Thawed Fortunes (20 page)

Another Guadel joined Javin, driving the
bag'ligs away from Va'del and the fallen guardsmen, but Va'del
found it hard to focus on their rapidly shrinking forms.

##

On'li was so deeply immersed in the power
dancing back and forth between her, Mar'li and Javin that she
almost didn't hear him yell her name. Luckily, the relentless
training from her time as a Daughter was still strong enough for
her to remain minimally aware of her surroundings even in the most
consuming link. As the Guadel opened her eyes, she saw men huddled
around a figure while Javin alternately yelled her name, and called
for a healer.

Calling for Mar'li, On'li ran up the
mountainside as fast as her tired, old body would let her, somehow
sure she knew exactly who it was that was bleeding their life away
on the snow.

Javin and one of the guardsmen were pressing
bandages against the worst of Va'del's wounds in an attempt to hold
the boy's life inside him until a healing could be done, but it was
obvious from his ashen skin tone and the wide crimson pool around
him that he'd already lost dangerous amounts of blood.

On'li reached for the
blazing power that set her apart from other women, pulled it up
through the earth, forcing it through her trembling body to give it
useful form.
His heart. I have to keep it
going, but it needs something to pump. There, these parts create
the blood, force them to create more.

Mar'li joined On'li, throwing her power at
the wounds, closing off broken blood vessels and making the skin
come together so that the new blood wouldn't leak out like the
old.

Already exhausted from augmenting Javin
during the fight, On'li knew she needed to stop touching the power
before she did herself permanent damage, but she held onto the
searing flame until she felt additional minds arrive and take
over.

Dropping out of the healing meld, On'li
opened her eyes and tried to pick up the conversation between Javin
and the guardsman next to him.

"...so sudden, he must have been wounded
before he could establish the link. We kept waiting for him to link
but it never happened. I thought we were all dead until you circled
around to take the pressure off of us." The guardsman's manner
didn't match his words, and On'li wondered what it would take for
the guardsmen to start treating Va'del with the respect his new
position required.

Javin shook his head angrily, obviously
picking up the same hint of accusation. "A wound deadly enough to
prevent the link wouldn't have allowed him to fight for so long.
There was no link."

An imperious figure stood up from where it
had been working on one of the fallen guards, and stalked past a
pile of bag'lig corpses, their scarred faces no less ugly in death
than they'd been in life. "That's right, there wasn't any link
because the fool shut me out of his mind. Because of him, these men
died, and everyone else could have been killed. Bob'ae was never
easy to link with, but this boy still belongs with the candidates,
he has no control."

On'li surged to her feet with energy she
wouldn't have believed she still had, and slapped the other woman.
"He isn't the problem. You are. Marriage doesn't give you a free
pass into his mind. You have to earn the right to link with him so
you can fulfill your duties to him and to the People. You're the
reason they died, and you are the one who put us all at risk. All
because you've never bothered to even try and earn his trust."

The regular, swaying gait of the gurra he was
tied to finally woke Va'del, pulling him from a place of nightmares
where razor-clawed creatures twice his size surrounded him, tearing
at his flesh.

The brightness of the light hurt Va'del's
eyes, and a moan escaped his lips as the rest of his body reported
in on its abused state.

A gentle hand cupped his cheek, and Jain's
voice washed over him like a warm bath.

"I know you hurt right now, but you'll be
okay. They got the infection under control, and your body has
managed to replenish enough of your blood for your heart to
continue unaided."

"What happened?" Va'del's throat was dry, and
the words came out as a croak, but Jain apparently understood
them.

"They killed the bag'ligs. We counted
afterwards and there were more than a hundred of them. They came
from the east, which some people seem to think is significant
because there isn't anything that way but barren rock for several
miles. Either something drove them there from the west and they
were headed back to their normal range, or something really
terrible drove them over all that desolation to come here."

"The guardsmen who were with me, did they
make it?"

Jain didn't respond for several seconds.
"Most of them are okay, but two of them died despite the best we
could do."

Va'del felt guilt well up to drag him away to
despair, but Jain gently pulled at him to get his attention.

"It's not your fault. The bag'ligs killed
them, not you."

"My responsibility. They counted on me to be
able to help them, but in the end I refused the link and fought as
a mere human."

A new set of footsteps had joined Jain's,
crunching through the hard crust of the snow.

"Not your fault, boy, we all have the right
to let only those we trust inside our minds. If she hasn't won your
trust, that's her fault."

Javin's voice always sounded gravelly, like
it didn't get used enough to keep it in good repair, but it was
surprisingly full of sympathy and understanding right now.

"Duty requires us to give our best, and
that's what you all did. No need to feel guilty about that."

Va'del remained silent, pretending that he'd
passed out again. He couldn't escape the feeling that he possibly
hadn't really done his best. He'd never really liked Cindi, but
he'd been able to suppress his defenses enough for her to augment
him. It was all too possible that both the guardsmen had died not
because they'd had to, but because he hadn't been able to fully do
his duty.

Convinced that he was once again unconscious,
both Javin and Jain moved a little further away to avoid disturbing
Va'del's rest, but his guilt wasn't so easily tricked into leaving
him alone.

##

Va'del awoke again when the group camped for
the night. He managed to stay awake just long enough to sit up and
eat the soup that Jain brought him, and then went to sleep
again.

The sound of people breaking camp finally
edged Va'del into wakefulness the next morning, and he found,
surprisingly enough, that he felt nearly back to normal.

On'li, Jain and Mar'li all hurried over to
him as he pulled himself from his low tent, but after each had
examined him with her powers for several seconds, they all agreed
that he would probably be okay as long as he was careful not to
overdo it.

As Va'del finished breakfast, Javin packed up
his tent and then the whole caravan set out for the day.

Walking tugged enough at still-healing wounds
for it to be decidedly unpleasant, but Jain walked alongside
Va'del, and while her company didn't fully chase away Va'del's
self-loathing, it somehow made his dark thoughts more bearable.

The party had been traveling for about two
cycles when the snow started looking patchy, and then disappeared
altogether. The mud was extremely unpleasant while it lasted, but
just a short distance later the ground dried out and the pair found
themselves surrounded by more shades of green than any of them had
ever imagined, all of it seemingly shaking, swaying or bobbing to
the demands of a barely-perceptible wind.

"It's like the farms, only with no
organization and more different kinds of plants than I ever knew
existed."

Va'del nodded at Jain, amazement at the sheer
variety of the shapes and sizes of the foliage around them briefly
shocking him out of his despondency.

As the caravan continued descending, more
than one person who'd never been down the mountain before let out
an involuntary gasp, while those who'd been down before all
pretended not to be affected by the beauty that more often than not
was the reason they'd agreed to subsequent trips.

Jain seemed to be especially astonished by
all of the animal life they encountered. When everyone stopped for
a quick snack and some water, she counted nearly thirty different
kinds of insects or small animals in no more than a couple
minutes.

"Everything's alive. I didn't know it was
possible for life to exist in such abundance."

Va'del smiled in agreement, but found his
gaze returning again and again to the trees that surrounded him.
The histories had all said trees were almost impossibly big for
something living, but he'd still imagined something far smaller
than the reality.

On'li stopped by to check on him, and
followed Va'del's gaze to the different bands of trees that covered
the lower slopes of the mountains. "Amazing, isn't it?"

"Yes, did someone plant the different types
in groups like that?"

On'li chuckled, but it wasn't a mocking laugh
like Vi'en's would have been. "No, I wondered something much the
same the first time I saw them, but I'm told that they are all just
suited for different elevations. They grow like that because they
have a narrow band of mountain that suits them perfectly."

"Couldn't one grow where the others
belong?"

The older woman shrugged. "I suspect so, but
they probably aren't as good at living in those places, so the
other trees probably do a better job monopolizing the
resources."

Va'del nodded. Scarcity of resources was
something that every member of the People was familiar with. The
gardens which had been established in nearly all of the villages,
combined with vast mushroom farms and the trade to the lowlanders,
largely guaranteed everyone sufficient food now, but there had been
times after the Goddess had first led them up into the mountains
when starvation had stalked them all.

On'li closed her eyes for several seconds and
then opened them, nodding at Va'del. "You seem to be holding up
fairly well. Still, be careful not to overdo it. We can always put
you on one of the spare gurra if needs be."

Va'del shrugged. "I'll be okay. You all do
good work. Thanks for patching me up yet again."

On'li frowned briefly. "I'm just sorry you
need it so much. You've been injured more on our behalf in the last
few months than some Guadel with decades of experience."

"I'm better off than some."

The frown was back, and fiercer than it had
been a few seconds ago. "It isn't your fault those two died. We
women only get vague impressions when we're linked with someone,
but even so I believe linking is still one of the hardest things we
could ask as a society. It's hard for any of us to give up so much
of our privacy, to let someone know us so intimately. Some claim
that it's easier for the women to bear, but I don't know that I
believe it. Otherwise I think there would probably be more Guadel
with multiple wives."

Va'del's surprise must have made its way to
his face.

"Don't get me wrong, very few women like the
idea of sharing their husband on any level, but linking with a
sister-wife requires us to let her into our minds in a bit of the
same way, and that's more than most women can bring themselves to
do." Seeing that she'd left him with plenty to contemplate, On'li
patted him gently on the shoulder. "Don't forget to eat something,
and remember it really isn't your fault."

It might be easier to believe that if
everyone didn't keep bringing it up as though they expect me to
feel guilty about it.

##

Jain looked around in amazement at the town
before them as they finally descended down the last little bit of
the mountain and skirted around the large, red boulders that had
given the village its name. Her surroundings were so incredibly
different than anything she'd ever seen that she felt a bit like
she was dreaming. Everything was so hot, and nobody had mentioned
the ever-present dust, leaving the ground in puffs wherever anyone
stepped.

The low buildings clustered around each other
in groups with dirt roads meandering between them. The people were
all different too, most of them were tall and their skin was a dark
color that was as different from Va'del's darker tone as his was
from the rest of the People.

The men were dressed similarly to the flowing
shirt and trousers that Jain was accustomed to, although the cut
and materials were quite different. The women on the other hand
weren't wearing trousers. Instead they seemed to have wrapped a
length of cloth around their waists. The garment didn't look at all
comfortable, and Jain suspected it would be hard to walk very
quickly wearing something like that.

It was obvious someone had spied the caravan
coming down the mountain sometime earlier in the day and spread the
word. There were almost a hundred villagers who'd left their work
to come gawk as the People crossed the last little distance to the
village.

The children pointed, some even laughed, and
for the first time Jain realized that she must look as odd to them
as they did to her.

Trying not to feel self-conscious, the
Daughter turned back to the front of the Caravan where Si'mon was
shaking hands with a stern-faced man standing at the front of the
crowd. The caravan master then turned to the woman standing next to
what Jain assumed must be the village headman, and performed some
awkward greeting that involved bending at the waist and kissing the
back of her hand.

The woman blushed prettily and then fanned
her awkward clothes out in a display of grace as she somehow seemed
to decrease in height by several inches before suddenly rising
again.