The Battlemage

The Stand At Fort Caster

   Adalina winced as the medic applied a fresh layer of salve to the wounds on her sides. The wounds had become infected and inflamed, causing discomfort and more pain. She knew some healing spells, but it took time and concentration to perform them; Two things she had very little of right now.

  She, the General, and what was left of his men had arrived back at Fort Caster almost a full day ago, and had found that Lord Ashwyn had just beaten them there. He had brought four battlemages with him as reinforcements.

  When she told Ashwyn that Ellis had been killed, and what the Northmen had intended to do with her, he had become very upset. Like Adalina, Ellis had been practically raised and trained by Ashwyn. The battlemage had been like a son to the older man. To lose him hurt just as much.

   As for the Northmen, they had been amassing in the forests one mile out from the fort. The scouts reported sightings almost hourly, and it had become readily apparent that their forces had grown, though by how much nobody knew.

  It seemed confrontation was inevitable. Good, thought Adalina. She wanted to fight again, and this time they wouldn't have that mage to stop her.

  Ashwyn had seemed hesitant to allow her to rejoin the fight, but when he saw their forces standing at the edge of the tree line, he must have known there was no other option. Grudgingly, he relented.

   The medic finished applying the salve and now began to dress the wound. Adalina forced herself to hold back tears as he tightened the bandage. She held her breath and did her best to stifle to pain.

  The medic looked at her with a worried expression, but either decided he didn't wanna piss of a battlemage, or knew that they needed her, because he said nothing. He packed up his gear and headed out, leaving Adalina in the empty barracks.

  With the medic gone, she allowed herself a moment of release. She cringed and tears rolled down her cheeks. With the salve and the fresh dressings pulled so tightly, the pain was almost unbearable. But the Northmen couldn't be allowed into the fort, or past it. The people of Blackstone were here and they had sought refuge. It was her duty to keep them safe or die trying.

  A few of the braver souls from the village had volunteered to join the fighting when it started. They had donned pieces of armor scavenged from the fort's armory. Most of them knew how to use a bow, since it was law that every man and boy over fourteen know how to. These volunteers had been interspersed into the ranks of the garrison's archers manning the walls.

  Adalina went out to the parade ground and saw that the garrison's soldiers were being led in a demonstration of sword play by General Palladius. Captain Johanson was among them and was following the General's moves with precision. She found herself hoping that the Captain made it through the battle. He seemed like a nice guy.

  She watched for a while, then decided to join in. She grabbed a wooden sword from the rack nearby and went to the back of the formation where she began to follow along with the General's movements. Each motion only increased her pain, and she winced. But she continued on, finding the rhythm.

  The Northman leader had taken away her powers, and in that moment she had been stripped of her only true weapon. Sure, she could fight a normal man in hand to hand combat and probably win, but the Northmen weren't normal men. If she didn't get better and she found herself in a similar situation again, she would almost certainly die. She wouldn't allow that to happen. So she worked harder and harder, honing each movement to be as precise as possible so that when she inevitably was stripped of her powers again, she wasn't unarmed.

  The training session lasted for hours and it drained her energy. By the end she was drenched in sweat and she could feel blood seeping from the wounds on her sides. The medics would be mad, but she didn't care. Better to be in a little pain now than dead later. As the soldiers departed the field to find some rest, General Palladius and Captain Johanson approached. They both had worried looks on their faces.