Red Gauntlet

Chapter 7: Red Gauntlet

She guiltily pushes open the door. "We'll just have to be quick," she tries to persuade herself. I looked at her, the doubt clear in my eyes. "We can do this, Avern." Her face fell. "Or the Queen will imprison us."

"Or worse."

Gwendolyn gulps and turns away from me. "That will not happen," she promises. "This job will be over before you know it. You'll see."

I bob my head up and down to make her feel better about our chances of survival. She holds the door open and I walk into the room. It is crowded with stacks of fading book covers that reach to the ceiling in a jumbled array of wisdom. The once organized shelves have an array of books piled on top of each other as space becomes an issue. If there is any place that holds the knowledge of the Gauntlet, it is this room.

As Gwen walks further into the room, I notice she's shifted most of her weight to her right leg. She tries to hide the pain she's in, but it's not working. I easily see straight through her tricks.

"Are you okay?" I whisper, my brows creasing in concern.

"I'm fine," she mumbles, brushing off my question in an instant.

"Don't lie to me. I've seen you try to hide it, but there's clearly something wrong with your foot." I gesture to her leg. "I'm sure I could help if you let me take a look at the damage."

"Don't act like you know everything," she hissed, moving away from me. "I said I'm okay, so just leave it at that so we can get this mess over with."

When she tries to stand with her full weight on her bad leg to prove me wrong, her ankle gives way beneath her. I rush to her side and kneel by her feet. I lift off her right boot and check she cries out when my hand goes to roll up the rim of her pants. I gently feel the swollen area for injury, muttering all the while.

"It's definitely dislocated. Maybe even fractured," I tell her.

She sighs and rolls her eyes. "It's not fractured. I'm fine, Avern." She leans forward and pokes at her foot then yelps as she puts too much force behind the action. "Bloody hell, maybe there is something wrong with it."

"What happened?"

Gwen bit her lip and hung her head. "One of the guards squashed it when we came over the wall. I didn't think the damage was that serious, but he did have a rather powerful kick." She winced again, bitting back a few curses from spilling out.

I sighed and helped her put her shoe back on, careful to avoid tugging too much at the sensitive area around the ankle. "Why wait to tell me? If you're injured, I could have helped you earlier. You'll only make things worse if you keep putting weight on something like this."

"I thought I would be fine. Honestly, it didn't start hurting until a few minutes ago," she sighed. "What are we going to do now? I can't finish the mission like this."

I look down at her, my eyes narrowing in on her swelling foot. "Don't worry about that. I'll get the Gauntlet by myself, and you can continue your research."

Gwen tries to stand up, blatantly ignoring my advice to sit still and wait for me. I gently push her back down and motion for here to stay put. She grits her teeth. "You can't do it without me." Before she can do something else stupid I pick her up and carry her over to the nearest chair. I gently prop up her foot with a few books I grab from the shelves, hoping that the elevation will help reduce the rapid swelling.

"Stay here, alright? I'll get this job done." She eyed her injured leg hopelessly and stares back at me. "I promise I won't leave you behind," I tell her.

"Are you insane?" Gwen cries, removing her foot from the books it's stacked on. She hisses as soon as her foot touches the ground. "You can't go in there alone," she insisted. "What happens if you need backup?"