Page 76 of Raven's Rise
“Got him,” Rafe told her, still gripping his sword. “I don’t know how the hell he got this close to us, but he’s never…”
Rafe trailed off, seeing that Angelet held her hand to her chest in an unnatural way, and that the front of her gown was deep red.
He felt his heart go cold. “You were hit.”
She began to slide off the horse. Rafe dismounted and rushed to catch her before she hit the ground. He pulled her into his arms and put her gently down onto the road, keeping her upper body cradled against him.
“Rafe,” she said softly. “What do I do?”
“Just stay calm,” he told her. “I’ll take care of you. I need cloth. Where the hell is that boy? Goswin!”
He thought he heard the hooves of Goswin’s pony but couldn’t be bothered to wait. He kept his attention on Angelet. “How’s the pain?”
“Not very much,” she said.
“That’s common. The pain comes after, but it’s nothing you can’t endure.”
“There’s so much blood.”
“I know.” God, he knew that. Far too much blood. “But don’t worry. The bleeding is already slowing and soon you’ll be bandaged up.” Lies, lies, lies.
She closed her eyes.
“No, no. Stay awake, love. I’ll deal with this.” He kept his voice low, to keep her calm and to stop the shaking he felt when he saw the location of the bolt, jutting out of her rib cage at a disturbing angle. If the shaft punctured her lungs or her heart, he’d lose her in moments.
“Just breathe,” he told her. If she couldn’t breathe without coughing, or if there was blood on her mouth, it was over. And Rafe could not accept that.
The clatter of hooves stopped abruptly and then Goswin was there in the dirt with them, his expression horrified. “She was struck!”
“Goswin!” Rafe yelled, furious at the world and needing to take it out on someone. “You rode ahead when I ordered you to stop. Do you know how stupid that was? Don’teverdo that again.”
The boy looked a little chastened by Rafe’s vehemence. “I’m sorry.”
“Sorry won’t stop you from getting killed. There could have been more than one person!”
“There was! I saw someone running away!” Goswin reported breathlessly. “I couldn’t catch them though. The underbrush was too thick. But they definitely came from where that shot was fired.”
“Damn,” Rafe muttered. That was another bad sign. It meant that the person who escaped could easily inform their partners what happened and where to go. “We can’t stay here.”
“You want to move her?” Goswin said.
“Yes! Now go look in our gear for something to stop this bleeding. Cloth or something. Christ.” The boy scrambled up and disappeared.
Rafe lowered her so she lay on the ground.
Angelet reached up with one hand, grazing his face with the tips of her fingers. “You’re so angry.”
“Of course I’m angry!”
“It’s bad for me, isn’t it?” she asked. It was the most lucid statement she’d made so far.
“No, love. The blood makes it look worse,” he told her. In truth, it did look bad, but telling Angelet that wouldn’t help at all. “Trust me, it just needs a bandage and some time. It will heal.”
“If it does not…”
“It will.”
Goswin was back then, thrusting a few wads of fabric at him. “Here! Use these!”
