Guardian Angel

Gamel struggles to survive, while Amala and Sintore flee for their lives.

7.

Guardian Angel

 

“We need to go back and find him!”   Sintore exclaimed for what had to have been the thousandth time.   Amala had ignored her brother’s young squire, but after riding for several hours, his constant pleading with her was grating on her nerves.

She could hear Gamel’s warhorse somewhere behind them, following them, and she was very thankful for this.

Sintore had just opened his mouth to speak again when she decided that it was time.  Pulling hard on the reins, she stopped the horse.   The young squire looked over his shoulder, hopeful that she was finally relenting and would turn back to try to find Gamel.

“Alright, dismount.” She said to him, leaning backwards to give him room.

“But why?   Aren’t we going back?”

“You are going to take Gamel’s horse.   He’s been pacing us since the bridge.”

“I don’t see him.”

“Neither do I, but I can hear him.   You take his horse, so we can travel faster.”

“Are we going to go back and find Sir Gamel?”

“No.   We won’t find him there.”

“By Yesh’s mercy, maybe we would.”

“You don’t understand, Sintore.   My brother had a plan back there.   He has… magic… that will transport him back to Westmark, but he can only use it alone.   He signaled to me that this was what he was planning to do.”

“Well why didn’t you just tell me this, Lady Amala?”

“We had more pressing matters, Sintore.  I didn’t know how many of Redburr’s men were on the west side of the bridge, or if we would end up riding into the middle of a huge rear guard.   As it stands now, we probably will end up having to fight our way through them to get to Westmark, but before we have to face that, I want you to take Gamel’s horse.”

 

The squire looked all around him as he dismounted from Amala’s horse, “I still don’t see or hear him, Lady Amala.”

The Drow girl sighed and brought her fingers to her lips, then whistled three times.

Almost at once they heard galloping and out of the dark came Gamel’s majestic warhorse.

“Mount up.” She told the squire and he went up to the horse and quickly complied.

As he led the horse over to her, Sintore noticed an arrow sticking out of her upper back.

“Lady Amala!   You have an arrow sticking out of your shoulder!   You’re injured!”

The girl looked over her shoulder, “Yeah, it really hurts too.”

“Let me help you!”   He rode over to her, but she had already reached behind her and pulled the arrow out, with a slight grunt of pain.

“I’ve got it.” She told him, but she seemed to be trembling from pain.

“You shouldn’t have just pulled it out like that!   You are probably bleeding from it.”

“Don’t worry about it; lets’ just get moving.”

“You need to bind your wound!   You can’t ride like that!”

“I’ve ridden for hours with an arrow in my back; I’ll be alright.”

“Lady Amala-“ He began to protest.

“Don’t argue with me, Sintore.”

“But I can’t let a lady ride injured!   It is against the code of a knight.”

“Well, I’m not a knight, so don’t worry about it.”

“But-“

“No more arguing, come on!” She spurred her horse back in motion and the young squire had no choice but to ride after her.

***

 

He saw her in his feverish sleep, as he had numerous times before in his dreams.   She had haunted him for nearly two years, and though he had no idea who she was, he had been so tormented by her nightly visits that he had been very fearful that Yesh wouldn’t accept him as a Paladin.   In the chaos since the knighting ceremony, he had not slept much, and had not dreamed of her in several days.

 

But as he lay shivering in exhausted sleep on the large rock in the middle of the Fallow River, she came to him again.   In the dream she seemed to be standing beside him on the rock in the middle of the river, leaning over him, examining him.

 

She was maddeningly beautiful; Elven but unlike any Elves he had seen before.   Her pale skin was smooth and flawless, her lips pink and inviting as she smiled sadly at him.   Her eyes were a pale greenish-blue color that hypnotized him every time and her long braided hair was a lovely light copper color.   Her garb was a green and brown dress that seemed too lightweight for the time of year, yet she seemed unaffected by the temperature.  She knelt next to him and he could feel her warm breath on his face as she touched it.

 

He could do nothing but look at her -as was always the case in the dreams- but she began singing something in a tongue unfamiliar to him, and the song continued for only a short time.   As she finished, she brushed her long hair back from her face, leaned down and pressed her warm pink lips to his.   The kiss sent a jolt of energy through him, stunning him, but when he blinked in surprise she was gone, and he was no longer on the rock in the middle of the Fallow River.

 

Gamel sat up touching his tingling lips and looking around wildly.   He was on the far back of the river, resting in the cool wet grass, but he was completely dry and his injuries were healed.   It was late at night and the partially cloudy sky hid most of the moon, yet with his night vision, he scanned all about him, hoping -and at the same time dreading- to find her.

 

But she wasn’t there.   Perhaps she had never been.   Gamel felt a terrible longing in his heart to see her, to search until he found her.   Her radiant image hung in his mind, but what could he do; he didn’t even know who -or what- she was.

 

He knew it would take a long time for her presence to leave him, yet the hunger in his heart would remain, until she haunted his dreams again.   What could he do?   He had to get back to Westmark to help defend it.   But by foot it would take days, and he had no option but to head west through the forest.    It wasn’t on any map that he had ever seen, so it could not be too large.

 

Perhaps he could find a horse that he could buy.     But what about the fae lady that had saved him?   Had she really been there?   Why did her lovely face fill his mind and dreams?   Was he insane?   These thoughts filled the young knight’s head as he rose to his feet, checked to see that his sword was still in its scabbard, and then with a deep sigh, took off on foot in the middle of the night through the mysterious forest.

Reviews

[Elina]

"...he could feel her warm breath on his face as she touched his face." Perhaps replace the second "face" with "it." ?

Ooo...mysterious elvish woman, eh? Haha! I am never bored when reading your books...there's always something to be intrigued or excited about.