Taitenschild

6-2 || Mages Amongst Warriors (Part II)

'Let me take him.'

Before Eliah could protest, Balint removed Sune's arm from her shoulder and slid into her spot. Gesturing for Loker to help him, he hoisted the unconscious boy onto his back and then set off towards the village at a steady jog.

A small pang of jealousy rose in Eliah's chest at how easy he made it look, especially considering that they'd just completed six hours of training – but she quickly swallowed it down. There were times to lament her weakness, and this was not one of them.

She looked at Loker and Iliana and bit her lip. 'Should someone run ahead and tell the Clan Mothers we're coming?'

Loker looked at her, annoyed. 'You don't even know them.'

'Then you do it, Clanschild.'

The boy smirked. 'Yeah, I should. It would probably take you longer to get there on your own than it'll take Balint to get there with Sune.'

Eliah scowled – mainly because she knew that he was right. 'Make fun of me all you want, Loker, just get moving.'

'Aye, I'm going.'

But before Loker could take off running, Iliana appeared and grabbed him by the sleeve. 'Oh no, you don't, Loke. You may be the tallest, but we all know that I'm the fastest runner in our rank. Plus Balint might need help and you're better suited for that than either of us are.' She brushed the scars across her shoulder and chest and gave him a pointed look.

His lips pursed at the gesture. Averting his eyes, he ran his hand through his ash blond hair. 'I have no idea what you mean,' he muttered.

'Liar,' said Iliana with a laugh.

He just shrugged and let her run ahead.

Eliah eyed Loker with a frown. Everyone in the Clan knew that he'd been the one to find and save Iliana after a mountain beast that had given her those scars during a post-training hunt. He claimed to have simply bound the wounds and collected the ingredients to make a salve, but even Sten had been surprised to see that the girl was even alive when Loker had finally dragged her back to the training grounds on a makeshift sled.

Loker caught her staring and narrowed his eyes in response. 'Got something to say, Regischild?'

'No...' Shaking her thoughts away, Eliah started walking. 'We should follow or we'll fall behind.'

'You mean, you'll fall behind,' said Loker, overtaking her in the span of a few steps. He glanced back over his shoulder. 'No one said you needed to come along, runt.'

'If I hadn't said anything, you probably would have just stood there and let him die!'

'He's not going to die.'

'Really? Because he looks pretty close to dead to me.'

'Then you haven't seen someone truly on the verge of dying,' said Loker with a grimace. 'Regardless, he'll be fine.'

'You sound awfully sure of that.'

'Shut up, weakling! You should be saving your breath instead of interrogating me. If you can't keep up and get lost on your way back to the village, I'm leaving you behind.'

With that, Loker sped up his pace, and Eliah was forced to jog.

─ ☼ ─

Eliah chewed her lower lip, feeling increasingly out of place as she followed Balint and Loker through the village, to a large rectangular stone hall beside the lake where the warrior-trainees, soldiers and shieldmaidens went to bathe.