Voices woke him. Old habits kicked in, making Anders lie still and silent when he first awoke, evaluating where he was and what was happening near him before taking any action. Voices again, not close enough to make out the words, but the tone, yes – and to recognize who was speaking. Seeker Reynard, coldly furious. Guillaume, sounding exasperated. They fell silent again. He remained still, sure they must be near and not wanting to risk making any noise that gave away his hiding location. He held his breath as the sound of their footsteps became audible. They were close; very close.
"Il est proche, très proche,"(1) he heard the Seeker mutter, voice a near-whisper. He couldn't be more than a few feet away.
Something teased at the edges of his perceptions; a faint whisper of near-sound, like the high-pitched whine of a mosquito but not heard with his ears; a sensation he was all-too familiar with from years ago, in Amaranthine, when that bitch Rylock would hunt him down. He stiffened in shock. They had a phylactery. But his had been destroyed, just before he left Amaranthine; he'd crushed it himself, before fleeing, after taking it from one of the dead templars.
That first day, when he'd been knocked unconscious – they must have made it then, he realized. Just in case he did manage an escape, as he had.
"Come out, mage! You cannot escape us!" the Seeker suddenly bellowed.
Anders started, then sprang into motion, throwing him out from underneath the log, on the opposite side from where he thought the templars were. As he rolled to his feet he got a brief glimpse of their startled faces, and then he was running, sprinting into the forest, away from them. An angry shout from behind let him know they were in pursuit. His only hope now was to outdistance them again, to get away and this time stay away.
He heard the twang of a bow, felt a sudden pain in his thigh, and tumbled to the ground as his leg gave way from beneath him. He cursed, grabbing at his leg, having only enough time to take in the arrow sunk deep into it before the Seeker drew close enough to smite him, sending him back down into darkness.
Waking up frightened was getting old, was his irreverent thought as he regained consciousness a few minutes later. He was on his back on the ground, surrounded by the Seeker and three templars – the kind one, the young one, and one of the ones given to coarse remarks. His hands and ankles were both bound, though at least he'd been spared the indignity of being hog-tied. His leg ached abominably.
The young templar was crouched down beside him, examining where the arrow was sunk into his thigh, hands surprisingly gentle as he handled Anders' leg. The kind one bent down to look as well, and frowned. "Faut-il enlever la flèche?"(2) he asked.
"Non, attendez jusqu'à ce que nous soyons de retour au camp, et que nous ayons des bandages prêts,"(3) the young one replied.
The only words Anders understood in that was "no", "camp" and "bandages". He supposed they must be discussing whether or not to remove the arrow. He was surprised to realize he still had a little power; they'd captured him, but none of them had yet drained him. He swallowed. "If you pull it, I can heal it," he said. The two of them looked at him, then looked toward the Seeker for a decision.
Reynard was scowling. "We will tend it back at camp," he snapped.
The other templar snorted. "Why not just kill him here? We have lost too many good men in this foolishness!"
Reynard's head snapped around, and he glared at the man. "Because our orders are to bring him in alive. The Divine wants a prisoner to see brought to trial and publicly punished, not a damned martyr!"
The templar snorted, then turned to look down at the mage, and scowled. "It will be difficult to carry him, if the arrow remains in his leg," he pointed out.
The Seeker spat a curse, then sudden stepped forward, knocking the young templar over in his haste. He bent down, grabbed the arrow, and yanked it free. Anders cried out and curled up in pain, bound hands reaching for the bleeding hole in his leg. Before he could heal it, Reynard slapped his hands away and drained him.
"Ce n'était pas nécessaire,"(4) Guillaume said mildly, giving Reynard a look of distaste, then drew a knife from his belt. Anders flinched as the man reached down. Guillaume paused for a moment, giving him a look, then patted his uninjured leg comfortingly before using the dagger to cut a couple of long strips off the bottom of Anders' shirt. One he folded into a pad and pressed against the wound, handing the other to the young templar. "Aide-moi avec ceci, Antony."(5)
The other templar – Antony – efficiently wrapped the strip around his leg, binding the pad in place, the two of them ignoring the Seeker's visibly fuming presence as they took care of the wound. Then with Antony's help Guillaume stood Anders up, leaned down, and hoisted him up over his shoulders, with his legs hanging down on one side of the templar's neck and arms on the other. Anders yelped as the change in positions put pressure on his wound for a moment. It was a rather humiliating position, he found himself thinking as the man rose upright, steadying him with one arm wrapped around his legs and the other threaded through his bound arms. It reminded him of the was a farmer might carry a lamb or kid to market.
They set off back west along the edge of the forest, back toward the road, which was somewhere out of sight beyond the curve of the forested hills. The Seeker led the way, Guillaume in the middle, and the other two templars in back of him. Anders sighed and thought dark thoughts about what he'd have liked to do to the templars were it not for the slight problem of him being seriously lacking in power at the moment. And tied up. And tired, even after his unscheduled nap. And hungry again. The thought made his stomach growl loudly.
Guillaume turned his head to peer at Anders. "Hungry?" he asked.
Anders sighed. His stomach gurgled again. "Yes," he admitted sulkily.
Guillaume snorted in amusement, and released Anders' legs for a moment to dig in his belt pouches with one hand. He produced a strip of jerky, and held it up near Anders' face. "Eat," he said.
Anders managed to get the end of it in his mouth. It was dry as an old bone, and tasted more like salty leather than meat, but his mouth flooded with saliva and he gnawed industriously on it, swallowing bits as they softened and worked loose. Concentrating on eating it without having it drop out of his mouth took most of his concentration; they had reached the road again by the time he started paying attention to his surroundings again.
"Il est lourd, j'ai besoin de me reposer,"(6) Guillaume said tiredly. Antony stepped forward, and helped him to put Anders down on the ground.
The Seeker frowned, then crossed his arms and nodded. "We rest, then," he agreed, sounding annoyed.
Presumably, Anders guessed, because the two had not waited for permission from him first. He found himself wondering about Guillaume's seeming independence from the Seeker; the man paid only the minimum of attention to Reynard's orders, and seemed to hold him in some dislike. Yet Reynard wasn't the sort that Anders judged likely to tolerate any form of insubordination, so why hadn't he done something about it?
His musing was interrupted by the man crouching down to hold out his waterskin and help Anders to drink some of it. Then he pulled a few pieces of dried fruit out of another belt pouch, and gave Anders a piece to chew on before rising to his feet and eating the rest himself.
"All right," Guillaume said after a few minutes, and lifted Anders up again. "We go."
Seeker Reynard snorted and turned away. They started to follow the road into the woods, back towards the clearing where they'd left everything earlier. Anders turned his head over on Guillaume's shoulder, and looked back down the road, watching the open grasslands recede. He'd been so close... if only he hadn't fallen asleep, he thought miserably.
And saw several figures step out into the road behind them, back where they taken their break.
1 – He is close, very close.
2 – Should we remove the arrow?
3 - No, wait until we're back at camp, and have bandages ready.
4 – That was not necessary.
5 – Help me with this, Antony.
6 – He is heavy; I need to take a rest.