Idelle rolled over on the other side of the wall, pushing up under the cover of the stacked stones and straining to hear if any of the mages had seen them. A few seconds passed with no change in the ambiance, and Idelle turned to the commander who was pushing himself to a seated position.

"Not to be an alarmist, but I don't see any men," he said.

Idelle froze, then spun her head to look around. Not a single soul sat on their side of the wall.

"They left!" she said, half in disbelief and half in anger. Sure, she had left without telling anyone where she was going, but still. Couldn't they have waited a few minutes before rushing back to the front lines? Now there was no way she could get the commander back without them being flamed before they even saw the fire mage who did it.

It took her a moment to realize that the commander was chuckling. It was so strange there, at that moment, that she had at first thought it was the wind or a dying man nearby. He dropped his hand from his collar and raised it instead to rub his eyes while smiling and shaking his head. He couldn't have looked more out of place if he had been giggling at a funeral.

Idelle bristled. "We have no way to get back to the front lines," she said.

He stopped laughing and sighed, looking up at the sky and the clouds gathering there. A storm was on its way, but not soon enough to drench the fire mage's bonfires and make it easier for Idelle to get back to safety.

Neither of them said anything more. Depending on when the rain came, the fire mages would either be receiving reinforcements, or retreating to their front lines until the storm passed and they could build their bonfires again. Either way, mages would be coming right by this wall in only a matter of hours. If they saw Idelle and the commander, there'd be no questions asked. No one would let a Wynherst commander live, especially not when his wounds would make him a burden to try and keep as a prisoner. And as for Idelle, she was barely worth the magic it would take to kill her, as far as the mages would be concerned. She might meet her end through old fashioned steel.

The commander rested his head against the wall, closing his eyes and sinking into himself. If she hadn't seen the slight tension in his shoulders, she would have thought he'd fallen asleep or passed out. She turned away, ignoring him as she thought of how she might get out of this. She was used to getting into sticky situations, and usually she was able to wriggle out with very little damage done. But this felt bigger. Especially with another life on the line.

Propping herself up, she peeked over the edge of the stone wall and scanned the field in front of her. Far in the distance, she saw the darkened scars of the Wynherst trenches along the pastureland. Battalions still fought the fire mages, but they were far to her right and too distant to be of any help. To her left, the Avonford river cut across the pastureland as it made its way down from the headwaters of the Magna Aber far in the north, all the way down into Glastonbex. At this time of the year, and in this part of the country, it only came to about knee height-- though the width was still formidable. The farmers had built a berm around the banks, trying to keep sheep in and wanderers out. The only access across the river was a small bridge, and as Idelle's eyes found its sturdy logs laying across the raised earth around the river, she saw where the extra fire mage had gone.

She cursed under her breath as she watched the fire mage resting on the railing and looking out toward the Wynherst lines. He had to be there, didn't he. It was the only plausible escape route for Idelle and the commander to take, and by the time she'd fought him for access, the other mages would have already responded to the disruption.

Taking a minute, she stared at the bridge. If they couldn't use the bridge, maybe they could take the river. It was definitely nowhere near the best option, and yet it seemed to be their only one. If the fire mage on the bridge could be distracted, then they might be able to slip past him and get far enough down the river that they could climb back onto land and walk the rest of the way to the Wynherst lines. The other mages would hopefully never even see them over the edge of the berms.

Her heart beat in her chest as she teetered on the edge of making the decision to take the river or stay where they were. Taking the river was risky, and they could very well be boiled like lobsters in a pot by the mage on the bridge. But staying put was just killing time until they themselves were killed.

She reached out and shook the commander's shoulder, jolting him from his reverie. He reached for a sword that was no longer at his side and his eyes whipped from side to side. Idelle leaned back, just in case he made any clumsy attempts at getting up.

"I've got a plan," she said. "We're going to use the river to get past the mages."

He stared at her blankly for a moment and then nodded his head. Whatever she'd been thinking, she certainly hadn't expected him to agree so blindly to her plan. Then again, there really was no choice and he looked like he had no energy to spare for arguing.

She gave him a quick overview of the plan as they crept along the wall toward the closest river bank. They'd be able to enter on this side of the stone wall without a mage seeing them, but they'd be fighting their way upstream, toward the bridge and its new sentry. However easy it was to get in the water, it would be the getting out that would be life or death.

Once they reached the mounded earth protecting the water from the field, Idelle helped the commander over the lip and down to the muddy river bank. His face was now the color of old snow and he favored his wounded leg heavily.

As they stood at the edge of the water, the berm just barely covering their heads, Idelle turned to the commander. "You're going to need to take this all off," she said, already reaching to his side to unfasten the leather straps holding his chestplate in place. There was no way he'd have the energy to make it upstream in heavy armor. To his credit, he saw what she meant and quickly helped take off his greaves and vambraces.

Now that he was freed from his battle armor he looked strangely bare and vulnerable. His cotton tunic and pants were soaked with sweat and blood and clung to his shape. He was not a small man, but he looked somehow fragile as he swayed in place and struggled to draw in steady breaths.

Idelle ripped out the straps of one of his vambraces and knelt down to wrap it around the top of his thigh. He looked startled at first, but didn't pull away as she cinched the leather strap tightly around his muscle and then tied it as tight as she could get. It didn't stop the blood flow, but it slowed it a bit. It would have to do until real healers could see to him on the Wynherst side.

She got back to her feet, knocking the mud from her knees and looking upstream toward the bridge.

"We can't walk, otherwise he'll see us immediately," she said. "You're going to have to crawl on your belly. Use your hands to pull you along. Once we get close enough, I'll try and distract him so that we can get out further up the river."

The commander weakly nodded, already heading into the river and sinking down so that only his shoulders and head showed above the water. Idelle followed him, letting the current float her legs behind her. Like that, they inched forward in the river, protected from the mages on the field but heading right toward the one on the bridge.