by P. C. Cast
Mari’s voice flattened. “The love of my mother’s life was a Companion. You have no idea what she was really like—what she really wanted. Leda would rejoice at the Clan and Companions coming together peaceably.”
“You’re talking about a Leda I didn’t know. I only knew the Leda who was my Moon Woman, and who devoted her life to caring for her Clan. That Leda wouldn’t have allowed Companions among us. No. I won’t trust these people.” Serena gestured angrily at the Companions. “I’ll never trust them. They enslaved us! They killed our men! They watched us die in captivity for countless generations! They have proven that they aren’t trustworthy. Good-bye, Mari. Your mother would be ashamed of you.” Without another word, Serena left the path and disappeared into the smoky forest. Three women quietly followed her. None of them so much as glanced at Mari.
Mari pushed the hurt Serena’s words had caused away from her and scanned the remaining Clanswomen with sharp, questioning eyes. “Anyone else?”
“We are your Clan, Moon Woman.” Isabel bowed low to her, arms open with her palms facing up in the traditional acknowledgment of a Clan’s Moon Woman. “We follow you.” The women who remained mimicked her actions, bowing respectfully to Mari.
“All right then, I don’t think the Gathering Site is far from here, and that’s the boundary of Clan territory.” Calling to Rigel, Mari set the image of the creek and the familiar Gathering Site in her mind, knowing that from there they could easily make it to the birthing burrow. She bent in front of her Companion and took his furry face between her hands, kissing him on the nose affectionately. Then she concentrated, sending the image to the Shepherd as she commanded, “Go, Rigel! Lead us there!”
With a happy bark, Rigel galloped away, following the little deer path they’d pretty much stayed on since crossing the last stream. He stopped just as the path was curving, looked over his shoulder at the mixed group of watching Companions and Clanswomen, and barked enthusiastically again, causing Sheena to sigh softly.
“I forget how much energy young canines have,” Sheena said, patting Captain on the head before nodding at him, saying, “Go ahead—join Rigel.” Barking like a pup, Captain bounded after the young Shepherd.
“Okay, everyone. That’s the way we’re going. Not much longer now and you’ll find safety for the night,” Mari said as she motioned the Clanswomen to get up and follow Rigel and Captain. “Isabel, could you go to the front of the group and be sure everyone is keeping up with Rigel while I have a word with O’Bryan?”
“Of course, Mari.” Isabel hurried after the pup.
The Companions followed even more slowly than the Clanswomen, being sure there were several yards between them and the Earth Walkers. Mari went to the two most seriously wounded young women, helping them to their feet.
“You—you don’t look like a Scratcher,” said Sarah, the younger of the two, who leaned heavily on Lydia and looked as if she might have broken her ankle.
“You’re Sarah, right? May I look at your ankle?” Mari asked.
“Yes, I’m Sarah. Are you really a Healer?”
“I am, and we don’t call ourselves Scratchers. We’re Earth Walkers.”
“And she’s a great Healer,” O’Bryan said. “She healed me of the blight.”
Sarah and her sister exchanged startled glances, then the girl said, “Yes, you may examine me.”
Mari quickly felt Sarah’s ankle, deciding that it wasn’t broken after all but severely, painfully sprained. Automatically, Mari started tearing strips from the bottom of her tunic as she spoke to the young man who was watching her every move. “O’Bryan, do you know what chickweed looks like?”
“No, sorry, Mari. I’m better at tracking than I am at plants.”
“I know what chickweed looks like. I’ve spent time on the Farm,” Sheena said.
Mari looked up at her, nodded her thanks. “Back around the bend and up a little ways from the path I’m sure I saw a big bed of them. Could you pull a bunch for me?”
“Will do!” Sheena jogged back down the path.
As Mari wound the strips of her tunic snugly around Sarah’s swollen ankle as support, she spoke to Lydia. “I see that you soaked that cloth and put it over your burns. That was smart, but I know it must still hurt a lot.”
Mouth closed in a firm line against the pain, Lydia nodded.
“I’ll do what I can for you now, but I promise to give you something that will bring you relief as soon as we get to the burrow.”
“You don’t seem like any other Scratcher—I mean Earth Walker—I’ve ever known,” Lydia said.
“Have you really ever known an Earth Walker?” Mari’s smile kept the bite from her question, but still the girl looked away and shook her head.
“No. I’ve only been to the Farm once or twice with Mother.” Then Lydia clamped her lips together again, blinking her eyes in an obvious attempt to keep her tears from spilling over.
“She’s dead.” Sarah’s voice shook. She did nothing to stop the tears from running down her cheeks. “So is our father and their Shepherds. They—they made us leave our nest first. They were supposed to follow right behind us. It happened so fast. One second they were shouting for us to run. The next our tree was ablaze and—” She broke off, unable to continue.
“I’m so sorry.” Mari looked from Sarah to Lydia. “My mama died not long ago. It’s awful, isn’t it?”
“Yes,” Lydia said on a sob. “It’s awful.”
Both women—girls really, Mari realized as she looked through the soot and dirt, sweat and wounds, and saw how young they were, probably barely Jenna’s age—bowed their heads together and clung to each other. Mari stood, moving away to give the girls privacy for their grief.
“Mari, Rose’s back is burned pretty badly,” O’Bryan said softly to her.
Mari went to the petite blonde who sat in the middle of the path with her Terrier snugged to her side, her puppies rooting earnestly for their mother’s milk.
“Rose, may I examine your back to be sure you can travel?”
Rose shrugged. “Sure, but I can travel. I don’t have any choice.”
Mari went around to the woman’s back, carefully lifting her tattered shirt, frowning at the blisters that were already beginning to ooze.
“Here, I picked all of it!” Sheena jogged to Mari and handed her a nice bundle of delicate white-flowered plants.
“Thank you, Sheena. Now could you call Captain? He’ll make sure we don’t get lost from the Clanswomen while everyone is following Rigel,” Mari said. Sheena nodded, cupped her hands, and whistled sharply. Then Mari hurried to Sarah and handed half of the chickweed bundle to the girl. “Chew these—whole. Then spit them into your hands and carefully smooth the mixture onto the worst of Lydia’s burns. I’ll be doing the same for Rose; then we’ll get going.”
“Really? You want me to chew these up and then spit them onto Lydia?”
“Well, kind of. Spit them into your hand and then put them on Lydia’s burns. Don’t worry if you swallow some. They’ll help with that swollen ankle.” Mari stuck a big handful of the bitter herb in her own mouth and began to chew as she headed back to Rose’s side.
“Here, I’ll help.” O’Bryan held out his hand.
“How’s your leg?” Mari asked through a full mouth as she handed him a fistful of plants.
“It’ll be okay until we can stop. You fixed me up good!” He grinned and filled his mouth with chickweed. Soon he was chewing and spitting alongside Mari.
It didn’t take long and Mari didn’t like how weak the wounded women were, but within just a few minutes they were hobbling along with Sheena and Captain leading them, not far behind the Clanswomen. Mari glanced at O’Bryan. He was carrying half of the Terrier pups, with Sheena carrying the other half. The two of them were staying close beside Rose, who was too weak to do much except lean on Sheena and stagger forward. Mari cleared her throat, and O’Bryan met her eyes. She gave him a pointed look before saying, “Sheena, could you take the
pups from O’Bryan for a moment? I don’t like how much he’s limping and want to take a look at his wound.”
“Sure,” Sheena said, taking the squirming pups from O’Bryan. “Maybe we should all rest for a moment.”
“No,” Mari said quickly. “We’re almost to Earth Walker territory, but we’ll have to hurry to make the burrow before night. The four of you keep going. I’ll just be a second with O’Bryan. We’ll catch up with you quickly.”
Mari motioned for O’Bryan to sit on a nearby log. First, she checked his burns. “Here.” She handed him what was left of her chickweed. “Chew this and put it on your arms and face. You’re not burned badly, but it must be painful.”
“It is. Thanks.” O’Bryan chewed quickly, spitting the sticky mixture into his hand and smearing it on his arms with a sigh of relief.
Mari bent over his leg, noting the wound looked painful and needed a new dressing, but it showed no sign of infection or of the blight. As soon as the Companions were out of hearing distance she spoke quickly and softly.
“Do you know about Sol and Thaddeus?”
“Yes. But Sheena and I are the only ones who do. Nik didn’t tell Rose about Sol’s death. It would be too much for her—for any of the rest of them. To find out a Tribesman killed our Sun Priest is horror enough, but Mari, only Sol had the ability to call down sunfire and make a firebreak.”
“How bad is that, O’Bryan?”
“I’m not sure how it could be worse. If there is no firebreak the blaze will destroy all of the city in the sky, and burn most of the Tribe with it, as well as a good part of this forest—if not all of it,” O’Bryan said bleakly.
“Then why didn’t Nik come with you?”
“He is his father’s son, Mari. He’s going to try to make a firebreak, or—” O’Bryan broke off his words, looking hopelessly into Mari’s eyes.
“Or die trying?”
He nodded.
Mari felt a keen hollowness within her at the thought of losing Nik. “I just found him. I can’t lose him.”
She didn’t realize she’d spoken aloud until O’Bryan rested his hand on her shoulder and squeezed. “Nik told me to tell you he’s sorry—that he wanted it to end differently.”
“It is going to end differently. I watched my mother die. I watched his father die. I’m not going to stand by and watch Nik die, too.” Mari stood, held out her hand, and helped O’Bryan up.
“He’s not here. We’ll both be spared watching him die,” O’Bryan said sadly.
Mari met his eyes. “Oh, I’ll be watching all right, but I’m not going to let him die. That I promise you.”
CHAPTER 5
Mari knew what she had to do. She wasn’t sure how she was going to do it, but she had to save Nik—and if that meant saving the Tribe and the City in the Trees, well then, she’d simply have to save them, too.
She sprinted past the straggling little group of Companions and through the weary Earth Walkers, finding Isabel in the lead with Rigel not far ahead of her. Mari’s pup barked a welcome, ran to her for a quick hug, then trotted back to his lead position as she dropped into pace beside Isabel.
“You’re doing really well, Isabel. Thank you for not being afraid of Rigel.”
Isabel smiled bravely at her. “I wouldn’t say I’m not afraid of him, but I am getting used to following along behind him.”
“You don’t have to be scared of him. I give you my word on that.” Mari lengthened her stride as much as she dared. “We need to pick up the pace. The smoke is making it hard to tell how late it is, but it feels like we’ve been walking for most of the day.”
“It feels to me like we’ve been walking for most of the year,” Isabel said drolly.
“I know what you mean. Isabel, I need to talk to you about what is going to happen once we get to the Gathering Site. I’m going to get the groups settled—then I’m going to leave you in charge while I run for Sora.” And after I tell Sora about what’s going on, and she’s on her way to help, then I’m going to save Nik, Mari promised herself.
Rigel gave a couple quick barks and trotted into what Mari realized with a happy start was a familiar grove of cherry trees.
“Finally—the Gathering Site,” Mari said, then she raised her voice for the rest of the group. “The site is just through this grove. You can rest there while I get—” Rigel’s welcoming bark made him seem more pup than ferocious adult as he rushed through the budding cherry trees. Mari lost sight of him, but she heard a surprised shriek, followed by a fit of semihysterical giggles. “What the…?” She jogged forward while the rest of the group hung back—to see that Sora had been knocked on her butt by Rigel, who was happily licking her face as she laughed and made an obviously halfhearted attempt to fend him off.
“Mari!” she sputtered, wiping Shepherd slobber from her face with one hand as she looped her other arm around the big pup’s neck, hugging him close. “Great Goddess, I’m glad to see you. I was so worried! I told Jenna and Danita to stay put, but I had to look for you. All this smoke, Mari! What’s happening back there with the Tribe and—”
Isabel materialized from the smoke behind them, causing Sora’s words to break off.
“Isabel? Is it really you?”
“It is!” The girl smiled. “And there are more of us here, too.” Isabel stepped aside so that Sora could see the ragged line of Clanswomen behind her.
Sora was on her feet in an instant, running to the Earth Walkers, calling many of them by name, touching them, comforting them. Mari studied her carefully, proud of her friend and apprentice and thinking that she definitely had the makings of an excellent Moon Woman. She’d brought a satchel and a big skin full of water and was already passing around the skin and pulling containers filled with salves from the depths of the satchel. Mari felt the terrible burning tension between her shoulders begin to relax.
Then the small group of Companions limped into the clearing, and everyone went very still.
Mari went to Sora’s side. “Sora, this is Nik’s cousin, O’Bryan.”
Sora studied the young man with an expression Mari couldn’t read. Then, slowly, she nodded her head. “Hello, O’Bryan. Nik has spoken well of you.”
“You, too, Sora,” O’Bryan said with a tentative smile.
“Really? He didn’t tell you I wanted to let him die?”
O’Bryan’s smile grew less tentative. “Oh, he did tell me that, but he also said you changed your mind.”
Sora snorted. “I didn’t change it. Nik changed it for me.” She looked from O’Bryan to the Companions behind him. “Who are your friends?”
Looking relieved, O’Bryan introduced the rest of the group. Then Sora turned to Mari with an assessing look. “So, Moon Woman, what are we going to do with them?”
“Not we—you. I’m hoping you brought some aloe gel for burns.”
Sora nodded. “I did. I also have Danita and Jenna gathering as much aloe as they can find, and refining it into gel and salves. I thought you might need it.”
“You were right,” Mari said. “It was a good idea to harvest more aloe.”
“Thanks.” She grinned at Mari. “What’s next?”
“Use some of that aloe gel for the Companions. Lydia and Rose are the most badly burned of them. But don’t spend too long on any one person right now. They need to get to safety first.”
“What’s your idea for that? There are, what, about twenty-five or so in this group, with a good half or more of them injured?”
As Sora spoke, Mari led her a little apart from the rest of the group so they could have a measure of privacy. Sora followed her, sharp eyes still assessing the ragged group of survivors as most of them dropped heavily to the ground to rest.
While the two of them moved away from the group, Sora began coughing—a wet, nasty, rattling sound. She turned her back to Mari, trying to stifle the coughs, but Mari saw her shoulders shaking with the effort it took.
“What?” Sora said, wiping her mouth and meeting Mari’s g
aze.
“You’re sick,” Mari said softly. She reached toward Sora, intending to examine her, but the young Moon Woman stepped back, shaking her head.
“No, no, no. I’m fine.”
“You’re sick,” Mari repeated. “You look pale, even though your cheeks are flushed. Are you running a fever?”
“Mari!” Sora grabbed her wrist and marched farther away from the group with her. “I. Am. Fine. Or at least as fine as I can be after being attacked, bitten, and almost raped yesterday by Clansmen I grew up thinking were my friends, and maybe even more.”
“That shouldn’t have made you sick,” Mari insisted.
“Really? I disagree. And I looked it up in your mama’s journal. I think she’d disagree, too. My immune system has definitely been compromised. That’s why I feel awful. But right now I don’t have the luxury of curling up in our burrow and drinking tea for a week and making your creature bring me things.”
“You want Rigel to bring you things? Are you sure you aren’t delirious?”
Sora frowned at her. “You know he can do all sorts of crazy stuff. He practically reads your mind. So, if I’m sick, I figured he could certainly bring me things. I’m not sure what, but when this is all over and I get a chance to relax I’m definitely going to do as little as possible and get him to do as much as possible. You keep telling me how smart he is—I’m just agreeing with you. Finally.” Sora reached down and patted Rigel on the top of his head. He gave her a doggy grin and licked her hand, which made her grimace. “I just don’t understand why he has to be so slobbery.”
“He’s a Shepherd. Apparently they’re slobbery and sheddy,” Mari said, smiling down at Rigel. “All right. Fine. I’ll pretend like you’re okay if you heed Mama’s journal notes about what a Moon Woman should do when she’s ill.”
Sora sighed. “Already read the notes, and I’ll do what Leda directed. I’ll wash my hands. A lot. And if my cough gets worse I’ll tie a mask around my nose and mouth so that I don’t make anyone else sick.”
“And remember to care for yourself as well as you care for your patients.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, when I have time. So, back to our group of refugees. What are there, twenty-five or so of them?”