"Thaddeus!"
"Thad! Are you awake?"
Thaddeus attempted to respond, but all that came out was a muffled "Hnngd."
That's when realized he couldn't see anything, and he couldn't see anything because he was lying down with his eyes closed. If someone was talking to him, and he was awake, then he should open his eyes and look at them. Each thought was glacially slow, and as he opened his eyes he realized that he was used to thinking much faster.
The view was blurry at first, but sharpened quickly. The girl was somewhat attractive, and wore a medic's bandoleer. "How many fingers am I holding up?" she asked, bringing up a fist.
"None. Marla . . . what . . ."
"What year is it?"
"Heterodyne year 1092, 1652 anno domine."
"What day it?"
"I don't know." Thaddeus said impatiently, "How long was I out?"
Her mouth twitched, almost like she was about to smile at him. A small thing, but it reminded him Marla had been trained by his sister, and was no supporter of his. "Less than a day."
The questions had allowed him to focus. Though his thoughts still weren't flowing with their accustomed ease, they were flowing much more quickly, and he'd figured out that they were standard for unconsciousness following a head injury. "Then it's Thor's day, unless your 'less than day' is deliberately misleading."
As he'd predicted the next question came, "What's the last thing you remember?"
"I was taking the latest batch of screamers to the battle, escorted by a squad of jägers. It was late morning and the sergeant had just sent sent a jäger to investigate something he'd noticed." The blankness that followed on that memory was uncomfortable, but Thaddeus was careful not to let it show. "That's it."
"Now," he continued. "What happened?"
Marla's flinch was slight, but visible. "Arvesh lured us into a trap. A number of trees had been rigged. You walked into an attack meant to strike our flank. You destroyed that part of the attack, but a screamer threw an acid worm into a cliff, which fell on you. You've lost up to an hour of memory."
Thaddeus closed his eyes to think better. Heterodyne policy was to do the fighting on someone else's land. Evidently that had made them a bit too predictable.
"So what does my father plan now?"
Marla hesitated, "Your father is dead. So are your brothers. They were among the first to die in the trap. Lord Arvesh is dead as well. The range and accuracy of the new screamers . . ." She shook her head.
Thaddeus smiled grimly. He'd built the new screamer guidance system himself. Nice to know it worked in practice.
"Who's in charge?"
"Until we get back to Castle Heterodyne, Captain Zog."
"Zog? What happened to Goombast and Pilar?"
"Captain Pilar is dead. Captain Goombast is alive, but only barely. He's lost his eyes, part of his skull, and most of his skin."
Thaddeus started to ask another question, but then realized that Marla was just a medic, she wouldn't know much about military details. "Tell sergeant Grogon that I want to know the details about the new screamers and the general status of the army." He then reached and began calculating his return home.
"Master Thaddeus? Don't you want to know about your current condition?"
Thaddeus fixed the medic with a gimlet stare, "I know exactly what my condition is. I will be on my feet in two days, until then I will rest."
Marla prostrated herself. "Yes Master Thaddeus. Forgive me." She proceeded to crawl from the tent, murmuring apologies.
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