by Kate Elliott
“May I help?” she asked.
He smiled. Gwyn was a fairly young man, his features interesting rather than handsome; he had a quiet intensity that never, except when he was on stage, erupted into dramatics. “Please,” he said. He glanced briefly toward Anahita and her companion. Diana had stopped next to the pair and seemed to be making a speech. “Di!” Gwyn called. She turned and, when he waved at her, jogged over to them.
“We need a hand here.” Gwyn indicated Cara and himself. He bent to straighten one corner of the big tent.
“Well, I must say,” said Diana to Cara, seeing that Gwyn was inclined to ignore her, “that I’m disgusted with Hyacinth that he would cater to her whims rather than do something useful.” Expecting no reply, and receiving only Cara’s enigmatic smile, she strode around to another corner and pulled it tight.
Hal Bharentous arrived and, with four of them, the folding went quickly. As Diana and Gwyn rolled the canvas up and tied it, and Hal collected and bound up the poles, Cara allowed herself a moment to step back and watch while she wound the guidelines up.
“Doctor,” said a voice behind her. “I see you observe as well. Everything we watch, everything we do, becomes part of the work. And all work feeds the exercise that becomes the theater, the actual performance of which is only another, if more polished, exercise.”
Cara turned. “M. Zerentous.”
Owen Zerentous gave the briefest nod in acknowledgment, but his attention remained fixed on his actors. “There can be no separation between work and life. Like the rehearsal, the journey itself is a discovery.”
“Dad,” said Hal, half hidden by the bound poles, “I don’t think Dr. Hierakis is interested in your theories.”
“But of course she is,” said Zerentous. “She is a research scientist, an act of creative performance that binds her close in spirit to every other artist. Are you not, Doctor?”
Cara was saved a reply by the sudden eruption of an altercation over by the wagons, where Madelena Quinn was attempting to physically drag Hyacinth away from his station by Anahita. Zerentous’ interest, and his focus, shifted so thoroughly away from her that Cara felt as if he had left her before he took one step away.
“Well,” she said to no one as Zerentous strode away to observe this newest scene.
Gwyn Jones glanced up at her. “Yes,” he said, following the direction of her gaze, “but you must forgive him much. He’s a genius.”
“Tell that to the army that’s approaching when they ride, swords drawn, into a camp we haven’t broken yet,” muttered Hal.
“Good Lord,” said Diana, trying to hoist one end of the rolled up tent. “This thing weighs a ton.”
David ran up, his skin sheened with sweat. “This is down? Good. If you can load this into the fourth wagon—there—then all we’ve got is the bedding and carries, and we can get started.”
Hal and Gwyn and Di hoisted the rolled up tent between them and lugged it over to the wagons. Cara tarried behind. “I certainly don’t understand why actors must travel with so much luggage.”
David grinned. “I hadn’t noticed that you travel lightly, Doctor.”
Cara picked up the bundle of poles. “Have I ever told you how much I detest impertinent young men, David?”
“Many times. Here, I’ll take those, and if you’ll roll up that rug, we’ll be finished here.”
“You seem damned cheerful. Aren’t you nervous? With battles looming in the near distance.”
David shrugged as they began to walk. “I’ve never been scared of threats I can’t see. It’s a form of blindness, I suppose. It’s why I went into engineering. It’s all there, right in front of you. Yomi!” he called, diverted by the appearance of the Company stage manager. “I’ll give you five minutes. Then we’re going.” Yomi nodded, and then, with characteristic efficiency, she rounded on the group that had gathered by Anahita and dispersed it ruthlessly.
David proved as good as his word. In five minutes, the first wagon jolted forward, and in succession, the rest followed its lead. David sat next to the driver of the lead wagon, and Cara, as usual, began the day by walking briskly alongside. Like all the drivers, this one was an elderly but hale jaran man who spoke no language but khush. Nevertheless, he and David had formed a friendly partnership, linked by a shared even temperament and, Cara suspected, the simple fact of both being male.
Cara walked for an hour. The grass was damp from rain, and the sun slipped in and out from behind the clouds, so that the cast of light over the land brightened and dulled by turns. Finally, she swung up into the back of the wagon as it trundled along at an even and unslacking pace. She had conceived the greatest respect for the beasts that drew it, thick-shouldered, bovine animals that could walk for hours without rest. This day they did not even pause at midday, but it was only mid-afternoon when a new rider, an older man whose blond hair was bleached white with age, galloped up from behind and spoke to the lead driver. Their course altered; within half an hour the little train snaked around a low rise and came to a halt by a swampy pond ringed by scrub trees and a scatter of dense bushes.
Cara climbed down and surveyed the terrain. Already the drivers unloaded the wagons with unseemly haste despite Anahita’s shrieks of anger. First one wagon, then a second and third, and more, trundled out, leaving the party stranded by the pond.
“David,” said Cara, “I think you’d better get all those tents up. And get—ah, there you are, M. Applegate.”
“What in heaven’s name is going on?” Yomi asked. She cast a disgusted glance back toward the handful of actors clustered around Anahita, and a puzzled one toward the stream of wagons heading away from them. “Are we being abandoned?”
Now others came up to join the discussion: Joanna Singh, Rajiv, Maggie, and Marco. The actors had by now split into two groups: those milling around Anahita, and those with Diana and Gwyn, who were already unrolling the Company tent.
Cara caught Marco’s glance, and nodded. “We’ll need all the tents up, fires, as many open fires as you can get going, and I want to start boiling water now.”
“Oh, hell,” said David, as if he had just figured out what was going on. “I’ll do what I can, but I can’t stand the sight of blood.”
“Then we’ll put you in charge of preparations,” said Marco. “With Jo and Rajiv and Maggie. Start by gathering brush. Cara, will you need attendants?”
“You certainly, Marco. Anyone else who can stand it. The rest will have to fetch and carry.” She watched as Anahita collapsed onto a chair set up for her by Hyacinth. “Or else stay out of the way.”
David and Joanna and Rajiv and Maggie left.
“I beg your pardon, Dr. Hierakis,” said Yomi. “But I’m still confused. What’s going on?”
“We’re about to receive the wounded.”
“Ah,” said Yomi. “From the battle. I’ll go tell the actors. I’m sure they can help out.” She left.
Cara sighed. “So blithely. She hasn’t an inkling, Marco, of what we’re about to see.”
“They chose to come here. Now they have to face the consequences of that choice. If they can’t endure it, let them go home.”
Cara snorted. “You’re not very compassionate today, are you, Marco?”
“I save my compassion for where it will do the most good. It’s all very well to spout this nonsense about the universality of theater, but it’s still nothing more than a holiday for them. We’ll see how they like a dose of the painful truth.”
“My, you’re bitter today.” But she followed his gaze and saw that he was looking toward Diana Brooke-Holt, watching her as she and Hal and Gwyn extended the poles and lifted the canvas weight of the Company tent. “Ah. Test of fire for the sweet young thing?”
Marco started, glanced at her swiftly, and grunted in annoyance as he turned on his heel and stalked away in the direction of the pond.
“Well!” Cara considered his back as he strode off toward David and Maggie, who were gathering brush. “What does that
mean?” But Marco’s affairs did not concern her now. She went to assemble her medical kit.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
WHEN THE FIRST RIDERS were sighted, coming in toward the camp, Diana felt sick with fear. She hoisted two buckets of water from the pond and lugged them over to the ring of campfires. Dr. Hierakis was swearing fluently in Rhuian about the lack of containers in which to boil water. At the far end of the pond a single tent had been set aside for Anahita and anyone who wanted to languish there with her, a total of five of the actors and none of Soerensen’s party.
The riders glinted in the sun as they pulled up a respectful distance outside of camp. They wore, over their scarlet shirts, segmented body armor with scaled tassets hanging down to cover their legs to the knees. A few wore helmets, although most had slung their helmets on leather straps over their saddles. Altogether, they presented a formidable picture, and there were only fifty of them.
Diana stared, realized she was staring, and picked up the two empty buckets to make a trip back to the pond.
“Diana! Can you help me over here?” It was Gwyn, setting up the Company’s screens into a square.
She hurried over. “What is this?”
“The doctor wants an outdoor surgery. Tie that there—”
Diana watched the riders from her vantage point. “It doesn’t look as if this group has any wounded, or as if they’re even going to come into our camp—” She broke off as Dr. Hierakis and Marco strode across the grass to the group of waiting jaran. Their gestured conversation was fascinating to watch, since it was obvious that no one spoke a common language. Soon enough Owen wandered over to study them.
“Excuse me.” Diana whirled, to see David and Maggie carrying a long, rectangular table. They brought it inside the screens and set it down. David stepped back to examine it. “Well, it was the best I could cobble together.”
Out by the riders, the doctor and an older jaran man had reached some kind of agreement. They walked together back to the tents, and behind them, walked—or limped—a number of the riders. As they came closer, Diana could see that they were indeed wounded: one man had an arrow sticking out of his thigh, broken off; another had blood seeping from his right side; a third had a bloody strip of cloth tied around his left eye.
“Marco, get my kit. Maggie, where’s Jo? I want her to stay in my tent and run sterilization on my instruments, so we’ll need someone—one of the actors, say—to fetch and carry. That should be easy enough for them. David, we’ll need another table, the wagons will be showing up by dusk. Can you find—yes, leave Rajiv in charge of the water; perhaps one of the actors can help you.” Dr. Hierakis caught Diana staring at her.
Diana felt like she was being considered by an expert. She shifted uneasily and glanced at the elderly jaran man next to the doctor. He had a kindly face—for a savage—and, meeting her gaze, he smiled at her and nodded.
“Of course,” said Dr. Hierakis abruptly. “If you think you can stand it, Diana, you can take water—boiled water, of course—to the wounded who are waiting to be treated. Goddess knows, they’ll be thirsty enough, and a pretty face will likely do them as much good as the drink. Can you manage it, do you think?”
It did not sound precisely like a challenge, but Diana became aware all at once that Marco Burckhardt had paused and was looking at her. “Certainly,” she said, hoping there was no betraying quaver in her voice.
“Good,” said the doctor. “Tell Rajiv what you’re about, and get some cups. And a spoon, perhaps, for the worst of them.”
But the cup sufficed, Diana quickly discovered. Of the fifty riders who had come in, at least three-quarters had some kind of injury that clearly kept them from fighting but not from riding. They settled in on the ground, waiting patiently as Marco and a young dark-haired rider performed triage and sent the worst-injured up to the privacy of the screens. Quinn got a cup, too, and they took water to each rider in turn. Diana soon suspected that many of these men could have gotten water for themselves but were content to wait in order to receive it from her hands.
The few older men, lined, sun-weathered, with silver in their hair, smiled directly at her and spoke a few words which she guessed to be some kind of thank you. The young ones never looked her in the eye, or if they did, not for more than an instant. But it was obvious that their apparent shyness did not stem from disgust. Quite the opposite, if anything; many times she turned only to see a young man blush and look away from her.
By the time they finished with the first group, a second group had ridden in. Things went much the same. The afternoon sun spread a layer of warmth along the ground, but it was shallow, and Diana knew that when night came, so would the cold. What if it rained again? Did these men even have blankets?
A second surgery had been set up in the Company tent, and Diana watched as Dr. Hierakis, now with two elderly jaran riders flanking her, walked into the tent. She had rolled up the sleeves of her tunic. Blood spattered the yellow fabric. Behind her, Maggie carried two unlit lanterns.
“Here.” Diana knelt beside a young man with cornflower blue eyes and fair hair. One shoulder piece dangled, cut away, and underneath it his scarlet shirt was damp. “You must be thirsty. Where are you wounded?”
An instant later she realized that the red shirt was doubly red, damp with blood not water, and that he was pale as much from pain as from complexion. He smiled at her, and looked away as quickly. He lifted his good arm and took the cup from her and drank, still not looking at her. But his body was canted toward her, not quite leaning, but yearning. He was pretty, not tall, and his shyness made him seem sweet to her.
She felt a sudden rush of affection and felt foolish all at once. “Goddess, I suppose that hurts like hell,” she went on, secure in the knowledge that he could not understand a word she was saying. “And you have the most beautiful eyes. Do all you jaran men have such gorgeous eyes?”
He blushed—clear to see, on his fair skin—and handed her back the cup.
“Careful, golden fair. The words may be Greek to him, but the intent is plain.”
Diana flushed and rose, casting a last sympathetic glance at the young rider before she turned to confront Marco Burckhardt.
Then he smiled, disarming her. “But the good doctor was right. He looks better already.” He knelt beside the young rider. “Te chilost?” The rider made a gesture with his good arm, speaking a few words. “Ah,” replied Marco. “Pleches voy?” The rider replied in a stream of words, but Marco only shook his head.
“Do you know their language? Did you know it before?” Diana asked, loitering.
“No. I’m learning it bit by bit. Very useful.” He glanced up at her. “Try asking nak kha tsuva. That means, ‘how are you called,’ more or less.”
That was definitely a challenge. Diana tried the words out in her head, and then turned to the young rider. “Nak kha tsuva?” she asked.
The rider grinned. “Anatoly Sakhalin.” He repeated the question back at her.
“Diana Brooke-Holt.” She hesitated, glancing at Marco. “I’m glad he's not badly hurt, at least.”
Marco had his little red knife out and was trimming the shirt away from the shoulder. “What makes you think that?”
Diana looked around them, at the men waiting patiently on the ground, some silent, some joking; one older man whose left arm hung limply and at an awkward angle sang a cheerful tune in a pleasant baritone. “They rode here, for one. And they aren’t—”
Marco peeled away the silk of the shirt. Skin came off with it. He dropped the bloody remains beside the broken shoulder piece. The shoulder had been crushed—by what, Diana could not imagine, except that bone gleamed white under pulped tissue. She gasped. Nausea and dizziness swept over her in waves. Anatoly Sakhalin shut his eyes. He paled to white with pain.
“Because they aren’t complaining?” Marco asked. “Well, they’re only savages you know, they don’t feel it like we do. He needs to go directly to surgery. I think the good doctor can manage somethi
ng with this. Otherwise he’ll die when gangrene sets in. Could you fetch someone to help him over?”
He was mocking her. Through her horror at the sight of the gaping, splintered wound and her compassion for the young rider’s pain, she knew that Marco Burckhardt scorned her, that he scorned all the actors.
“I’ll do it.” She knelt without waiting to hear more, leaving her cups and leather canteen on the grass, and slipped her left arm around the young man’s waist. His eyes snapped open and he glanced at her and then, with an immense effort, he pushed himself to his feet. Swayed a little once there, with his good arm around her shoulders, but she steadied him. Marco stood up also. He looked, well, angry more than anything.
Diana ignored Marco and started off toward the screens. After about ten steps she felt dampness on her thigh and looked down to see blood leaking out of a rent in the rider’s black trousers. By the time they reached the surgery, the young man’s eyes were half-shut and most of his weight hung on her, but his right arm, gripping her right shoulder, was strong. Gwyn appeared at a gap between screens.
“Goddess, Diana. Here, let me help.” Together they half-carried Sakhalin in and lifted him onto the table. Blood spattered the grass around. Gwyn’s tunic was dappled with red.
“What’s this?” demanded Dr. Hierakis, pushing Diana away. Diana moved, only to be stopped by Anatoly himself. He clutched her wrist in his right hand. “Ah. Crushed shoulder, some splintering of the joint, dirt embedded; speared and trampled, I’d say. Thigh wound—that’s superficial. Here, Klimova, you see how the tendon—” Dr. Hierakis went on, explaining in Rhuian to her jaran companion as she doctored the wound. He watched, soaking in her techniques although he did not understand her words. But Diana lost track of the diagnosis. Anatoly Sakhalin had crept his hold up from her wrist onto her hand, and he held on to her as if she was his lifeline. While the doctor probed and poked and cleaned and moved things and took a needle and thread to him, he stared at Diana, his eyes locked on hers. She did not look away, as much because he so urgently needed her to fix on as because she did not want to see what the doctor was doing. Blood leaked out from the wound to trickle along Anatoly’s neck. His throat worked convulsively. His skin shaded from white to gray, and the black of pupil eclipsed the brilliant blue of his eyes. His grip crushed her fingers. A moment later, his eyes rolled up and he went limp.