Amelie: Wizards of White Haven

by Frances Howitt

  Prince Casper seemed fairly unimpressed, Jim noted with annoyance, but he was too drained to care further than that. Prince Casper was speaking to Lord Dirk quietly; Lord Dirk fielding many rapid questions.

  ‘Time’s up anyway,’ Prince Casper stated listening to a new messenger. Jim watched as there was a scramble out the door. Prince Casper’s guards ensured he followed closely and he got his first view of the enemy army marching out of the trees onto the large meadow that’d recently been their practice field.

  ‘I need your horse,’ Lord Dirk stated.

  ‘No!’ Jim snapped. ‘You’ve got your own horse.’

  ‘He’s lame and yours is better. Besides, you won’t need her.’

  ‘She’s not a warhorse. She isn’t strong enough or trained for such savagery.’

  ‘I’m taking her,’ Lord Dirk repeated.

  ‘You get her killed, I’ll make sure you regret it,’ Jim responded darkly, knowing he had no choice in this and neither therefore did Amelie. They were in the midst of men loyal to Dirk and who were shocked he should even attempt to thwart their lord.

  Lord Dirk shrugged the threat off, although he knew the young wizard was serious and he had a good understanding as to why. This horse was special. He glanced at her and got the unmistakeable impression she was not only listening to what was said, but more importantly understood too. Her ears had gone flat to her skull in displeasure. He spoke to his hovering squire and a few minutes later several men appeared with armfuls of armour. In short order Amelie was given overlapping shiny armour plates to protect her head, neck and chest, then a quilted and leather backed blanket of chain mail draped her back, almost falling to her knees.

  ‘How do you expect her to carry all that plus yourself and still be able to move?’ Jim asked aghast.

  ‘I thought you just said I was to make sure she wasn’t killed? Make up your mind,’ Lord Dirk laughed.

  ‘I’m just saying she’s not used to so much weight. She won’t be able to carry it for long.’ Jim went to her nose and said very softly, ‘you’ll need to strengthen your frame to carry this. Here’s a beef sandwich,’ he added and felt her lip it off his palm immediately. ‘These straps seem rather tight,’ Jim added a few moments later.

  Lord Dirk simply let out the straps a couple of holes. ‘She seems to be adapting to the weight,’ he added with an odd smile. Then his squire helped him laboriously climb aboard in his own heavy armour. They cantered down to meet the troops already in formation and waiting for orders.

  The enemy had appeared from the far side of the hill and were assembling on the brow above them. It was a far larger army than any of them had thought could be assembled against them and was very close in number to Prince Casper’s own. They also held the high ground. Victory was by no means assured.

  The grassy hillside was the only large open space for miles; one of the reasons Casper’s troops had been using it as their training ground. The hill might slope gently lower down, but near the top it was steep and rocky in places. On the left a small spring fed waterfall rushed over the rocks from the taller hills above. The pool emptied into a small river that flowed across the top of the hill left to right until it met softer ground and rushed down on the far right of the field, disappearing into the flanking forest. This meant the battle ground was limited on two sides by water. From Jim’s scouting they knew that additional troops were stealthily moving through the forest down the hill into a flanking position on the left.

  The only real plus in Casper’s favour was that since they’d been using the area for practice they knew where the footing was poor and cavalry would suffer and likewise where they could charge full speed.

  Knowing of the ambush troops, the cavalry did not charge all the way up the inviting open valley towards the enemy as they normally would have done, but stopped before the leading edge of trees so they could not be surrounded or cut off.

  Jim could only watch the ensuing horrific battle. Men hacked at other men, blood gushed everywhere and the screams were indescribable. It was one thing to know war happened and to be aware of man’s stunning ingenuity in designing weapons designed to maim and kill, but quite another to see those weapons in action. His attention was fixed on Amelie and the battle around her. It became obvious that lord Dirk, in a Knight’s full gleaming armour was the focus for concerted attack, as indeed were the few other nobles. Space became condensed around them. Those that fell, either to lord Dirk’s sword or her hooves soon became a hazard and she stumbled a number of times. They had to keep moving or become trapped.

  ‘Fall back. Regroup,’ Lord Dirk yelled to the remaining men around him, aware that a sudden push by the enemy was threatening to cut them off. Amelie began forcing her way out of the enemy press back towards their lines.

  Amelie bit at people’s hands holding their weapons, making them snatch their hands away. It was quite an effective way of buying them just enough time to get past, since most soldiers were expecting attack to come only from the rider. Lord Dirk could not defend on all sides however. There were too many and she was not able to catch them all out that way. The armour and chain mail did help turn blades aside, but they did not lessen the force of each blow. She felt her whole body was being pummelled into one enormous bruise and her strength was waning fast. She finally broke free and moved further into ‘friendly’ lines. She tried to ignore lord Dirk pulling on her reins, trying to turn her back into the battle. She’d had enough; her legs barely had the strength to keep moving. She was prepared to carry him back to camp so he could find another mount but that was it. A soldier grabbed her reins and halted her for the furious Lord Dirk and then they began forcing her round. It was the soldier’s sudden letting go and frightened gasp that warned her. An enemy knight astride an enormous carthorse was rapidly bearing down on her. The foot soldiers around them were being swept aside like chaff before the wind. The other horse struck Amelie side on and they all went down heavily.

  Jim rushed to her side, automatically shielding himself from any attack. The fall of both horses meant they were no longer such a target and the press of the enemy’s incursion into their lines withdrew a little. Lord Dirk and the other champion had managed to get to their feet and were furiously battling each other. The two horses however were tangled together, pinned by their twisted armour. Jim pulled out his knife and cut the leather straps on the cart horse and the head guard, neck and chest plate fell away. The big horse scrambled to his feet, backed away from the battle his master was engaged in but otherwise just stood near the fallen Amelie, shaking with exhaustion and fear. Jim kept a wary eye on the battles around him glad they were now behind the front line. Now that the dangerously thrashing carthorse was clear Jim could concentrate on freeing Amelie from the tangled armour and harness pinning her down. He worked as swiftly as he could. Amelie simply lay still, watching him, her sides heaving. He winced in sympathy when he managed to get the last piece of armour off; it was badly dented and a sharply torn piece of metal was embedded in her shoulder.

  ‘That looks nasty,’ Lord Dirk commented, suddenly appearing at Jim’s side, having managed to dispose of his opponent.

  ‘Yes. Thought she was keeping rather still,’ Jim nodded. Lord Dirk was leaning heavily on his bloody sword. It seemed the battle had momentarily moved away from their area now the enemy champion had fallen. Jim examined the wound carefully, deciding how to remove the metal spike without making it worse. ‘Here, give me a hand,’ Jim asked. ‘Hold the flesh around the metal, while I pull it out.’

  Amelie had a moment to feel the gloved hand pressing, then a hideously sharp pain and that was all she remembered.

  Jim noticed her form blur and he hastily moved to try and block Lord Dirk’s view, but a moment later a naked young woman lay where the horse had been. On her pale skin the myriad cuts and bruises were starkly apparent. The bloody shoulder wound looked dreadful. Jim hastily covered her with his cloak. Lord Dirk was staring at her and had clearly missed nothing of her transforma
tion. He didn’t seem surprised either.

  ‘I must get her inside. The fewer people who know of this the better,’ Jim told him quietly.

  ‘Yes. Use my tent,’ Lord Dirk suggested. ‘Put her up on this horse,’ he added holding it still.

  Jim tucked his cloak closely around her, covering her face and hair too. He knew Lord Dirk wanted to follow; concern as well as curiosity was alive on his face but he had more important matters of battle to attend to. Mounted or not, he remained one of the army’s most important commanders. Jim hastened back to the blue striped tent and deposited her on the narrow cot inside.

  Jim was very glad he’d already packed his knapsack and that because they’d done the scouting from this very tent, this was where he’d left it. He rummaged in the bottom of it and came out with a fine linen long tunic. Jim removed his cloak from her and checked her for any other serious wounds. It felt weird that they’d spent so much time together and he counted her his closest friend, yet only briefly had he seen her human form, and that had been in the darkness of the prison. He tried to get the sleeveless tunic over her head, not easy when his hands were full trying to hold her limp body up. But finally she was covered and her dignity restored. He now felt he could concentrate on her shoulder injury.

  After washing the blood and dirt from her shoulder he concentrated his mind on magically closing the wound so it could more rapidly heal. The spell to lend your strength to another, to assist healing, was exhausting and something he’d never done before but he knew the theory of how it was done. He persevered, cleaning and sealing the other gashes she also bore. By then he was too spent to move. But her breathing was easier and she seemed to be sleeping now rather than unconscious. She didn’t feel quite so cold to the touch either.

  She woke abruptly; her shoulder was on fire and her limbs felt leaden. She lay still sensing someone else was close by and tried to calm her initial panic. She was in her most vulnerable form - human and someone had clothed her, wrapped her warmly in a blanket and put her in this cot without her knowledge. She recognised the tent as the one belonging to Lord Dirk and that it was his bed she was sleeping in, which was a rather uncomfortable thought. Jim was sitting in a folding chair staring into the fire on the other side of the tent. The tent door flapped in the gusty breeze. Clearly several hours had elapsed since she’d fallen in battle; heavy rain was falling now, making it seem like dusk outside, although it could only be late afternoon. She slowly tested her limbs; nothing was broken, but she felt totally exhausted. Carrying a man in full armour together with her own armour and then trying to fight a lengthy battle was enough to exhaust any horse, but she wasn’t even a true horse. She did not have the stamina a true creature would have when pushed to the limit of her strength. No wonder that then being injured had been too much for her body. Someone entered the tent just long enough to put down a tray with some covered bowls on it. Food! Her mouth salivated at the enticing aromas and she had to move.

  ‘Ah, you are awake then,’ Jim said as she approached. ‘Feeling better?’

  ‘Better than I was, but not fully recovered,’ she said seriously.

  He neatly divided the food and watched as she immediately sat by the fire and began eating. He knew very well that she badly needed food and rest to recover so he silently watched and ate his own ration. The mutton was rather tough and chewy but Amelie seemed to relish it. He idly wondered if the herbivorous diet she’d had as a horse had been nutritious enough for her metabolism to fully refresh itself. He silently offered her the second slice of meat as yet untouched on his plate. She eyed him with raised brows a moment before tweaking it onto her own plate.

  ‘Thank you,’ she belatedly recalled that she could now speak and indeed courtesy was expected now she was back in human form. ‘What happened? I went down and you were suddenly there. Then I woke up here.’

  ‘I saw you fall. Lord Dirk suggested I get you in here.’

  ‘He saw me change?’ He nodded and she swallowed nervously. ‘And this dress. Where did that come from? It’s not from him I hope?’

  ‘No. Since your own belongings were lost, I thought I should carry something for you to wear. I assumed you wouldn’t stay in animal form all the time. Everything else we can replace when we have more leisure!’

  She snorted softly at his understatement. She was acutely aware that he must have seen her naked and dressed her unconscious body. ‘Did you heal me? I’m black and blue and ache all over but I don’t see any of the serious wounds I know I had.’

  ‘You did have quite a few nasty gashes which I cleaned up and closed. However your own body has remarkable healing ability of its own. I just saved your strength by doing the bad ones. Ordinarily you should still be asleep and flat out. But I thought the less time you were truly vulnerable the better.’

  ‘Thank you,’ she said softly. ‘How is the battle going? It suddenly seems louder to me, but then I haven’t been properly awake for long.’

  He peeked outside through a crack in the tent flap. She joined him. A few camp followers dashed past, fear on their faces; clearly all wasn’t well.

  Amelie knew she hadn’t the strength to change into animal form. She would have to get away the hard way, on slow human feet. She glanced round the tent, grabbed the warm blanket off the cot, swiftly rolled it up and buckled its straps. She appropriated Lord Dirk’s long and hooded travel cloak. With the heavy cloak on, her thin dress didn’t feel quite so inadequate to the chilly day. Jim had tucked the remainder of their loaf into his pack.

  ‘You’ll need something on your feet,’ Jim told her. She muttered under her breath measuring Lord Dirk’s spare boots against the sole of her foot. They were far too large and she didn’t have the strength to alter her feet to match the boots. A pair of thick woollen socks would have to do instead. Without further ado they left the tent and walked briskly in the direction other retreating camp followers were taking. They kept their eyes open but very little else in the way of useful supplies had been left behind. In fact only the tents like Lord Dirk’s, which were now too near the range of the enemy’s bowmen to be safe to dismantle, remained.

  ‘I’m glad we left when we did,’ Jim said.

  ‘Yes, looks like they’re aiming to capture the command tents.’ She tugged the cloak’s hood close against both wind and attention. She couldn’t keep strands of her long raven black hair from escaping the hood however and whipping around her head. No-one would mistake the fact she was a woman. To their right the leading edge of the battle was pushing nearer and they hurried.

  ‘There’s Lord Dirk,’ Amelie gestured surreptitiously. Things were going badly for him too. He was on foot with a small remaining contingent of his personal troops facing overwhelming odds. She met his eye momentarily. ‘I feel bad running away,’ she said to Jim.

  ‘I know, but this isn’t our fight. This has to be the best opportunity we’re likely to get to slip away.’

  ‘True,’ she acceded. ‘Is there anything we can do to help slow down this battle? Looks like they’ll be overrun soon, and then we won’t be clear of this new lot.’

  Jim let her pick their route while he considered what action and where would be most effective. The sloping field was bounded at the top by a swift flowing river, which had carved a deep channel uphill of their current position. Jim concentrated hard and was surprised but gratified that slowly a long ditch began scooping itself with his mind’s power alone close to Lord Dirk’s position. It was parallel to but far further down the hill than the existing channel, close to the battle’s front line. He directed the displaced soil to raise a small bank on the ditch’s downhill side to help retain the water. Aside from the combatants having the ground shift under their feet, which slowed up the advance slightly, they were too preoccupied to consider it much of a threat aside from something to trip up in. Next he linked the ditch straight up the shorter left side of the field to the upper river near the waterfall. Jim urged Amelie on and they hurried further away. They’d become too clos
e to the front line. Having had a brief breather from the considerable mental strain involved, Jim turned and took the final step. He broke a hole in the river’s channel wall and dropped the displaced soil and rock into the old riverbed, encouraging the water to turn down the new ditch. In a matter of moments, a raging torrent swirled down the new ditch separating the two armies. The ditch walls struggled to hold the water and the edges broke and fell in, making it more and more difficult for men to jump across, particularly when encumbered with armour. Lord Dirk’s men were able to regroup and concentrate on those enemies already on their side and fend off anyone who did manage to negotiate the river. It gave the rest of the army a chance too. In the general confusion Amelie and Jim slipped away into the forest on their left, now protected by their new river channel and away from the troops they knew to be still hidden in the forest.

  Amelie led the way as swiftly as she could maintain. She and Jim were both exhausted, but they knew that the more distance they put between them and the armies the better. Jim couldn’t be sure who else might have seen Amelie’s change on the battlefield or indeed his retrieval of her.

  ‘I didn’t get a chance to say earlier,’ Jim said, ‘but when we were doing the last scouting, did you notice someone with the army hidden in the forest who had a different colour aura?’

  ‘Yes, now you mention it, I think so. I didn’t know what it meant though,’ she said.

  ‘That person had a similar coloured aura to you Amelie,’ Jim said anxiously. ‘We can’t know where their loyalties lie, or if they can be trusted. We’ll have to be extra careful. Do you think you might know them?’