Call of Ring(Compleled)

40 Multiple Injuries

         It took Blake a while to come to his senses. He didn’t remember blacking out at the top of the stairs. He also didn’t remember falling down the stairs, but his body was beginning to send signals of pain to his brain.

         The closest face to his was that of Sadie. She was bending over him, a concerned look in her eyes, and a hand moving the hair away from his eyes. Natan stood looking on with a look of confusion. And then there was Mage Zenith who stood away back clutching the book that Blake had tried to steal with an arrogant look of contempt spread across his face.

         Blake tried to give his mind the room is needed for the unscrambling of thoughts. He took a deep breath and realized that pain emerged even from that simple exercise. Natan and Sadie helped him slowly to his feet while the Grand Master remained fixed in his standing position marking his superiority.

         “Wait here!” shouted Mage Zenith.

         He slipped up the stairs and was gone for only a moment. When he returned, the book was no longer in his hand. The group of three cautiously helped Blake out the front door, following the lead of the unsympathetic Grand Master.

         They had only taken a few steps away from the building when Blake’s body suddenly collapsed. Natan and Sadie were caught off guard by his body’s quick fall and couldn’t catch him before he fell to the ground. Sadie was the first to attend to him. She confirmed he was still breathing, but he was no longer conscious.

         “What now!?” exclaimed Mage Zenith in an annoyed voice.

         “He is still clearly suffering the effects of his fall,” exclaimed Sadie.

         With frustration in his tone, the Grand Master responded.

         “Well, I have no time to wait. I was about to announce to him the consequences of his actions. I have no tolerance for thievery and deception in our esteemed Calvin School of Magic. You’ll have to relay my ruling to him when he wakes. He will not be permitted into the bath house today. He must suffer the effects of his injuries without any relief from the hot spring. He also will not be able to return to the library for the foreseeable future.”

         With these words, and showing no interest in waiting for a response, Mage Zenith left the group of three. Sadie looked at Natan as she sat on the ground next to Blake. Natan shrugged his shoulders, and Sadie returned a look that matched the sentiment.

         Blake came to consciousness feeling a peck on his cheek. As he opened his eyes, he saw Sadie’s face close to his through still blurred vision. As he tried to focus his eyes on the clearer picture, his mind suddenly recalled a vision he had just experienced.

“It must have been why I blacked out at the top of the stairs,” he thought to himself.

“The book was swallowed by the map as it flew from my hands, but what happened next?” he wondered silently.

As his mind sifted through the images, clarity began to emerge. Because of his most recent fall, the map had appeared again, but this time the book was gone, and the map was fully extended providing him with a new view of it that finally displayed readable words that had eluded him for so long. The description beside the Olive Mountains was now seared into his memory.

“A plot to kill the princess is now under way.”

Blake spoke his first words since both of his falls.

“We must prepare for an imminent attack,” he whispered not having the strength to fully use his vocal cords.

Natan could not hear what had been saying, “Speak up Blake, we can’t hear you.”

Blake repeated his words adding, “Sadie’s life is in danger.”

Sadie seemed rattled by the revelation, and although phased by the words, Natan did not outwardly display any fear.

“We will be ready,” declared Natan with resolve.

“Are you sure you are able to stand? I am worried that you have not strength enough to walk, much less prepare yourself for an attack as you say.” Sadie declared with insecurity in her voice.

“I will be fine. It is you that I am worried about. Help me to my feet. And then let’s proceed with caution.” Blake said regaining strength in his voice.

Sadie wanted to ask Blake how he had come to know that her life was in danger, but she recalled all the times before that he had “sensed” something. And each time before, his premonitions had been worth heeding.

Blake recalled that it had been about a ten-minute walk through the forest before they would emerge back onto the training field. If an attack was to come, the best place for it would be in the next few minutes.

“Mage Zenith was quite unimpressed by your second fall. He wanted us to relay a message to you before he left us to return to the field of training,” Sadie said while still remaining vigilant as they walked.

“Oh yeah? What did the Grand Master say?” Blake questioned assuming he was in some sort of trouble.

“You are not permitted to use the bath house tonight in relief of the injuries you sustained from falling down the stairs. You must suffer without the benefit of the healing effects of the hot spring.” Sadie said.

“Is that all?” Blake inquired, somewhat disappointed. He was saddened more so that there would be a further delay of his rendezvous with Sadie, feeling less worried about his wounds.

“You are also banned from using the library ‘for the foreseeable future’ as Mage Zenith put it,” Natan said helping to relay the Grand Master’s message of consequence.

“Oh well,” replied Blake nonchalantly.

“I’m sure Mage Zenith is now inspecting what remains of the battle scene. I wonder how many students survived their assigned hand-to-hand combat exercises, especially with no one there to supervise.” Blake stated with curiosity.

Natan appeared to hear something from the trees and he put a finger to his pursed lips to ask for silence from the other two. He turned to his left and took a few steps off the main path. Blake and Sadie froze in silence watching Natan closely.

The sound of a large stick-breaking pierced the silence of the woods as Natan’s foot stepped on it. Natan froze almost as if he knew what was coming next. In a split second, Natan was flung into the air, his body now swaying as he hung upside down from a tree with a rope tied around his right ankle. The breaking of the stick had somehow triggered a release on a homemade device that left him suspended several feet in the air, hopeless to do anything for himself. His gown had fallen over his head, and he moved his hands quickly grabbing at the material trying to cover what his upside position had revealed. A large rock was flung from somewhere inside the forest and it struck Natan, crushing his right eye socket, narrowly missing his eyeball. Natan cried out in pain. A second later an arrow struck his right thigh piercing his leg straight through. This elicited a more intense shriek of protest from Natan. The arrow had tagged his gown to his leg covering him, but covering his nakedness was the least of his concerns. His leg was badly injured. Blood began dripping in a steady stream up to his leg, onto his face, through his hair, falling onto the ground below him.

“We’ve got to get him down from there!” cried Sadie. “He’ll bleed out in a minute or two.”

Sadie began running toward Natan. Blake tried to grab at her gown in order to stop her, but his reflexes were hindered by the recent falls he had taken. She slipped his grasp and was now well off the path. A moment later, Blake’s fear became realized. Sadie had stepped into a similar trap, and her body was now flinging into the air in what Blake seemed to witness in slow motion. Her gown fell over her head as the rope swung her upside down, exposing her body in full for the first time for Blake to witness.

“This is not the time to freeze, staring for pleasure’s sake,” Blake scolded himself. 

Blake had to act quickly to save both of his friends. But before he could make his first move, a rock was launched from an undisclosed location narrowly missing Sadie. As she reached up to grab her gown for cover, her body swung out of the way of the incoming strike. Blake couldn’t detect where the attacks were coming from. Sadie was not so lucky with an arrow that came next. The arrow struck her in her upper right leg, tagging her gown to her body, but also piercing her straight through. The scream that came from her made Blake’s heartache instantly. He was now beyond angry as he watched blood begin to soak her white gown.