Dreams of a Wild Heart

by Danube Adele

  I barely waited for her nod before rushing off toward the palace. As I tried to make a stack of what was needed, resentment flared. Precious time was being wasted. How the king could be so paranoid that a young teenager’s life would be at risk was beyond belief. In the medical field, we were trained to preserve all life, and here I had to run around like a chicken with my head cut off. Now I just needed a bag, a backpack, a towel, something that I could makeshift into a way of carrying the supplies. Could I just scoop everything up in my arms?

  “What are you doing, love?”

  I didn’t have time to be afraid. Draxton was standing in the doorway of the medical room, and I had shit to do. “Don’t you have anyone else you’d like to torment?”

  He grinned big. Smoothly, his smile giving me the feel of a hungry coyote waiting for a fatal mistake, he said, “No, no. I’m here to help.”

  When pigs fly. But if he wanted to play it this way, I would use him. “Good. Grab as much of this as you can take. I’ll get the rest.” And surprisingly, he did. He scooped up the majority of the bandages, the IV drip, the saline bag and the respirator. I had a handle on the various needles, antibiotics, pain killers and a box of gloves. It was hardly enough, and I didn’t know what kind of damage he’d suffered, but this was all I had.

  Returning to the sick bed, I saw the boy’s breathing was shallow, like he was hyperventilating. It was like he couldn’t get oxygen, which gave me the belief that maybe the chemical had damaged his lungs. If the alveoli in his lungs were incapable of doing their job, he was going to be in big trouble. I did not have an automated ventilator.

  “What is he doing here?” Raseen glared over my shoulder. Her anger was fierce, but it was mixed with fear. It looked like she’d had a run-in with Draxton that had left her damaged. Had he done something to her? Something in the vein of what he did to the other women who’d been kidnapped? Had she suffered rape?

  “He was helping me carry things. Please put everything down carefully,” I nodded to the floor at his feet. “You can go back to what you were doing.”

  “What’s wrong with him? There’s a smell.”

  “I’m not sure.” I tossed gloves and masks to both Cynthia and Raseen. Cynthia and I scrambled into the gear, trying to move quickly, but Raseen was clumsier, and had an eye on Draxton. As she yanked on the gloves I said, “I want to get some oxygen into his lungs. We don’t have a breathing machine, so you guys will need to take turns pumping the air bag.”

  They both nodded, and I took the plastic off the new gear, showing how to fit it against his mouth and depress the bag.

  “I don’t recognize him. Where did he come from?”

  At this point, I realized Draxton was still watching us, his eyes narrowed suspiciously on the kid. Impatiently, I answered, “Look. I’m not from here, so I don’t know. We found him down by the river, and he’s hurt. The kid hasn’t said anything lucid yet. Does it matter? He needs help.”

  “Is everything all right?” Tabron entered the room, and I was suddenly able to relax and find my groove.

  With a pointed look at Draxton, I said, “We just need some space to work.”

  Without being told, Draxton let his oily grin slide back into place. “Of course.” He didn’t wait to be told to leave, which I was sure Tabron would have helped with. Tabron gave him an I-dare-you-to-fuck-with-me look as Draxton brushed by.

  “Do you need me to do anything?” he asked. I was glad Tabron had enough heart to care about what happened to the boy, but there was no real reason for him to sit there with us. And I had a few syringes of some good medicine if Draxton came back.

  “We can send Cyral for you if you’re needed,” Raseen offered.

  “Fine. I’ll be in the training yard.”

  We were able to get the blanket arranged for maximum comfort, and I managed to get an IV inserted into his arm so he could start getting fluids moving. I also managed to get antibiotics into the IV bag to help with infection. As I went along, Cynthia and Raseen kept pumping the oxygen bag. We managed to get his clothing off, covering him with another blanket to keep his privacy, and worked to clean his torso with an antibacterial soap, drying him gently as we went. The puss was thick, clinging to his skin in places. He moaned and cried out, writhing with pain with the feel of the soapy water on his skin.

  “What could this be? I’ve never seen it before.” Raseen murmured.

  “An acid,” Cynthia muttered. Her comment was a surprise. I wouldn’t have thought anyone from Dragmor would know what an acid was. Turning back to the boy, I looked over his body to see if we’d missed any skin, and that’s when I saw what looked like another injury.

  “I think he’s got a fracture in his arm. Notice how the area between his wrist and elbow appears to bend slightly?” I traced the shape above his arm with one of my gloved fingers.

  “Oh damn.” Cynthia grimaced. “What hurt worse? Skin or arm?”

  “Poor boy.” Raseen shook her head. “A fall? What could he have been up to?”

  “First things first. We need to get him wrapped up so he doesn’t get an infection. It’s really easy to die when you have these kinds of open sores all over your body, these kinds of burns, when the skin isn’t being regularly cleaned and protected. We’ll need to help him with that until he’s able to grow new skin.”

  “He’s got a long road,” Raseen sighed. “Maybe when he’s more alert, we’ll be able to find out who he is. I can tell you that he’s not from Dragmor. Where are you from?” She asked this of Cynthia, who immediately looked panicked.

  “I-I’m from much f-farther out. Big town.”

  “I thought so.” Raseen cocked her head, her eyes searching Cynthia’s face. “You have the look of Riesa Mar. Am I right?”

  Cynthia smiled. “Yes. That’s where I’m from.”

  “Do you recognize him?”

  “No.” Cynthia took over pumping the bag from Raseen. “Let me take a turn with that.”

  “Cut strips of this length.” I showed Raseen the bandages I wanted to use. I didn’t know how much of this we had, or when we’d get more. We couldn’t afford to waste anything. “Only cover the damaged skin areas. We can use some of the surgical tape to keep it in place, but only on the healthy skin. While you do that, I want to get a better look at his arm.”

  We worked together well, Cynthia pumping the bag, Raseen gently covering the boy’s wounds and me, probing the arm as gently as I could. It was definitely broken. It needed to be reset, which I knew would hurt like hell. Did I have any painkiller?

  The leaves from the forest?

  Immediately I negated the idea. There was no way I was going to experiment with something unknown to me on a kid. I needed to talk to Sandburg, if I could find him lucid. For now, I hoped the kid would remain out. It was going to be iffy because I didn’t have an X-ray, so I wouldn’t be able to see the results, but still, he had a better chance of making a full recovery if I worked to realign the bones the best I could.

  “I’m going to need your help holding him. His arm needs to be reset. It’s definitely broken.”

  “Give me another moment,” Raseen finished taping the gauze in place.

  “You can set the oxygen down for the moment,” I told Cynthia. “Each of you hold a shoulder.” When I could see that they each had a hold of him, I took a deep breath, praying to get it right. Lifting his arm and getting a good grasp of his elbow and wrist, I gave myself a mental count of three and pulled hard.

  The boy shouted and tried to sit up. Between the three of us, we held him down. “It’s okay, buddy. We got you. We’re taking care of you,” I said in reassuring tones. “I just need to check it.”

  “It hurts,” he groaned. Sweat was coating his face, dripping off his temples. Tears coursed his cheeks, and he opened his eyes again. They were dark gray. “Help me.”

&n
bsp; “I’m trying, sweetheart,” I said in a gentle voice. “Let me just feel your arm again, okay? My name is Dr. Cecilia. I’ve been taking care of broken arms for a long time.”

  “Okay.” There was trust there. “My name is Jonell.”

  “Hold tight, Jonell. I want your arm to heal right.” I took up his arm and felt it gently. It was like flying blind. There was swelling, but without an X-ray machine... Maybe I could get him into the palace. There was one there. But how was I going to be able to move him? Maybe tonight? When everyone was in bed, I could see if Tabron would help me get this poor kid into the medical room for a quick look.

  “What do you think?” Raseen asked.

  “It’s hard to tell. I don’t have the right equipment, and his arm is swollen. If we had a piece of wood, we could splint it and keep it from any further damage.”

  It was with a great deal of backbreaking labor that we finally got Jonell comfortable. His fever was still high, but he appeared to be breathing on his own without having to labor so hard. He was at times hot and cold, deliriously muttering to himself and other times silent, but with a pained look on his face. The latter was usually caused by movement.

  After we’d been sitting for a time, Cynthia stood. “It doesn’t look like you need me anymore. I’m new to town. Can I offer myself as your assistant?”

  That seemed like a good idea. She’d been calm under pressure and knew some things. I found myself nodding. “I’ll meet you here in the morning. It may turn out that I end up sleeping here tonight.” Cynthia waved and headed out.

  “If that’s the case, why don’t we take turns watching him?” Raseen offered. “I can sit with him for the next few hours.”

  “Would you really?” I asked. “I wanted to research Jonell’s condition. Make sure there isn’t anything more I can do for him.”

  “I can have Cyral bring my materials here and do some of my work,” Raseen said firmly. She had a great Rosie the Riveter attitude. I had so much respect for what she had to do as a single mother in these conditions.

  “Then I can come in a few hours and see how he’s doing.”

  “All right.”

  I spent the next few hours looking at how to treat chemical burns, and wondering if my guess was right that it was hydrochloric acid that had splashed his skin. For it to have done so much damage, it needed to have been highly concentrated, which was not naturally occurring and would have had to be produced in a lab. The mystery here was overwhelming. It was a question for the king.

  “Did you find anything useful?” Tabron was leaning against the door with a plate of food.

  My heart did its fluttery thing, seeming to have a mind all its own. Looking at him was like getting a hit of crack or something. He rocked my world, whether I wanted him to or not. Taking a deep breath, I looked at the plate of food. It was a nice half loaf of some kind of bread, some meat and cheese.

  “Is that for me?” I asked.

  “Yes.” He walked across the room to my desk. “Tayla was going to bring it, but I told her I would check on you.”

  My stomach growled on cue, and I had to smile a bit ruefully. I was hungry. “I was about to relieve Raseen and sit with Jonell for the night.” At Tabron’s raised brow, I explained, “He’s the boy we brought back.”

  “How is he?” The plate of food was placed in front of me.

  “Do you have any idea why anyone here would have hydrochloric acid?”

  Tabron shook his head. “I’m not sure what that is.”

  “I wouldn’t have thought that anyone would have a use for it here. I mean, we’re talking about a substance that is so highly concentrated, it burned his skin on contact. Why would anyone in Dragmor have this chemical?” I took a bite of the food and enjoyed the flavors of well-seasoned meat with bread and cheese.

  “I could talk to the king about it.”

  “The other mystery is where the kid could have come from. Is there another village upriver? Would anyone be missing this boy? He’s so young. How did he end up half-drowned in cold river water at the bottom of a gorge?”

  “I hadn’t thought of that.” Tabron frowned. “There is no village upriver within even a day or two. To follow the river for a week would lead to the Sunan territory.”

  “Could the boy be Sunan?” I asked.

  “If he is, he’s in danger. Did you tell anyone where he was found?”

  “Draxton.”

  Knowledge filtered in with lightning speed. At the same time, we raced across the room, through the main halls, out of the palace, and made a beeline for the impromptu urgent care room where we’d taken the boy. When we arrived, Raseen was sobbing, holding a bloody piece of cloth to her head and Cyral was hugging her, trying to take care of her. Jonell was missing.

  “Raseen! What happened?” I rushed to her, taking charge of the injury to her head. It was bruised and split by the corner of her brow, but the bleeding seemed to have stopped. “Where is the boy?”

  “I don’t know. Draxton came in threatening me and threatening Cyral. When I refused to get out of his way, he swung at me and punched my face, shoving me out of the way.”

  “He took Jonell?”

  “Grabbed him. Didn’t care that the boy was in pain.”

  I turned to Tabron. “We need to find him.”

  “How long ago?” Tabron asked tersely.

  “Maybe thirty minutes ago. I didn’t know how to get to you!” She was crying again, hugging Cyral close. “We’re not allowed in the courtyard when it’s not a market day.”

  “It’s all right. Go home. Take care,” I told her. “Rest. In the morning, let’s meet here and see where things are.”

  “He threatened Cyral, Cecilia. I can’t help you anymore. I just can’t. He’s all I have left, and I can’t lose him. Things have become too dangerous here, and the things that man has already made me do...”

  Tabron’s teeth clenched with the last comment.

  “I understand. I do.” Reaching out, I gave her a hug. “I won’t ask you to put yourself at risk. Take care of Cyral and take care of yourself.”

  “I’m so sorry.”

  “Don’t be. Please.” I pulled away. “I need to find Jonell.”

  “Draxton was at the noon meal.” Tabron started out the door at a fast clip. I followed him, the afternoon sun highlighting our shadows as we rushed back toward the palace.

  “What would he have done to the boy?” I asked, jogging to keep up with his long strides.

  Tabron only shook his head and replied, “I think the men not on patrol have begun the afternoon training session for the day.”

  “Good. I’d like to confront him in front of everyone.”

  Tabron suddenly stopped and spun around. Taking hold of my arms, he caught my eyes, his expression cold. “You will say nothing. There’s never been a woman on our training field.”

  “That’s too bad! I need to know where Jonell is. He’s counting on me. I made a promise to take care of him!” My voice was starting to sound shrill with desperation. I could see Carlos in my mind, his dark, playful eyes gazing back at me with concern. I couldn’t let him down. There was so little I could do for him now.

  She does this for another man.

  No! It isn’t like that!

  Tabron pushed himself away from me with a muttered expletive that I didn’t quite catch, but I kept following him anyway. We entered the palace, worked our way through the dining area and continued out to a doorway that led to a large side yard nearly the size of a football field. There was sword practice, archery, the lifting and carrying of stones, like the strong man competitions on TV.

  “Draxton!” Tabron stood larger than life, his voice a roar across the grass field, startling everyone into silence. Draxton had been talking with one of the other warriors, a relaxed smile on
his face. Upon hearing his name and seeing us there, his smile became a smirk.

  “Tabron, I see you’ve brought our little love. Did she have the desire to see what real men looked like? I don’t think the king would be angry if you changed your mind.” He moved halfway across the field and paused, leaning on the sword he had in his hand.

  “Where is the boy?” Tabron demanded.

  “What boy? I saw no boy.” Draxton played to the men, pretending to look down and around his legs, but only a few were laughing at his theatrics.

  “What’s this about, Tabron?” Bruner asked. He’d been practicing sword play with the man named Krevier.

  “Earlier today, Dr. Cecilia and I came across a young boy in the river. He was very ill and in need of immediate care. We brought him to town for help, and the moment we turned our backs, Draxton attacked one of the village women who was watching him and took the young boy.”

  “He was dead,” Draxton explained with his sickening smile. “Why would we keep hold of the carcass?”

  Fury had me shouting, “Liar! He was alive and improving when I left him. He was an innocent!”

  “He looked like a Sunan to me,” Draxton snarled. “The only good Sunan is a dead Sunan.”

  Tabron’s wrath was laced within his menacing tone. “So you killed him?”

  “It was easy enough. A hand over his face was all that was needed.”

  With sudden certainty, I knew this had been done, and a cry came from the depths of my soul. I’d failed! “You murderer! He was a child! You’re a monster!”

  “I did my duty as a good Brausiian,” Draxton sneered. “I don’t protect our enemies.”

  “What happened to the women you kidnapped from Earth?” I looked around at the other warriors. “Did you all know that he and his friends raped and killed young women taken from their families? Here you are with few women and Draxton has the luxury of murdering whomever he pleases on a whim. Is this who you are? Is this what it means when someone says Brausiian warrior? I always thought warriors were honorable. Where is the honor in killing a child? Where is the honor in killing helpless women? There is no honor in that. He’s a coward! Weak and pathetic! A ridiculous excuse for a man!”