Page 101 of Guiding Reason
“I have bandages. You need this, ma?”
Li dropped her bandages on a chair. The room, almost square, had several tables, and right now, people were laid out on them, all of them hurt, some worse off than others. Apart from Li, Hyran recognized the mycologist’s apprentice, Sinex, and a young girl, fifteen maybe, the daughter of the mechanic. There were less than fifteen people on the tables. Lowvalley did not have many people, less than one hundred, and Hyran had a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.Is this what’s left?
Sinex looked from Li to them. “I’m not sure. I can’t tell anymore. I should know these things, but I don’t know. I don’t know.”
Col pushed past Hyran, sliding his backpack off as he went. “Taros, you have a first aid kit with you as well, right? Hyran, check the perimeter, then get back here. Taros, first aid where you can. Everyone, my name is Coldis, this is Taros. We’re friends of Hyran’s and will do what we can to help you.” He looked at Hyran. “Perimeter. Go, now.”
So Hyran ran. Not everyone was in the Old House. He found Li’s father, the council head of this town, was laid out in the small plot that served as the memory garden here. Next to him were several others, the mycologist, someone who Hyran knew as a brewer. The sight shocked, not for the gore alone, and the gore was bad. There was a loss here, palpable, knowledge of decades, families broken, traditions Hyran had only an inkling of torn and disappeared.
It was a contrast, the mayhem visible in the state of the corpses laid out in front of the peaceful memory garden, dominated by large trees and saplings both, each having come from a seed that had gone into the earth with the unburned body of the deceased, to serve as nutrients.
Will they have time to select a seed for these people? Are there even enough outsiders left to dig the holes in the ground for their burial?
Hyran knew he didn’t have the time to spare for that. His Conduit had been alone for too long, and it was by far too dangerous here for Col to be unprotected. Yet, Hyran took the time to make sure there was no one hiding, circled, zigzagged, stood and listened, even if it was just for a few seconds each time.
He ran back to Col, and when the Conduit saw him, he came out of the Old House, his hands bloody.
“I don’t have the right training for this. I need to ask a favor of you.”
“What? Anything. I’ll take you back home. I can run back here and help as much as I’m able. I can take medicine and supplies and—”
But Col was shaking his head, and took Hyran’s hand to lead him back inside to Taros, who was emptying an injector into one of the people on the ground. The face was too swollen for Hyran to tell who it was.
“You are a doctor, ma? Your hair is a funny color. It’s really funny. Look, Li, his hair is funny.” Sinex was in his early twenties, smart, clearly in a situation no one should be in.
Taros looked at the apprentice. “No, and thank you. I color it. You’re really pale. Sit down.”
He said it firmly, and following some instinct, Sinex sat, or rather, dropped to his knees where he stood. Li was at the back of the single room, bandaging someone’s badly burned arm.
Col tapped Taros on the shoulder. “Do you know where the house is? Anandas’s. Can you show Hyran on the map so he can run me there?”
Taros froze, another injector in hand. “You’re kidding.”
“This is an order. Show him the house on”—he pulled a screen from his pocket. “Here. Show me.”
Taros looked at Hyran, then at the screen, and Hyran knew the other Guardian didn’t like the idea.
“Col, maybe if I take you back to Ferrea or even Argentea—”
“It would take too long, and there would be repercussions. Vaccines and general supplies we give, but we don’t help in situations like this. We don’t dispatch physicians. There are rules about this kind of thing, and the Municipal AI would notice if we break them. Anandas might help these people, and you can get him here.”
“It’s approximately there,” Taros said. He’d pointed out a patch of the woods not fully overgrown in the satellite image.
“Can you get me there now?” Col held up his screen to Hyran.
“This is not a good idea.”
Col reached for Hyran’s hand. “No, it’s not, but Hyran. Take a look around. I know you are a good person, because you ran to save my life during the Battle of Starlit Stage. All I’m asking right now is that you run to save these people, as many of them as we can. Please.”
Hyran looked at those eyes, blue and brown, the plea in them.For people he has never met.
Hyran nodded. “I’ll take you. Come on. Goggles, Col.”
34
COLDIS
Col could tell Hyran was slowing, circling, but he kept his cheek pressed to the crook of the kinetomancer’s neck, channeled. It was easier than it had ever been with anyone, and Col didn’t just sense the leveling point of his Guardian, it was a beacon in his mind, easy to reach from any point.
