Journey of the Messenger Cycle 2 Part 7d

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…An indistinct shape moved over her, vague words… The world faded away again, then slowly everything came back into focus. Ijah could hear horses clomping down the lane away from her. She was still in the stables. The man she had fought lay slouched against the wall, he stared at her with dead eyes. Her head throbbed with the beat of her heart, she rolled over onto her hands and knees and vomited. She sat up, shaking. She looked around.

Two horses were still in their stalls, the ones that had been saddled were no longer there. She attempted to regulate her breathing, stood with difficulty and staggered to the main door. Down the lane she could see the two horses being led by the younger stable hand, the woman they were after was limping along behind the horses. Her luggage had been secured to the back of one of the mounts.

With what seemed like an unreasonable amount of effort, Ijah swung the door shut and walked around the corner, her sword still lay where she had dropped it. Using the wall to support herself, she bent over carefully, and fought the urge to throw up again. She took hold of her weapon. She sweated profusely, leaned against the wall a moment while her nausea receded. After a couple of breaths she set off in pursuit of her quarry.

It was the slowest chase Ijah had ever engaged in. She wondered where the other women were, where the lookout on this side was. Why had the lookout not taken the woman down with her fancy dart shooter? Where was Merhaj?

As she passed the carriage house she could see the manor, there was no sign of the other Kereshi, no sign of captives having fled the house out onto the yard. In fact other than the sounds of the horses ahead of her she could hear little else, though there seemed to be a flickering light within the front rooms on this side of the manor. A moment later she saw fire start to climb the drapes in the closest window. She hoped the captives were not trapped inside.

Ahead of her she noted her prey had nearly reached the gate. She really wanted to run up to them and take them by surprise as it seemed they still had not noticed her. The thought of running made her want to vomit again, she lengthened her stride slightly, dismayed by her weakness.

Of course, when they reached the gate, they spotted her. The stable hand pointed and the woman turned to regard Ijah with a frown.

“I thought you said she was dead?”

“I thought she was.”

“Well, obviously you thought wrong.”

“Uh… do you want me to, ah… look after her?” Ijah thought she detected a note of trepidation in the young man’s voice.

“No, get the gate. I’ll take care of this one.” The woman started back towards Ijah, still limping.

Ijah stopped and raised her sword, despite her best efforts her breath came in short gasps. The woman stopped about seven strides away. The gate was opened.

Within the house the fire was spreading quickly and now provided a modest amount of illumination along the lane.

In the distance Ijah heard a bell sounding.

The woman was on the verge of saying something when a small dart appeared on her left cheek. She swatted at it, “Ow.” Then she pulled it out and regarded it with a puzzled expression, blood trickled down her cheek. She looked to Ijah.

Ijah smiled.

The woman threw the dart aside, said something that might have been ancient Tannican, made a gesture with her left hand and strode towards Ijah with an angry expression. Then she suddenly stopped, regarding whoever it was that was coming up behind Ijah. She was five strides away, nearly close enough.

Ijah was about to rush in when Merhaj spoke up, from behind her, “I’m here, mother. I can look after this.”

Another dart appeared, this time in the woman’s shoulder. She ignored it, but was now backing away. Ijah thought it prudent to remind Merhaj, “She’s a sorceress.”

“Yes, mother.”

Another shot was taken, from the nearby rooftop. This time there was an audible whoosh of air. The woman’s head jerked to the side, she toppled over and lay still.

Mehraj moved forward. Ijah suggested, “Alive, if she is still so.”

The stable hand did not wait around, he jumped into the saddle and both horses moved through the gate, then raced down the street. The fire was noticeable enough that some of the neighbouring locals were raising the alarm, “Fire!”

Merhaj sheathed her swords, picked the woman up and slung her over a shoulder. On their way to the back of the property, Rhelni came up from behind them, her air powered shooter slung over her back. She asked Ijah, “You look like you had a fight with a tree. Need a hand?”

“Likely. My knife is in a large man’s side, back in the stables, near the entryways. Could you…”

“Sure.”

She was not gone long. Some of the other women came around from the back of the house to help them. At the back gate there were a couple carts, two asses to pull them and a handful of nervous looking men. Ijah watched numbly as a couple of bodies were put into the back of one of the carts with the unconscious captive they had taken. There were dozens of other women, some were milling around looking lost, while others were helping as best they could. Together they made their way back to the enclave. Merhaj and Rhelni walked to either side of Ijah, twice they had to help her along. Ijah’s thoughts seemed slow and cloudy, by the time they reached the enclave she was surprised it was still the same night. All she wanted to do was lay down somewhere and sleep, but Merhaj made sure that did not happen. She was soon being tended to by one of the healers.

Ijah was given a bit of healing and some nasty tasting tea, her daughter was given instructions not to let her fall asleep. They were put in a smaller room and she was greatly relieved to be away from all the noise. Merhaj was able to help Ijah out of her bloody clothing and cleaned her up a bit. One of the healers checked in with them periodically, the morning came and went. She was given some more healing, another round of the vile tea and told she could lay down now and rest for a while.

Merhaj woke her a few times throughout the day. Ijah was encouraged to get up for a bit each time, she drank more tea, ate a small amount of bland food at one point and was finally allowed to get some undisturbed sleep.

She woke up an indeterminate amount of time later, Merhaj curled up beside her, sound asleep. Another healer came to see her, spent a great deal of time looking into Ijah’s eyes and getting her to turn her head or track a finger. The healer seemed pleased that Ijah no longer had a headache. She was given a bit more healing and then told to rest. Ijah lay back down beside her daughter who was still asleep, Merhaj had been up for over a day after they had returned to the enclave, keeping an eye on Ijah.

The following day they returned home. The men were anxious over Ijah’s condition, both they and Merhaj made sure she did not do too much over the next eight-day. Such concern and their treatment of her had initially been endearing, but by the end of the week Ijah was very happy when the healer said she could resume her usual activities. Ijah found a spot where she could be alone and spent much of the day meditating and doing stretches.

She had learned that the Bollorod Mission had been a success; The witch was captured, the alchemy lab destroyed, nearly sixty women had been rescued from being sold off to slavers, another dozen and a half women had been taken from the three brothels as well a dozen young men. Three Kereshi had died, two at the manor and one at the safe house.

Ijah was left with a deep feeling of sadness that haunted her for days. She had not been close to the three women who had died, but she thought their deaths had been a heavy toll. Her own brush with death also weighed heavily. To be fair, the one who had nearly killed her had been a big man, very strong and in the end it was she who was still alive. Still… she felt she had lost something in that fight, something beyond the damage that had been done to her.

Into the next eight-day Ijah returned to patrolling the boundaries of the enclave, combat training and socializing. Loud noises or big crowds would still make her head ache periodically and the deep sadness never completely faded.

The city had started to settle a bit; the Freemen were losing ground, driven from some of their strongholds and less able to dominate the traffic on the river. Meanwhile on this side of the East Sister the refugees were quieted, sometimes through force, sometimes by being moved to better living situations. Increasingly fish was the only food available, though there was a rumour that grain was to be shipped in from some of the nearby Maldorn cities.

Sometimes it snowed, mostly it rained, the nearly constant low and heavy cloud cover made the winter days feel like a perpetual twilight. Finally a message made it over the river from Roddarra, she said Elli and Berri were well and that she would be over in a few days with men and supplies for her spring campaign.

Ijah looked forward to her arrival.

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