Chương 85: Chapter 65: Max - No Clean Victory

Borin didn't wait to see the Captain finish falling. He turned and ran for Alina. She lay where her legs had given out, one hand still clamped desperately over the torn leather across her chest. Blood had soaked through her fingers and spread nearly to her waist, leaving most of her tunic dark with it. Her breaths came in short, ragged pulls that seemed to catch somewhere inside her before they could fill her lungs. She tried to draw another and folded slightly around the wound as it broke into a wet cough.

Red spattered across the back of her hand. Her eyes found Borin as he dropped beside her.

"Borin..."

"Look at me, lass." Her gaze struggled to stay on him while he pulled her hand away from the wound and pressed his own against the ruined leather. Behind him, the three remaining undead recovered from the momentary hitch that had followed their Captain's defeat and surged back into the fight. Alex and Thomas closed ranks between them and Alina, shields rising as the first blows came in. Borin barely looked up.

"Hold them."

"We have them," Thomas answered. Steel crashed against shields only a few feet away, but Borin's attention stayed on Alina. His voice dropped into prayer, and Heal flowed through his hand. Warm light sank through the blood-soaked leather. Alina jerked beneath his palm as torn flesh began drawing together, but the first cast wasn't enough.

Blood still welled around Borin's fingers, slower than before but far too quickly, and the next breath she tried to take ended in another weak, wet cough that sent droplets of blood flying. Borin didn't hesitate before beginning a second prayer, and Heal answered again. More light spread beneath his hand, sinking deeper this time. The bleeding slowed from a steady flow to an ooze as the worst of the wound pulled closed, and the wet catch in Alina's breathing gradually eased.

She managed one deeper breath, then another, but whatever relief the magic gave her couldn't replace what she had already lost. Her eyes slipped out of focus before Borin could say anything else.

"Alina." She didn't answer. He pressed two fingers to the side of her neck, waited until he found the pulse, then leaned close enough to feel the faint movement of breath against his cheek. His shoulders eased by only a fraction. She was alive, but barely. The fighting continued only a few feet away. Cass and Elias had reached the right flank and peeled one of the Raiders away from Alex and Thomas before it could work around them.

The corpse turned on Cass with an axe already swinging, forcing her back as Elias planted his staff." Radiant Flare!" Cass turned her face away just before radiant light burst across the frost. The Raider recoiled beneath the flash, its axe dipping as its footing faltered, and Elias lowered the staff with a heavier breath while Cass was already bringing up her crossbow. She fired from barely a dozen paces away. The bolt struck just below the Raider's eye and snapped its head backward.

It staggered but stayed upright, forcing Cass to drop the crossbow and close before it could recover. She slipped past the half-blind swing, caught the corpse's weapon arm with one hand, and drove her dagger through the damaged eye socket. The Raider shuddered beneath her grip. Cass twisted the blade once, tore it free, and this time it stayed down.

Closer to Alina, the second Raider had Thomas pinned behind his shield when Max reached him, its axe hammering against the guard hard enough to drive him backward a half-step at a time even as he kept his spear working around the edge. Max hit the corpse from the side. His shield slammed into its weapon arm and knocked the axe wide, giving Thomas enough room to reset his footing before the Raider turned toward him. It never completed the movement.

Rulon drove his spear into its flank with a short thrust from his good arm, checking the turn while Max crowded it from the opposite side.

"Thomas!" Max caught the axe on his shield and drove upward, lifting the Raider's weapon arm as Thomas snapped his spear low behind its knee. The leg buckled, and Rulon leaned his weight into the spear already buried in its flank, forcing the corpse farther off balance. Max finished it, his sword sweeping across the Raider's exposed neck, biting through flesh and catching hard against the spine. He wrenched the blade free and struck again, severing what remained and sending the corpse crumpling into the frost.

That left only a single Soldier. Alex had been holding it alone while the others fought, and the guards on the wall had noticed.

"Come on, Alex!"

"Stay on it!"

"Don't let it through!" The Soldier drove its sword down, and Alex caught the blow on his shield hard enough that his arm nearly folded against his chest. He managed to hold, stabbed around the rim with his spear, and watched the point skid uselessly across armor. The corpse answered with another strike, then another, before changing direction on the third and crashing its blade into the middle of his spear. The shaft snapped beneath the impact.

Half remained clenched in Alex's right hand while the section carrying the spearhead spun away and landed several feet from him in the frost. The Soldier advanced immediately, drawing another shout of "Alex!" from somewhere along the wall as he let the battered shield fall and lunged for the broken weapon. His left hand closed around the spearhead section just as it reached him.

Alex came upright with a piece of the weapon in each hand and barely had time to raise the broken haft before the Soldier's sword swept toward his head. Alex caught the blade on the broken haft and turned with the impact rather than trying to stop it outright. The wood cracked again beneath the force, but held long enough for him to step inside the corpse's reach and drive the spearhead toward its ribs. Armor knocked the thrust aside.

He pulled back before the Soldier could seize him, pivoted away from the next swing, then smashed the shortened haft across its sword arm and knocked the weapon wide. Alex stepped inside before it could recover and drove the spearhead up beneath its jaw with his other hand. The broken point tore through the roof of the corpse's mouth and punched out through the top of its skull with enough force to catch beneath the battered helmet.

Metal jumped free with the thrust, spinning away across the frost as Alex drove the weapon deeper and forced the Soldier upright around it. For an instant, the corpse stood rigid in front of him, the broken spear jutting from the top of its ruined head. Alex let go of the broken spear, planted a boot squarely against the Soldier's chest, and kicked it backward into the frost. The corpse hit hard and stayed there, the shattered weapon still jutting from the top of its skull.

For half a heartbeat, the field went quiet. Then Greenglade's wall erupted. The cheer rolled across the field loud enough to drown out everything else, guards hammering spear hafts against the palisade and shouting Alex's name. He stood over the fallen Soldier with his chest heaving, staring at the corpse for a moment before looking toward the wall. A grin broke across his face. He lifted one fist into the air almost without thinking, and the answering roar grew louder.

Then his eyes moved past the others and found Borin still kneeling over Alina. The grin quickly disappeared. Max followed his gaze. Alina hadn't moved. Borin remained bent over her with one hand resting against the blood-soaked ruin of her tunic, watching the shallow rise and fall of her chest. Behind the palisade, the celebration was already giving way to shouted orders. The gate opened before anyone on the field had to ask, and six guards hurried through.

Four carried a canvas stretcher between them while the other two came with bandages, water, and a small first-aid satchel. Max lowered his sword and finally allowed himself to look across the battlefield. Eight corpses lay scattered over the frost. Rulon lowered his spear beside him, though his eyes continued moving from body to body until he seemed satisfied none were getting back up. Alex remained where he was, empty hands hanging loosely at his sides as he stared toward Alina.

Borin checked her pulse again before looking over the rest of them. His gaze stopped first on the blood soaking Rulon's shoulder, then moved to the cut along Max's forearm, the blood on Thomas's arm and thigh, and the swelling already forming around Alex's wrist.

"Rulon." The captain looked over.

"Can you move the arm?" Rulon tried, managed only partway, and grimaced.

"Enough." Borin grunted and looked toward Max.

"Anything deep?"

"No."

"Thomas?" A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. He shook his head.

"Nothing bad."

"Cass?"

"Fine." She lifted one arm briefly, showing nothing worse than dirt and a few new scrapes across her leathers. Borin's attention shifted to Elias.

"You?"

"Bruised. Nothing serious." Alex flexed his injured hand once and immediately regretted it. Borin noticed.

"And that?"

"Hurts."

"Wasn't the question." Alex glanced down at the swelling.

"Probably not broken. I think?" Borin looked back to Alina, placed his hand over the torn leather across her chest again, and bowed his head. A third Heal flowed into her, warm light spreading beneath his palm as the remaining wound drew tighter. Alina stirred faintly but didn't wake. Her breathing eased a little, each breath still shallow but no longer catching wetly in her chest. Borin kept his hand there until the light faded.

"That's all I have for now," he said.

"The rest of you can wait until we're inside unless something starts pouring." Rulon glanced down at his shoulder.

"Comforting."

"You're still standing." The stretcher team reached them a few seconds later. The guards slowed when they saw how much blood covered Alina's clothes, and one of them swore quietly beneath his breath.

"Easy," Borin said.

"She's lost a great deal of blood. Keep her level." Two guards lowered the stretcher beside her while Borin directed the others into position. Max crouched to help lift her shoulders, but Borin stopped him with a look toward the cut along his arm and waved one of the uninjured guards in instead. They moved Alina carefully onto the canvas. Her eyes opened halfway when they shifted her, unfocused at first before finally settling on Borin.

"I'm here." She seemed to recognize him, though it took a moment. Her gaze wandered toward Max, then toward the wall before her eyes started closing again.

"Stay awake if you can, lass." Alina made a faint sound that might have been agreement. The guards lifted the stretcher. Alex had come closer without Max noticing, whatever excitement had been on his face a minute earlier completely gone.

"She going to be alright?" Borin stood beside the stretcher as it rose.

"She's alive. I've stopped the bleeding, but she lost too much for me to promise more out here. She needs the Temple." Alex nodded, looking unconvinced by anything except the first part.

"Get her inside," Borin told the guards.

"And make sure she doesn't sleep." They started toward the gate immediately, two of the others walking beside them with the first-aid supplies, while Borin watched for several steps before turning back toward everyone who remained.

"Now the rest of you." His attention settled on Rulon first.

"You're going too."

"I need to secure the field."

"You need that shoulder bound before you lose any more blood." Rulon glanced toward Thomas, who understood the look immediately.

"I've got the field, sir." That earned him a brief look from his Captain before Rulon sighed.

"Fine."

"Temple," Borin said, pointing after the stretcher. Rulon started after it without further argument. Alex chose that moment to drift in the opposite direction, but Borin caught the movement almost immediately.

"You too." Alex looked down at his swollen wrist.

"It's not that bad." Thomas snorted.

"Apparently everyone's fine today." Alex shot him a look, but Borin was already pointing toward the gate again.

"Go." This time Alex obeyed. Max watched them start across the field before looking back toward the motionless corpses. Cass had already crouched beside the nearest Raider, her attention fixed on something beneath one of its armor straps.

"Before everyone disappears, you should see this." Max crossed toward her with Elias and Thomas, Borin following a few steps behind. Cass had rolled the corpse partly onto its side, exposing armor pieced together by hand, with straps cut and resewn around plates that clearly hadn't belonged together. Beneath the edge of one bracer, a length of dark cord had been tied around its wrist. A small bone charm hung from it, carved with a tight spiral. Elias crouched beside the body and swore under his breath.

"Same as the charms from Stonebridge. And the battlefield." Borin moved to the next corpse, where another charm was hidden beneath an armor strap at the ankle. Thomas found a third on the Raider Max had helped him kill, and after that Cass began checking the rest in earnest. She worked her way from body to body, cutting or untying each charm as she found it, until she finally returned with six small bone spirals gathered in one hand, each threaded with the same dark cord.

"All eight have them." She collected the others from Borin and Thomas and passed them to Elias. He accepted the bundle carefully and compared them in his palm. None were perfectly identical, but every carving followed the same pattern. Max looked across the corpses scattered over the frost and sighed in frustration.

"You think it's the same group?" Cass shook her head.

"Could be, but I don't think so. This battlefield was cleared almost a week ago. Whoever took these bodies was already working here while someone was still raising dead around Stonebridge."

"And the two from inside Greenglade disappeared the night before we arrived," Elias said, separating one of the charms from the others. Cass nodded.

"Same night we had the last attack in Stonebridge. Half a day between the two towns, so it's possible, I guess, but they'd have to keep running back and forth. Stonebridge, here, back to Stonebridge, then here again, all while staying ahead of us and leaving almost nothing worth following." Borin gave a low grunt.

"Possible."

"Sure," Cass said with a small shrug.

"Just a lot more complicated than the obvious answer." Max looked at her.

"More than one group." Thomas glanced between them.

"Working together?"

"Or working from the same instructions, at least," Cass said.

"Same charms. Same methods. Same kind of undead."

"Not quite," Borin said. Cass looked over. He nodded toward the bodies.

"Stonebridge had that stitched monstrosity. Nothing like that here. And these were armed and prepared differently." Cass considered that for a moment, then shrugged again.

"Close enough for me." Elias turned one of the charms between his fingers.

"These may be part of the control method. Some kind of focus, perhaps. Something that allows whoever raised them to maintain control from farther away." Max looked toward the hills beyond the battlefield.

"Meaning whoever was directing them didn't have to be standing out there watching."

"That would be my guess." Thomas glanced toward the fallen Captain.

"Convenient."

"Very." Elias slipped the charm into one of his pouches before carefully storing the other seven with it.

"And if several groups are using the same methods, Stonebridge and Greenglade may not be the only places they're operating." Max looked back toward the gate. Alina's stretcher had already disappeared inside, with Rulon and Alex following somewhere behind it. More guards were coming through now, nearly a dozen spreading across the field while one of Greenglade's Lieutenants directed them toward the bodies and the surrounding ground.

Thomas went to meet him and spoke quietly for a few moments, gesturing first toward the fallen undead and then toward the patches of frost churned apart by the fighting. The Lieutenant nodded, sent two guards farther out to watch the edge of the field, and began dividing the others between the corpses. That left little reason for them to stay, but they made one final circuit before heading inside.

Cass crossed back to where she had dropped her crossbow and retrieved it while Max, Elias, and Borin spread among the fallen undead. They checked beneath loose armor, searched what remained of belts and pouches, and looked over the churned ground around the bodies for anything they might have missed. Cass joined them again near the Captain once she had her crossbow secured. Together they gave the corpse and the ground around it one last look before gathering near the edge of the field.

"Nothing else," Cass said. Elias glanced back across the bodies.

"Nothing obvious, at least." Thomas returned from the Lieutenant a moment later.

"They've got it from here." Borin was already looking toward the gate.

"Good. Because some of you still need proper bandages, and I'd rather see what the Temple says about Alina than stand out here freezing." Max sheathed his sword without another word and started toward Greenglade. Cass fell in beside him, while Elias followed with one hand resting protectively over the pouch holding the eight charms. Thomas came after them, leaving the Lieutenant and his guards to secure the field behind them. The noise changed as they passed beneath the open gate.

The cheering hadn't disappeared entirely, but Alina's stretcher coming through ahead of them had taken most of the triumph out of it. Guards stood aside to give Max and the others room, several still looking past them toward the battlefield while others watched the street Alina had been carried down. Rulon and Alex hadn't made it much farther.

Rulon stood on the other side of the yard with his injured arm held close against his body, answering a question from Brenna while two guards hovered nearby with bandages they clearly intended to use whether he liked it or not. Alex had been intercepted by half a dozen others and was already in the middle of defending himself against their congratulations.

"That was you, wasn't it?" Alex glanced back toward the gate.

"Which part?"

"The part where you put half a spear through its skull." Another guard caught him carefully by the uninjured shoulder.

"Helmet came clean off." He gave a small smile.

"I noticed." The guard laughed.

"Whole damned wall noticed." A grin threatened at the corner of Alex's mouth before he managed to suppress it.

"Got lucky."

"Bullshit." That drew a few laughs, and someone farther back called his name again. Max and the others kept moving through the yard toward Brenna. A guard near the gate slapped the flat of his hand against his breastplate as Max passed.

"That big bastard threw you halfway across the frost." Max barely slowed.

"Felt farther." A few tired laughs followed him. Two older guards moved aside for Thomas, one reaching out to clasp his uninjured forearm.

"Held that flank." Thomas returned the grip briefly.

"Had to." Someone called something approving after Cass about the shot through the Raider's eye. She lifted a hand without turning around.

"Still had to stab it." Beside her, Elias drew a few looks of his own, one guard shaking his head as he watched him pass.

"Lot of bolts flying around out there."

"Used every one I had," Elias said. That seemed to impress the man more than Elias intended. Borin received little more than a grim nod from one of the older guards, who glanced toward the fallen Captain beyond the gate and then at the blood covering the front of his armor. Borin returned the nod but never stopped walking, his attention already fixed on the street Alina's stretcher had disappeared down. The congratulations faded almost as quickly as they had begun.

Brenna stepped away from Rulon as they approached, and whatever remained of the celebration fell away with her. Her attention went first to Borin.

"The Ranger?"

"Alive," he said.

"Bleeding's stopped, and I closed what I could. She lost too much blood for me to call her safe yet." She turned to a nearby guard.

"Temple has her?" The man nodded.

"By now." Brenna nodded once before looking toward Rulon.

"And you were supposed to be following her."

"I was giving you a report."

"You were avoiding getting that shoulder wrapped." Rulon didn't answer.

"Temple. Now."

"I can walk there without an escort." She gave him a flat look.

"I'm delighted." A few of the nearby guards found something else to look at. Brenna turned back to the guard she had just asked about Alina.

"Make sure he gets there." The man nodded, though the corner of his mouth threatened to lift.

"Of course." Rulon gave Brenna a long-suffering stare, but she didn't move. He sighed.

"Fine. Come on, Tovin." Rulon turned toward the street and began walking "You too, Alex," he called out. Alex glanced toward the men surrounding him. One of them clapped him on the shoulder again.

"Go get that wrist looked at, hero." He frowned.

"Don't call me that." The answering laughter followed him as he started after Rulon. Borin pointed toward Thomas as well.

"You're going with them." Thomas looked down at the shallow cut across his forearm.

"This?"

"And the leg. Temple." He shrugged.

"Fine by me." That left Max, Cass, Elias, and Borin with Brenna near the gate. She looked over the four of them, then toward the street Alina's stretcher had disappeared down.

"We'll deal with the rest later. Go see your Ranger." Borin was already moving before she finished. Cass and Elias followed, and Max had barely taken two steps after them when Brenna spoke again.

"Max." He stopped. The others slowed as well, Borin turning back first while Cass and Elias looked over their shoulders. Brenna hadn't moved. Her attention had returned to the open gate and the eight bodies scattered across the frost beyond it.

"This morning, I thought they were a message." Max followed her gaze. Behind him, the others had gone quiet. Brenna watched the Lieutenant's men moving among the dead for another moment before her eyes settled on the fallen Captain.

"I don't anymore." Max looked back at her.

"Then what?" Her gaze stayed on the battlefield.

"A demonstration."