And Gedeon had definitely fallen.
Like in the case of my sister, a blade had been plunged into the depths of his insides, and accident or not, it’d sliced me up just the same.
Two men hauled Gedeon off the stretcher and onto the steel table. His grunt dug my nails into the meat of my palms so roughly my skin split.
“Not a word about him here can slip, Doc,” I strained to say, observing him as he checked Gedeon’s vitals. I couldn’t will myself to look at the tablet device to see the numbers. “Whatever the outcome, the knowledge of it has to be contained to this room.”
The doc fixed a lamp right above Gedeon’s abdomen and the knife lodged under his ribs. “Scissors.” He extended a gloved hand to a lanky and auburn-haired boy, his newest apprentice fresh out of school.
Wide-eyed, the young man picked up the metal instrument off the sparkling stray?—
I grasped the doc’s upper arm, and the gauze of his blue medical tunic scrunched in my hold. “No one can know.” My grip tightened to the point he winced. “No one.”
“Zion.” Gedeon blindly reached toward me, his forehead creased even in his practically unconscious state.
My fists trembled.
“Get the O+ bag out of the freezer,” the doc ordered the apprentice, and the young man backed out of the room, pushing the door open with his back and slipping into the hallway.
The doc cut Gedeon’s shirt off him, revealing the pattern of scars decorating his brown skin. “He’ll lose too much blood once I pull the knife out. I need to take him to our main infirmary to run proper tests, and?—”
“No.” I came to a sudden stop. “You’ll have to do it here.” Even if it meant operating without proper equipment.
I’d sworn to Gedeon that nobody would hear of him ever again, and I was not going to break my vow.
A guttural sound fled him as the doc and an older man kneaded the flesh around the wound, muttering between themselves and ignoring the tension about to fracture my molars.
Taking a step back, away from the table, away from Gedeon’s pallid face, away from him turning his head toward me, I heard my voice from far away, so distantly I questioned whether it belonged to me. “I can’t know about what happens here, Doc.”
One of two outcomes was going to come to fruition here, in the infirmary, but if I witnessed which, it would force me to go against Gedeon’s wishes. If I knew if he survived or died, I wouldn’t be able to lie.
“Get his pants off him.” The doc issued another command. While the silent man got to work by removing Gedeon’s boots, the doc inspected the swelling under Gedeon’s right eye and the bruising along his ribs, the injuries sustained from our run-in with Ilasall’s military. “Why?” He glanced at me, his brown locks contained by a hairnet. “Why wouldn’t you want to know?”
“If I do, I won’t be able to do what I have to.” I stumbled backward until my shoulder blades collided with a wall. “Because if Kali asks, I will tell her the truth.” My nails snagged on the bumps of the fresh white paint as my fists curled once more, the stiffness in my muscles coiling and coiling, furling around my neck, suffocating and blinding. “And that’s something I can’t do.”
Not when Gedeon’s request surfaced from the halls of my memory.
“I know you will take me to the doc, Zion,” Gedeon had said in the clearing, after we’d pushed Kali away. “But whether I live or die, it doesn’t matter. In everyone’s eyes, I have to be a dead man for this to work. Kali’s, too. She will not be able to grieve in pretend. And I cannot ask that of her. I cannot put her in a position where she has to lie to everyone. She will never forgive me. Lies are like false promises to her, and she would loathe each one if I forced her to speak them. So you have to swear itto me, Zion. Tell everyone Ilasall took me. Make her think I’m gone. And whether I return or not, you have to continue our work. Vow it, Zion. Promise me as you would her.”
The insistence in his plea had compelled me to give him precisely what he’d asked for.
A clang announced the arrival of the young apprentice. On the IV pole, he hung two transparent bags, one deep crimson and the other light yellow.
My knees wobbled. It all seemed like the end.
“So you’re going to play a double game?” the doc asked. “Keep your word to Gedeon, avoid telling the truth to Kali. I’d say you’re a smart man, but that’s just foolish.”
“I know.” Leaning against the wall for support, I tugged the ends of my hair so harshly thorns razed my scalp. “But I’ll hurt one by betraying another. I-I can’t choose.”
Black dots spotted my vision as my peripherals shrunk. The scorching bright light, white walls, and scarlet trickling down the sides of Gedeon’s torso all blurred into one.
My vocal cords untangled into a gravelly croak. “I can’t hurt either of them.”
“You’re choosing by not choosing,” the doc remarked. “Kali won’t let you off easy for this.”
“It’s a risk I’m willing to take.” My pulse thundered in my ears, weaving the beeps, the scuff of shoes, the murmurs, the wheezing coming out of my throat into a cacophony of meaningless sounds.
Pushing off the wall, I strode to their trio hunched over Gedeon. “If you speak any word of this, you will end up like him.” The threat felt like a searing spear piercing my chest, but I continued, gesturing to the disposable white medical sheet under Gedeon’s body and glaring at the doc’s helpers. “Only your sheets will be red because I’ll use your blood as dye and then gift them to your families and friends.” I caught the doc’sattention. “And ifyousay a word, I will tear your tendons out of your legs and tie them into your daughter’s hair as ribbons to wear at your funeral. Because I won’t burn you. I’ll leave you to rot outside, turn you into a meal for worms.”
