Memorybound

Chapter 39

Hailey looked up to see a little girl walking towards the shimmer, but there wasn't a fairy in front of her. She began to panic. Was there something else up Lillith's sleeve? Was this another attack, but the red haired little girl turned and came straight for Hailey.

She was a beautiful child, but she wore a determined look. "I saw fall down," the little girl said. "Will this make you feel better?"

She held out a glittering sliver scale. Hailey smiled and took the scale, feeling power and energy flow into her again. "Thank you," she said. "That makes me feel a lot better."

The little girl grinned and turned to go. "Wait," said Hailey. She handed the little girl the silver scale that was still in her pocket. "You can keep this one. I don't think it will help me anymore."

"Thanks," said the little girl. "I can see if I can find more."

"Grace!" A woman shouted. "Grace, where are you?"

"Actually," the little girl said. "I better go find my mama." Then she turned and ran back to her mother's side.

Hailey knew she should rise, should see to the wounded, but she was so tired, she just wanted to sit there. The little girl was right, though. She should pull herself to her feet.

"You ok?" A shadow crossed her vision.

She looked up to see Aaron standing over her. Relief washed over her. The entire battle, she had worried that he might be killed. "Just tired."

He held out his good hand and helped her to her feet. He had a gash on his shoulder and hundreds of little fairy arrows covered his body. "I'm afraid we're still going to need you," he said. Many of the men are still injured and Derrick." He paused. "Derrick might not make it. Gillian can't seem to move her legs and there are so many others. I don't want to see you work yourself ragged like you did before, but..."

She smiled at him. "It's ok." She held onto his hand longer than necessary. She held out the scale. "I think I'll have enough energy left to take care of the soldiers. I'll see to Derrick first and then, after you pull all of those arrows out of your skin, I'll need you to come see me. I need someone to organize people so I know who I need to heal and who the healers can take care of."

He nodded and led the way to Derrick, pulling fairy's arrows out of his skin. Derrick was close to the shimmer. "He charged one of the wargs when it got too close. The other mage killed the warg, but Derrick..."

She looked down. A large cut crossed Derrick's stomach and chest. He was bleeding heavily and unconscious. She placed her hand on either side of the wound and sent a trickle of magic into his body so that she could see what was wrong with him. It was only the gash, no broken bones.

"I think he'll be ok, she said.

Aaron squeezed her shoulder. "Thank you, Hailey. I'm sorry that you are the only one."

She shook her head. "It's ok." She was getting used to that.

Then he turned and started giving soldier's orders. One of them climbed on top of Derrick's horse and rode to the castle to get wagons. She was impressed with the way that Aaron handled things. He seemed to always know just what to do.

She focused on Derrick, closing her eyes and sending a healing through him. She knew now that she could heal a person completely, but that would take too much magic and she didn't know how many people she would need to heal.

As she watched, his wound closed, but he still lay motionless.

Aaron found her again and led her to person after person. Wagons were brought and the injured were taken back to the castle. He paused in front of Gillian, wanting to know if she would be ok.