The Eighth Warden Bk. 02 Ch. 01-02

"I can do that, Priestess Treya," Davi said, coming up to them.

"Thank you," she said, standing. "After that, wash his leg with water and soap. Did they teach you how to take care of a sprained ankle?"

"Umm, I think so. Rest it, and dip it in a bucket of cold water?"

"Yes, or use ice if there's any in town. You can also wrap something around it to cut down on the swelling, but not too tight."

"You're not going to heal him, Priestess?"

"I'm no priestess, and I'm not a very good healer. I need to save my strength in case there's another serious injury." She waved to Bobo and raised her voice. "Can I get some of that burn salve and the wound ointment?"

Bobo finished wrapping a bandage around a young boy's arm, then brought the jars over to Treya. "At this rate, I suspect we'll use up everything I've got. I wish I hadn't sold so much—this temple has a disturbing lack of supplies."

Treya shrugged. "We might as well use it if we have it. That's what it's for."

"Indeed." Bobo returned to his patient.

Treya turned back to Davi. "After you've washed his leg, use this one first," she held up the wound ointment, "on any scrapes or on the deeper burns. It'll help prevent infection. Then, use the burn salve on top of all the burns, even the ones you used the other ointment on. When you're done, cover everything with clean bandages. Got it?"

"Yes, miss."

#

The horses and mules were nervous from all the commotion, so Shavala calmed them as best she could, while she and Katrin switched out the bridles for halters and lead ropes, then set up a picket line.

"Did that man say it was ogres that did this?" Katrin asked as they worked. She looked scared.

"Yes," Shavala said, pointing to a footprint in the mud, twice as long and twice as wide as a normal man's foot.

Katrin stared at it for a moment before speaking. "Have you ever seen one before?"

"No. They sometimes visit the southern border camps to trade, but the rangers say it's difficult to talk with them because they can't speak any language but their own, which isn't much of a language."

"Trade? What would ogres trade?"

Shavala shrugged. "I've heard they bring animal skins and furs. I don't know what they ask for in return."

Once all the animals were tied up, they looked down the road. The fire in the large building was burning slowly because of the rain, but it had reached other buildings nearby. The villagers had finally organized a bucket line to try to put it out.

"Should we help them?" Katrin asked.

"I don't know if two more people would really be of much help. Let me try something first."

Was rain easier to manipulate than wind? Shavala closed her eyes and reached out for it. She'd sensed rain before, as part of her training, but she hadn't tried to do anything with it. Once rain had fallen from a cloud, not much could be done, and her elder senses hadn't extended far enough to reach the clouds back then. Now, though, if she focused solely in one direction, she could feel the lower layer of clouds—the layer that was heaviest with moisture.

"Shavala?" Katrin sounded concerned. "What are you doing?"

"I'm trying to help."

As she concentrated, Shavala realized that each cloud consisted solely of water, just as the other druids had told her. There was always water in the air, of course, but usually it was part of the air and not a separate liquid. It seemed strange to her that clouds were essentially the same thing as fog, but could somehow float much higher up in the sky.

Meritia had told her that there were two ways to make it rain. One was to make the temperature cooler, so more of the water would condense back into a liquid, but after Shavala's experience on the Osprey, she was wary of attempting to manipulate the wind, and she didn't know of any other way to make the air cooler. The other option would only work if there was already a rain cloud. If she could make more of the water droplets move, and bump into each other along the way, they'd become heavy enough to fall out of the air.

The water droplets in the cloud were too small for her to feel them individually, so she called to them as a whole, as if she was calling water from an underground stream. It worked, but it didn't make much of a difference until she reached higher up into the clouds. The higher the droplets were, the more others they gathered on the way down.

Shavala laughed as she realized it had worked, but the heavier rain was falling fifty feet from where it was needed. She hadn't accounted for the wind, so she moved closer and adjusted her aim, Katrin following along behind her.

Finally she had it right. Satisfied with the torrential downpour she'd caused over the burning buildings, Shavala stopped and faced upward, closing her eyes as she felt the rain on her face. She'd hardly used any magic at all in months, other than starting campfires, and the spell had come to her more easily than she'd expected. Was there some truth to Corec's dream? Did the binding sigils enhance their magic?

Most of the buildings that were on fire would still likely burn to the ground—they were too far gone to be saved—but Shavala was satisfied that the flames wouldn't spread any farther. The bucket line came to a confused halt as the villagers peered around, wondering why the storm had gotten so much worse right over their heads. They shook themselves out of it and resumed what they'd been doing, but now they focused on trying to save the buildings where the fire hadn't gotten bad yet.

Shavala continued the spell for as long as she could, having to keep tight control over it to accommodate the movement of the clouds and the shifting of the winds, but soon, she fell to her knees, gasping for air.

Katrin wrapped her arms around her. "Are you all right? I didn't know you could do that."

"Neither did I."

"Let me help you up. You're getting your new coat all muddy."

Katrin helped her to stand, and Shavala leaned against one of the cottages lining the road as she caught her breath.

"I don't think they need our help with the fire anymore," she said.

Katrin laughed. "No, I guess not. You stay here and rest while I water the animals, then we can go find the others."

There was a water trough near where they'd set up the picket line, so Katrin returned there and took the horses and mules off the line one at a time to give them a chance to drink.

By the time Shavala was able to join her, Corec, Ellerie, and Boktar had returned from the temple.

"Where are the others?" Katrin asked.

"Still helping with the wounded," Corec said. "Between the ogres and the fire, there are a lot of them."

"What should we do?"

Ellerie said, "We're going to try to track the ogres. They went west."

Corec nodded. "Once we know how many there are and where they're at, we'll come back and set up a lookout, so we can watch out for them in case they come back. Hopefully the guards will arrive by the time they return."

Shavala winced at the thought of Corec and Boktar crashing through the forest in their armor. "I'll track them," she said. "I can move a lot faster than you."

"Alone?" Corec asked, concerned. "You can't fight a group of ogres by yourself."

"I thought you weren't trying to fight them. They won't see me. You didn't see me when I was tracking you."

"It's too dangerous," Ellerie said. "If we all go together, then we'd at least have a chance if they do see us."

"I trained with the rangers," Shavala told her. "I can hunt and track as well as them. I'll find the ogres and follow them to wherever they're going, and they'll never know I was there. The armor is too loud and too slow."

Ellerie nodded reluctantly.

"We can leave our armor behind," Corec said.

"It's almost nightfall," Shavala said, "and the clouds are too heavy for any moonlight to get through. You can't see in the dark, and if you use your mage lights, the ogres will see them. And you don't know how to run in the forest without making a sound. The ogres will hear you if you get close, and then you'd have to fight them without any armor. I can do this faster and better on my own."

"You can see in the dark?" he asked.

"I can see movement, and my elder senses will show me everything nearby, no matter how dark it is."

He frowned but nodded. "How many days did you follow us without us knowing you were there?"

"Four, and sometimes I got almost as close to you as I am now."

Boktar said, "I suppose the rest of us could start setting up some defenses, just in case the ogres return before the guards get here."

"I can place an alarm ward along the western edge of town," Ellerie said.

While the others started making plans, Shavala took off her quiver and handed it to Katrin. She couldn't afford to fight the ogres, and she'd move faster without it. "Can you take this and my bow and get them both out of the rain?"

"Of course."

She gave Katrin her coat and her blue scarf next, then hid her rune from view. The more she blended in with the forest, the better.

"Are you sure you should do this?" Katrin whispered to her. "Aren't you tired from the spell?"

"I feel...tingly. Like I need to do something. Anything. I won't use any more magic, though."

She made her farewells, then headed to the western edge of town to pick up the trail. The ogres probably wouldn't be difficult to track, but the sooner she got started, the sooner she'd find them. She caught sight of their footprints in the mud, and ran after them.