Here it is: the chapter that's been giving me a supreme amount of trouble. DX It's Dreamweaver chapter 15 all over again!

Highwaymen

They passed the mountains, leaving familiar territory behind. A buffer of dark desert scrubland lay a dozen miles beyond — here, they landed, giving the wyverns a chance to rest and rehydrate. This also gave Katonah a chance to voice her worries.

"How long will I be staying in Windmire?" she asked no one in particular. They were sitting beneath the crag of a windswept rock formation, though they needed no protection from the wind nor sun. The cold breezes from the mountain had disappeared, leaving a dry chill in their place — the cold was only compounded by the weak winter sun.

"That's up to Xander," Elise said before handing Katonah a canteen. "I doubt you'll be going back to the Northern Fortress though — at least on a semi-permanent basis."

That made it hard to swallow. "And the prisoners?" she said weakly, thinking of Iseabail, who had no idea of what had become of her. "What will he do with them?"

"He's not going to chuck them over the side of the cliff, if that's what you're worried about," Camilla said with a roll of her eyes. "Xander has more decency than that. Most likely, they'll play the same role: incentive, leverage."

"But how will I know that they're being cared for?"

"What's the matter?" Leo asked, his curled lip on the verge of turning into a sneer. "Don't you trust us?"

Katonah flinched.

"Leo!" Elise scolded, hands on hips. "Don't be mean." Turning to Katonah, she said, "When we reach Windmire, you can raise it with Xander. Maybe we can see if there's a way to take care of your tree, too."

Katonah nodded weakly, trying to ignore the unfriendly stare Leo was still directing her way. His hostility towards her seemed to have only gotten worse since they'd departed from the moorland. It made her despair a little: was there a way to get back into his good books?

Her last concern was about her things, the few that she had, that she'd left at the fortress: some sewing pieces that she'd been working on, her tribal furs. Not her father's necklace — she had that around her neck and she rarely took it off.

"Those luggage carriages that gave the surprise away?" Elise said. "Your stuff's on those. They're headed for Windmire as we speak. In fact..." She glanced up at the sky. "If we take off now, we should get to the castle right when our stuff does."

They departed shortly after, remounting their winged lizards and leaping into the sky. Elise and Katonah took the lead, the young princess directing her wyvern up to a higher altitude than they'd flown at earlier in the day. At this elevation, the world was just a dark carpet below, miles reduced to stitch-lengths on a cold, dusty quilt. Elise began pointing downward in different directions as the dry landscape passed beneath them.

"See that glowing smudge over there? That's Macarath. Just to the north is the tundra that's home to the Ice Tribe. And over there to the west? Do you see that mountain peak? That's Mount Garou. Home to the wolfskin. You don't want to mess with those guys, trust me. Though I have a friend there. He fought for Nohr in the war five years ago."

A dark, spiky horizon soon came into view: a forest, to Katonah's eternal surprise. As they drew close, the elevation deepened into a pan-shaped valley, and the forest stretched up from the floor, the shockingly-dark bark of the trees making the swath of woodland look like one great shadow.

"The Woods of the Forlorn," Elise said in a spooky voice. "Home to the Carnivale, the trees that eat people!"

Katonah couldn't help but snort. Trees eating human flesh? Ridiculous. "Somehow, I doubt that." 

"Right? Especially after having talked to your tree friend. But I dunno, Kat. You should hear the tales I've heard!"

"How many of those storytellers were intoxicated when they spoke to you?"

Elise laughed. "Oh, quite a few! And some of them may or may not have been touched in the head as well."

"Then I doubt that anyone who goes for a walk in these woods of yours has anything to fear," Katonah said, glancing downward.

"Oh, I wouldn't say that. The stories may be fake, but those woods are scary! Here." Elise wound the reins around her wrist. "I'll show you!"

In a snap, the wyvern tucked into a dive, sweeping down towards the ground so fast that Katonah's hair was blasted backwards. Gasping, she gripped Elise around the waist, holding on for dear life. The swath of muted green below expanded to fill her vision, until the vast expanse of the Woods of the Forlorn was only a thousand yards away, and coming up fast. The wind yanked the tears from her eyes, so she could only too clearly see the painful, hard death in the form of a stony ground and pointed tree limbs racing up to meet them.

"Elise!" she cried.

The princess tugged the reins, and the wyvern immediately pulled up, snapping its wings back open and leveling out until they were sailing a couple dozen yards or so above the tree line. Katonah clung to Elise, panting, and the princess laughed: "Got ya!"

Katonah scowled. "That was not funny. We could have died!"

"Relax, sister-in-law. I'm not a total novice at controlling these beasties." Elise patted her wyvern's head. "I did say that I was good, didn't I?"

Katonah took deep breaths until her heart rate returned to normal. Then she said, "Well, now that we're, for sure, not dead...I suppose that I can appreciate your flying skills."

"See?"

"Hey!" They looked up to see Camilla's massive black wyvern circling overhead, descending towards them in careful, banking circles. Leo was sitting behind his older sister on the beast, and he did not look pleased: the look on his face was as fierce as an impending thunderstorm, and made Katonah lock her arms tighter around Elise.

"What in the world were you two doing?" he snapped down at them. "You scared the hell out of me when you dove like that! I thought you were going down!"

Elise waved a hand. "Relax, brother. We were just taking a look-see. Kat didn't believe me when I told her that this forest was practically haunted."

Well, now she did. Now that she had a chance to study them, Katonah saw that the Woods of the Forlorn were composed of some of the most ominous-looking trees she'd ever seen. Massive and dark, with bare canopies, they resembled black skeletons, their branches clawing at the sky like desperate souls from the underworld, searching for light. Darkness seemed to gather in between them — though it was barely three hours after noon, Katonah could not descry the forest floor. Even when they moved above a clear gap in the canopy, she could see no geographical detail down near the roots of the trees. Something about that was just not natural.

"Scared yet?" Elise teased, elbowing her.

"A little," Katonah admitted, unsettled by the unfriendly-looking trees.

"What do you think they would say if you tried to talk to them?"

Katonah could only wonder. All the plant life she'd ever spoken to during her lifetime had been kind in their detachment and agelessness, and yet, when she imagined having a conversation with one of the trees below... She shook her head. "You can't judge a tree by its bark," she muttered.

"So true." Elise turned to grin mischievously at her. "So...want to see a really scary place?"

"How scary?"

"It depends. On your nerves. There's a marsh not too far from here where the Faceless like to roam."

Katonah blanched. "Sorry, what? Faceless? What are they?"

"Monsters."

"Scarier than the Carnivale?"

Elise grinned. "You ain't seen nothin' yet, Kat!"

"Hey!" Leo shouted again from above. "Are you two done with your sightseeing yet? We should get on while the going's good."

Elise shoved her palm up towards Leo. "Talk to the hand, brother!" She snapped the reins. "Yah!"

"Elise!" Leo bellowed, but their wyvern had poured on the speed, and soon he and Camilla were far behind, the wind drowning out Leo's shouts.

The speed was exhilarating — unlike the dive down towards the surface, the acceleration excited Katonah. She felt the wyvern's muscles pump strongly beneath her as it flapped its wings hard, propelling them forward at a velocity that reduced the forest beneath them to a purple slur. Too soon the rush was over — Elise pulled the lizard up slightly, and they slowed, rising a little and catching a cold current that carried them forward.

"By the way," Elise said as the wind eased up, "sometimes that's how you have to deal with Leo when he's annoyed."

"What?"

"You know. Ignore him. Like we just did."

Katonah was unsure about that — she'd been giving him a polite amount of room for most of the day, but that didn't seem to be curbing his hostility. Still, she chuckled. "You like doing that, don't you?"

"What?"

"Annoying him."

"You don't?"

Considering Leo's temper, Katonah supposed only his endearing younger sister could possibly say that.

They sailed on for a little while as Elise scanned the forested land, searching for the spot she'd spoken of earlier, where the Faceless supposedly gathered. "Okay, it should be around here somewhere," she said, leaning forward a little on the saddle. "Hmm...aha!" She pointed. "See that highway coming up? It should be only a little ways past that."

The highway in question came into view, a narrow, shelf-like path that rose up like a partition between the swaths of trees. It divided the forest into two halves that fell into dark valleys on either side. It was an exposed, lonely road: from on high, it almost looked like a land bridge spanning the length of a leafy sea, one shrouded in a thin layer of mist that only added to its gloom. Elise pulled up on the reins, and with a few heavy beats of wyvern wings, they were rising high over the lonely roadway.

It was then that Katonah noticed something standing on the far end of the highway. Thanks to the mist, it was hard to discern discrete shapes, but she thought she saw something horse-shaped rearing in the gloom. She leaned around Elise, trying to get a better look, and found that she was mistaken: it wasn't one horse, it was two, and both looked to be in distress.

"Do you see that?" she asked, bending around Elise and pointing. She wondered if she was seeing things: horses meant people, and what were people doing out here, so close to these spooky woods? According to Elise, no one was insane enough to brave a hike through this particular forest, even on an elevated highway like this one.

Elise was surprised. "Yeah," she said, squinting. "Looks like horses. That's weird...what do you think they're doing there?"

"Perhaps they ran away from their owners?"

A group of shadows suddenly breached the mist, sending it spinning away in clouds: people, Katonah saw.  A woman, to be specific, thrusting two children in front of her, away from the rearing horses. Even from two hundred yards up, Katonah could see the stark fear on their faces — they were running from something. But what?

Another figure appeared behind them: a man. He was carrying a sword, and he spun around with it, holding it defensively before him and the woman and children, which stopped and hunched, shaking, behind him. With a roar that Katonah could barely hear from this height, he charged back towards the mist, back towards the frightened horses.

Something slammed him backwards.

Katonah and Elise both straightened, tense, as a fifth figure emerged from the violet fog, one clothed in all black and also wielding a sword. He was not alone: two others flanked him, forming a threatening trio more ominous than the woods below.

Katonah's stomach twisted. "Elise, do you—"

"Yeah, I do." Elise spun the reins around her wrist, her jaw tight. "Highwaymen."

"Highwaymen?"

"A more academic term for bandits. Nohr's had a real problem with them lately. They stake out lonely roads like this, waiting for vulnerable travelers to pass through their crosshairs, and then they strike, robbing the travelers and sometimes..."

Katonah's fingers dug into the princess's shoulder. "Killing them?"

Elise gave a tense nod. "They're dishonorable scoundrels. They'll do anything for a few pieces of gold."

Katonah redirected her attention down below, horrified. She'd never heard of such despicable brutality before. Yet, her disbelief only attested to her insulation on the moor, where there had never been cause for dishonorable robberies and needless violence.

"What should we do?" she asked as the man scrambled back to his feet, facing the three slowly approaching highwaymen again. "Can we help them?" Now that she was here and knew what was happening, she couldn't imagine not helping someone that was so obviously in need.

Elise turned, giving her a determined thumbs-up. "I'm on it, Kat!"

The wyvern screeched and reared underneath them, but instead of beating its wings and twisting around back in Lord Leo's direction, as Katonah had expected, it tucked its wings in to its side. Katonah screeched in alarm as they plummeted down towards the highway like a leathery, serpentine dart, the wind threatening to rip every follicle of hair from Katonah's head.

"Elise!" she cried, her words nearly lost over the blasting the air. "Wait...stop! S-shouldn't we wait for—"

"No time!" Elise cried over her shoulder. "They need help now."

"B-but—"

"Don't worry, Kat!" As the ground came rushing up to meet them, Elise gave Katonah a conspiratorial wink and pulled something from underneath her thick cloak: a tome, as fiery red as the sunset. "I'll protect you!"

Then, they met the ground, the collision so violent that they thrust a cloud of pulverized dust blasted into the air, and Katonah was very nearly thrown back up into the sky. The wyvern folded into a practiced twist, digging in its claws, and Elise disappeared from the saddle — it wasn't until a full thirty seconds later, when the wyvern had ground to a final halt, that Katonah saw that she'd flipped from her steed and hit the ground running, rushing toward the enemy.

"Elise!" she shouted, horrified, but it was no use: the princess showed no signs of stopping. The three bandits looked up as Elise pelted towards them, no doubt distracted by the sudden, shocking appearance of a wyvern and its riders. It gave the man with the sword time to scramble back towards his wife and children, and Elise time to skid to a halt in front of them.

"Step back!" Elise roared. The girl flipped open her tome, but instead of reading an inscription on the inside, as Katonah had expected, the girl slammed her hand down on an open page, then yanked it away, as if it had suddenly burned her. Which it had: Katonah watched in amazement as a stream of fire followed her hand, seeming to be birthed from the page of the red tome. Elise allowed it to pool into her hand for a moment, where it coalesced into a ball of flame.

The three highwaymen exchanged glances before launching themselves at Elise, no doubt certain of their ability to take down the Nohrian princess, tome or no tome. They were shockingly fast, moving with an agility that made Katonah scream as one drove his sword towards Elise's chest.

But as though she'd seen the attack coming, Elise ducked under the blade, giving the jab a broad sidestep before hurling her ball of fire down at their feet.

In the next few seconds, Elise and the three highwaymen were engulfed in a fiery explosion, a ball of fire and smoke erupting in the middle of the bridge like an orange flower. Katonah shielded her eyes as a wave of sound and heat washed over her, threatening to bowl both her and Elise's wyvern over. When the light faded enough to look a moment later, she found that the center of the bridge had been reduced to a field of cackling flames, the tongues of fire licking up at the dark sky like wild torches. Elise and the highwaymen were nowhere to be found.

A sick, cold feeling hatched in the center of Katonah's chest. No. Gods no. The explosion...had it consumed them all? Had Elise not survived the blast?

"Elise!" she cried, dismounting from the wyvern and hurrying forward — Elise's wyvern followed, slinking across the dirt road behind her like a snake. She passed the family, who were crouched a ways away from the flames, staring at the firelight with a dumb kind of awe. The heat grew intense as she ventured closer — quickly, it became too hot to approach and, with a sinking heart, Katonah searched the flickering flames, looking, searching...

A moment later, the flames parted, and Elise stepped out, clutching her tome tightly to her chest.

"Thank gods!" Katonah threw her arms around the girl, an agonizing kind of relief washing through her chest. "You're all right!"

And she truly was — in fact, Elise was almost completely unscathed. The only evidence Katonah saw that she'd been at the point of impact of a fierce explosion was the slight crispiness of her hair and around the edges of her cloak and dress. Katonah couldn't understand it.

"How are you alive?" she demanded, after giving Elise a second once-over.

Elise winked. "It's called magical resistance, sister-in-law," she said. "Magic armor. Most mages would be dead without it."

Katonah shook her head. "You're a mage," she said, with some wonder.

"Did the magic I just cast not prove that?"

It certainly had. Katonah gazed at the flickering inferno behind them, at the black scorch mark that marred the center of the bridge like a flower-shaped scar. It was hard to believe that such destruction had been released by a girl as sweet and unassuming as Elise.

Katonah gazed down at the girl's tome. She pointed. "How does that—?"

"Later." Elise suddenly spun back around, and Katonah followed her suddenly-serious gaze into the flames — dark silhouettes were rising some ways away, into the fire, and they seemed to be inching closer. The highwaymen!

"How are they not...?" Katonah shifted nervously behind Elise. "Are they mages too?"

"Nope," Elise said. "But I aimed my spell at their feet — just something to push them back, chase them off." She frowned. "They should be running..."

But they weren't. The three bandits had all drawn their weapons now, three blades and their wielders shifting through the fire towards Elise.

The princess elbowed Katonah backwards. "Kat, get those people behind my wyvern!" she cried, drawing another stream of fire from her tome.

Katonah hurried to obey, just as the flames parted in front of Elise, releasing a shrieking highwayman, his sword poised to come down into a blistering helm-splitter that would cleave the princess's skull in half.

"Elise!" Katonah shrieked.

The sword missed — Elise sidestepped the blow and then struck the man's shoulder with the heel of her palm. The man stumbled past, deadened arm dropping his sword, and Elise rammed her foot into his side, driving him down to his knees. The shadow of another highwayman appeared behind the princess as she spun back around, but before Katonah could shout out a warning, the flames around the princess erupted, crashing over the second foe like an ocean breaker and driving him backwards. The one that had stumbled behind her picked up his sword again, but Elise ducked under the slash he aimed at her head, tripping him as he went past and sending him tumbling into his friend.

"Kat!" she cried as she drew her hand back — the fire peeled from the pavement like ink, obediently flowing back to her hand, where it adopted a roughly wipe-like shape. "Hurry!"

Katonah struggled to snap out of it as she made her way back to the family still huddled in the middle of the road. It was hard not to stop and stare: this was a side of Elise she'd never suspected existed, a powerful spell-caster who had no trouble fending off three bloodthirsty enemies at once. She watched the fire around Elise morph and bend to her will, molding into a variety of shapes that helped the girl drive the highwaymen backwards. Awe filled her, awe and a sudden jealousy. To wield so much power...it must have been intoxicating.

She shook her head once more. Focus. Elise had given her a job to do. She hurried forward to where the woman, man, and their children were hunched, watching the firefight with wide, unblinking eyes. The man jumped when she put her hand on his shoulder. "Are you all right?" she hissed. "Are any of you injured?"

The man was bewildered. "Who are you people?"

"Friends," Katonah said. "Come on. You need to get behind the wyvern."

The man craned his neck to get a good look at the winged lizard, who was watching Elise fight with a fierce kind of intensity, as though prepared to jump in and assist her at any moment. His face turned ashy. "You expect me to take my wife and children near that savage thing?"

"It won't hurt us," Katonah said, hoping that she was right. "It's our steed. It will defend us too, if needed."

The man glanced back at his wife, who was cradling her young son. She nodded shakily, and the man said, "All right."

Katonah herded them back towards the wyvern, directing the four of them behind its serpentine torso. The beast spared the family a disinterested glance before turning its attention back to the bridge. Katonah followed its gaze, watching as Elise manipulated the flames licking the roadway, blasting the highwaymen with heat. She flinched as one of them slashed its sword towards the princess, while another one aimed a kick at her head. Yet another one was struggling to wrangle a strange secondary weapon from his side, but was forced back with an eruption of flame before he could get it free.

Katonah worriedly cast her eyes to the sky, wondering about Leo, Camilla, and the rest of the escort. Surely they'd seen the explosion from Elise's initial attack? Where were they? She regretted her and Elise jetting off like that, and hoped that Leo had been angry enough to follow. It couldn't be long before something went wrong.

And something did, very quickly and very suddenly.

One of the bandits suddenly made a wild leap through the inferno, dodging a tidal wave of fire that Elise directed towards him. Elise spun, face horrified.

"Kat!" she roared. "Incoming!"

The bandit, his clothing singed and crispy, was making a beeline for the wyvern, sword catching in the firelight. The wyvern shifted, crouching defensively in front of them, as Elise twisted and pelted after the highwayman. The flames parted around her, clearing a path, and with a wordless roar, she thrust a clawed hand skyward. The flames obeyed immediately, circling around in front of the bandit and rising in a thick, ten-foot wall of fire that separated him from Katonah and the others.

But instead of reeling backwards, the man spun around, driving a powerful roundhouse kick into Elise's stomach. Katonah felt the feeling seep out of her legs as the princess floundered back, face lined with astonishment and hard pain.

Then, Katonah saw another bandit appear behind her. He'd wrested his secondary weapon from its holster now, and Katonah saw that it was some sort of propulsive device, loaded a barb-sharp arrow. One that, she knew, would have no trouble tearing through skin and muscle.

"Behind you!" Katonah roared.

The bandit fired. Elise cast a split-second look over her shoulder and tried to dodge, but it was too late. Katonah screamed as the arrow pierced Elise's back, driving itself out through her shoulder. There was no eruption of blood, and Elise let out no scream, but, even from far away, Katonah could feel the devastation of the attack, almost as though she'd been struck instead. All around her, Elise's fire lost its commanding shape, pooling from her hand like water as she folded to a heap at the bandits' feet.

Behind her, Katonah heard the man and his wife shouting at her, their voices steadily growing fainter — she realized that she, without having consciously deciding to do so, was running, abandoning the safety of the wyvern for the cold, bare expanse of the open bridge.

"Elise!" she screamed.

The bandit that had shot Elise smiled as he turned towards her, aiming another peerlessly sharp projectile at her chest. She stopped, terror flattening her lungs, but it was too late — the man fired, the arrow eliciting a piercing whistle as it whisked across the bridge towards her. She didn't have time to close her eyes, and certainly didn't have time to say a prayer: she was forced to watch as the arrow flew towards her, striking...

...Leo's shoulder.

He appeared out of nowhere, coming down in front of her and taking a hit to the shoulder that might've severed her arm from her torso. As it was, the blow was so powerful that the arrow slammed him back into her; they went sprawling backwards, coming to a halt several meters away.

Several painful heartbeats later, Katonah's double-vision faded, and she sat up in time to see Camilla and her wyvern sail overhead, followed by the rest of their military escort. The beasts belched fire down towards the highwaymen, driving them away from Elise, who was still crumpled on the ground on the other end of the bridge. She had never in her life been more relieved to see the vixen and her savage steed. Or Lord Leo.

She jolted. Lord Leo! He was still lying a couple of paces away, the bandit's arrow dug deep into his shoulder. She crawled closer and was horrified to see blood darkening the shaft of the projectile — by either peerless aim or bad luck, the bandit had pierced the exposed chain mail between Leo's shoulder pauldron and arm guard. Panic overtook her at how deep it seemed to be in his flesh, though the blood flow wasn't heavy — that meant that the arrow was sealing the wound, preventing blood from escaping. He wasn't in danger of heavy blood loss just yet.

"Leo?" She crawled around to his head as Camilla's wyvern continued to shriek on the other side of the bridge. She tapped his cheeks, her hands trembling. "Leo? Leo, can you hear me?" Fear made her voice high when he didn't answer. "Leo?" she tried again. "Leo, if you can hear me, please answer!"

His eyes flashed open, making her jump. "I can hear you," he grunted with some annoyance. "You've made it quite impossible not to."

She sagged in relief. Thank gods! For a minute there, she'd feared... She gasped as he sat up then shifted to his feet.

"Wait!" she cried. "Y-you've been hit! You shouldn't be—"

"I'm fine," he snapped. Even as he spoke, he winced, hand moving to the arrow in his flesh. "Where's Camilla?"

The vixen and the escort were still blasting fire down at the three highwaymen, which had been forced into the middle of the roadway by the flames. The one with the propulsion weapon was aiming up at Camilla, but he seemed to be having a hard time seeing clearly with all the smoke and fire.

Soon, the bandits gave up on trying to hit anyone entirely and fled, making a beeline for the trees on the other side of the bridge. Camilla's wyvern shrieked and rolled back its wings, as though it wanted to pursue, but the vixen tugged on the reins, redirecting the beast down towards the ground, where Elise was still lying unconscious. As the woman landed, she shouted orders up at the soldiers, and several of them split off from the rest and sailed across the bridge, no doubt pursuing the highwaymen.

Katonah gripped Leo's good arm. "Lord Leo, can you stand?"

In response, Leo rose to his feet, face contorting into an ugly scowl — the arrow was no doubt paining him. Still, Katonah was more worried about Elise.

She helped him over where the remaining soldiers had landed and were clustered around Elise. Camilla was kneeling beside the princess, and gingerly rolled the her over. The girl was white-faced, the arrow rising from her shoulder dripping with blood. Heart pounding, Katonah tumbled down beside her and probed at the girl's neck, while Camilla did likewise with her wrist. Katonah gasped in relief when she palpitated a dogged pulse: the girl was alive!

"Elise?" Camilla bent down towards the girl, her voice more tender and soothing than Katonah had ever heard it. "Elise, sweetheart? Can you hear me?"

Katonah didn't expect her to respond, but after a moment, the girl let out a low groan. Katonah couldn't believe it — she was awake!

"Camilla?" she moaned. Her eyes fluttered open, revealing dilated pupils. "Leo?"

"Here." Leo stooped beside them, cradling his left arm. "Elise, can you hear us?"

Elise blinked rapidly, as though struggling to focus. "The b-bandits...?"

"Gone," Camilla assured her. "We drove them off."

"Oh...good..." Elise's eyes rolled back, and moments later she became unresponsive.

"General," Camilla said, body tense.

Katonah probed her neck. "She's just unconscious," she reported.

"We'd better find somewhere to put down for the meantime," Leo said, rising slowly to his feet. "We need time to treat these injuries." He paused, for a moment staring across the bridge, in the direction the highwaymen had disappeared into the mist. "I doubt that Elise — or me, for that matter — will be able to make it to Windmire in such a state," he said.

"I saw a field seven or eight miles east of here on our way over, milord," one soldier suggested. "There're several formations were we could make fortifications while we see to your injuries."

Leo nodded, his face a little whiter than it had been a moment ago — Katonah feared that his injury was beginning to take its toll. "That'll have to do, for the meantime," he said. "The problem, however, will be transport. My..." He winced. "My arm's going a little numb, and there's no way to safely transport Elise, even by air gurney, not with the state of her injury."

He glanced at Camilla, and the vixen turned. Her brows rose when she spotted the family's carriage and two horses on the far side of the bridge.

"Whose horses are those?" she asked.

(/\)

The man, whose name was Ross, was only too happy to assist in transporting Elise the field — Leo's scowl didn't give him much of a choice in the matter.

The soldiers carefully loaded Elise's unconscious form into the back of the wagon. Katonah decided that she would ride in the wagon with Elise — someone needed to keep an eye on her, made sure that her injured shoulder stay stable. That, and she'd had enough wyvern riding for one day.

Leo wound up riding with her — apparently, wyvern riding required two working arms for anchorage. Understandable, with the rough winds and the staggering heights at which the beasts sailed.

Still, it made for an awkward ride: Katonah and Leo sat side by side, with Elise lying on her side on Katonah's other flank. The rest of the space in the wagon was occupied by a multitude of traveling provisions, from tent tarps to firewood to baskets of food and water canteens. It was a tight fit, a tight, uncomfortable fit. Their path only made it worse: the road other side of the highway was pitted and uncompromising, making the contents of the wagon rattle like stones in a jar — including Katonah. At one point, they hit rut so deep that Katonah left her seat entirely and tumbled against Leo, knocking her head hard against his shoulder pauldron in the process. Ow!

"Sorry," she gasped, struggling to right herself. She found her seat and straightened her skirts, blushing.

Leo just grunted. She glanced over at him to see him staring at the other wall of the wagon, his expression stormy. And pained, judging by the lines pulling at the corner of his mouth. She bent forward, trying to get a look at his wound.

"Lord Leo, how is your arm?" she asked. She'd been so worried over Elise that she'd all but disregarded Leo's injury. It was probably because Elise was unconscious, and he wasn't.

"I'm fine," he said.

She didn't buy it — she could see the arrow clearly now, and blood was dripping steadily from it like a water from a leaky kettle. Still, the blood flow was mild — he was in no danger yet. Hopefully, he could hang on until Elise, whose welfare was still uncertain, was tended to.

But what bothered her was his blunt reply — gods, was he still angry about her rebuffing him earlier today?

Soon, the trees cleared out, yielding to cold scrubland, and the ride became a lot more tolerable as they galloped over rocky ridges and trundled down crumbly slopes. Soon, they reached the field that the soldier had mentioned, a bare expanse of cold sand broken up by several rock formations and plateaus of stone. Camilla and the rest of the escort had already established camp on one, her wyvern setting a fire pit ablaze while the soldiers set up tents around it.

Ross pulled the carriage around, and Katonah and Leo clambered out, standing aside as the soldiers slowly unloaded Elise. The girl was conscious again — a rut in the road had jolted her awake, and she looked delirious as Katonah walked beside her.

"What's going on?" she groaned.

"We're just taking you somewhere to rest," Katonah assured her.

"T-the highwaymen. Where did they—?"

"They're gone," Katonah said firmly. "You helped drive them off. You were very brave."

Elise blinked, looking groggy. "I can't feel my arm."

Katonah glanced at the arrow piercing her wingspan, a cold kind of dread expanding in her chest. Loss of feeling... Iseabail had taught her long ago that that was a sign of nerve damage. And hadn't Leo said, a while ago, that his shoulder was going numb? She shook her head, trying break away from the dark direction her thoughts were going.

"You're just tired," she assured the girl. "We're going to help you, don't worry — you just rest."

Elise nodded her eyes drooping closed. Soon, she was unconscious again.

The soldiers facilitated Elise inside a large tent, one of the ones closest to the fire, and Katonah waited outside, her fingers worrying into her dress. Shortly, Camilla appeared at her side and gave her a hard pinch.

"Well?" she demanded. "How long you plan on daydreaming before you go inside?"

Katonah jumped. "What...me?"

"You. You're the only healer we currently have among our ranks," Camilla said, voice sharp. "You're the only one that can help her. Do you plan on leaving an arrow in her?"

Katonah blanched, the hard expectation in the woman's voice making her dizzy. "I-I...I don't—"

"Are you a healer, or aren't you?" Camilla demanded. "Haven't you seen injuries like this on the Moorland Scythe?"

She had, a great deal, in fact. But whenever she'd treated them, she'd always had Iseabail looking over her, making sure that she didn't make any foolish mistakes, or telling her what to do when she got to a point and suddenly became unsure. That's how she'd always performed, how she'd always performed her best — by having someone there to reassure her that she was doing the right thing at the right time.

She suddenly couldn't conceive of helping someone with Elise's injuries on her own.

"I...I've never healed someone by myself before," she stammered out. "M-my mentor was always there to help me, and—"

Camilla grabbed her arm, making her flinch. "Well now, she's not," the vixen said in a low, fierce voice. "And Elise doesn't have time for you dig your self-confidence out from wherever you hid it. She defended you, didn't she? Protected you when those bandits could've slain you thrice over. Her and Leo. You owe them a debt, the both of them. So pay it."

Katonah shrank back from the severity of the woman's words. But even as she did, she knew that Camilla was right. Though it had been a harebrained idea for Elise to take those bandits on by herself, she had done it to protect the innocent and the helpless — including Katonah. And if Leo hadn't dropped in front of her and taken that arrow to the soldier, she might've been without an arm right now, or dead, period.

"I can't make any promises," she said tentatively. "But I'll do my best."

"Your best is all I want," Camilla said. Finally, that severe look in her eye faded, and some of her coolness returned. "We just need to patch them up enough to get them to Windmire. Then we can let the royal clerics and surgeons take care of the rest."

(/\)

Quick, smart planning, Iseabail had always taught her, was the surest way to save lives. Katonah had only been seven when she'd first seen the woman treat an injury, a grisly bite from a wild fox that had left a hunter with a throbbing red gash in his calf. Iseabail had taken a calm minute to inspect the wound before extracting several herbs from her stash and giving them to Katonah to mash into a poultice.

"Always, Katonah, take a moment to breathe and think," the woman had said as she'd applied the poultice to the man's injury. "Often there will be pandemonium and panic around you as you try to treat an injury, or other people demanding your attention in regards to their own wounds. You have to learn to tune all of that out and focus on the immediate task before you. Focus on what caused the wound and the current state of the injury. Never rush, and never, ever panic. Even if it takes you two minutes, or five, or ten, and people are screaming and shouting at you, breathe and study. A calm mind makes less mistakes."

There was no one screaming at her or demanding her attention as she went into Elise's tent, so staying calm wasn't as much of an issue as Iseabail had made it out to be. Still, despite the fact that she was alone in the tent, there was a heavy amount of pressure on her shoulders — she was aware of the fact that Camilla was waiting outside, awaiting instructions, as were several other soldiers that Katonah had told the vixen to put on standby. Taking a breath, Katonah banished their presences, shoved them behind a wall where she could deal with them in a minute.

Elise lay on a crudely made bed, one fashioned out of several blankets they'd stored in the wyvern satchels. She was on her side, the arrow dripping blood from either direction it protruded from her shoulder. Katonah knelt down beside her, gave the wound a thorough look. It seemed to be clean through, the arrow whole and unbroken, which eliminated the worry of wooden shrapnel infecting the wound. More good news: the arrowhead had no barbs, and the opposing end was plain and tapered. Katonah found the lack of guiding feathers odd, but just thanked the Earth Dragon that she would be able to pull the arrow through without the threat of further damage to Elise's shoulder.

When she stepped back outside, Camilla and the soldiers were waiting, expectant. She spotted Lord Leo further off, sitting by the fire. He was still cradling his arm to his chest, the flames setting shadows in the pained creases on his face. Katonah reminded herself to take a look at him when she was done with Elise.

"Well?" Camilla demanded. "How is she?"

Katonah took a breath. "I took a look at her injury, and I think I'll be able to take the arrow out and clean the wound without much complication. But I need some water. Hot water."

A soldier stepped forward and bowed. "Consider it done, ma'am," he said. "I'll search for the nearest stream at once."

Katonah nodded, grateful, and said, "I also need herbs. Did we pack any for this trip?"

"Just the basics, ma'am," another said. "Vulnerary, mostly. Will that do?"

She bit her lip. "What I really need is some yarrow, and comfrey," she said. She gazed around, taking in the desert-like waste around them. "Is there any chance of finding those around here?"

"Certainly, if you know where to look," another soldier said. "Can you describe what they look like?"

Katonah did, briefly, and soon two soldiers departed to look for some, while the other headed off to get the water.

"What about me?" Camilla asked.

"Do we have any rags? Things could get bloody, and we want to bandage Elise's shoulder when we're done."

The only bandages to be found were what the soldiers kept in their personal caches, which they gladly handed over at Camilla's command. As for rags, Camilla confiscated another blanket and sliced it into strips with her hand axe. Soon, they had a nice blanket of cloth, and a bucket of water, too, as the soldier came back from a stream two miles east. Soon, it was brought to boil, and they were ready to start.

Katonah recruited Camilla to assist her. After pulling down the top half of Elise's dress, the vixen held her still while Katonah pulled out the arrow. It was a good thing the girl was asleep — the projectile came free with a slobbery kind of rip, and was accompanied by a quirt of blood from either end. They staunched the flow with the rags, then cleaned out the injury with hot water. Thankfully, there seemed to be no signs of infection.

At length, the other two soldiers returned. Katonah was delighted when they presented to her several fronds of comfrey and yarrow — apparently, a nearby stretch of woodland had some growing by a dry riverbed. Katonah chewed them into a pulp and, after cleaning the wounds out once more, dripped the juices inside the injury. From there, Camilla helped her wind bolts of clean bandage around the wounds, minding the yarrow-comfrey poultice in place.

"She should be fine now," Katonah said as Camilla fixed the princess's dress back into place. "The yarrow will hopefully prevent any infection from setting in, and if there's any pain, the comfrey will curb it."

Camilla nodded, her face loosening in relief. "A clean job, General," she said. "Well done. I don't know what you were worried about, earlier."

Katonah blushed, feeling warm at the woman's praise. Truth be told, she felt incredibly proud of herself: Camilla had been helping, but technically, this had been her first surgery by herself. And it had gone without a hitch. What had she been worrying about earlier?

Then, she remembered Elise commenting that she couldn't feel her arm, and her pride sank away, replaced by an uneasy chill. That's right. There was still the possibility of nerve damage. She gazed down at the princess, praying that it wasn't true. Well, you won't know until she wakes up. She tried to take solace in that fact.

"I'm sorry that I snapped at you," Camilla continued as she stroked Elise's sleeping face — already, the princess was regaining some of her color. "I was just a little on edge — we all were."

"It's all right." Deep down, Katonah had known that — Camilla had just been worried about Elise. Wouldn't Katonah have been just as prickly if Tormod had been badly injured, and Iseabail had been annoyingly uncertain?

Still, she appreciated the woman's apology — she'd never expected for Camilla to apologize for anything, especially considering how decisively she'd beheaded Ailig back at the border battle. She wondered why that felt like it had been so long ago.

A thought came to mind: someone else who needed an apology. And medical attention. She rose to her feet.

"I'm going to go take a look at Lord Leo now," she said.

Camilla nodded, easing down beside Elise.

Leaving the two princesses to rest, Katonah headed outside and was met by a dark sky and a blindingly bright campfire. No wonder she felt so tired — it was already dusk! And the evening's chaotic events certainly hadn't helped. She hoped she still had enough energy to treat Leo — he had an arrow in him too, after all.

But, as she inquired the soldiers lingering around the fire of Leo's whereabouts, she found that she had more than enough energy — her skin prickled and her heart thudded with nerves as she moved to one of the northwest tents, one that was bigger than the others.

She took a breath at the threshold and paused. There were voices coming from inside. She bent forward, trying to listen, and heard the voice of one of the soldiers:

"They can't have gone far, milord. It was their legs against our wyverns, after all."

"Then how would you explain their vanishing into thin air, lieutenant?" Leo's voice was tight — Katonah couldn't tell if it was from irritation or pain. "I'm loathe to blame it on your incompetence, but this conversation is pushing me in that direction."

A nervous cough, then another soldier spoke. "If they're what you suspect they are, milord," he said, "then perhaps they created some sort of bolt-hole for just such an occasion, one where they could hide from pursuers."

Silence. Then a sigh. "I suppose we'll save the debate for what might and might not be for another day. Elise is safe and alive — our primary concern. And I've sent my falcon off to bring Xander up to speed in regards to our absence. So we'll worry about rebellion another time. You're dismissed, gentleman."

Katonah jumped back as the tent flap open; two soldiers exited, and she recognized them as the two that Camilla had sent off to chase the bandits. They both nodded respectfully at Katonah, and one held the tent flap open for her. She saw Leo sitting cross-legged on the floor of the tent inside — a staked lantern in the middle of the floor illuminated several satchels heaped in one corner, and a blanket spread out like a bed in the other. It also emphasized the circles under Leo's eyes, and the sharp crease of his brow when he saw her standing outside.

"Come in, General," he said, voice neutral.

She stepped inside, the soldier dropping the flap behind her. She stiffened when he gazed up at her — his eyes were still uncomfortably sharp, pinning her in place. For a moment, she didn't move, just stood there uncertainly, wondering how hostile this exchange was going to be.

"Well?" he demanded. "What is it?"

She swallowed. "I just... I'm here to look at your wound."

"Right." Grunting, he shifted over a little,  angling his injured shoulder towards her. "Well, look."

She tried not to let his blunt turn of tone intimidate her; kneeling, she scooted to his side and inspected his injury. Unlike Elise's, the arrow didn't go all the way through: his chain mail was to thank for that. She glanced down at his arm, remembering the possibility of nerve damage. Impulsively, she said, "Lord Leo, can you please take off your pauldron and arm guard? And roll up your chain mail?"

He narrowed his eyes at her, but didn't argue; she sat back as undid the straps of his armor, sending the shoulder plate and arm guard to the sandy floor. She noticed how gingerly he rolled up his sleeve of chain mail, exposing pale flesh marred by several streaks of blood. Did it hurt to move his bad arm? If so, good - that meant that he could still feel the pain.

Still, once he was done, she leaned forward and pinched his shoulder hard, just east of his collarbones.

He jumped. "Ow!"

"Does that hurt?" she asked.

That earned her a nasty scowl. "Obviously!"

Trying to ignore his anger, she reached up and pinched the ball of his shoulder. "Did that hurt?"

"More, if possible," he snarled. "Are you done with your sadistic inspection?"

"And here?" she asked, this time reaching down and pinching his forearm.

Leo opened his mouth to snap at her, but his scowl suddenly fell from his face, almost in surprise. He gazed down at his arm, uncertain. Katonah pinched him again, waiting for his response. After a moment, he said, "Not...as much," he said. He frowned. "In fact...not much at all."

Oh no. "Can you move your arm?"

"I haven't tried — it hurts when I do."

"Try. Now, please," she said.

Not looking happy, Leo gazed down at his arm. Katonah saw his fingers twitch. His mouth parted a little.

"I can't," he said. He glanced up at her, eyes suddenly alarmed. "What's wrong with my arm?"

She swallowed, suddenly feeling ill. "Nerve damage."

"What?" He was thunderstruck. "You're certain?"

"Pretty certain." She nodded to the arrow. "It must have severed one or two in your shoulder when it hit you."

Leo stared down at his arm for a moment, his eyes clouding. Katonah couldn't tell if he was despairing or thinking. After a moment, he said, "Is Elise awake?"

"Not yet... Why?"

"Her staff," he said. "It'll probably be able to fix the damage."

That confused her. "I'm sorry... Staff? What staff?"

Leo waved his good arm impatiently. "Elise is a healer, like you, only she works through staffs. Trust me, they're sometimes a lot more efficient than your herbs or vulneraries. She once told me that she could heal spinal and associated injuries with her staff, but only if the wound had been inflicted within a twenty-four hour period."

"What?" Katonah's mind reeled. Elise could heal spinal injuries? How? It was impossible. She should know — more than once, she and Iseabail had worked on broken backs and severed spines in the Earth Tribe. But the most they'd been able to do was comfort the victim or make them as comfortable as possible as they languished in paralysis. How was it that Elise could accomplish the impossible, with this supposed staff?

Magic?

"She's resting now," she said to Leo, "but she was awake earlier. Hopefully, she'll wake again soon."

Leo nodded, face dark. "We'll just have to bandage it, then, for now. And wrap it."

She looked at the arrow. "I'll have to pull it out."

"So do it."

She left and returned with hot water, bandages, and her leftover stalks of yarrow and comfrey. She piled a couple of satchels behind him and had him lean back.

"Lord Leo, this might hurt," she said, tentatively grasping the arrow. "You don't have an exit wound, so the whole arrow will have to come out the front. And I can't break it."

He nodded, sweat gliding down his face. "All right."

"Okay," she said, grasping the shaft. He tensed automatically, and she said, "You have to relax. Tensing like that will result in serious tissue damage."

"I'm fine," he snapped. "Just pull it out."

She tried not to bristle at the edge in his voice, but found herself quickly reaching the edge of her patience. Despite all that had happened today, he was still sour over that minor affront this morning, and refused to let her forget it. Did he want her to feel bad about being standoffish? Mission accomplished. She shouldn't have snapped at him — she'd realized that the second she had snapped at him. Why couldn't he see that and let things lie?

So she decided to blindside him with the unexpected: "Lord Leo, I just remembered. I haven't thanked you yet, have I?"

His brow furrowed. "What?" he said.

He sounded surprised. That was an encouraging sign. "For saving me," she said. "In all the commotion, I forgot..." She nodded down at his wound. "This arrow. It should be in me, and not you. If you hadn't landed in front of me when you did..." She shivered a little to think of it. She would have been dead — there was no debate on the matter. She hadn't been wearing armor, and she was certain that she didn't have the willpower to fight through such agony. The shock at being hit in the first place would have pulled her under, and from there, she would have simply slipped away.

But because of Leo, she was here, kneeling beside him, breathing and talking and smiling when she should have been bleeding out back up on that lonely highway in the middle of nowhere. The profound truth of that fact made her chest constrict. She was alive when she should have been dead and gone. All thanks to Leo.

"Thank you, Lord Leo," she said. "I mean it. Truly. You saved my life. You don't know how much that means to me."

"Hmph." Leo looked away, his face reddening. He said nothing more, and Katonah's mouth twisted in annoyance. He was stalwartly refusing to accept the olive branch. Why was he so hardheaded?

She ripped the arrow out of his shoulder. With a little more force than was necessary.

"Gah!" Leo's bellow of pain nearly shattered Katonah's eardrums. Outside, the chatter of soldiers dropped into an alarmed silence. Leo curled over, sinking his fingers into Katonah's arm when she bent forward to blot the blood that spurted from his shoulder.

"Gods, woman!" he roared, eyes blazing and teeth gnashing in fury. "Are you trying to kill me? Or do you yourself have a death wish?"

"Excuse me." The helm of a soldier sudden poked through the entrance to the tent. "Lord Leo, are you all right?" the man asked.

"Fine!" Leo glared at the man, and he hastily ducked out.

"I'm sorry, Lord Leo," Katonah said as she calmly pressed the towel to his shoulder. This wasn't her first time being snapped at by a patient — it was quite commonplace when fixing dislocated shoulders. "Would you rather I had torn the arrow out slowly?"

Leo continued to hiss in pain as Katonah handed him several leaves of comfrey and yarrow. "Chew these," she said. "They'll help with infection." Leo, still scowling in pain, complied, stuffing the leaves into his mouth and grinding them thoroughly. He swallowed and gasped a moment later.

"Disgusting," he said, coughing.

Katonah gaped at him in disbelief, and a moment later found herself laughing, her annoyance abruptly evaporating. She chortled even harder when he glowered at her.

"You weren't supposed to swallow them, Lord Leo!" she cackled. "They're for a poultice. You chew them into a pulp and then put them on your wound."

Leo face turned the color of tomatoes. "Oh."

Snickering, Katonah handed him some more yarrow and comfrey. "Here," she said. "Try again."

He complied, still severely embarrassed. Seeing his red face reminded her of the way they'd picked on each other during lessons, and how enthusiastically they'd debated over the stupidest things after awakening from meditation. A sense of loss spread cold fingers through Katonah's chest, and she took in a breath.

"You know," she said tentatively, all amusement gone, "I wish that I could treat my situation with Xander like I could the arrow that was in your shoulder."

Leo didn't reply, just kept chewing, and Katonah continued: "Just rip it out, I mean. Or...get it over with. I..." She swallowed, trying to rid herself of a sudden jam in her throat. "I don't want to marry him, Leo. I really don't want to marry him. And I know that he doesn't want to marry me. But there's no way out of this without people getting hurt, and I understand that, so I..."

She trailed off. Silence met her words — Leo had stopped chewing. But he wasn't looking at her. He was staring back down at the ground again, looking but not looking. Katonah found that she couldn't look at him either. She folded her hands around herself, suddenly feeling vulnerable again, but not just because of the night chill. That black parasite on the back of her skull bit her again, and dread rippled up her spine.

Xander, Xander, Xander, Xander, Xander.

"I don't want to marry him," she began again. "But at the same time, I wish that this whole thing was done and over with, so that I wouldn't have to live with this anymore. This hopelessness and dread, at knowing that this marriage is coming, and there's nothing I can do about it. I hate this, but knowing that the worst is yet to come...you don't know how it feels." She glanced down at him, suddenly feeling shy. "You're the only part of this whole mess that has allowed me to forget, Lord Leo. If you hadn't become my friend, I don't know would have become of me."

There. She'd said it. She'd said what was the matter. She paused, waiting for relief at having told someone about her fears to come, but all she felt was embarrassed and heavy and cold. Talking about the weight on her shoulders didn't change the fact that it was there. And wishing for it all to end didn't mean that it would. Not at her behest. Her stomach twisted, suddenly wanting to heave, as the wedding night, again, came to mind, reminding her of what was to come.

Yet, it was at that moment that she suddenly realized why Leo being so blunt and unfriendly today had made her so anxious and upset. In fact, she'd just told him why: he was the only person who had, thus far, been able to turn her attention from the horrors of the future, been able to make her focus on the here and now, and enjoy the little things where she could. Like learning a written language. Like meditating, speaking to the earth. Like enjoying light conversation with a friend. He was her only connection to normalcy, and she was desperate to hold onto it, before that walk down the aisle at last burned the last normalcy in her life to ashes.

"Katonah." Leo had lifted his head — he'd also spat out his poultice and was now holding the dripping wad of chewed leaves to his injured shoulder. "Is that what was bothering you? Earlier today?"

She nodded, twice, her fingers twisting together.

Leo gazed back towards the opposing wall of the tent, his face shrouded in the gloom. A span of silence stretched between them. Katonah felt the need to break it, to say something. But what, she didn't know.

Finally, Leo let out a breath. "I'm glad you told me."

There it was. Thank gods. Katonah sagged a little in relief. The hostility in his voice was gone, replaced by something softer. It made him sound a little ashamed.

"I'm sorry I was so pushy about it," he continued.

She shook her head. "It's all right. I'm just glad that you have no hard feelings about it."

"About what you said?" He raised a brow. "Why would I? You don't have to tell me that you hate this situation, or my brother. Both points are obvious."

"I know. That's why I didn't want to talk about it. Because of that and because I thought...well, it just seemed so trivial. I felt that you wouldn't care. Or that you might...I don't know. But I was talking about your brother, so..."

Leo leaned back, still pressing the poultice to his shoulder. He suddenly looked pained. "Is that what you think of me?" he asked. "One negative word, and I might go running to report you to Xander?"

"No!" she said immediately, shaking her head. "No, that's not what I meant. I...I just thought it might spoil what we had." She blushed, suddenly realizing how that sounded. "I mean, our friendship." Deep down, she realized, she hadn't wanted to pit herself against Leo — she'd wanted him on her side, and the thought of him scolding her about a situation that sickened her was another part of the reason why she'd held her tongue.

Leo sighed. "I'm not that kind of man, Katonah," he said. "I pressed you to confide only because you said you wanted to be friends, and talking about things that bother us is what friends do. I told you that you could speak freely, without repercussions, and I meant it. And I still mean it. You don't have to be uncertain about telling me about things that bother you." He glanced at his poultice, which was still soaking his wound. "All right?"

She nodded. "All right." Her hands were shaking a little, and something was rising inside her chest, rising so hard and fast that it made her chest ache. The urge to say something overwhelmed her, but she didn't know what she wanted to say.

But that was all right. Nothing more needed to be said.

--

Well, there it is. Bleh. DX You guys might not see it, or might be too nice to admit it, but this chapter is pretty rough. Like I said, I rewrote it, like seven or eight times. This version here is the one that's come out the cleanest, but it still wasn't exactly what I wanted.

But oh well! I'm just glad I got it done! Next chapter will be a lot better, trust me.

PS Wattpad was acting weird when I posted this, so if you see anything strange (like repeated paragraphs, etc) please let me know so that I can fix it.