“Grek?” Nien asked. “Councilman?” Nien reached up and gripped the Council Spokesman shoulder. “Grek, wake up. We’re here now. We’ll get you out. We’ll get all of you out.”
But Wing saw that Grek's eyes had not closed as they would have had the Councilman been dragged into sleep or the deeper unconsciousness of exhaustion and starvation.
As they watched, it seemed incredible that the Councilman would have held on for so long only to die in the same moment he’d been saved.
Slowly, Nien reached forward and the Council Spokesman’s eyes.
When Nien turned about, he saw Wing already looking at him. Wing’s heart ached for his brother as Nien pushed himself to his feet. With unspoken agreement, the brothers and Carly began to check the rest of the huddled figures, tremulously removing blankets and cloaks from hooded faces.
To their great relief, they found two young girls and one teenage boy still alive. Nevertheless, as starved and weak as they were, did not rouse when touched or spoken to.
There remained only one figure left, also covered in cloak and blanket.
Exchanging a slow look with Carly, Wing walked over and, crouching down quietly, pushed back the cloak’s worn hood.
It was a young man, but so pale and drawn was his face that Wing could not tell at first whether he still lived. Sliding his hand beneath the blanket, Wing pressed his palm to the grim hardness of the boy’s ribs. The movement he felt beneath his hand was slight, and Wing hoped not a trick of his mind, but there did seem to be an exchange of air between the cave’s damp oxygen and the boy’s painfully thin body.
Wing pulled the hood back over the boy’s face, got to his feet and said, “We’ve got to get them out of here.”
“Agreed. Back to the house,” Nien said.
“Until we wake them we won’t know what shape they’re in — if they’ll be able to travel far,” Carly said. “Or at all.”
As the three pondered in silence how best to proceed, a resounding clash of metal striking the cave stone shot lightning into their veins.
“No! Ba’curs!”
Before Wing knew what was happening a glint of steel passed by his head and right shoulder, only just missing him as he lurched sideways, his shoulder coming up hard against the cave wall to his left. Using the contact with the wall to recapture his balance and change direction, he came back around with his sword in hand. But the bearer of the attacking blade stumbled, the sword falling and grinding along the rock floor of the cave before snagging and flipping out of the assailant’s hand with a sharp clang. Wing managed to terminate the momentum of his counterstrike and came to a halt, heart pounding and out of breath, as his attacker slumped against the far side of the cave.
In astonishment, Wing said, “Pree K?”
The young man was barely able to stand, the wall supporting his weight as he gasped and his legs wobbled.
“Pree K?” Nien echoed.
“Merehr?”
Wing’s attacker gasped and then laughed out loud. “Wing?” His eyes moved to Nien. “Nien?”
Joy, like a sweet hot wine, filled Wing’s belly.
“Yes,” Wing answered him. “It is I. And Nien. And you.”
Wing watched the incredulity and relief transform Pree K’s face. He had aged so much since that night, Wing was still having a hard time believing it was really the boy he’d known.
Pree K stepped away from the wall, but it was the only thing keeping him on his feet; he stumbled. Nien went to catch him but Wing got there first, grabbing the young man around the chest, turning him gently, and easing him down.
Awakened by the clamour, the young man Wing had only hoped was not dead, pushed the hood away from his face and began to crawl to his feet. He stopped upon finding Wing, Nien, and Carly looking back at him.
“It’s all right,” Pree K said, still half-leaning against Wing.
The young man took in Wing first, and then Carly and Nien. Slowly, comprehension dawned.
“Merehr?” he asked. “Carly? Nien Cawutt?”
“Yes,” Nien said.
“I was in your class,” the young man said to Nien. “I’m Jhock.”
Nien blinked and Wing saw his brother recognize the boy.
The young man forced himself to his feet and came to Pree K’s side. “Did you see any of them?”
“No,” Pree K answered, shaking his head. “Not a sign.” With Wing’s help, Pree K sat up a little. He looked up at Wing and asked, “Where did you come from?”
Wing heard what Pree K had asked, but what Wing understood was: Are you spirits? Are you dead? Are we dead? Is this what it feels like for the ancestors to come for us?
Before Wing could answer, another of the hooded figures moved.
Wing, Nien, and Carly watched as the figure moved painfully, and Wing wondered if it were one of the old ones. But as the figure pushed back his own hood and looked around the room, Wing saw it was another young man. The tall, skeletal boy blinked a few times, apparently unable to understand what he was seeing.
“This is En’t,” Pree K said.
En’t looked at Wing. He then spotted Nien standing behind him.
“Son-Cawutt Nien,” En’t said.
“And that is Carly,” Wing said.
“Carly, Uni, the fighter,” the tall young man said, nodding to her.
“You are Council Spokesman-Occoju’s eldest son, aren’t you?” Nien said.
En’t looked up at Nien. “I am.” And Wing saw something shift in En’t’s eyes; he looked past Nien to the still figure in the far corner.
Wing’s heart began to pound heavily. He thought Nien was about to say something when the boy said instead, “It’s been coming. Honestly, I thought it would have been turns ago. Stubborn. Guess he held on just long enough to prove himself right.” En’t’s eyes moved to Wing.
Wing looked back at the boy. Even now, the old Council Spokesman had not given up on Wing being Merehr, and Wing and Nien and Carly had just validated his faith, arriving in the last moments before his death.
Wing trembled slightly as Nien said, “I’m sorry.”
En’t’s hazel eyes revealed only exhaustion, void of feeling. “His death came too late for most of us.” He glanced over his shoulder at one of the smaller, still-sleeping bundles. “She and I alone, are left.” Nien raised an eyebrow in question. “My little sister.”
The Occojus had been a large family. Wing’s heart sank and he could see that Nien’s had as well.
Still holding Pree K’s head and shoulders in his arms, Wing said, “We need to get you out of here and to the house. We can talk there, after you’ve gotten some rest and food in your stomachs.”
“Home?” Pree K forced. “Are you crazy?”
“No,” Wing replied. “We’re leaving this place.”
“All of us at once? We’ll be spotted,” Pree K insisted.
“Not to worry. We didn’t come this far to let even one more of you die in these caves. We’re going home. Can you walk?”
“Yes.” With Wing’s help, Pree K got back on his feet. “My father’s sword,” he said.
Wing and Nien glanced down at the large blade laying on the cave floor. In his brother’s face, Wing could see how the sight of Commander Lant’s sword was almost like seeing an old friend. Respectfully, Nien bent down and picked the blade up, tucking it into the opposite side of his belt from where his own sword hung, and Wing thought it a kind of odd reunion — Lant’s sword on one of his brother’s hips, and a sword made by the hand of Lant’s closest friend, Master Monteray, on the other.
Wing bent down and, retrieving his own sword, slid it back into the sheath at his side. Glancing around the cave at the young men looking back at him, he said, “All right, let’s...” but he’d not finished his sentence before Jhock staggered sideways, on the verge of collapse.
Wing and Nien jumped in together to arrest the boy’s tumble, only then noticing the blood on Jhock’s sleeve and cloak.
Steadying him,
Wing saw that the young man’s eyes had blown wide with fear.
“I won’t slow you down,” he promised.
The terrified look in Jhock’s eyes wrung Wing’s heart; the boy believed they were going to leave him here now that they knew he was hurt.
Wing looked the boy in the eye and said, “It wouldn’t matter, Jhock, if you did. We’ll get you back to the house and take care of it.”
Staring at Wing in disbelief, Wing nodded to him and gave him over to Carly who took Wing’s place, placing her arm under Jhock’s shoulder and around the boy’s thin waist.
On the other side of the cave, En’t drew his little sister up off the floor, her blanket hanging in pathetic tatters over his arms.
Nien took up the youngest of the children, the boy whose large, wet eyes they’d first seen upon entering the cavern, and Wing carried the only other girl, Lily.
Together, Wing, Nien, and Carly started toward the cavern opening.
— But the young men had stopped.
Turning back, they watched as Pree K, Jhock, and En’t looked once more over the cave, its walls dancing under the light from the torches.
Only Grek Occoju now remained within the looming silence. A few torn, threadbare blankets lay in desolate heaps here and there. The ashes of past fires scorched the floor. Bitter Deliverer — their stony shrine.
Wing watched their faces. It was clear the young men could not believe they were finally leaving. From what En’t had said, it seemed they’d hoped they would for so long. And then, just as that hope had died from their hearts, Wing had arrived with Nien and Carly.
In silence, the young men turned round and, raising their eyes, nodded that they were ready to go.
Wing ducked out of the cavern and Lucin was there just out of reach of the firelight, tail twitching. Hagen started at seeing the big cat. And then his eyes grew twice their size.
“A shy’teh?” he breathed.
The rest of the survivors turned and pushed ahead to see, straining for sight of Lucin.
“He’s a friend of Wing’s,” Wing heard Nien say from behind him.
The small band moved ahead and, even with the slow pace of the three young men, it seemed to take half the time returning to the entrance of the caves than it had coming in.
Still in the lead, Wing moved through the crevasse in the rocks and into daylight. He turned then, and watched the rest come through. As Nien came out last, he saw that Wing shared his relief that the three young men were still traveling under their own power. Though they had not seen any activity in the mountains other than themselves, if the interchange between Pree K and Jhock had been any indication, the young men had seen enough movement from the Ka’ull to cause them to leave the caves only under the strictness need and with the greatest caution. Wing knew that Nien was grateful they were only going to have to make one trip.
Standing now, above their dark world, Wing watched as the kids looked around. They seemed terrified. They were also in a state of wonder.
For a long moment, all was quiet. It was then Wing noticed Lucin had disappeared.
Smothering his torch in the wet dirt outside the cave, Wing tossed it back down through the cave entrance, and stood. Beside him, the others gathered, sharing in the unspoken message: The torch was a final token, a seal upon the events that had transpired here in this sacred, unholy place.
Without a word, Wing took Lily back up into his arms, and they began the long trek down off the mountain.
Chapter 83
Rieeve and Warm Blankets
T he sun had begun to set when the small company finally arrived at the tree line.
The trip down had been uneventful as far as any sight of the enemy, and though the children had proceeded with quiet determination, still, it had been difficult for them. Tumbles had been taken and exhaustion had driven them time and again to take shelter while Wing, Nien, and Carly kept watch.
Ahead of Nien, Wing set Lily on her feet and edged from the trees to scan the fields.
Still carrying the young boy, Hagen, Nien stepped up beside him.
The fields were clear and quiet, filled only with the familiar chirping of night bugs. Their home was there in the distance, but some way to the right of their position.
“Let’s make our way as far as we can under the cover of trees,” Wing said, keeping his voice low.
Nien nodded.
The brothers retreated back inside the tree line and the small group wearily followed.
Once more, Wing crept out of the trees. Their home stood in the distance, now directly across from them. He turned back to Nien.
“I’ll go ahead and check the house.”
“Be careful,” Nien warned.
Wing nodded and moved off.
Nien watched as Wing’s dark, crouched figure disappeared into the fields. He could feel the sharp beat of his heart and behind him in the trees the strained breathing of the children. Impressed with their patience and stillness, some huddled together, some standing, Carly and Nien kept close watch on the fields.
Lucin had disappeared from their ranks once passing through the crack in the rock that led to the surface from the caves, heading, or so Nien supposed, into the Mesko Forest. For the first time, Nien wished the big cat were still present with his keen eyes and sharp senses, watching over them in the dark like a green-eyed guardian angel.
And then, out in the black beyond the tree line, something caught Nien’s eye, a shadow darker than the night around it, moving swiftly. His breath clenched in his throat and his hand sought the blade at his side. Had Lucin not disappeared after all? Or was it something or someone else?
A moment later, Wing reappeared inside the tree line as if he’d stepped out from behind a black curtain. Nien grunted with relief and welcomed him with a clap on the back. “You’re going to give me heart failure.”
“All is quiet,” Wing whispered. “Let’s go.”
The small band moved out across the fields.
Once inside their home, Wing got a fire going in the wood stove and then joined Carly and Nien settling in the children. Pree K helped until he dropped next to Lily from exhaustion. After a quick wet-rag bath, En’t dried and rewrapped his little sister, Fe, and sagged immediately into sleep beside her.
Wing lifted Pree K to a roll of blankets and getting him out of the pitiful rags he wore for clothes, said, “Nien? Will you grab whatever pants or shirts we have left?”
As Nien headed into the back room, Wing began an inspection of Pree K’s right leg. It was terribly bruised and badly swollen.
Nien returned shortly with the clothing and, leaning over Wing’s shoulder, asked, “What happened there?”
Wing shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t even remember seeing him limp.”
On the trip down from the caves, Pree K had slipped and taken a handful of vicious thorns. Wing had removed the thorns and bandaged his hands, but he did not think the injury to his leg had occurred then.
Wing glanced around the house. “Teeanacoir.”
He found the small jar of ointment in the same cupboard it had always been. Taking a finger full of the salve, Wing worked it as gently as he could into the bruises on Pree K’s leg. Pree K groaned but did not fully awake. Not wanting to disturb the boy’s sleep any more than he had to, Wing changed the blood-soaked wrappings on his hands and placed a rolled-up blanket beneath his head for a pillow.
Beside Wing, Nien cleaned both the heavy gash in Jhock’s shoulder as well as the puncture wounds in his arm before turning to En’t and his little sister.
Wing moved to help Nien when Carly called them over to the side of the boy Nien had carried from the caves. Carly had recognized him as Hagen, the baby of the Yyota family who had been neighbors of hers.
“Look,” Carly said, pointing to the boy’s arm. The limb was cold and stiff, dark grey in colour.
Heart-sickened, the three exchanged worried glances.
“It has no blood supply,” Nien said.
&nbs
p; “We can try and restore circulation, but the blood may have absent for too long now,” Wing said. “We may not be able to save it.”
Carly squeezed her eyes shut, and between the three of them rose the shared thought: Hadn’t there been enough?
They watched the boy for a time.
“Let’s see what happens tonight,” Wing said. “In the mountains Rhegal taught me a little about medicines, preparations that can check infection, ease pain, so on.”
Carly and Nien agreed. It was all they could do.
With Carly on last watch, Wing rose before first light. Taking up a small leather bag, he stepped out into the chill morning air. By the time he returned, the children were still sleeping but Nien was awake and Carly was holding Hagen in her arms.
Wing walked over to her. “No change?”
Carly shook her head. “It looks worse.”
Wing’s face was grave as he took the root he’d gone into the woods for from the small leather bag and set it to boiling.
Once the preparation was done and cooled, Wing gave the water from the boiled root to Carly. She got Hagen to drink most of it and they waited a little longer.
Wing checked his grip on his sword. He never dreamed the first blood to stain the swords Monteray had made for them would be the blood of one of his own people, and a child at that.
Carly and Nien held Hagen’s arm down firmly on a block of wood set upon the Mesko table Wing had built for Reean. Carly wrapped one hand around Hagen’s eyes. He struggled at first, then lay still.
Wing rechecked his grip and, with a steadying breath, brought his sword down.
His strike was true, the separation clean, instantaneous.
The shock and surprise of the blow rent a scream from Hagen that woke the rest, scaring Fe so badly she froze and sending Lily running into the arms of Jhock.
Carly grabbed Hagen to her, pressing him into her chest as Nien bandaged the stump.
As Wing and Nien explained and comforted the others, Carly sat beside the fire, holding Hagen in her arms as he sweated and shook. The phlevian root preparation Wing had made helped as much as anything could; nevertheless, his sleep was fitful, afflicted.
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