Empire of Ashes

Chapter LXI - Onwards and Upwards

"We will wait for Ark and Saqui here," Tem announced at the bottom of the hill. He dismounted and looped Nightmare's reins around the nearest tree branch. "They were supposed to catch up half a league back."

No one argued. And within a minute we were all stretching our legs, the horses picketed together out of sight of the road. We had cover, we had the sweet smell of the summer flowers, and best of all, we had the river.

I was the first to get to the water's edge, and I was the first to begin peeling off my armour piece by piece. I made a messy pile of it on the pebbles. My helmet and shield were long gone, abandoned on the battlefield, but everything else that had been cooking me alive was shed. Without it, I felt eerily weightless.

And then, when I was wearing nothing but breeches and a torn, filthy shirt, I splashed into the shallows, my toes curling at the cold. The middle of the river came up to my waist, and I sat there and watched the water turn rusty-red downstream. Once that had run its course, I cleaned the blood from my hair and face, and I washed four days of sweat from my skin.

Melia and Glyn sat on the bank, but the other warriors weren't long in joining me. They had the luxury of stripping to their waists, and none of them were quite as filthy as I was. But while my wounds were more numerous, theirs were of a more serious nature.

Tem was trying not to move his right hand. Fendur had a slice across his waist that needed attention. Anlai was the worst by far — he had a handful of cuts where Freedrik had got past his guard. The largest three would all need patching up if he was going to survive the day, and we would need a fire to do that. That would be risky, because although there was no garrison nearby who could pose a threat to three thousand slaves, there were plenty who could trouble the six of us.

"Build a fire, Glyn," Temris said, echoing my own thoughts. "Make it small and stick to the dry branches."

"I can boil some water," Melia offered. Her whole face had lit up because this was something she could actually do, if only because I had spent an hour teaching her.

So, while we finished washing, Glyn woke a fire in a pile of birch bark and fed it until it was searing hot. He tucked a knife into the edge of the flames, and soon the blade glowed cherry red. Meanwhile, Melia assembled a tripod and used it to suspend a helmet full of water. By the time it was coming to the boil, I was lying on the grassy bank, letting the sun dry me off. I could actually see the steam coming off my clothes.

"You first," Fendur told Anlai before either of them could put a shirt on. "That Anglian didn't do so badly, eh?"

I held my breath, but Anlai only laughed at him. "If you're trying to piss me off, you're going to have to try harder than that. I'm too tired."

I never thought I would see the day.

Tem raised his eyebrows, cracking a proper grin for the first time in ... a while. The Iyrak's reply was to shove Anlai in the direction of the fire. He went without a fight. His wounds were bleeding again now that he was out of the water, and because the two liquids were mixing, it looked much worse than it really was.

"Stand still," Tem ordered lazily. He snatched the knife from the fire with his off-hand and hefted it. Anlai put his back against a tree, and his cousin hovered beside him. "Ready? One, two, three..."

But on three, he hadn't moved to cauterise the wound and Anlai looked like he was about to open his mouth to complain— And that was when Tem pressed the knife against the tear in his skin. Anlai tensed up, the lines of muscle on his stomach and shoulder rippling. He stood quietly while his flesh cooked and his blood burnt.

"You know all my usual tricks, cousin," Tem explained before a complaint could be made. "So I have to get creative."

He cauterised the second one halfway through his sentence, and the third when Anlai had finished up a stream of swearwords. I would have bitten my own tongue off. He barely twitched. But when it was over, I did notice his chest rising and falling a lot faster than usual. He went to sit by Melia, who handed him his shirt.