Ravenwild: Book 01 - Ravenwild (40 page)

Blake, deciding there was no more use pretending he was still insentient, opened his eyes and said, “Gall. Is that your name?”

“So you
were
awake, wily Human. Captain Pilrick will not appreciate tricks. No. Try to trick us and you will never make it to the Troll cooking pots. We will just kill you and leave you to rot in the forest. We do not
need
to give you over to the Trolls. No. In fact, Gall could kill you right now and not be in trouble. Gall could say he had to, that you were trying to escape. Captain Pilrick would understand. He would not punish Gall. Captain Pilrick likes Gall.”

“Oh, like surviving a few more days only to end up in a Troll cooking pot is worth it?”

“Worth what?”

“He’s simple,” thought Blake.

“Was it you that I asked to loosen my wrist restraints last night?” he asked.

Gall didn’t answer. He seemed to be listening to something far away.

“Gall,” said Blake. “Gall.”

“Hear that?” asked Gall. “Those are Troll war drums. They are sounding something, but Gall cannot tell what. But it is something important, of that there is no mistake.”

“Was it you that I asked … ” he started to repeat the question.

“Gall heard you the first time,” he said. “Stupid Human. That was Biliar. He was the one you asked to loosen your bonds. He told Gall about it this morning as we washed up. He said you gave him a soldier’s oath to not try and escape. Stupid Human, are you that stupid you cannot tell one of us from the other?”

“My Name is Blake,” he said. “This is my wife. Her name is Jessica.”

“Biliar said you are a doctor,” he said. “Is this true?”

“Yes, Gall. It’s true. I’m a doctor. Jessica is a doctor as well.”

She opened her eyes and said, “Good morning, Blake. Good morning, Gall. I need to go to the bathroom. Could you please lead me somewhere where I could go, like you did yesterday?”

Gall looked from one to the other. “Gall will do it after Gall first asks Captain Pilrick. He likes Gall to ask about everything. When Gall does not ask, he sometimes gets very angry. Gall does not want to make Captain Pilrick angry. No, no, no. Gall does not want to make Captain Pilrick angry.”

“Could you ask him now?”

“Better to wait. Yes, better to wait until after he has eaten. Gall made very good flatbread this morning. After Captain Pilrick has eaten some roast and some of Gall’s special flatbread, and had some tea, he will be happy. Gall makes the best flatbread.”

“You make the best flatbread?” asked Blake.

“Yes. Gall just said that. Are you stupid, or are you trying to trick Gall, crafty Human?”

“No, no. No tricks, Gall, I was wondering if you’re a cook, or, that is, if you ever were a cook, you now, like it was your job before being a soldier?”

Gall smiled. “Yes,” he said, his voice excited. “How did you know? Gall was a cook before he started this stupid soldiering. Stupid soldiering. Gall hates soldiering. But wait! Yes! You
are
tricking Gall. Now you will tell Captain Pilrick what Gall said about hating soldiering, and Captain Pilrick will have Gall whipped. Jebwickett gives bad whippings. Bad, bad, bad. Jebwickett likes to give whippings, see?” He turned his back and showed them the severe scarring. “That’s why Captain Pilrick has Jebwickett do them.”

Now he looked panicky. Blake and Jessica both thought he was teetering on the brink of breaking down and doing something irrational.

“Gall, take it easy,” said Jessica. She kept her voice deliberately toned. Soothing. She knew she was talking to a child, a badly frightened child, and removing his fear was the immediate task at hand. “It’s all right. Neither of us is going to tell Captain Pilrick about anything that will get you whipped. Gall. Please look at me. Please?”

Gall tore his angry glare away from Blake and looked at Jessica.

“I promise.”

The captain pushed his way through the tent flap and burst out. “Gall,” he hollered. “What are you doing? Are you talking with those slippery Humans? Get over here and make me some tea.”

Gall looked quickly at both of them, his eyes silently begging them to honor Jessica’s promise, then wheeled and left on the run to make the captain his tea.

“How are you holding up?” asked Blake.

“I’m okay,” said Jessica. “I have to go. I
really
have to go.”

“Try and think of something else.”

“Nice job last night,” she said. “How many times did we practice that exact same maneuver at Camp LeJeune, anyway?” She shook her head in disgust.

“I know,” said Blake. “Sorry.”

“I’m sorry too,” she said. “I shouldn’t have said that.”

They watched as Gall handed the captain his mug. He took a bite of his flatbread and a big drink of tea. He almost seemed to smile and reached out and patted Gall on the head. They talked for a bit, Gall waving his arms about the whole time, after which the captain approached them.

He stood before them, holding his cup of tea and the last corner of his flatbread, chewing slowly. “Gall says you’re a doctor?” he said to Blake.

“Yes,” he said. “I am.”

From up close both could see that one of the captain’s eyes was badly swollen, almost shut. “Your eye is swollen,” said Jessica. “You should have the doctor look at it. Maybe he could fix it.”

He turned towards her and popped the last bit of flatbread into his mouth, which he seemed to chew more slowly, finishing his tea with a last gulp and a contented sigh.

“Did I ask you to speak, Lady Human?” he asked. “Speak again without being asked to and I will have you killed, and your body left to rot for the crows.”

He turned back to Blake. “Can you fix my eye?”

“What happened to it?” he asked.

The captain closed the gap between them with two strides and delivered a hard kick to his left mid-chest. He grunted hard, feeling the rib break under the captain’s heavy boot.

“Stupid Human!” he shrieked. “I asked you a question. Sneaky Humans. Always trying to trick. I will ask you one more time. Can you fix my eye?”

He struggled to catch his breath as the lancinating pain threatened to cause him to pass out. “Yes,” he gasped, “I can most likely fix your eye.”

“Jebwickett!” screamed the captain. “Where is Jebwickett?”

“He is out standing guard,” called Gall. He scampered towards them, stopping a yard from the captain, where he bowed his head.

“Get Biliar,” he said. He looked Gall up and down. “You don’t have the stomach for this, son,” he said softly.

The captain turned back to face them. “I am going to cut your bindings,” he said to Blake. “One false move and I will kill her myself,” adding, “after she has had a taste of Jebwickett’s whip.”

“Understood.”

The captain drew forth a sharp knife and released him from his bonds. He slowly brought his hands around in front of him, the movement causing him to pant with pain. He held them out in front of him. They were grossly swollen and an alarming color of purple. He tried to move his fingers but found he could not.

Biliar arrived on the run, and the captain ordered, “Stay with her. If you hear me yell, kill her at once.”

“Yes, Captain,” he returned. He sat down on a log and pointed a crossbow directly at Jessica’s heart from a distance of about ten feet away. Blake stood and followed the captain towards his tent. He noticed that the camp was as it had been the night before. It didn’t look to him like they would be moving out soon, and he thought that that might be related to the bad state of the captain’s eye. As he walked he kept trying to flex his fingers. Some of the color had returned to his hands, as well as some feeling, but he still couldn’t move them.

It only took about fifty paces to get there, at which point he asked the captain for permission to speak.

The captain granted his request.

“Sir,” he said, “I can’t move my fingers. I will need one of your men to assist me?”

“I suppose,” he said, “But no tricks. I remind you of Biliar’s instructions.”

“Understood, Sir,” said Blake. “No tricks. Might it be Gall?”

The captain opened his good eye wide in response to this odd request, but didn’t answer. Instead, he pushed aside the tent flap and went inside. Blake followed him. “Gall,” he called out.

“Sir,” came the reply from right outside the tent.

“Find Oddwaddle and have him stand guard outside the tent. You go over and assist Biliar in guarding the lady Human. He knows what to do.”

“Yes, Sir,” came the reply, and Gall moved away to his assigned task.

Blake looked around. He had expected it to be dark inside; clearly not what he would have wanted to perform a medical examination, but it was as light as the early morning outside, perhaps brighter. He glanced at the roof. From the inside, he could see it was made of a remarkable material that shone brightly, almost like an overhead light.

The tent was perfectly well organized, with a small raised cot in one corner at the end of which was an assortment of weapons. On the opposite side was a small field table on which was unfolded a map. Blake moved over towards it and tried to glean as much information from it as he could. He did manage to spot Mount Gothic, far to the west, while the captain’s back was turned. He immediately turned his gaze away from the map as soon as he spotted, out of the corner of his eye, the captain turning towards him.

The captain seemed not to notice. Rather, his mind seemed to be elsewhere as he said, “Gall is just a boy, a simple boy, in no way suited to the life of a soldier, let alone a soldier far away from home doing battle. Why have you asked
him
to assist us?”

“No particular reason,” Blake answered. “It’s only that we had a brief opportunity to speak a moment ago, and he greatly admires you, and I thought it would be good for his self-esteem to help in the saving of his captain’s eye.”

The captain didn’t speak right away as he absorbed Blake’s response.

“You Humans are a most odd race,” he said at last. “Here you are, facing death in the cooking pots of the Trolls in a few days, and yet you seize the moment to try and somehow help one of my men, boys, to feel better about himself. I find that strange. Very strange.”

Blake raised his eyebrows and looked the captain in the eye. “Doctor,” he said. “Part of the oath.”

Oddwaddle called out that he was standing by outside, and the captain told him to summon Gall, who entered the tent shortly.

“You called for me, Captain?”