A Warrior's Revenge (4 page)

Kana’s eyes grew huge, as she remembered
what she had told Eshta not to do at the stream. “He’s here!
Alive?” She breathed out in horror.

“Very much so my dear! Whatever possessed
you to save him my child?” Zora asked.

What had possessed her, Kana asked herself?
It must’ve been some confusion due in part to lack of air surely,
but then she remembered the odd flash of emotion in his eyes. The
glimpse at something more buried deep within them, but was that
enough to save a Hunter?

“Maybe we should just kill him.” Kana said
haltingly.

“I’m afraid it’s too late for that my dear.
That would be heartless of us to do now.”

Zora looked at Kana curiously, “What did
make you do it Kana?”

Kana thought about it before she gave her
answer, “As he was strangling me I asked him to stop and he did for
a second. I thought I saw something worth saving in his eyes for a
moment and then it was gone and he was killing me again.”

“Hmmm, I do hope that your caring heart Kana
hasn’t bit off more than it can chew this time.” Zoar said, as she
helped Kana sit up. She gave Kana a crutch to help her walk.

“Not broken my dear, just sprained, badly.
It will give you some trouble for a few days, but that will be
it.”

Once Kana was on her feet with the aid of
the crutch Zora said, “Good, now come along, you may assist
me.”

“Assist you?” Kana asked, as she awkwardly
followed Zora out of the door of the tent into the warm
sunlight.

“Yes, you and I will be operating on your
Hunter. You’re the most gifted healer other than I and I’m going to
need all the assistance you can give me.”

“Why does he need operated on?” Kana asked
somewhat hysterically, as she did not want to be anywhere near the
Hunter let alone operate on him.

“You’ll see, now come along child. I want to
get this done before he wakes up and is the death of us all!”

Kana hobbled along after Zora panicking more
and more with each step as she neared the main tent, where the
Hunter must be. What had she done?

Kana eased into the tent and stopped, as her
eyes fell upon the still laying form of the Hunter. She swallowed
nervously and touched her throat involuntarily with one hand. Eshta
was among those gathered in the tent and she came to Kana and the
two sisters embraced each other tightly.

“Over here Kana.” Zora called out from where
she stood next to the Hunter, who lay on his stomach stretched out
along a wooden table.

Eshta gave a consoling squeeze before
releasing Kana, who unable to keep herself from quivering,
approached the table to stand on the opposite side of it from Zora.
It helped to see that the Hunter’s legs and arms were tied securely
to the table’s legs, but that was where the comfort stopped, as
Zora pulled the blanket covering the warriors back to his
waist.

“Oh my!” Was all she could think to say as
she gazed at the corded sinew of muscle and bone that made up this
man. She’d seen a few men shirtless before, but never anyone like
this! There were muscles layered on muscles across the Hunter’s
back and shoulders that she hadn’t even known existed. What did one
have to do to look like this?

This man had tried to kill her, would have,
if Eshta hadn’t come to her rescue. Why then knowing that did she
want to see what the rest of him looked like? Why did she want to
feel the big hands that almost touched the ground touch her
instead?

What was wrong with her that the sight of a
man’s naked back could inspire such thoughts? Not just any man
either, but this man who’d had his hands wrapped around her throat
ringing the life out of her. She had never felt like this before or
had this reaction to any man she’d ever met. Kana’s eyes rose off
the Hunter’s back to meet Zora’s wise old eyes. Kana’s face flushed
at Zora’s knowing gaze upon her. Vainly Kana hoped that her dark
skin would hide the flush from the rest of the others gathered in
the room.

A smile touched Zora’s lips, as she pulled
the hunter’s shoulder length black hair to the side, “This is what
I wanted you to look at.”

Kana gasped, as a hand flew up to cover her
mouth in shock at the sight of the alien device that seemed to be
fused into the upper bones of the Hunter’s neck and that
disappeared into the back of his skull.

“What is it?” She breathed out in question
to Zora.

“I’m not quite sure, but I have a few
theories. We’re going to take it off or at least as much of it as
we can.”

“What will that do to him?” Kana asked.

“It could kill him or leave him paralyzed or
perhaps something more positive.” Zora didn’t elaborate as to what
something more positive could be.

“It’s been a while since I handled higher
technological apparatuses. I hope it comes back to me. Wash up over
there by the door and get ready to assist me cutting this stuff
off.”

Kana glanced at Eshta and both shared a look
of curiosity at Zora’s choice of words. Zora had never really
spoken much of where she came from or what she had done before the
attack that destroyed the world. What she’d just said had been as
tantalizing of a clue, as she had ever let drop before, in regards
to her previous history.

“Steady Kana! Steady! Don’t touch that cord!
Oh my dear I wish I could help you more, but my fingers just aren’t
steady enough anymore for work like this.” Zora said, in an
exclamation of anguish over her helplessness to be of meaningful
use.

Eshta leaned close to Kana and mopped the
sweat from off her face slightly with a dampened cloth. Kana
whispered, “Thank you”, but said nothing further for fear of
throwing up. The way she felt right now was that if she kept her
mouth open any longer her stomach would take advantage and heave
its contents, if there were any, all over the Hunter. She should’ve
eaten before starting this; she was getting jittery and lightheaded
at the sight of the Hunter’s rich red blood all over her
fingers.

Kana barely breathed in her concentration
not to cause permanent harm to the Hunter, who was still thankfully
unconscious beneath her. In her hands she held two pieces of chert,
which was the same glassy hard rock that she used to make her
arrowheads. The pieces of chert had a finer cutting edge than any
of the knives they possessed.

Zora held the mechanical bug looking device
one way and then another for her, as she sliced through the tough
mooring straps that fused the device directly to the Hunter’s
spine, which was laid bare to the bone. Only two more straps to go
and Kana was grateful! Very grateful!

The last strap came free and Zora pulled the
contraption to the side, but it was still connected to the back of
the Hunter’s head by several cords.

“We had better close that all up and stitch
it together before we go any further Kana.” Zora said. Kana had
been thinking the same thing. It was hard to do a good job of it
though. Everything was slippery with blood and the skin had to be
stretched slightly to close over the gaping wound.

It wasn’t pretty; actually it made Kana
cringe at the thought of the scar it would leave, if he kept his
hair long maybe nobody would see it. Why was she even caring about
something like that? She didn’t know why other than that she took
pride in her work and it was hard to take pride in this
butchery.

A half hour later, as Kana was tying off the
last stitch Zora said, “I know it doesn’t look nice Kana, but you
did an excellent job with what you had to work with.”

“Zora?” Interjected Eshta in a worried
tone.

“What is it?” Zora responded quickly.

“There’s a little light flashing yellow on
the back of his head!” Eshta exclaimed.

Zora quickly shifted to get a look at the
light that had begun to flash in the black round nodule that seemed
fused into the back of the Hunter’s skull. As they gazed at the
flashing light they all saw it turn from yellow to red.

Zora said something under her breath sharply
and then louder she said, “Everyone out now, except for you Kana!
Give me that knife quickly!”

Kana handed her one of the pieces of chert
not understanding what was happening or the reason for Zora’s
urgency. Kana watched, as Zora stripped off the outer black coat of
one of the two cords that ran from the device on the back of the
head to the one she had removed from the spine. When the black
leathery skin was peeled away off the cord it exposed a mass of
tiny brightly colored wires. Kana had never seen Zora move so fast
before or look nearly so agitated.

Zora grabbed brightly colored wire one after
the other from the bundle and sliced them in half. She cut through
a greenish one and the flashing red light disappeared, but in the
next instant another red light came on and stayed on and a slight
whining noise could be heard.

Moving faster than before Zora stripped the
outer layer off the other cord that had been attached to the spine
and madly searched through the jungle of wires for the greenish
one. She sliced her fingers with the piece of chert in the
process.

“You cut your finger Zora!”

“Never mind my finger! It’s the least of our
worries right now! There it is!” Zora said with relief, as she
separated the like green wire out and cut it. Then she took the two
green wire ends, the one that led from the Hunter’s head and the
one that been attached to the spine and was still connected to the
bug light device and touch the exposed ends of the wires
together.

There were sparks everywhere and the
Hunter’s body jerked convulsively. Kana jumped back from the table
reflexively with a little squeal, but Zora never moved as she
grimly held the two wires together. The red light went out and a
green light briefly came on and then disappeared.

There were no more lights left and Kana
heard Zora release her pent up breath in a long sigh. She cut the
bundles of wires off flush with the back of the device that seemed
to be a part of the Hunter’s skull. She then picked up the device
that had been on the neck and the wires and handed them all to
Eshta, who hadn’t left the room with the others.

“Eshta, I want you to pulverize all this
stuff and then throw the crushed up bits and pieces into the river.
Kana, he should be out for the remainder of the day from the herbal
mixture that I gave him. Finish cleaning him up and make a solantha
paste and lay it thick over the stitched area before you bandage it
up.”

Both Eshta and Kana nodded, as Zora stepped
away from the table and headed for the door of the tent. They heard
her say, “I’m getting too old for this sort of thing. I’m going to
lie down for a while, get me if you need me.”

Eshta and Kana glanced at each other for a
meaningful moment and then they both went about their assigned
tasks.

Kana’s eyes opened wearily. What had
awakened her? She sat up slightly from where she had been leaning
against the tent pole. She looked at the stretched out form of the
Hunter and saw nothing different for a moment and then she saw
muscles throughout his frame twitch and clench briefly. The Hunter
was waking up!

The knowledge or the uncertainty of what
that could mean had her clenching up inside at the prospect. She
elbowed her sister and Eshta woke up with a start, “Go get Zora!
He’s waking up!”

Eshta left the tent within seconds, as she
caught sight of the awakening Hunter. Kana warily approached the
table with the use of her crutch, as the muscles held captive to
the table twitched and strained more and more and she began to
doubt that the flimsy ropes that bound him to the table would
hold.

His head was turned to her and she saw his
eyes open. She had to fight against the urge to step backward from
the fierceness of the raw emotion that burned within them. The
Hunter’s face twisted harshly and every muscle contracted and
surged as the table groaned. He screamed. It wasn’t a scream of
pain or fear, but one of utter fury.

Kana’s crutch fell to the ground, as it
slipped from her slack fingers. She took a step backward from the
Hunter and fell herself. Eshta raced into the tent and almost
tripped over her, but then helped her up. Zora moved past them and
stopped to stare at the powerfully convulsing body of the Hunter,
even as his roars threatened to overcome everyone in fear.

“Run along girls. You don’t need to be
here.” Zora said softly waving them away.

After the girls were gone Zora blew out most
of the candles in the room and finding a darkened corner she sat
down tiredly and rested. The rest of the camp did not rest though,
as each of them lay awake listening to the enraged bellows of the
Hunter and wondered what would happen should he break free, but the
table held on as did the Hunters roars of rage for hours. When they
stopped everyone gave a sigh of relief and drifted off to sleep
except for Zora.

Zora watched the still sweat soaked body on
the table expectantly. The powerful back jerked once and then again
and again, as deep sobs racked through the man on the table, which
caused her to relax inwardly because it proved that the Hunter
wasn’t beyond feeling the emotions inherent to sane humanity. The
strong bitter sound of the sobs emanating from the Hunter were
awful to hear.

Getting up slowly Zora approached the table
and laid a weathered hand on the Hunter’s back. Disregarding the
beaded up sweat her hand contacted with she rubbed lightly in a
circular motion. Her old voice cracked slightly, as she began to
sing lullabies that she hadn’t sung since she had comforted her own
children when they were little. That had been a long time ago in
another world it seemed than the one she now lived in.

The words of the songs calmed the man
beneath her palm’s touch just as she had known they would, because
she knew what he was. He was a Valley Lander just as she had once
been and the words were ones that he had heard before. His
breathing evened out and she let her words drift away, as she sank
to her knees painfully at the head of the table.