Page 27 of Kingdom of Chains

‘Are you injured?’ he asked.

His voice was surprisingly calm and oddly soothing. She leaned into it. ‘I do not think so.’ Her eyes moved over his face, arms, and uniform. ‘Are you?’

‘No.’ He reached out his hand to her, signalling it was safe to come out.

‘For the love of all that is holy’ came Hodge’s voice behind her. ‘What on earth are you doing down there? You could have been trampled.’

She was still reaching for Blackmane as Hodge dragged her out from under the horse and away from the defender.

He began checking her for injuries. ‘Let me have a look at you. I cannot tell if any of this blood is yours.’

Blood?She wiped her face with her hand, then stared down at the red smeared across it. It was someone else’s blood. She looked around at the injured and dead. Wastelanders, soldiers, horses. She walked unsteadily over to Trahern, bending to press his eyes closed. He had a wife, five children, and eight grandchildren waiting for him at home.

Hodge followed her over, hands going to his hips. ‘Such a shame. My father thought the world of him.’

No outpouring of grief for the man he, too, had known since boyhood.

Tatum strode over to where they stood, gaze dropping to the corpse at their feet. ‘Alveye and Hadewaye are doing a check of the area. Eight of your men are dead and three more injured. Is there a medic at the camp who can treat them?’

Hodge nodded. ‘Yes.’

‘Good. We’ll dress the wounds in the meantime.’

Isabel looked up at that. ‘I will help you.’

‘Leave it to the soldiers,’ Hodge said. ‘You are far too sensitive for such things.’

She wondered if that was true or if Hodge said these things to remind her that she was basically helpless. ‘I will wash, you bandage,’ she told Tatum, refusing to believe that about herself.

A few feet away, she saw Blackmane drive a sword through the head of an injured horse, and her stomach rolled. He looked in her direction as he stepped back from the animal. He was the reason she got through unscathed. He kept stepping in and helping her, and she could not figure out what she had done to deserve his protection.

Her eyes went to the injured men propped up against tree trunks. Two had deep lacerations and the third an arrow protruding from his leg. She had not seen these kinds of injuries up close before.

‘Normally we’d push the arrow through,’ Tatum explained, ‘but this one’s too close to the artery. We don’t want him bleeding out.’

Isabel used the cloth Tatum gave her and the remainder of her own water to help clean the guards up as best she could. ‘Are you well enough to ride?’ she asked the man with the arrow in his leg.

He was trying very hard not to look down at it. ‘We’ll soon find out.’

‘Area’s secure, Commander,’ Alveye called as his horse cantered by.

Tatum nodded. ‘Good. Let’s get out of here.’

The injured were lifted into saddles and the dead guards wrapped in blankets and loaded onto horses.

‘What about the others?’ Isabel asked Hadewaye, who had returned to help.

He glanced around at the corpses. ‘You mean the wastelanders?’

She nodded.

‘I imagine they’ll be picked apart by crows over the coming days.’ Then, seeing her fallen expression, he added, ‘Try not to look at their faces. It’s the hardest part to forget.’ He handed her his waterskin. ‘Here. Go clean yourself up.’

‘Thank you.’ She moved to the side of the road and washed her hands and face as best she could beneath a few drizzles of water.

Blackmane walked her horse over to her. ‘We’re leaving.’

She turned to him and looked over at Hodge to ensure he was not listening. ‘At some point you will find yourself in need of help. I want you to know that you can count on me when the time comes.’