Page 98 of Planet Zero
“My queen!” Addie applied brakes and stumbled to avoid a collision. “I didn’t see you.”
Qalae’s marble face revealed nothing, but her voice lashed out, full of anger and disapproval. “Where have you been traipsing for so long?”
Addie panicked. Did the queen know about Zoark? Could she tell?
She fought not to reveal her anxiety. “I went to find Jat sand. To clean up.”
“You know better than to walk alone in these parts,” the queen snapped.
That’s right, the ever-present threat of hungry Gosors. The roaming marauders. Addie felt belated fear. “I forgot. I’m sorry.” How could she have forgotten it all so completely? Even the queen seemed concerned about her, in her queenly round-about way.
Frowning, Addie peered at Qalae. Whywouldthe queen be concerned about her? It must be the herb supply Qalae was afraid to lose. She was beginning to feel like a drug dealer.
Right now, however, the queen wasn’t talking about the herbs. Impatiently, she motioned toward the settlement. “Go back. The warrior that is being punished, Oh’nil, is still bleeding. I want you to sew him up.”
Addie blinked. “No one can approach him, my queen, much less treat him. I tried. The High Counselor was very clear on that point.”
“You may now. I allow you to,” Qalae said imperiously.
“What if the sentries notice me and tell the High Counselor?”
“Be quick about it,” Qalae deflected.
“But…”
“Stop talking. Go back and close his wounds. Hurry! It’s nighttime, and no one is around.”
Addie’s heart was breaking for Oh’nil, but she knew that after the spectacle she had created earlier, the High Counselor would see to it that Addie was either banished or killed if she so much as breathed in Oh’nil’s direction.
“I can’t do it. I am afraid to be caught,” she said frankly.
“You’re a healer. Are you refusing to help a man heal?”
Addie raised her chin. “Sewing is a skill all women around here possess. Including you, my queen. If warrior Oh’nil matters to you like I think he does, you go and sew him up.”
Qalae’s face was no longer expressionless. “You are refusing me?” She looked absolutely floored.
“You’re setting me up for failure. You’re ordering me to do something you’re afraid of doing yourself.”
“I’m not afraid! But I’m the queen, not a healer. I order you to help him.”
Addie looked her square in the face. “I won’t do it.”
Qalae was flabbergasted.
“You dare to refuse my order?” she hissed and took a step closer.
“I dare you to make this order in front of the people.My queen.”
“You sniveling foreign animal.”
“Yes, I am. I’m a weak, ugly, poorly adjusted woman. Yet I fit in with your tribe better than you. I have friends and I have loved ones who I’ve earned by being myself and not because of my position. We’re all victims of different circumstances, but I own mine and I fight to be happy. It’s hard, Qalae, but it’s worth it. You should try it sometime.”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
Addie laughed. “Is that what you tell Oh’nil?”
She left her. She walked around Qalae and went back to the settlement, to her tent. She might have earned a new enemy in the face of the queen, but putting herself in mortal danger to spare Qalae some difficult moments was not an option for Addie.
