Lady of the Wood

XII. Henry

"Ahh!" I yelled as I drove my sword through the gut of the last of the wraiths that had attacked me in the hallway when Genevieve was abducted. It fell with a thump, joining his brethren in a heap of dead creatures on the floor. Cheers started going up outside, and I knew Genevieve had succeeded in our mission to kill Corran, but at what cost I could only imagine.

I wiped my sword off on the tunic of the creature I'd just slain and ran to the door. I rushed outside to see Arthur and his men finishing off the last few wraiths from Corran's army. I made eye contact with Arthur, and immediately I knew something was wrong.

Arthur rode over to me and dismounted Ace. "What happened? Are you alright? Where's Genevieve?" He grabbed me by the shoulders. "Henry! You look like you've seen a ghost! What's going on?"

"It's Genevieve, she's hurt, bad," I shrugged out of his grip and ran back into the remnants of Morwyn y Pren. "Come on, Arthur! She could be dying!" I ran for the nearest staircase, remembering something Genevieve once told me about her chambers being upstairs, and how she loved to slide down the banisters when she was a little girl with her mother.

"Henry, how do you know where you're going?" Arthur huffed behind me. "You've never even been here before!" He ran up the stairs next to me, which wasn't exactly a true run since we were both exhausted from the battle we'd just fought.

"I don't, I just have a feeling she's close," I breathed as we reached the top of the staircase. "Check every room, we have to find her!" I started opening doors and searching rooms for her. I couldn't stop myself from picturing her somewhere in a pool of her own blood, dead and lifeless. I started to panic. "Genevieve! Genevieve, where are you?" I called frantically.

"Genevieve, it's us, Arthur and Henry! Where are you?" Arthur called as he searched the rooms across the hall.

"Arthur, what if we're too late, and she's already dead?" I felt tears welling behind my eyes at the thought. "We've searched every room in this hall, with no sign of her!"

"She's not dead, Henry," Arthur reassured me before turning to open the last door. "I'm sure she's right behind this do-- Oh, oh my!" He stopped dead in his tracks.

"What? What is it?" I pushed past him. "Genevieve?" I looked around the room. Corran lay dead near the window, and Genevieve, "Oh my-- No! No, no, no, no!" I ran across the floor of the room to where she lay, still, bleeding, and deathly pale. I dropped to my knees beside her, and pulled her head onto my lap. "No, Genevieve, no! Please be alive, please!" I pressed my ear to her chest, and though it was so faint I could barely hear it, her heart was beating beneath all her armor, clothes, and flesh. She was alive, barely, but alive nonetheless. I cried out in relief, and Arthur came over and knelt next to me.

"What did he do to her?" He asked softly, taking her into his arms gently. His hand hovered over her side, where it looked like she'd been stabbed. Her beautiful face was covered in blood, both from a cut above her eyebrow, and from her nose which looked like it had been broken.

"We have to take off her armor and wrap these wounds before she dies from blood loss." I shook off my panic and in it's place came a desperate resolve to save her.

His hands were shaking so badly all he could do was nod, and lift her up so that I could take off her cloak and breastplate. Arthur fumbled with the strap that kept her quiver on her shoulder until he got it off and moved to removing her greaves.

I was by far the more productive of us, because while he sat there cradling her limp body, I had cut Corran's tunic and shirt off his body and was busy cutting makeshift bandages from it. I found a pitcher full of water, and used it to wash off what blood I could before wrapping first her thigh, then around her torso to cover the wound along her ribs, and finally her shoulder. I wiped the blood off of her face, and took her archer's glove and arm guard off gingerly to avoid opening her wounds even worse than they already were.