Not far past that, I finally saw their home. It wasn't a town, but it was so much more than a mere camp. For me, that word described how we'd slept last night. This? It was a much smaller version of Lorsa.
"Okay!" Yrena called out, moving her horse into our path as people began grouping up around her and the carts headed for the open space in the middle of everything. "The well's in the middle here. Infirmary is the long building over there. Kitchen is that one." And she pointed at another structure. "Take the supplies where they need to be, and I'll find the chief!"
"We got carts!" someone called.
"Untack the horses."
"I can use more medics over here!"
The calm and peaceful walk had just ended, and what was before me was complete chaos, but it was the sort I knew.Clasping Zasen's arm to make sure he knew I was okay, I headed for where that person had called for medics.
The structure was open, with big posts holding a roof over an area without walls. Tables had been placed under it, and people rested on top of them. I could see bandages and blankets, but everything here was stained somehow.
Brown was the most common. It was on the packed dirt beneath me, the walls of the buildings I passed, and the clothes of the Reapers I saw. Under that roof, I also saw red. Too much red, and I had a feeling that couldn't be good.
"Holly, heel," I ordered, then pushed into the cluster of people with the wounded. "What do we need? I can help."
A slight man caught my arm. "Can you sew wounds?"
"Yes," I assured him.
"Suture is over there," he said, pointing. "We're running low on water."
So I looked back where I'd come from. "Rymar! We need someone to haul water!"
"On it!" Rymar assured me.
Then, "Zasen! They need medics!"
"One second," he yelled back.
"Now!" I snapped, then headed for the suture. "Do we have medicine?"
"We're out," a burly lady said. "Give them a leash or belt to bite. Nothing here is fatal."
"Ethanol or alcohol?" I asked next.
"Disinfectant's over there," a third person said, pointing.
Grabbing a bottle of that and a spool of suture, I headed for the first patient - and stopped hard. This? I'd expected this to be just like the infirmary, but it wasn't. The person lying before me was a boy, probably nine or ten years old, and his arm was open from his shoulder to his wrist. The bandage wasn't holding, but the bleeding had stopped.
"Hey," I said gently as I moved to check on him. "What's your name?"
"Bralen," he mumbled.
"Okay, I'm going to look at your arm, okay?" I bent, gently removing the wrapping that had clearly been done in a panic by someone who didn't know medicine. "I'm going to go slow, so you tell me if it hurts, okay?"
The kid nodded bravely, but today, bravely wouldn't do. The Moles had done this. They'd come here and hurtchildren. Nothing about this was righteous. Nothing! But that didn't mean I had to make it worse.
Twenty-Nine
Ayla
Rymar got a crew to carry water. Zasen had others bring the medicine, then jumped in to help. The two doctors came to check every single person, telling all of us to do what we knew, but if we weren't sure to ask first. And while the Reapers appreciated the help, they also didn't slow down.
Not at all.
They pushed us. These were their people, and they weren't going to lose anyone else. I heard that whispered too many times. Thankfully, only once did someone mention my strange accent, asking if I was from another town. I smiled and assured him it was something like that.
