Fearless Warrior: Isaacson Trilogy Book Two

4

Esmund frowned in concern, "How are your doctoring skills? Any improvement since Gunnar broke his nose?"

Ulric grunted, "We both know after that little fiasco I possess no doctoring skills."

"You're just being modest. All I'm good for is a pat on the shoulder and a 'there, there.'" He quickened his pace to a jog.

Exhaling a long-suffering sigh, Ulric trotted alongside Esmund back to where the woman in question was struggling to sit up. She grumbled under her breath as she stood and dusted off her dress before she turned and faced them, settling her hands on her bony hips.

The bloodstain covered her entire middle around a large bullet wound, but she acted unharmed. Perhaps it was just a superficial flesh wound, not something serious, as he had first believed.

"Those scoundrels, it was extremely rude of them to start shooting at us. What if we had been their friends? How typical of men to shoot first and then apologize—not that they could apologize now that you've killed them, which further proves my point, I believe."

Only six feet separated them, close enough for Esmund to stare in disbelief at the wound. He walked closer and bent low, blinking several times. What he saw didn't make sense.

It was physically impossible.

Except the proof was staring him in the face. A misshapen but otherwise round hole marked the spot where multiple bullets had entered, blazed a clean path through her clothing and body, and exited.

Sunlight streamed through the hole as though to proclaim its unnatural presence and laugh at his confusion.

Esmund stood to his full height of six foot three and looked from her face down to the hole and back up again to meet her gaze. "I don't want to cause you any alarm..." he glanced back down at the ray of sunlight piercing through her body and looked at Ulric, "Are you seeing this?"

Ulric nodded and turned a suspicious eye on Elsie. "What are you?"

Elsie blinked and frowned at Ulric. "Excuse me? What do you mean 'what are you'?" She looked at Esmund and asked, "What's wrong?"

"Well, I'll put it this way." Esmund pursed his lips and rested his hands on his hips. "You may want to avoid bodies of water for the foreseeable future, or at least until you won't have to worry about getting waterlogged and sinking."

"What on earth are you talking about?"

He motioned to the wound, "I should think it was rather obvious."

She shook her head. "I don't think it is; otherwise, I wouldn't have asked."

Esmund scratched his head and blew out a breath. Was he too subtle? "You have a damn hole in your body, lady..." He glanced at Ulric, who shrugged and crossed his arms over his chest as he frowned at Elsie. Esmund continued, "You have a hole where you shouldn't have a hole—where you didn't have a hole until being shot just now, and it's in a location I'm certain should have killed you." He motioned to her middle. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but generally, when you can see sunlight piercing through a person's body, it's considered bad."

She frowned and tilted her head to see. "Oh, that," Elsie clucked her tongue and waved away his concern. "Don't worry about that. It happens; the good news is that getting shot only hurts initially. By morning, you'll never be able to tell it happened—well, except for the hole in my dress, I suppose, but physically speaking, there won't be a mark left for you to see. Not that you'll be seeing any part of me because I'll be properly clothed, of course."

"It happens?" Esmund repeated dumbly. Was he the only one who believed this situation was alarming? "Are you saying this has happened before?"

Elsie swallowed and gave a hesitant nod. "Yes, but only once before...of course, it would depend on if you counted the events where I've found myself in this type of situation or if you're only counting the bullet wounds in both that instance and this one. In which case, it could be—" She snapped her mouth closed and stared at them with wide eyes before she whispered, "More."