From the look on Pont’s face, he’d nearly been overcome by the cold before Nosset had developed the courage to come ask for help. Sidean could see the man was breathing, but he looked unconscious. Pont’s ankle was twisted grotesquely to the side. Sidean thought to himself that it would’ve been kinder to leave him outside to die rather than bring him in to survive as a cripple.
Pell gently laid Pont down on some bedding near what appeared to be the cave’s night fire. He waved the young man named Woday to his side, then turned Pont onto his stomach. The two young men spoke for a moment, then Pell bent Pont’s leg up behind him so that the shaft of his lower leg pointed straight up into the air. Pell placed his own foot on the back of Pont’s knee and grabbing Pont’s foot bent it even farther. Is he trying to torture the medicine man?! What had looked like a horrible deformity suddenly looked so bad that Sidean expected the bone to burst out through the skin! Then Pell heaved up straight, pulling mightily on the foot and ankle, all the while talking calmly to Woday as if he weren’t straining with all his strength.
Pont awakened and began thrashing and squealing like a speared rabbit. Sidean glanced around at the others and saw them all staring wide-eyed. If the others thought, like he did, that Pell was torturing or trying to kill Pont, they apparently thought Pont deserved it. No one moved to stop him.
Then, with a squelching thunk, Pont’s ankle slid back into place. Gripping it with both hands, Pell squatted down to look at it from several different angles. Then he shifted his hands around so that four fingers were curled around the inside of the shaft of the bone just above the ankle and his thumb was pushing from the other side just below the ankle. He didn’t seem to be straining, but the ankle stayed straight. It looked like Pont had either passed out again or was having less pain. He’d stopped thrashing around. Deltin got up and went over to look at the ankle. He and Pell discussed something at length.
Eventually, Pell showed Woday how to hold the ankle in place while he and Deltin went to the other side of the cave to begin carving some wood!
***
When Sidean woke in the morning, he lay silently considering all the ways the previous day had confounded him.
He felt ashamed that his fear of Jalgon had brought him here, to attack people who’d done him no wrong.
He found it hard to believe how the Oppos’ strong band of six accomplished hunters and two—perhaps useless—medicine men had been laid waste by a boy with three stones.
Well, three stones and a wolf! Though he’d seen the wolf with Pell on several occasions now, he still found it hard to believe.
Sidean would have counted the previous day amazing, simply because he’d witnessed a crippling injury to a man’s ankle corrected so that the bone now lay straight. The people here in Cold Springs seemed fully confident that, because Pell had treated him, Pont would walk again. Sidean had gone over to look at Pont’s ankle himself. It lay trussed up between two pieces of wood that Deltin and Pell had shaped to fit it. He thought the ankle really did seem straight enough that, once the bones healed, Pont might walk once again.
It seemed almost impossible to believe that Pell had worked so hard to put Pont’s ankle back in place. Especially if he’d actually understood that Pont had been the driving force behind an Oppo mission to kill Pell. When the little medicine man had awakened from his swoon, it’d seemed to Sidean that Pont himself was astonished to see his leg back in place. That the Cold Springs medicine women had brewed teas for his pain left Pont looking dumbfounded.
Then, the Cold Springs tribe had cooked a veritable feast for their dinner! Something like you would prepare for an honored visitor, not the meager fare you might consider furnishing to a vanquished foe. They had the rabbit and grouse that’d been roasting; and a stew with sliced tubers, beans, and grain. The food had even been salted! Sidean had only had salted food on a few occasions when someone in the Oppos had traded dearly for salt brought up from the sea. He would never have expected the precious condiment to be found on a meal served to him as a member of a defeated war-band!
And Pell! Pell, the very man they’d come to kill, was the kindest of all the people in Cold Springs. After he’d treated Pont, Pell had worked with Deltin to fashion sticks to bind around Haida’s arm and with their leather worker, Manute, to make Haida a sling. When Jalgon had died late in the evening, Pell had apologized to the rest of the Oppos, saying he hadn’t meant for the stone to hit him so hard!
Sidean had asked Yadin why Pell was being so nice to them, especially to Pont. Yadin had shrugged as if he also felt completely mystified. “He was cast out of the Aldans you know. Perhaps he swore some pact with himself to do what he can for others.” Yadin’d snorted, “If I were you Oppos, I’d just be grateful that he’s so kind. I wouldn’t ask any more questions.” He’d grinned and lifted an eyebrow at Sidean, “What if he comes to his senses?!”
Sidean’d said, “So you no longer consider yourself an Oppo?”
“No!” Yadin had exploded. Then he’d sighed, “Before Jalgon sent me to scout them out, I’d already been thinking about leaving.” He’d shot a disgusted glance at the Oppos’ medicine man, “I hate being around Nosset.”
Sidean’d nudged him, “It looks to me like you’ve got a thing for one of their women too.”
Yadin had looked a little embarrassed, but had nodded. “I do,” he’d said looking over at her. Then he’d glanced back at Sidean, “Believe it or not, she’s Pell’s mother.”
Sidean lay there on the bedding, wondering about the previous day’s events a moment longer. Then he lifted his head and looked around the dark cave. Dim red light from the glow of the low fires lit a man who sat upright. Sidean turned to his side and pushed himself up. When he looked toward the man again he felt the guy staring at him even though he couldn’t see the man’s eyes in the dimness. Sidean rose and slowly picked his way amongst the sleeping bodies over to where the man sat. Leaning down and warming his hands over the glowing coals, Sidean recognized Tando. He said quietly, “Couldn’t sleep either?”
The man snorted gently, “I’m on watch. In case one of you Oppos takes it into your mind to finish your mission while Pell’s asleep.”
Aghast, Sidean said, “We’d never…” Then he remembered Nosset was still there with them and uninjured. His eyes inadvertently tracked to where the pudgy medicine man lay next to Pont.
The watchman grunted, “Yeah, he’s the one I’m watching the most. But I don’t think I should trust any of you guys yet… Would you?”
Sidean shrugged, granting the truth of the statement. “Where do you guys go for your morning piss?”
***
As they ate their morning porridge, Gontra turned to Tando. “After all that happened yesterday I’d almost forgotten why I came. With the cold, our snares have stopped catching anything, so I’d thought I’d offer to help Cold Springs with their big winter hunt. In return for that, I was hoping a few of your hunters would come help the Aldans put away some meat for winter as well.”
Tando frowned at him, “Your snares aren’t working?”
Gontra gave him a surprised look, “Yours are?”
“Sure,” Tando shrugged, “that’s what we ate last night,” Tando said matter-of-factly. “I think they’ll probably stop working sometime during the winter, but so far we’re still catching things.”
Gontra shook his head in dismay, “At first, our snares were bringing in quite a bit, but they quickly tapered off. I decided to come talk to you about a big hunt yesterday when not a single snare caught anything.” He gave Tando a bleak look, “Do you think we’re cursed?”
Tando shrugged, “I don’t know. Let’s go talk to Pell, maybe he’ll have some ideas.” He glanced to the east, “Maybe he’d even go with you to check out your snares if the weather’s not too bad.”
They got up and went over to where Pell and Woday were working on Pont’s leg. Gontra and Tando squatted down to watch. Pell and Woday were loosening the leather straps binding the spli
nts to either side of Pont’s ankle. Pell was saying, “The broken part keeps swelling for a while. While it’s doing that, you have to loosen the straps. Eventually, the swelling starts to go down and you need to tighten the straps.” He shrugged, “For the first few hands of days, you usually need to loosen or tighten the straps at least one or two times a day.”
When they’d finished adjusting the straps, Pell looked up at Gontra. “Thanks for coming to visit Gontra. How did you know we were going to have trouble and need your help?”
Gontra shrugged and looked a little embarrassed. “I haven’t been much help really. I’d like to claim that I came to help you guys, but actually I came to ask you to help us with a big hunt. Our snares stopped working so we really need to put away a few big animals to help us through the winter.”
Pell frowned, “Our snares are still working.” He turned his gaze on Tando, “Or at least I thought so. Weren’t the rabbits and grouse we ate last night from yesterday’s snare run?”
Tando shrugged, “Yeah, it was a good run or we wouldn’t have eaten so well when we had so many people. But,” he shrugged, “some days are better than others.” He looked at Gontra, “Maybe you just had a couple of bad days?”
Gontra shook his head, “No, I swear it’s gotten a little worse every day since you left. Two days ago we only got a single hedgehog and yesterday nothing at all!”
Musingly, Pell said, “And you’re putting them on animal trails narrow enough that the animals can’t slip past the noose?”
“Of course,” Gontra said indignantly. “We’re still trapping exactly the same trails you helped us pick out when you were there. We’re putting the same size nooses in precisely the same places! I swear, we’re not doing anything different!
Tando bit down to suppress his reaction. He saw Pell struggling not to laugh, though a grin certainly threatened to break through.
Gontra looked back and forth from one to the other of them, “What?!”
Pell cleared his throat, then said, “You don’t remember me telling you that you should move your snares to a different location each day?”
“Well, yeah. But just until we found a location that works… right?”
Unable to suppress it any longer, Tando barked a laugh. “What, Gontra? Do you think after you’ve eaten the rabbit that travels a particular trail, another one just pops up out of nowhere to replace him?!”
Gontra stared back and forth from Pell to Tando, “I don’t know! I guess so. Where do they come from?”
Tando slapped him jovially on the back, “Where do people come from Gontra?”
“Oh,” Gontra said, looking embarrassed. “I’ve seen some of the big animals doing it out on the plateau or down in the meadow. You think the little animals do the same?”
Tando grinned, “Well, I’ll admit I don’t go around watching the animals fornicate like you do, but I assume so!”
For a moment, Gontra looked sheepish. Then a smile dawned, “So you think we just need to move our snares to different trails?”
Pell nodded seriously, “Every time. We go out every day, picking up the snares from the day before, then putting them out in a different location. Sometimes farther away, sometimes on a different trail on the way back. We try not to put them back in the first location until moons have passed, so we wind up putting them pretty far away sometimes.”
Gontra grinned, “I guess it’s going to be a little more work than I’d thought, but it’ll be worth it if we get the food.”
Pell said, “Have you plaited a big enough rope to catch goats yet? That could help a lot.”
Gontra looked embarrassed, “I keep meaning to…”
Pell said, “I know working leather is a man’s thing, but women braid their hair all the time. They already know how and there isn’t much gathering for them to do right now…” He shrugged and shook his head a little despairingly, “I can’t believe you guys would rather starve than let the women do some of the men’s jobs.”
Woday and Pell were adjusting the splints on Haida’s arm. Woday said, “I thought you hadn’t treated anyone with a broken arm before?”
Pell shrugged, “No.”
“Then how do you know what to do for this man?” Woday knew Haida’s name, but was having a hard time calling people who’d come to attack them by name.
Pell chewed his lip, “I guess I don’t. I’m just treating it like we treated Panute’s leg. Splints like these seem to work well enough for her.”
Frustrated, Woday said, “But this is an arm! What makes you so sure it’s going to work the same way?”
Pell shrugged, “I’m not sure. But neither is anyone else. All we can do is the best we can do, right?” He looked Haida in the eye, “You heard that Haida. Do you want us to take these off?”
Haida gave a sharp little shake of his head, “No! It feels better with them on. Besides, Yadin says you’re really good at this so I trust you.”
Pell tilted his head, “I haven’t really treated very many broken bones. Everybody seems to think I’m good at it because the ones I took care of turned out well, but I might’ve just been lucky those times.”
Haida said emphatically, “I’ll take your luck and be glad of it.”
Pell turned to Woday, “I think this is better than nothing, but if you can think of a better way to do it…”
Woday shook his head as well, “No, no, I don’t have a better way. I’m not someone who comes up with… Whatever it is you do.”
“Sure you are,” Pell said, slapping him on the shoulder, “you had the idea to put the doors on the fish traps.”
Haida frowned, “Fish traps?”
Pell winked at him, “If you want to learn about fish traps, you’ll need to ask Agan.”
“Agan?”
Pell pointed her out.
“The old woman?”
Pell nodded, “She’s the leader of our tribe.”
Haida turned to look at Agan again, then back to Pell with a look of disbelief on his face, “Why would anyone do what she told them?”
Pell smiled, “Because she’s wise.” He turned to Woday, “Let’s look outside. Maybe it’s warm enough to go get our honey and check your fish traps.”
They stood and started toward the mouth of the cave, but then behind them they heard the irritating tones of Pont’s voice rise as he demanded, “… more hemp and more of that poppy seed tea. Now! I don’t want to have to wait until it really starts to hurt again!”
Pell’s spine stiffened and he turned slowly. Woday turned with him and saw that Pont had been speaking to Gia. Woday glanced up at Pell and for the first time saw him with rage on his face. However, Pell closed his eyes, took a deep breath and after a moment, his face relaxed. He shook out his tense shoulders then started across the room to where Pont lay on the bedding.
Pont glanced at Pell coming his way and shrank away from him. By the time Pell arrived at his side Pont’s haughty and demanding look became a look of terror. Despite the fact Pell had calmed himself before starting toward Pont, Woday still expected him to do something terrible to the medicine man. A vision of Pell undoing Pont’s splints and re-displacing his ankle flashed through Woday’s head.
Instead, Pell squatted down in front of Pont and smiled at him… though Woday thought the smile looked forced. In a calm tone, Pell said, “Pont, are you at all surprised you’re still alive?”
Pont stared at him for a moment, then his head made a jerky, spastic nod.
“Have you considered that we might still decide to throw you out… and if we did, you’d almost certainly die?”
Pont swallowed and gave another nod.
Pell shook his head as if he just couldn’t understand, then continued, “I want you to think about the fact that Gia only brings you hemp and poppy out of the kindness of her heart. If she doesn’t bring it to you, you can be sure no one else will. You can’t make her do it, neither she, nor anyone else here is afraid of you or the magic you claim to have. If you want your medici
ne, you’re going to have to ask nicely.”
Pont nodded.
“If you want food, you’re going to have to hope people like you enough to give you some.”
A look of fear shot through Pont’s eyes and he nodded again.
Pell shrugged, “In fact, you’re going to need favors from all kinds of people if you want to live. I don’t think you’re going to get any favors if people hate you, so I’d suggest you start being friendly and courteous to everyone in the hopes you can change the way they feel about you.”
Pont’s eyes had dropped and to Woday’s surprise he looked chagrined. He nodded again, then after a moment he said an even more astonishing thing. “Thank you for what you did for my ankle… Bonesetter.”
Epilogue
Deep in thought, Yadin sat leaning against the wall of the cave. By his estimation it was well past midwinter, though certainly not yet spring. He wished there was some way to know more accurately. He knew that the sunrises and sunsets moved north for the winter and south for the summer. Sunrise, which was the easy one to see from their east facing cave, had started back toward the south a while ago, so he thought spring must be approaching, but he didn’t really know how many more days it would be. He wondered sometimes whether someone who was good with the counting words could figure it out so they could actually know. Being sure when spring would actually arrive might ease some of the anxiety everyone had during winter.
The trapping that Pell and the others had taught him, amazing as it was, hadn’t been sustaining them for some time now. He’d been as surprised as anyone by the number of small animals they managed to catch once winter came on, but eventually the yield had diminished to a trickle. Surprisingly, fish traps placed down in the main river continued to bring in the occasional ordinary fish though they seldom brought in crayfish anymore. However, walking all the way down to the main river was difficult when the weather was bad.
Bonesetter 2 -Winter- Page 24