A Country Falls (Greatest Thief 3) - Chapter 33: Chapter 33

The next thing I noticed, somewhat belatedly, was that Tannix was behind Mandell.
They reached us, and everyone started moving at once. Acen snatched at the reins of a nearby horse, its rider listing limply to one side. He dragged the body off and Mandell draped Jalor across the back of the horse. Evrik and Kor turned to fight off some remaining Deorans. Tannix found his way to stand in front of me and touched my cheek. His hand came away red with blood.
"It's not mine," I managed to say, reassuring myself as much as I was reassuring him.
Then I was being hoisted into the air, and Mandell plopped me onto the horse behind Jalor's body. Acen slapped my thigh and I turned to him. By my knee, the horse's shoulder was already stained red. I dragged my attention away from Jalor's injury in time to hear Acen's last few words.
"—the medic's tent, and stay with him."
I nodded mutely.
Acen dragged the horse's head around so we were facing the gate, and then the horse took off at a gallop. It was all I could do to stay on its back.
Panicked, the horse ran full speed across the sand, back towards the camp. We passed by some of the outlier tents before it finally started to slow, and I felt steady enough to release my grip on the saddle and actually try to steer. I pulled on the reins, futilely at first, but as the horse calmed and slowed, it got easier to control. Still we rode up to the medic's tent so fast that it was only a man jumping forward to catch the reins that stopped us.
Two men rushed to pull Jalor off and carried him into the tent. I jumped from the horse's back without a second thought and ran after them, ignoring the man with the horse when he called for me to wait.
Jalor was placed on a mat and the men got to work removing his armour. I hovered nearby, unsure of how I could help but unwilling to leave. Acen told me to stay, I was going to stay. When a middle-aged Zian woman burst in, arms full of bandages, she shot me a questioning look.
"Who is he?" she asked sharply, as she started laying out the bandages and tools.
I didn't realize she was asking me until she looked at me again, and I fumbled through an answer. "Jalor. Sir Lord Jalor, of the West Draulin Guard."
The medic who had taken care of me in Tannix's tent came in carrying a wooden box. He placed it by the woman and knelt by Jalor's head.
The woman cut away the remains of Jalor's sleeve with a pair of scissors. Jalor's left arm ended below his elbow in a mess of blood, bone and dirt. I wanted to look away but I couldn't.
"We can't salvage this," she said briskly, as she cut off the rest of Jalor's tunic. "We'll have to make a cleaner cut. You." She snapped her fingers at me. "If you're going to be in here, you'll have to be useful. Come hold down his right arm. Hopefully he'll stay unconscious, but if he wakes up, he'll make things worse by thrashing. Terrow." She reached for the saw he had prepared for her.
I rushed around them, and after a moment of debate, straddled Jalor's arm. Terrow leaned on Jalor's left shoulder. The woman put the saw just above Jalor's elbow, and started to saw. I closed my eyes, but I could still hear what she was doing and feel the vibrations through Jalor's body. To stop myself from thinking, I sent prayer after prayer to Anniva.
When the woman started briskly giving directions again, I cautiously opened my eyes. Horrified and fascinated, I watched while she sewed the end of Jalor's arm together. Terrow handed her damp clothes, which she used to wipe some blood away from the wound. Finally, she snugly wrapped the stump in clean bandaging.
She called a few names, and the two men who had carried Jalor in returned. One began to gather the bloody clothes and tools, while the other started to hang curtains to create a makeshift room around us. Terrow opened his box and rummaged through the vials.
"Does he know who you are?" the woman asked.
Again, it took me a moment to realize she was talking to me. "Yes."
"Good. You'll stay with him, then. If he wakes up, he'll be disoriented. Maybe angry. A familiar face will be good for him. What are you doing?"
I was reaching across Jalor for the filthy scraps of his shirt. Something green had caught my eye, and carefully I pulled Mayah's ribbon from the pile. "It's a token," I explained. "Maybe having it will be comforting for him."
The woman tutted. "Well, it certainly saved his life, tied around his arm like it was."
"How?"
She wiped off her hands in a fresh basin of water. "Someone with him had the good sense to use it like a tourniquet. Slowed the blood loss."
It would have been Tannix. I tied the ribbon around Jalor's right wrist, next to the braided leather bracelet Joen's daughter had made. "Do you think he'll make it?"
The woman got to her feet and brushed sand from her pants. "I can't say for sure. Right now, I'm optimistic. The cut is clean and his colour is decent enough. We just need to pray that it doesn't get infected and hope that he sleeps for a long time. I have other patients to check on, but Terrow can help you." She swept away as quickly as she had arrived.
Terrow held a small bottle towards me. "If he wakes up, make him drink this. It'll put him back to sleep."
As if it was eager for the distraction, my mind suddenly realized why he was so familiar and I blurted it out. "You're Orrun and Leker's brother."
He held my gaze for a moment through the glass frames perched on his nose. "Yes."
I accepted the bottle. "They'll be happy to hear that you're all right."
Terrow shrugged. "Maybe. You're more their brother than I ever was. Anyway." He closed his box with a snap. "Remember to make him drink it if he wakes up. I'll come by later to check his bandaging. If you notice that he's bleeding through it, send for me. Or if he... I'm sorry, but if he dies, send for me."
I nodded. "I will."
Terrow slung the box's strap over his shoulder and stood up. "If Anniva wills it."
"If Anniva wills it," I repeated in a whisper as Terrow left.
I settled down beside Jalor, staring at him as if he would die the moment I looked away. I passed the little bottle back and forth between my hands, finding that fiddling helped distract me somewhat. Worrying about Tannix and the others wasn't helpful, so I refused to do it. I just thought about Jalor and the shallow, but steady, rising and falling of his chest.
Terrow came back multiple times to check on Jalor. He asked me questions about Jalor's state, but nothing had changed. He added bandaging to Jalor's arm. On the third or fourth visit, he was followed by an assistant carrying a tub of water, and he told me to clean myself off. On the fourth or fifth, when he noticed the bruising around my neck, he gave me something to drink that would sooth my throat.
Eventually, exhaustion caught up with me and I dozed off. I was woken by someone shaking my shoulder, and sat up in alarm.
"Is he—oh! You made it!" I surprised Ender by throwing my arms around his shoulders. "What about the others?"
"We got through easily. Joen's with Lady Mayah and your friend right now. Kassia's been locked up." Ender pulled back and got to his feet. He sighed heavily when his gaze landed on Jalor, and he crossed his arms. "Someone thought to come tell me about this, but I didn't tell Mayah. I wanted to see him first. Do you know how it happened?"
I drew my knees up to my chest and looped my arms around them. "I didn't see it. You need to tell Mayah."
"I know. It's just that right now, she thinks he's in the castle with the others. That's where they are." His eyes flickered to mine. "Someone thought to tell me that, too. Tannix and the lads, King Tandrin, Queen Navire and all their people. Once our armies got in the city fell pretty quickly. Whatever was left of it. I should report to Tannix, actually, but..." He shrugged. "He'll send for me if he needs me. I'll stay with Lady Mayah for now, and Jalor."
The news was a relief I didn't even realize I needed. I knew Tannix and the others hadn't stopped fighting just because the gate was open, but with everything happening with Jalor I had tried not to think about them. I cleared my throat—it was still sore, although Terrow's medicine had certainly helped. "The physician said she was optimistic."
Ender nodded. "That's good. Hopefully it'll soften the blow for Mayah. I know... well, when we rode out of East Draulin we knew something might happen. But we got so far, together, and it seemed like we were all going to make it. Then we split up after volunteering for a risky mission and this happens. If we'd been with you, I don't know. Maybe this wouldn't've happened."
"Maybe something worse would have."
"I know."
"And..." Without much else to do, my mind had wandered while I watched Jalor breathe. "Maybe, when he wakes up, this could be a good thing." I said cautiously. When Ender didn't immediately snap at me, I continued. "He'll have to retire, right? Then he won't have to choose between Tannix and Mayah."
Ender considered the idea. "Reckon that's a silver li—"
Jalor woke up with a start and tried to sit up, but fell over when the arm he tried to lean on wasn't there. Ender dropped to his knees and hooked an arm behind Jalor's back to steady him. I scrambled to join Ender at his side.
Jalor's gaze locked on me hazily. He seemed so awake, but his voice was sluggish and sleepy. "Where is it? Put it back. Put it back, Finn!" He yanked himself away from Ender and started to push himself up.
"Jalor, lie down," I said.
Ender gently but firmly pulled Jalor so he was lying on his back again.
I pulled the small bottle from my pocket. "Jalor, you need to drink this."
"Put it back," he moaned.
"Here. Drink this." I pulled out the cork and held the bottle to his lips, only to yank it out of reach when he tried to push it from my hand.
"I feel it." He groaned, and his right arm uselessly pushed against Ender's firm grip on his shoulders. "Help me."
I exchanged a look with Ender. "Feel what?"
"My hand." The sharp way he said it made me wince. "I feel it. Where is it? Put it back."
"Jalor." I didn't know what to say to comfort him, so I just held the bottle to his lips again. Ender caught Jalor's wrist before he could push it away. "The physician said you have to drink this."
"I feel it."
I tried a different tactic. "Tannix said you have to drink this."
"Tannix?"
"Yes, Tannix. He said you have to drink this."
Jalor opened his mouth. I poured the medicine in slowly and watched him swallow it. He blinked a few times as it started to take effect.
"I still... put it back, Finn, please..." His voice faded and his eyes stayed closed.
For a moment, Ender and I knelt there, each of us processing what had just happened in our own way. Finally, Ender broke the uncomfortable silence.
"I need to go tell Mayah."
I nodded and wearily got to my feet. "I need to report to the physician."
Terrow and the woman inspected Jalor, and once again said they were optimistic.
"He might feel it," the woman told me as Terrow was packing up their supplies. "Unfortunately, it's fairly normal, if distressing. If he wakes up again try to keep him calm. It'll take him some time to adjust."
Terrow left me another bottle of sleeping medicine to use if necessary, and the pair left. I was still thinking over her words when the curtains were pulled aside again and Ender stepped in, followed by Mayah.
She was dressed like a Navirian woman, in pants. She looked well rested and her hair, tied up in a knot, looked freshly washed. And she was pale. The colour vanished from her cheeks when her gaze landed on Jalor. But it only lasted a moment. Mayah reined in her feelings as effectively as she always did, and walked over to kneel by Jalor's uninjured side. She gently picked up his hand and held it on her lap. Then she started to whisper.
Ender waved at me and I went to join him. We stepped outside of the curtain to give Mayah a bit of privacy. In the main part of the tent, it was dark. With the candles in Jalor's makeshift room, it hadn't occurred to me what time it was.
"Have you heard anything yet?" I whispered, as I realized that there were injured soldiers all around us trying to sleep.
"A messenger met me outside," Ender said. "The royals are staying up at the castle tonight. Tomorrow morning, Tannix wants you escorted up to meet with them. Along with your friend." He shrugged. "Maybe they want to meet the man who poisoned the king."
I doubted Vali would appreciate the attention, but I understood why Queen Navire and Tandrin would want to meet him. "What about Jalor?"
"Joen'll watch him and Mayah," Ender said. "I'll take you two up to the castle. Want to go back to Tannix's tent and get some sleep? I'll take over here."
"I want to stay." I continued in a rush before he could protest. "I'll sleep, I promise. I just want to stay here."
Ender nodded. "Mayah won't leave him, either. Let's see if we can get some cots moved in, then."
Leaving the next morning was hard. As much as I desperately wanted to see Tannix, I didn't want to leave Jalor. He was awake when Ender told me we had to go, and I had to admit that Mayah was doing a much better job keeping him calm than I would have. So after quickly checking in with Castin and Kovin, I left the medics tent for the first time since my frantic arrival, confident that Jalor was in good hands.
Ender made me go to Tannix's tent to pick out some clean clothes. When I stepped outside, he and Vali were waiting beside three horses. Mine, I realized as I pulled myself into the saddle, was the same horse I had galloped in on. Our ride back to Deorun was far calmer.
The make-shift Deoran camp was still mostly in place at the city's gate, but thankfully the bodies had been cleared away. Small groups of Navirian and Teltish soldiers patrolled the whole main road up to the castle. It was strange to be riding through the city, out in the open. In the light of day Deorun looked like Zianna. It was almost familiar, just as East Draulin and Navire had been. But unlike those two cities, Deorun only held bad memories for me.
At the castle, Ender had to explain who we were and our reasons for arriving. Then, as if we couldn't figure it out ourselves, we were led to the throne room by a pair of soldiers—a Teltish one and a Navirian one. The atrium had been cleared of bodies, but I saw them anyway, lying where Kassia had killed them. Vali looked queasy.
The throne room was entirely different. Idavari's hoarded artwork had been moved around, opening up windows I hadn't even realized were there. A huge, cracked table was set up in the middle of the room covered with various charts, papers and maps. Queen Navire and Tandrin were looking over one of the maps with a handful of advisors.
And Tannix, of course. He stood beside Tandrin in a plain tunic, arms crossed over his chest. He wasn't dressed like a lord. None of them were dressed like nobles, really. Tandrin had his sleeves rolled up informally, and the ties at his collar weren't properly done up. The Queen's hair hung over one shoulder, messy and tangled instead of carefully styled. These were leaders who had fought with their people.
Tannix was the first to look up when we were announced. The bruising around his eye had darkened, and the cut on his forehead was carefully bandaged, but when he smiled at me I barely saw the wound.
Kor was the next to react, leaving his position by the wall to pull Ender into an emotional hug.
I approached the table with Vali in tow. I wanted to walk around the table to hug Tannix. Instead, I dipped into a quick bow, and then did what I had been summoned to do.
"Your majesties, allow me to introduce Vali, the man who helped me escape and killed King Idavari."
Tandrin opened his mouth to say something, but Queen Navire interrupted him. Her gaze was locked on Vali.
"Finagale, your friend is much more than you know. This is Prince Valkiros. Kalvahi's younger brother."