Page 58 of Planet Zero
Addie was getting real tired of hearing about the High Counselor. “Of course it is, Oh’nil. And if your brother doesn’t recover, you’ll be sitting right here thinking how right you were for following the High Counselor’s law. How strong your morals are. How correct you were in not giving in to the strange woman’s offer of help.”
Oh’nil began to rise with a clear intent to throw her out, but Vircea stalled him.
“Wait,” she said to her brother. “She means well.”
Oh’nil hesitated. “People know she’s a healer. If word gets out we allowed her in here, Vuskas will finally have a reason to banish us.”
“He won’t. You know he won’t. Let her tend to Zoark.”
“What about you?” Addie asked Oh’nil. “Can you take a deep breath?”
He bristled. “It isn’t your concern.”
“Can you?” she pressed.
He cursed but backed off, and finally, Addie’s path toward Zoark cleared. As she turned her full attention to Zoark, she heard Oh’nil covertly suck air into his lungs.
Zoark’s entire front was soaked with blood.
“I need to take his shirt off.” She pulled out her knife, demonstrating it to the pair to indicate that it was strictly for shirt cutting and not for slicing Zoark into jerky meat.
She went to work, conscious of the brother and sister arguing in hushed tones behind her back. Oh’nil wanted her gone. Vircea disagreed.
“I am only going to help, Oh’nil. Truly.”
“He wouldn't want your help. He’s had enough of it in the city.”
“He survived because of the help he got in the city. Isn’t it reason enough to be grateful?”
“Surviving means living a life. It isn’t a life. They ruined him.”
Addie frowned. “Wrennlins ruined him.”
“Wrennlins broke his body. The women broke his spirit. You don’t understand what it’s like for him, Addie-woman. You can’t, because you’re like them, you don’t know and you don’t listen.”
“I am sorry you feel this way,” Addie kept cutting away, struggling to not show how his words upset her.
Punching a wall once, Oh’nil left the teepee.
Vircea stayed silent, watching Addie work on Zoark’s shirt.
The bloodied material fell away, revealing his torso. Bruises were beginning to settle in multiple places, but Addie could see no telltale puffiness indicative of a broken bone. If he had internal bleeding, there was nothing she could do for him. But his breathing was even, and his body temperature held steady.
She concentrated on the open wounds. He had several where Iguell caught him with his teeth, and one, over his left pec, was especially deep, angry, and oozing blood.
She swiped the grime and blood away from Zoark’s body and opened her sack, pulling out makeshift gauze pads made from evenly cut and tightly pressed layers of soft spongy moss. A pouch with fresh herb powder followed, and a thin long needle made from bone, as well as a length of flaxen thread.
The supplies made Vircea’s eyes widen.
Working quickly, Addie stitched the worst of the wounds, tying off the thread. Zoark moaned and moved restlessly during the procedure, but didn’t resurface. She dusted the wounds with a thin layer of the herb powder and applied the moss pad over it.
“This is to disinfect,” she explained to Vircea as she worked. “It has to stay like this until tomorrow when the pad will need to be changed.”
Together, they awkwardly swathed Zoark into a length of the soft knitted cloth to keep the pad in place. Tucking the end of the wrap under, Addie surveyed her handiwork, yearning yet again for the medical equipment of Earth. What wouldn't she give for a team of medical professionals she could rely on, for blood transfusions, hi-res imagery of internal organs, and a brain scan. A hospital bed would be nice to have. Forget the bed, having ahospitalwould be grand. Any building, really. Running water. Any water…
Vircea gently touched Zoark’s swollen face. “Will he be alright?” Her voice was thin as she asked.
“Yes,” Addie whispered, striving for optimism.
