will behind Slagor with his saxe knife ready to knock him out. Slagor unfortunately couldn't resist the temptation to turn and he found his head being banged against the solid material of Will's knife. Immediately his legs lost any power they might have held and he slumped to the ground dropping his sword. Will reacted quickly and pulled Horace up then rushed towards Evanlyn, Horace right behind him as Will cut the cords strapping her to a wooden mast. He then gently laid her down on the ground and rummaged in his medical bag to find a canteen of cold water. Horace who was behind him had heard a rustling sound nearby and snapped his head up to find another Skandian lying in wait to attack. This one seemed familiar Horace thought, then it dawned on him that he was the same one he fought back in the practise area a couple of days ago. He racked his brain and remembered that his name was Ulfak.

"Will there's another Skandian here; you look after her while I take care of him." He said. Will nodded in agreement too busy to say any words in reply. After finding the canteen filled with water he poured some of it into her mouth to let the blood wash out then he washed the wound to clear the blood away and to get a better view of the damage. He gasped a little in shock, and after pressing softly against her stomach saw that one artery must have been cut and he knew that if he didn't work efficiently she may well bleed to death very quickly. He wasn't an experienced enough healer to know the exact procedures that had to be taken, but he remembered vaguely his days in the Ward when he would visit the local castle healer and ask questions about the fine art of medicine. There was one piece of advice that popped into his brain just then, and quickly he searched his bag for olives, grabbed a half a dozen from the jar hastily and immediately set up a brief fire to heat them in. He knew the process in theory when it was explained to him but to do it in action was a completely different matter.

"What are you doing here Ulfak?" Horace asked as calmly as he could manage. He had come to like the tall Skandian and he didn't want to have to fight him. Ulfak himself wasn't entirely sure as to what he was doing or why he was attacking the young boy that had only done what was right, all he knew was that despite the flaring rages his father went through and the sins he committed he felt a sense of attachment to the dirty looking man, a sense of loyalty that had never been there before, so he knew he couldn't just let this pleasant stranger leave without fighting in his fathers place and defending his honour. Besides it was Skandian tradition to fight for family whether you loved them or not he thought.

"You killed my father."

"No I didn't my friend knocked him out." Horace said simply. Surprise flitted across Ulfak's face as he registered those words. His father wasn't dead. Instantly he changed his emotion to gratitude.

"Sorry about my father and thank you young man I've told him countless times to put an end to what he was doing but he never listened to me." Horace had his doubts at first when he heard Ulfak apologise since he could have been bluffing to ensure he didn't have any punishments, but when Horace thought about it he knew inside that Ulfak was telling the truth.

"Alright tie him up and make sure the knot is tight." Horace nudged with his foot at the unconscious man that was beginning to stir and Ulfak already set to work grabbing some ropes nearby and dragging his father to the closest tree. Horace then rushed over to Will's side to see how he was getting along.

Out of the corner of Will's eye he saw Horace's figure edge slowly towards him shuffling his feet as he walked.

"Is there anything you need Will?" Horace was wringing his hands apprehensively trying to waste the energy building up inside him as he couldn't help his friend.

"Yes could you please heat these olives up on that metal tray there." He pointed his bloodstained hands in the direction where Ulfak had left the metal tray that morning and Horace, picking it up took the olives and did as Will told him. This was an area Will definitely excelled at more than Horace.

"Er Will why do we have to heat up olives?" He asked confused. He saw Will gently dabbing at her wound with a wet swab he had in his bag.

"Because one of her arteries have been cut and if we don't work quickly she could bleed to death." Will was too stressed on trying to keep her alive that he didn't even try to make her situation sound lighter than it was, even though he knew Horace had a propensity to worry.

"Yes but why exactly do we need olives?" Horace's curiosity took over this time which was a rare case for him.

"The olives are clean substances, the oil in it will keep the heat from the fire and it's that heat that will work to seal the blood vessel so make sure when you take the olives off the tray they're scalding hot." Will ordered still gently dabbing the blood away. Horace picked the tray up with infinite care even though he could feel his fingers blistering and passed them to Will, who picked the olives up quickly and eased them in and out of the wound.

"Should we move her now?" Horace had noticed it was getting quite windy.

"Definitely not, if we move her she would probably start bleeding again; no we have to keep her here." Will answered with a frown on his forehead.

"Aren't you going to bandage her?" Horace did have a basic training in healing and was surprised to see Will shake his head.

"No, an infection may start if I bandaged her now, there may be other things that need to come out as well, in the meantime we'll just have to wait and see." Sensing that that explanation wasn't good enough Will asked him to accompany Ulfak to Ragnak's hall and explain the situation there.

"What? But what about you?" Horace was biting his nails for the umpteenth time.

"We'll manage don't worry besides, Ulfak isn't to be trusted. If he stays here and attacks I won't be strong enough to kill him but if he's sent alone he may never tell anyone what happened here in an act to defend himself." Will pointed out wisely. He also added. "Also you need to bring a healer back here, I'm not entirely sure that what I've done is right. I was working on a theory I heard Kyle the Redmont healer tell me when I was young." Will stood up stretching his back muscles and went to the stream beside the ruins to clean his hands.

"What? You don't know whether what you did was right? Well then what if you did do something wrong? She could die." Horace said following him.

"I know Horace which is why I am asking you to bring a healer, but you need to have some faith." Will pleaded. A shout came from inside the ruins that echoed out towards them.

"SHE'S AWAKE, SHE'S AWAKE!" Ulfak shouted. Will and Horace both ran towards Evanlyn and saw her eyelids flutter open and a moan come out of her lips.

"She's alive." Both boys said at the same time. A feeling of relief rose up inside Will.

Shortly after that Horace took his leave with Ulfak and together they made their way towards the main hall in Halloshalm.

The next two days Will spent bathing her wound, applying poultices, checking to see if there was any infection and giving her as much nutrients as possible. Tug was moved into the ruins so that Will could take his one man tent off and place Evanlyn inside it. Every evening he would make a chicken soup accompanied with many vegetables and plenty of water until she could sit up and feed herself. He was sitting by the fire warming up when she finally opened her mouth and spoke to him.

"Thank you." Her skin was sallow and her figure was skinny, yet to Will she seemed so beautiful. Those two words uttered from her lips did more to him than he ever imagined possible.

"It's alright." He said to her while blushing. He saw she still had goose bumps on her skin even though she was sitting near the fire, so he got up and taking the blanket from inside the tent crouched towards her and wrapped her in it and rubbed her arms to warm her up. She smiled in gratitude from the unspoken act of kindness.

"Thank you again; I really don't know what I would have done without you." She said.

"Really I did the basics any one would have been able to do that." He mumbled.

"Not anyone." She shook her head and looked him in the eye. He looked back at her and saw more than just gratitude in her eyes. He saw love there too. He didn't know however whether it was love for him as a brother or as a lover. Evanlyn looked at him and saw the mental struggle in his mind and decided to make the first move. She leaned in closer her breath clouding around her, and seeing what she had in mind he did too, their lips meeting in the middle. A soft, gentle kiss that showed their affection more than words ever could. Both their lips were surprisingly soft and fitted around each other's perfectly. They both felt a sense of being complete and to both of them it felt like finally, finally it was happening.

Thank you to those who have read this. I decided to make the ending sweet this time instead of a cliffhanger since I thought it was time something happened between the two. Also the knowledge of the whole process of Will healing Evanlyn in this chapter is from a book I read recently so I take no credit from that. Review please to tell me what you thought of this chapter and thank you all for the constructive criticisms that I haven't been reading (jokes) I have and they are useful so thanks again.