The water was cold. So cold that I didn't know if I was dreaming or awake anymore. Then the current suddenly tried again to rip me from the rock I cradled. I realized that I was actually cognizant when the water's surge lifted my feet off the rocky bottom of the river for a few inches before I willed myself back down from the current. Numbness filled my body and brain. I reached across my chest and touched the hilt of my sword to confirm for the hundredth time that it was still attached. My mind had started to think the water would sweep it away like it seemed to be doing with my sanity.
I thought of Malek and Shlara again. What did Shlara say when I told her there wouldn't be anything between us? Did I even have feelings for her? My memories seemed to indicate I possessed a very fixated mentality. Before I speculated anymore a stray log floated by overhead and distracted me.
This was fucking stupid and I would have laughed if I wasn't trying to conserve my energy and breath. I looked up through the swift moving water of the river to the dark angry clouds forming in the sky. A storm approached quickly and I needed to make a move soon or the weather would further complicate my rescue attempts.
Come on you fucking bastards! It seemed like an hour had passed since I started my hyperventilation and then dove into the Styasi River. It came down directly from the mountains in the Northlands and would have frozen me into a statue had it not been moving so fast.
I pulled magic from the Water and the Earth to keep me warm. It helped fight against hypothermia, but I still felt like an ice cube.
Don't use Water.
A voice echoed in my head, bouncing off of the walls that contained my brain until it matched the roar of the river around me. Everything spun for a few seconds and my grip loosened on the rock I held. I grunted in annoyance, or maybe fear, and focused on clinging to it.
It didn't help that I hadn't slept for three weeks or eaten much in the last two of them.
The Elvens escorting Jessmei were faultless in their job. I followed them north on foot for about four hours until I had reached their makeshift camp. It was astutely hidden in a small grove of trees on the side of the road. I found Jessmei's footprints as it looked like they had allowed her to relieve herself.
The next two days I spent losing more and more ground to them. I had managed to kill a deer and allocated a precious hour ripping apart its corpse and eating its organs and most nutritious pieces of meat raw before I gave chase again. The meal invigorated me, but I was still skeptical that I would be able to keep up with them for an extended period of time.
After a week I guessed that they were still a day ahead of me. Then I came across the corpses of their spare horses, discarded to the road like the empty wine skin of a drunkard. They probably felt that they had established enough of a lead and didn't need the extra animals. I had been surprised at the intensity of their travel. They hadn't made a camp for more than a few hours since they kidnapped Jessmei. The poor girl was probably exhausted, cold, and hungrier than I was.
The bodies of the horses were half a day old. Temperatures had turned colder as we moved northward and approached winter, so the flesh wasn't spoiled. I ripped through their corpses and ate their hearts, livers, and kidneys. Even raw they tasted fantastic. I was fond of horses and the thought of eating them almost filled me with disgust, but I needed all the energy and strength I could muster to free Jessmei. She was more important than an infinite number of horses.
A few days after my ad hoc feast, I caught up to them at their campsite. It was windy and close to freezing, so they had secured a small cliff outcrop to make their shelter against the weather. The wind kept my scent and the noise of my bare footfalls hidden as I lurked within earshot of their conversation.
Jessmei still wore the thin nightgown I saw her in the week and a half before when I began my pursuit. The garment was covered in dust, dirt, and grime. Her beautiful blonde hair was knotted and frayed and she tied it back with a bit of twine.
The female leader of the Elven trio grasped the young woman's hip while she tried to sleep. It would be an act that would infuriate me for the next two weeks I pursued them from the shadows. She always had her hand on, around, or grasping Jessmei. Even when the princess needed to relieve herself the ebony-haired bitch wouldn't let go of her. I didn't want to risk an attack when the Elven leader might draw her dagger and end Jessmei before I could get within ten feet. Luckily, their leader took her job so seriously that she didn't permit the male in their group to rape Jessmei, despite him asking, sometimes demanding, every night.
They moved slower, taking their time since they were within a short week's travel of the Northlands and their empress's army. As the week passed I grew more desperate and tried to think of any way I might get close enough to their leader to rip her life from her body without putting Jessmei in danger.
When I was scouting ahead of them I ran into the river and came up with the plan.
They had to cross the Styasi River. It wasn't deep, but it flowed cold and fast. It would provide me the cover that I needed if I hid at the bottom and picked off their leader as she forded the angry current next to me. The plan was near insanity, but I hadn't come up with an idea even close to being as feasible since I began my hunt.
If I didn't try it, I might not get another chance before they reached the army of their empress. Then my job would become a lot harder.
This needed to work.
I shook my head again to clear it. I could hold my breath for a long time, but it seemed as if more than five minutes had passed. What if my muscles froze when I emerged from the water? What if I missed my target and they killed Jessmei?
What if I accidently killed the beautiful princess? It might easily happen. I was so cold I couldn't feel most of my body. I didn't know if my arm would work. My aim might be off and I would never be able to forgive myself.
No. You can do this. I repeated in my head like a mantra. My body shivered again and I focused on the sound of my heartbeat. I was surprised that it was louder than the current and the smooth rocks being tossed together around me.
A shadow appeared on the surface of the water to my left and my chant ended. I crouched down in the water and my arms unconsciously tightened around the large rock I used to keep me at the bottom. This was it. My nerves were shredded, my body begged to breathe.
I saw two more shadows in the distance; the water warped and ripped them apart as it flowed past me. I wanted to breathe so badly that my lungs screamed and my stomach clenched around the empty air.
Just one more minute at the most and they would be above me.
The male rode on the front horse. It was difficult to make out his facial expression but he looked bored, as did the female that followed him. I had chosen my spot perfectly. All I needed to do was jump up from this crouch and they would be less than a foot from me.
The leader rode ten feet behind the other two. I smiled under the water. Perfect. Jessmei appeared to be wrapped in a thick wool blanket. She sat side saddle across the front of the Elven woman. Her legs dangled over the right side of the horse and her captor wrapped both of her leather clad arms tightly around the blonde princess.
They moved a step past my position and I coiled my legs underneath me. Earth pushed up against my heart and sprinted through my exhausted muscles. The flow of the water sped up the blood that filled me and I released the rock and propelled myself up out of the river.
The water parted around me like diamonds as I arose from the river. My right thumb pushed the handle of the sword out of the scabbard an inch before my left hand drew it from its home, whipping it around so quickly that it shattered the drops of water coming off of me into a thousand more gems.
I underestimated my strength and thought that I would need to make an upward slash with the weapon to decapitate the leader. My jump carried me almost five feet out of the water and I just had to swing the blade horizontally to cleanly cut her neck. It happened so fast that the Elven didn't even turn back to look at me. I was already landing back in the water by the time the blood showered Jessmei and the horse.
The princess screamed in surprise and fear as the headless corpse began to slide off the saddle in a mess of spraying crimson. The horse bucked up in confusion and I watched as her blanket-wrapped form was tossed into the swiftly moving current.
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Shit. I hadn't planned on that.
The other two Elvens spun their horses around and gasped in shock. The male drew his sword almost instantly and the woman looked in the water, either for her leader or for Jessmei.
The river came up to my chest and tried to push me over sideways. This was another part of the plan that I didn't really think through. The leader was dead, but I still had to deal with her lackeys. They both had superior positions and mobility on the horses. Thinking as quickly as my frozen brain could, I ducked down through the water and wrapped my right hand across a smooth river stone, its surface slippery with algae.
My throw went a bit wide and the male moved his head easily out of the way. The next rock would have hit him in the face, but he smacked it aside with his sword. I switched the target of my third fling, but the woman saw my previous attempts on her partner and she ducked down against the neck of her horse while she drew her sword.
The horses were the problem. I picked up another stone and hurled it at the face of the horse the male rode upon. The animal screamed when the rock hit and it reared back on its two legs violently. The Elven hadn't expected the movement and he fell back off the saddle and into the water. His grip held steady on the sword though and he didn't drop it.
Jessmei's head popped above the water to my right with a startled gasp of air. I was glad that she hadn't hit her head on a rock. Her eyes were wild, rolling around in panic like a startled horse. She flailed a little, the weight of her wet clothes and blanket made her movements small and ineffective.
I launched the rock at the female, but she turned her horse sideways, causing the rock to harmlessly strike the beast's flank. It neighed in pain and shuffled away from me, but did not throw its rider.
The male got up from the river and approached me cautiously. His leather armor made quick squeaking noises that I heard over the steady clamor of the river. His horse had flipped him off but now sat quietly in the river waiting for him to return and guide it somewhere.
"You have no idea what you have gotten yourself into, human," he seethed Jessmei's language through clenched teeth. His limbs shook a little more than mine and I guessed that the coldness was penetrating his muscles.
"I got myself into a river," I said in the old language we shared. "Once I kill you and your friend I'm going to get myself out of it." Both of their eyes grew wide as they guessed my identity.
Before he leaked out a response I drove forward through the water with a slow cut to his right shoulder. I expected him to dodge back and deflect it and he did. My movement closed the gap between us though, which was my intent. The woman on the horse re-sheathed her sword and fished for her bow and quiver. The closer I was to her partner the harder it would be for an arrow to find my body.
My opponent lashed back a counter strike aimed at the top of my skull, but I knocked it away with my blade and then stabbed forward with the tip of my curved sword. The point created a deep puncture in his leather shoulder pad, but he managed to twist out of the way before I could wound his flesh. He jumped toward me through the water and made a sweeping cut to my midsection. Before he completed the stroke I brought my sword down on his arms, cleanly severing them below the wrists. His sword flew off to my side into the water with his hands attached. His stumps sprayed blood across me and the moving water as he let out an ear-piercing screech. My weapon flashed diagonally upward across his body, slicing his torso in two and ending his screams abruptly.
The woman had gotten her bow out and was reaching toward the quiver on the opposite side of the horse. I didn't feel like I had the energy to use magic, but I wouldn't be able to close the distance through the water before she would impale me.
The energy of the Earth flowed up through the rocks in the river I stood upon, the Wind blew powerful and quick as it followed the speed of the river. The blot of flame, force, and hate left me and slammed into her upper body. Her head snapped back with a crack and her horse let out another loud scream as it bucked back and tried to get her off of its saddle. It paced around in a circle, trying to run, but the water kept it from really moving.
My vision darkened and coldness enveloped me. I took in a deep breath and felt my nose and lungs burn as I sucked in half a gallon of water. I shot to the surface, suddenly conscious, and hacked up the mouthful of the cold river.
Jessmei stood about a dozen feet behind, she tried to swim toward me but her lips were blue and she was shaking like a leaf in the middle of a tornado.
Shit. The water is really fucking cold. I jumped toward her and pulled her into my arms. She looked into my eyes and tried to talk but her teeth chattered so loudly and forcefully that she couldn't speak.
"Hold on Jessmei. I need to get you warm." I looked around and realized that I picked an ambush spot in the middle of the river. The water was too high for me to effectively lift her out of it, but I cradled her in my arms and made my way over to the leader’s horse. The animal seemed to have already forgotten that I had just beheaded its master. I easily took the reins, lifting myself and the shivering princess out of the water and on to its back. Jessmei seemed to be shaking even more now that we were out of the water.
We did not have much time.
I rode over to the other two horses and gathered up their reins. Then I led them back south to the direction of Nia. They seemed as happy to get out of the water as I was.
Jessmei was almost a constant seizure in my arms. Her eyes were closed, and I heard her heart beating twice as fast as it should have been. The coldness from her body seeped into mine like I was holding onto a stone wall.
"Bite this," I said as I put part of a leather strap in her mouth. I was concerned she was going to shatter her teeth, but I really needed to be worried about her dying in the next few minutes if I didn't get us someplace dry and warm. We needed an area with cover so I could take care of her. The clouds above portended rain, their underbellies dark and swollen.
Instead, it started to snow.
The horses cantered up the slope from the river at my urging. The road down to the river was on the side of a cliff that didn't have any sort of outcropping that we could use as a sanctuary. On the other side of the road lay a grassy field that stretched on for a few hundred yards. In the distance past the meadow I spotted the beginnings of a forest. I pushed the horses in that direction as I looked at the cliff face for anything I might use as better shelter.
Jessmei's blue eyes were opened now. They were clouded but she was conscious enough to bite the hell out of the strap. Her hands shook and clutched at my wet clothes.
"Hold on Jessmei. Almost there." She may have nodded, but it was hard to tell from the movement of the horse.
The trees were sporadic for the first two hundred yards and then grew dense. I reached a point where it would be difficult to get the trio of horses any deeper and I pulled Jessmei to the ground. I flipped off the saddle of the horse and grabbed the large blanket that protected the animal's skin from the saddle; I put this on the ground and lay Jessmei down on it. Then I ran to the next horse and repeated the process. I'm sure there were other blankets and camping gear in the assorted packs but I didn't want to waste time looking for them, and the horse blankets, though damp, were warm with body heat. The wind had died down in the thickness of the trees. A few small snowflakes filtered through the feathery canopy of pine needles.
I ran back over to Jessmei and tried to get her to sit up. She was completely unresponsive, her heart still beating quickly though. I didn't know enough about hypothermia to guess if that was good or bad. Considering I hadn't even started to get her warm I guessed that it was probably bad.
I ripped off her thin nightgown and then carefully removed her undergarments. She wore a thin pair of slippers that I took off her feet, and then I put the other blanket on top of her. I ran my hands through her soaking hair and contemplated cutting it off, then I just decided to wring it out over the thin bed of pine needles.
I was still numb, sore, exhausted, and starving, but I needed to set up this camp before I could rest. I quickly gathered pine needles and cones and put them in a pile near the wrapped up form of Jessmei. Then I reached my hand out and tried to channel the Air from my body. As soon as I tasted the power my vision swam and nausea hit me in the stomach like a hammer. I fell to my knees and vomited up river water. My body was done. I had pushed it as far as it would go. Or at least, as far as it could go and still harness the Elements.
There must be some flint and steel in one of these packs on the horses. I searched through the first and found a large rolled up blanket, a tent pack, bedroll, multiple water skins, and some cooking gear. My hands shook as badly as Jessmei's now. I needed to start a fire in the next few minutes or we would both die. I went to the next pack and found a small hand axe, more cooking gear, another bedroll, and another blanket. On the last horse I found the flint and an oiled bag filled with waxed fire starters. I breathed out a sigh of relief, threw a fire starter on the pile of pine needles, and got a small flame growing on the first swipe of my dagger across the flint.
I grabbed the hand axe and stumbled to my feet. There were plenty of dead branches on the ground that I hacked into smaller pieces and then dragged over on top of the needles. Each swing of the axe made my vision blur and bile rise up in my throat. After about ten minutes the fire was burning at a respectable rate and I had some more wood stacked up near Jessmei's blanketed form. Her heart was still beating quickly and she moaned in pain every half a minute.
We really needed to set up a tent, but I didn't think I would have enough energy. There were still snowflakes drifting down through the thick cover of trees, and a serious storm would chill us further. I grabbed a pot from one of the packs and emptied a water skin into it. The pack came with a few carefully packaged sections of jerked beef. I threw those in the pot and then placed it on the ground near the fire in hopes that it would warm.
Jessmei's teeth started to chatter again. I laid out two of the bedrolls, flipped one of the larger blankets on top, and then carried her body over to the better bed. She didn't weigh that much, but I was so weak that I almost couldn't lift myself off the ground. I stripped off my clothes, the same sweaty garments I wore that day, so many weeks ago, when I had exercised with Paug and Iarin. I secured the wool covers over us. It took a few seconds of maneuvering through the four different blankets before I had my chilled, naked body pressed against her frozen back. She was still shivering and shaking, but I felt the heat from the fire start to permeate the thick wool.
"It's going to be okay, Jessmei," I whispered in her ear as I pulled her body into mine. My arms wrapped around her torso and grasped her slim shoulders. Her breasts pushed up against the inside of my arm as it wrapped across her chest. I didn't know if she heard me but I couldn't think of anything else to do. It had been too long since I had slept. Or eaten.
I hope it doesn't snow too hard, the horses don't bolt, and the blanket doesn't catch on fire, were the last thoughts to crawl through my half-dead brain before exhaustion took me.