Soth stopped his horse and dismounted. 'Where is Istvan?' he shouted, his voice tinged with just a hint of urgency.
'Here I am, milord!' said the elderly healer. In his prime Istvan had been a short man of stocky build with a full head of thick brown hair.
Now, after more than twenty years of service as healer, first for all of Knightlund and now within Dargaard Keep, his dark brown mane had turned white and flowed down over his shoulders like tattered white threads. He was also thinner and scraggier- some might even say emaciated-than he'd been in his youth, yet despite his lack of bulk, he was still quite nimble, especially considering his age.
But nimblest of all was his mind, not only in areas of healing, in which he had no rival, but also in areas of keep politics. No one understood the internal machinations of the keep and the knighthood better than he.
For that reason he had managed to offend no one in all his years of service and had maintained his position for decades despite changes in rule and shifts in allegiance.
Soth helped Isolde down from her pillion. When her feet touched the ground, much of her weight was placed on her injured ankle causing her to stumble. Soth made an overly dramatic gesture to help steady her and turned to Istvan with a look of grave concern.
'She was injured in an ogre raid on her traveling party.
She's in desperate need of your attention.'
Isolde grimaced at the pain in her ankle.
Istvan looked the elf-maid over, quickly inspecting her wounds and using what he saw to make a general assessment of the injuries he could not see.
From the look on his face it was obvious to Soth that the healer thought her injuries to be minor, nothing that a few days rest wouldn't cure.
He glanced up at the lord of the keep with a look that asked, 'Why are you wasting my time with such superficial cuts and bruises?'
Soth merely stared at him, knowing his steel-gray eyes could be as piercing as daggers when he needed them to be.
In a moment, without a word being spoken, Istvan understood.
'Quickly,' shouted Istvan to his assistants. 'Take her to my chambers.
Prepare the comfrey and yarrow.' He clapped his hands together twice and his assistants swung into action, carefully escorting the elf-maid away.
Then Istvan turned to face Soth. 'She will recover, milord,' he said, his head bowed. 'I give you my word.'
Soth nodded to the healer. 'Well done.'
'Thank you, milord,' Istvan answered, turning in haste to follow the elf-maid as she was carried to his chambers.
Soth glanced around, noticing that all eyes were on Isolde.
Including those of Lady Korinne.
Lady Korinne watched the elf-maid being taken away to the healer's chambers then turned to look at her husband.
She was surprised to find his gaze lingering on the doorway the elf-maid had just been taken through, but dismissed it as his simply being concerned with the woman's well-being.
She walked over to him. 'Milord,' she said when there was still some distance between them. Then as she came closer, 'Loren,' she whispered.
Soth turned, smiled upon seeing his wife then greeted her with an embrace and a kiss. The kiss was less passionate than Korinne would have liked, but he had been traveling for some time and was probably weary from the journey.
'Are you all right?' she asked.
'Yes,' he answered plainly.
'What happened?'
Soth took a deep breath and began explaining how the knights came upon the encampment, rescued the elfmaids and routed the offending ogres. As they walked through the keep, several other people including many knights followed, all keen on hearing the details of his foreshortened journey.
'And her?' Korinne asked when Soth was done with his story, nodding her head in the direction of the healer's chambers.
'Who? Isolde?' said Soth.
Korinne inhaled a slight gasp at her husband's mention of the elf-maid's name. There was something too familiar, too personal about it. 'Yes,' she said. 'Isolde.'
'I found her face down on the ground. She'd been savaged by an ogre, or at least the attempt had been made.
According to her account of what happened, she put up a respectable fight. And her wounds bear her out.'
Korinne suddenly felt foolish for doubting her husband's intentions.
Although the elf-maid was quite beautiful and she was instinctively jealous of her youthful appearance-what human woman wouldn't be?-
Korinne concluded that her husband had acted as any Knight of Solamnia would have in accordance to the rules of conduct set forth within the
Oath and the Measure. It was in his power to help the elf, so he did so.
There was nothing more to it than that. 'The poor creature,' she said at last, her voice edged with pity.
'Indeed,' answered Soth.
For some reason, the word sent a chill down Korinne's spine.
'Lord Soth,' said the healer. 'You may see him now.'
Soth rose up off the bench, his legs made stiff from the hours he'd sat there waiting.
Waiting for the birth of his son.
He entered the room. It smelled quite foul, much like a battlefield, tinged with the scent of blood and other bodily fluids. The healer's assistants were busy changing the sheets on the lower half of the bed while the child itself was being cleaned behind a curtain in a shadowy corner of the room. His wife lay still on the bed, sleeping after what was no doubt an exhausting ordeal.
He waited.
His body hummed with anticipation.
At last the healer approached, a small bundle in his arms.
He handed the bundle to Soth and the knight rumbled with it as if all his fingers had been replaced by thumbs. When he had the child steady, he raised a hand and lifted the part of the blanket covering the child's face.
Soth awoke with a start, his body shivering despite the fact that several warm blankets were covering him. He looked to his left and was grateful to see that his abrupt awakening hadn't disturbed his wife. She was still sleeping as soundly as ever.
He closed his eyes and reflected upon the dream, then did his best to block it from his mind. He hadn't been bothered by his dreams in months.
This one, he decided, had been an aberration. He would not dwell on this dream as he had done with the others in the past.
He opened his eyes once more and slid out from beneath the covers, leaving Korinne to sleep because it was still well before dawn. Then he got dressed and headed down to the keep's kitchen for a quick bite to eat.
He was met there by Meyer Seril who would be joining him on the journey back to the Knights' Meeting. Although it was unlikely that Soth would run into trouble on the way-running into the band of ogres had been an extraordinary circumstance as it was-he preferred to have company on such an extended trip. If the Council didn't like the fact that he'd brought an extra uninvited knight to the event, then they would have to send them both back to Dargaard Keep.
