Salene's Secrets (18 page)

Tonka’s lip curled at the mention of hybrids, but he didn’t say anything about them. 
“It is very kind of you to want to help when you know nothing of this world or its people.  Oberto was like that, but he was the only human I’d ever met with those qualities.”

“He was a good friend?”

“Yes,”
Tonka said, his green eyes resting on the blanket for a moment. 
“He was a good man, and a good friend to me when I had no one else.”

“I’m sorry for your loss, Tonka,” Salene said in the way of most humans since it seemed that was what he was used to.

“I thank you,”
Tonka replied.  His head tilted slightly and his ears cocked forward, displaying curiosity and interest.
“Jinjie is obviously not human by his scent and his appearance.  And, though my eyes tell me that you are human, Salene, my nose tells me that you are not.”
 

“Your nose is correct,” Salene said.  She lifted the device from Tonka’s leg, reset the scanner, and placed it back in the same spot before rescanning.  “The bone in this leg is healed,” she said a couple of minutes later, sitting back on her heels.

“Amazing,”
Tonka said, flexing the muscles in his leg experimentally. 
“It feels a little bruised, but there is no pain in moving it.”

“I wish I could do something about the bruising, Tonka, but I can’t,” she said.  “If my sister were here she’d have you up and running around already, but I’m afraid this is the best I can do.”

“I’m not complaining, Salene,”
Tonka said.  “
Bruises will fade.  You healed the bone, which is a extraordinary to me, and I thank you for it.  ”

“You’re welcome, Tonka.  We’re not finished yet, though, and I’m afraid you’re going to have to move in order for me to reach your other leg.  Or, I might be able to drag Oberto aside.  He’s too big for me to lift I’m afraid.”

“Jinjie do be move,” he offered.  Salene opened her mouth to accept his offer, but Tonka spoke first.

“
I will move,”
he said. 
“Please excuse me in advance if I yip or whine.  I’m afraid that there are times when my base nature rises to the surface, refusing to be controlled.”

“Tonka, I don’t care if you scream the roof off.”

“Considering the rate at which that snow is falling, I’m not altogether certain that would be a good idea,”
he said dryly.  Salene saw the muscles in his chest and neck stiffen and bulge beneath his fur, then his entire body lurched sideways.  It was obviously quite painful, but he emitted only one soft whine, then began panting heavily.  “
More
?”

“No, that was enough,” she said scooting herself closer.  If she needed more room she’d move Oberto despite Tonka’s objections.  At least Oberto wouldn’t feel anything.

She saw immediately that his right leg was much worse than his left had been.  The broken bone was pressing against the skin below the knee, though luckily it hadn’t broken the skin.  Still, this was going to be much more difficult for her, and far more painful for Tonka.

She unfolded the tiny legs on the bottom of the annealer and set it as close to the break as she could without it actually touching his fur.  Then she pressed the scanner button and waited for it to show her what she already knew.  She explained the problem to Tonka, and what she’d have to do to realign the bone, warning him that it was going to take longer, and be quite painful.  

“Is there anything I can do to help?”

“I just need you to stay as still as possible.  Believe me, that’s going to be hard enough.  You ready?”

“
Yes, I’m ready.” 

“
Do be there something Jinjie can be doing?”

“Yes, there is,” she replied.  “When I get the bones realigned, can you press that green button on the side?  That way I won’t have to let go and risk them slipping out of position.”

“Jinjie do be can,” he said, leaping lightly to the floor.  He looked at the annealer screen, pointed at the button and looked at Salene questioningly.  

“That’s the one,” she confirmed.  “Just wait till I give the word.”  Jinjie nodded.  “Okay, here goes.”  Salene shifted her position, then grasped Tonka’s leg firmly with one hand above the break, and the other below it.  Then she took a deep breath and began the difficult process of working the bone back into place.

Ten minutes later, her entire body shaking from the effort, Tonka’s leg was perfectly straight and fully healed.  There’d been a few moments when she’d doubted she’d be able to line both ends of the bone together properly, but she’d done it.  “Do you have any further injuries?”

“No, I do not,”
Tonka said, flexing the muscles in his legs. 
“The Nomen threatened to kill Oberto unless I stood still and let them break my forelegs.  I did as they asked, but they killed him anyway.”

“How cruel,” Salene said, nauseated by the image his simple words painted in her mind
.

“Yes, but that is the way of the Nomen.”

“You should be able to stand up now,” Salene said as she put the annealer back in its small pouch, then got up to repack the med kit and return it to her pack.  When she was finished she turned around, frowning when she saw that Tonka was still lying in the same place.  “Are you still in pain?”

“No, I’m not,”
Tonka said. 
“I have a secret that I’ve decided to reveal to you and Jinjie.  By revealing this secret to you, I risk much, but I believe that not revealing it risks far more.  I may be making an extreme error in judgement of course, but I’ve decided to trust you.”

“Whatever secret you reveal I swear to keep unless it risks my life, Jinjie’s life, or the lives of innocents.”

“I thank you,”
Tonka said before rising cautiously to his feet.

“You certainly are a big wolf,” she said, surprised to find that his back was several inches higher than her waist, and his head as high as hers.  He wasn’t as big as a horse, but he came close.

“What is a
wolf
?”  

“It’s a common name for animals that look like you, but are much smaller.”

“I see,”
Tonka said. 
“We call ourselves
Brun.”

“I hope I didn’t offend you by referring to you as a
wolf
,” she said, watching as he backed up a few steps until he was clear of a straw mat that had been hidden beneath him.

“
Not at all,”
he replied while grasping one corner of the mat in his mouth.  He dragged it aside, revealing a trap door made of woven branches lashed with twine.

“What’s down there, Tonka?” Salene asked, suddenly tense.

“
Children
,” he replied.  “
They are Oberto’s grandchildren.  One is the son of his son, the other the daughter of his daughter.”

Salene’s eyes widened in shock.  “Are they all right?” she demanded as she slipped trembling fingers into the crack between the dirt and the trap door, then pulled it up to reveal a deep hole that was both pitch dark and silent.

“
Physically, yes, though they are quite frightened.”

“How old are they?” she asked as she hurried to her pack for a flashlight. 

“Eight and four,”
Tonka said.  “
We were lucky that they were here when we heard the transport landing in the clearing.  Oberto put them in the pit which was dug specifically for such an occasion, but there was no time for anyone else to get here.”

She turned on the flashlight and shone it into the hole as the yearning sensation increased twofold, far stronger than it had ever been.  The pit was perhaps eight feet deep, and just as wide and long.  In one corner she saw what appeared to be a bundle of cloth.  She jumped down, humming softly beneath her breath as she approached the shivering bundle.  She forced herself to move slowly, resisting the powerful urge to hurry for fear she’d frighten the children more than they already were. 

She made no move to uncover the bundle, or even touch it.  Instead she went to her knees a couple of feet away and set the flashlight in the dirt so that it cast enough light for them to see her. Then she began singing the words to the old song she’d learned from her Grandma Anne when she was a little girl, and that she, in turn, had sung to her baby brothers and other children she’d occasionally watched over.  After a few minutes the blanket covering the side of the bundle closest to her began to rise.  She caught a glimpse of a shadowed face as one of the children studied her. 

“Take your time, honey,” she said softly.  “There’s no hurry.”  Then she went back to singing.  It took a few more minutes, but eventually the blanket was pushed back far enough for her to see a little girl with enormous light gray eyes and wisps of dark hair surrounding a dirty, tear-streaked face. 

In that moment, when Salene’s eyes met the steady gaze of the child using her small body to shield her younger cousin who remained hidden behind her, she felt an instantaneous and undeniable connection with her.  When the little girl’s eyes widened, Salene knew she felt the connection between them as well, though she doubted the child understood it any better than she did. 

Salene hid her surprise when the girl, inexplicably deciding that she was to be trusted, pulled the blanket off of her cousin and whispered to him.  The little boy sat up, looked at Salene with eyes a shade or two darker than the girl’s, and once again Salene felt that same instant connection.  She’d never even heard of such a thing, but she accepted it without question.  She gasped when, at the moment of her acceptance, the yearning that had haunted her for weeks suddenly vanished, turned off as though a switch had been flipped.  In its place was a feeling of
rightness
that infused her entire being.

The children stilled as they watched her warily, her gasp confusing them.  She smiled gently, for the first time completely ignoring the uncomfortable pulling sensation caused by the scar on her cheek. 

“Hello,” she said.  “My name is Salene.”

“I’m Mali,” the girl said, her voice whisper soft.  “This is Tab.”

“Are either of you hurt?”  Mali shook her head.  “Would you like to come out of this pit now?”  Both children looked up toward the trap door with frightened eyes.  “The danger is gone.  But if it comes back, I will protect you.”

“You can do that?” Mali asked.  “You can fight the bad men?”

“Yes, I can.”

“What about Tonka?”

“What about him, honey?”

“Is he dead?”

“I’m fine, Mali,”
Tonka said, speaking for the first time since Salene had opened the trap door. 
“Salene is to be trusted.  It’s safe to come up now.”

Some of the tension left Mali’s face.  She studied Salene for another moment, then stood up before bending down to pick up her cousin.  Salene rose, picked up her flashlight, and walked back to the opening, wondering how they were supposed to get out.  She spotted a ladder made of lashed branches on the floor at the other side of the pit.  She picked it up and set it in place, then turned to face the children.  

Tonka had told her they were eight and four, but they were both much smaller than she expected for their ages.  Mali appeared to be five or six, and Tab was so small he barely looked old enough to walk.  She didn’t know whether their diminutive size was due to genetics, or lack of nutrition, but she intended to find out.  For the moment, however, she needed to get herself and the children out of the pit.  The way Mali was hanging on to Tab told her that she wasn’t going to be handing him over any time soon, so she simply picked up both children at once and climbed the ladder.

She noticed that Oberto’s body was now lying on a pallet in the back corner with the blanket still covering him.  “Thanks, Jinjie,” she said after she put Mali down, then turned to close the trap door behind her.  Jinjie nodded and they both watched as Mali and Tab hugged Tonka’s legs in welcome since he was far too big for either of them to reach his neck.  Salene suspected the hugs caused him some pain from the unhealed bruises, but he gave no sign of it. 

Jinjie leapt onto Salene’s shoulder and looked down at the children in silence, and they stared back in open curiosity.  “Mali, Tab, this is Jinjie, my friend and companion,” Salene said.  “Jinjie, this is Mali and Tab.”

“Me do be pleased to meet Mali and Tab.”  Their eyes widened in surprise and Salene expected them to ask about Jinjie’s size as most children would, but they didn’t.  They stared for another moment, then Mali looked up at Tonka again. 

“Where’s Grandfather?”

“I’m sorry Mali, but your grandfather walks with the Cloud People now, as does your Aunt Lei.”

A lump grew in Salene’s throat as she watched silent tears roll down Mali’s cheeks.  Salene looked around the tiny hut and spotted a wooden container on a mat near one wall.  She walked over to it and saw that it was, as she’d suspected, filled with water.  Beside it was a stack of folded cloths that appeared to have been cut from one of the rough gray blankets she’d seen throughout the settlement and that, she’d noticed, the children’s’ clothing was made of.  She picked one up, dipped it into the water, then approached Tonka and the children.  She knelt down and, keeping her movements very slow, she gently wiped Mali’s face.  Her black hair was in a tangled pony tail that fell to the middle of her back, held in place by a leather cord, with stray locks hanging loosely around her face.  Salene itched to brush it out, but unless there was a hairbrush in the survival pack, which she very much doubted, she didn’t have one.  She satisfied herself with pushing the escaped strands back and tucking them behind Mali’s ears.  Then she turned the cloth over and washed Tab’s face while he watched her with eyes that were far too solemn for a four year old.