To climb is to fall

Part three

Nes didn't have enough strength to even cry out as he fell... what a load of horse!-something grabbed his hand, then another thing grabbed it, now two things holding onto his arm.

His arm was about to be pulled from the shoulder socket, when he felt hands pulling him through the window, and into soft, candle light.

Darkness fully took him, the last thing he thought of was the glimmering glassy green, and gold in the hands still holding his arms...

...

He was falling, oh Kunth he'd never fell before! The ground... like a terrible bosom of death, it waited to greet him... then he woke up.

It was not dark. There was a thick wax candle burning on the far end of the room.

And hovering above him was a man, his face creased in worry lines.

Nes scrambled, trying to back away but the solid stone wall hit his back.

"Calm, child," the man said, his voice quiet. "It's all right. You're safe."

Nes eyes flew to the window besides the table, the bolt still embedded in the glass. Were the Bluenose still there? Waiting for him?

The man followed his gaze and grimly nodded. "Aye, still there, the people hunting you-who are they?"

Nes stayed quiet, wondering whether it would be wise to speak. Still, the man had swooped down like an eagle and saved him, maybe he deserved some honesty.

"Bluenose," Nes said, suddenly noticing his own weakness as the words escaped his mouth.

His butt was screaming at him, and he could feel it being cushioned with cloth. Craning his neck, he saw white linen wrapped around his tender, pierced cheek.

At least his trousers were hitched up.

"Quite a lot of trouble, and a whole lot of crazy, to drive someone up an abandoned tower." The man looked him in the eyes, slight chastisement evident.

And somehow Nes felt as if he was being admonished by Torvun. The only father figure the lad had in his life.

At least it made Nes trust him a bit more.

"Not abandoned, then," Nes muttered, air barely making its way out of his parched throat.

The man chuckled, then, smiling, he handed him a cup of water.

Which he drank like a man come right out of a desert.

"I am Dylennan. What may I call you, young man?"

Dylennan... perhaps his mind was fevered, but didn't he knew this name?

"Nes... oh-shit! You're the Prince!"

Prince Dylennan's eyes sparkled as Nes tried to bow, in his twisted awkward state.

"Tell me Nes, why are the Bluenose after you? Did you paint their noses red?" The curiousness in the Prince's eyes took Nes abruptly.

"No, just their daughter's cheeks."

Prince Dylennan smiled again, and stood, retrieving a chair from the table and dragging it towards where Nes was sprawled on the floor.

"The Bluenose, are they the biggest guild?"

Took back by the Prince's question, Nes stared open-mouthed.

"No. Flames of Kunth," Nes said after a moment. "Yet..."

"Yes?"

"Well. Something's changed. They don't enter Flames' territory, ever. Else their bloody blue noses get purple. But last night they managed to, and were through half of enemy territory." Nes didn't know why he started blabbering to this man, his Prince, but something in the man's eyes made him seem trustworthy.