ALTDORF (The Forest Knights Book 1)

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

 “SERAINA!”

She looked up from trimming one of her plants in the direction from which Noll’s voice carried. The cry was desperate and the trees marked his coming with incessant whispers, which Seraina followed with her eyes. Seconds later Noll burst into her clearing with Aldo hanging limp across his back.

“Lay him here—in the sunlight,” she said.

Together they eased him down onto his side and Seraina began examining the wound on his back, fearing the worst. She peeled back the bandage and was surprised to see the moldy bread and moss covering the wound. She did not move them, but held a hand to Aldo’s cheek. He was pale from loss of blood, yet not feverish, as he should be. She placed her other hand on his chest and listened to his heart rhythms while Noll fidgeted at her side. Deep, but strong and regular. She leaned back and looked at Noll.

“He will live,” she said. “But not by my craft.”

Noll, who was still standing, fell down on the ground and wiped the sweat off his brow with the back of his arm. He took in a deep breath.

“Who saw to his wound?” Seraina asked. “It was not you. That much I know.”

Noll still labored over his breathing. He had carried the boy far, and up a steep slope as well. “What? Oh, the new ferryman applied a simple poultice. A pox on his hide, he is a stubborn man that one.”

“The ferryman?” Seraina’s eyes widened in surprise. The dressing had been wrapped with precision and skill. The use of birch mane to stem the flow of blood and clean the wound was not well known.

She continued to quiz Noll about the man until he threw up his arms and said he knew nothing more, and if she wanted to know more about the ferryman she was going to have to ask him herself.

Noll walked to the rain barrel and ladled some water into one hand and then rubbed them together to wash off the dried blood.

“Can I leave Aldo with you until the morrow? The Eidgenossen are meeting tonight and if I am to reach the meadow in time I had best be on my way.”

Ah, Seraina thought. That explained Noll’s foul mood.

“Has the council finally invited you?” she asked. When the leaders of Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden met it was always in secret and strictly by invitation, for they feared reprisals by their Austrian overlords.

“What need do I have for an invitation? I merely assume my father’s position, since he cannot be there himself.” Noll shook the bloody water off his hands and wiped them on his breeches. “And if Walter Furst, or old Stauffacher try to deny my right to speak, I am prepared to make them listen.”

Seraina met Noll’s icy stare and felt her heart skip a beat. Behind her, the trees murmured their approval.

A short time later Noll said farewell and she watched him wind his way up the slope above the tree line until he disappeared over the grassy ridge.

“He is an exceptional young man. And as headstrong as all you Helvetii seem to be.”

Seraina jumped at the sound of the voice behind her. Gildas!

She turned to see the old man sitting on a boulder, a blade of grass between his straight teeth. The green stood in stark contrast to the downy white of his beard, which in turn, blended into the white hooded robe of the druids. She was aware of another white form, but this one as insubstantial as mist, padding through the trees to her right. Remembering her manners, she fought off the urge to run into the trees, chase after Oppid, and nuzzle his fur. Instead she held up her hand in a ritual greeting.