From Ashes and Snow

A New Guest

Chapter 30: A New Guest

The journey back to Haaling was a long, but peaceful one. Bandits thought better of bothering a convoy of armed soldiers, slinking back into their hidey-holes. Even the weather stayed steady – cold days spent bundled in furs.

There was no way I could ride a horse and I refused a carriage, so they had found an opened out wagon where I could sit with my knee braced and stretched out in front of me. Often, one of the inner circle would ride alongside me and even when they weren't, there was always a Legionsolider content to chatter my ear off. My hounds loped alongside the wagon, a step away from the draught horse pulling the wagon. She was a skittish creature, and the hounds un-nerved her.

I was glad to leave the wall of tents, content to watch the miles and miles of open countryside where white and brown clashed for as far as the eye could see.

Fyr's Magin, Beatrice, rode with us. She was a small and quaint woman who rarely spoke, but when it came to an injury, she was unbridled. She avoided my eye when she spoke to me, and whenever the Captain rode near, she clammed up.

I told her, "Don't be worried. He looks severe, but he is a hound with no teeth."

With that, the Captain scowled and Beatrice let out a gentle little laugh. When she stumbled over her words, tongue heavy, Fyr and I were quick to flash a look to anyone who might laugh.

When she unbandaged my leg, for the first time in weeks, I saw the wound. The skin had torn where the bon had shattered through the skin, and the Saviour's sloppy healing left a roping, white scar that roped up my leg. She informed me in quiet, stumbling words that were at the same time, so sure, that her healing magic had fixed what was broken, but the scar would never fade. The bruises would, but the knee would pain me for days on end. When it rained, when it grew cold. Whenever the bone fancied it, it would ache.

Haaling greeted us with open gates and the Legion banners that streamed in the cutting wind. I sat up straighter, able to bend my knees now but unable to bear much time in the horse. Still, I had mounted Arrow as Haaling came into view, my shoulders straight and chin proud for when we rode into the courtyard.

"Miss Birchwood," The Captain was first to dismount, moving to stand beside Arrow with a gloved hand raised. Grateful that I had not been left to flounder, I took his hand and carefully moved my leg over to dismount. A hand rose to grasp my shoulder. "You are steady now, yes?"

"Yes, thank you."

"Good," He stepped back stiffly. "I am calling for an immediate meeting in the Map-Room."

"Oh, of course." I whistled for my hounds and they loped towards me, jostling the Captain roughly. My boys didn't know their own strength and it was worth the Captain's perturbed look at being so effortlessly ruffled. "But I'm getting my boys some meat first."

"They are good hunters."

"Yes, but I intend to find the cook and ask for some meat. They've been good," I ran a hand over Arno's thick skull. "And they deserve a treat."

"There are servants to fetch those things for you," The Captain raised a hand, an eyebrow rising. A demure girl approached, her attention flickering to me, to my ears and then her cheeks paled when the hounds turned their attention to her. "Fetch some meat from the kitchen and bring it to the Map-room. Try not to get eaten."

"Mahon!" I admonished, turning to the young servant with a kinder smile. "The hounds won't eat you. Just don't put your hands near their mouths when giving them meat. I learned that when they were young and their teeth weren't as sharp."