Bonesetter 2 -Winter- (29 page)

Pell drew his head back in horror. “The bones would probably heal in the wrong place by the time you got your payment! Then you wouldn’t be able to put them back and the person would be crippled forever.” Pell stopped walking. When Woday had done the same, he gazed concernedly into Woday’s eyes. “Would you really do that? Refuse to help someone until they’d paid you?”

Suddenly Woday felt terribly ashamed. The dismayed way Pell was looking at him made him feel even worse.

Like a bug or insect of some kind.

Woday’s eyes dropped to Pell’s feet and he swallowed hard as he recognized Pell’s compassion and just how strongly Pell felt about doing what he could for his fellow man. After a moment in which Woday found he couldn’t speak, he finally managed to croak, “I’m sorry, I didn’t know there was a time limit on when you could set someone’s bones successfully.” He blinked, realizing without looking up that even this wasn’t good enough, “Whether or not there’s a time limit, it was still wrong of me to think I shouldn’t do my best to help someone if I could.”

Silently Pell turned and led off down the path, leaving Woday to walk in humiliation behind him, stewing in his own feelings of guilt.
How, when he’s younger than I am, has he made me feel like a naughty child?

Pell stopped so suddenly that Woday ran into him from behind. Woday found a finger pressed to his lips entreating him to silence and heard the wolf make a low rumbling growl off to one side. They both turned to look ahead. Woday saw eight men standing where the path turned north up the stream toward Cold Springs. It looked like the men were arguing about something, but they settled whatever it was and started up the path toward Pell’s home.

With a smack, a drop of slush sleeted out of the sky and smacked Woday on the back of the wrist.

Woday turned worried eyes toward the sky. He leaned into Pell a little, trying to urge his master onward. He said, “We need to get home. If this is a bad storm we could be in trouble out here.”

Pell whispered, “Shhh! Those are the people Tando was warning us about last night.”

Woday immediately took a step backward and crouched down, heart thumping hard in his chest. “How do you know?!”

“
Pont
is with them.” Even though his words had a worried tone, when Pell said “Pont” he sounded disgusted.

Woday’s first wish was to find a huge drift of fallen leaves and burrow into it until the storm and the unpleasantness was finished. Fortunately, before his mouth could express what his hind brain was thinking, his conscience rallied. He owed it to his new tribe… to do what?
I’m not a fighter! What can I do to help?
Unable to answer his own question, he leaned closer to Pell’s ear and whispered quietly, “What are we going to do?!” Then, thinking better of it, he immediately rephrased, “What can
I
do?”

Pell stayed motionless another moment until the Oppos trooped out of sight over a little rise. Then he said, “Let’s hide the honey, we can come back for it later. When we cross the stream we’ll get some rocks.”

Rocks?
Woday thought, but he didn’t say anything while they found three saplings growing close enough together that they could wedge their clay pot full of honey high off the ground between them.

Pell led Woday down to the stream and crouched to start picking up rocks, “Let’s get twenty each this time. Fill your pouches.”

Woday squatted down and started getting rocks himself, “I thought Tando said we were to use spears?”

“If we use spears, the Oppos might die of their wounds. A rock hurts really bad, but it doesn’t usually kill a person, only small animals. Besides, I throw rocks a lot better than I do spears. If I have to fight with a spear I’m not going to throw it.”

Woday knew some hunters stabbed animals with spears while they still held the weapons in their hands. You were more likely to make a kill that way, but you could easily get hurt.

Most people he knew threw their spears, at least at large dangerous animals. Woday didn’t think he wanted to get within a spear length of another hunter who was carrying his own spear. “Um…” he said.

Pell looked up at him and gave him an odd smile, “Besides, we only have four spears. We’ll have
forty
rocks.”

The Oppos had stopped in the brush just on this side of the stream running along the meadow in front of the Cold Springs cave. Woday and Pell had stopped up the hill on the path behind them. Sleet had been coming down intermittently since they had turned up Cold Springs ravine. Now it started coming down steadily. Woday shivered and could see Pell shaking as well. He leaned forward to a whisper, “What are they
doing
?!”

Pell shrugged, “I don’t know. I think they’re arguing about what to do.”

“Do you think we can cross the stream back here, then walk up the other side of the meadow to the cave and join our tribe?”

Pell looked down at the stream, “The water’s
deep
here. I’m pretty sure it’d be up to our chests. I’m cold enough without wading through that.”

Reflecting that up to Pell’s chest would be up to his neck, Woday said, “I don’t want to wade it either, but if we stay here much longer we’ll freeze just the same.”

“I know,” Pell said, sounding frustrated.

“Hey,” somebody said behind them. Woday’s first thought was that the Oppos had sent somebody to work his way around and attack them from behind. However, as he was turning in a panic, the man continued, “Pell, what are you doing out here?! Let’s hustle down to your cave and get warmed up!”

Pell had spun around too. He pressed a finger to his lips to shut the man up. In an urgent whisper, “Gontra! There’s some people here from another tribe. We think they’ve come to attack us.”

“Oh,” Gontra said craning his neck to see, then narrowing his eyes. “Pont! I’d recognize that boar’s turd anywhere!”

Woday turned his eyes back to where the Oppos had been gathered. They’d stepped out of the brush and were picking their way from stone to stone across the stream. He saw one of them slip and suspected that the icy slush falling out of the sky was making the rocks even slicker than usual.
Maybe several of them will fall into the water and get hurt,
he hoped.

Pell said, “Come on,” and started down the path.

Gontra followed him.

Heart thumping, Woday walked behind Gontra. With disappointment, he saw that all eight of the Oppos had made it across the ford without injury. Now he started to worry that
he
might get hurt trying to cross the stream.

The Oppos started crossing the meadow and one of them started some kind of chant. Soon, the rest of them had joined in and the chant developed a threatening tone. Pell looked like he was dancing from rock to rock as he crossed the stream. Gontra moved much more gingerly. Woday’s first step slipped off a rock plunging his foot into the icy water. At first he was certain he was going to catch his feet between some stones and get a serious injury or be trapped, but he managed to pull the foot back up. His leg was numbingly cold, but he managed to step on the rock without slipping the next time. Taking even greater care, he picked his way slowly across the stream. He didn’t see Pell and Gontra looking back at him, frustrated by his slow pace because Woday never lifted his eyes from the rocks he was walking on.

When Woday reached the other side, he didn’t have time for a sigh of relief. Pell said urgently, “Let’s go!” and they started out into the meadow behind the Oppos.

Woday lifted his eyes to see what was going on and saw that the flap of the cave had been pulled open. Tando was looking out.

Tando stepped back inside, but a moment later he came back out with a spear in each hand. Manute, Deltin, Yadin, and Boro followed him out a minute later, each carrying two spears. A minute after that Falin timidly stepped out carrying a small spear of his own. Tando said, “What do you want?”

Woday felt Pell step up beside him. The young man leaned near his ear and said quietly, “If you don’t mind, I think it might be better if you handed me stones rather than throwing any yourself.” Woday nodded gratefully.

One of the Oppos stepped toward the cave and said, “We’ve come to rid you of the boy Pell, who’s possessed by an evil spirit. In return, we only ask that you give us shelter for tonight.”

Sidean’s head swiveled to stare at Jalgon. He was so shocked by the man’s words his shivering actually stopped.
He can’t really think they’ll give us shelter in return for killing a member of their tribe, can he?!

Jalgon didn’t give Sidean any time to wonder, or even to consider hopelessly trying to interject some sense into this encounter one more time. Instead, Jalgon danced forward a step and cast his spear at the young boy-man who’d been the next to the last one to exit the cave. “Kill him!” Jalgon shouted, evidently thinking that the slender, timid appearing young man must be Pell. “Kill him now and we’ll have this done!” His first spear skimmed the boy’s side and shattered against the wall of the cliff behind him. Jalgon cocked back his second spear, then fell down.

Sidean thought he must’ve slipped on an icy spot. But then Ventus pulled back his spear and also fell, in his case, before he could even throw. This time, Sidean saw a rock skip off the left top of Ventus’ head. Sidean and Pont both shouted, “
That
boy’s
not
Pell!” Sidean turned to look behind him. Without surprise he saw the tall young man he’d thought had to be Pell when he’d been scouting out the Cold Springs tribe. A huge
wolf
and two other men stood with Pell. One of the men held two spears, one at the ready. The other man held four spears though he looked as if he were paralyzed with fear.

Pell cut a magnificent figure, holding a rock in his right hand and a look of vengeance in his eyes. “Pont!” he said, the word dripping with loathing, “You couldn’t be satisfied to have escaped with your
life
, could you?”

Sidean realized with awe that the tall young man had made two
perfect
throws with rocks so far. He laid his spears down and put his hands up, empty palms showing. He turned his eyes on the other Oppos. Jalgon lay thrashing while Ventus lay motionless. The rest of the Oppos stood wide-eyed. Wenax bent and laid his spears down as well, then stood, showing his empty hands.

Pont, though he hadn’t been touched by a rock, had fallen onto his buttocks and turned as white as snow. He shook. Not just a shiver, but the wracked trembling of someone in fear for his life.

Sidean glanced back toward the cave and saw the men there climbing down off the ledge and starting across the meadow toward them. The boy Jalgon had thrown the spear at had apparently been injured. A couple of women knelt beside him.

Sidean looked back at his own group. Nosset had dropped his spears. Pont, still on his buttocks, was skittering sideways on his heels and hands as Pell advanced toward him. He suddenly leapt to his feet and, dashing around Pell, began running back the way they’d come. Pell took a few steps after him, but then stopped. He called, “If I see you again, I’ll kill you!”

To Sidean’s astonishment, Pont kept a running pace when he got to the stream. He began jumping from one icy rock to the next.

Then he fell into the water.

Ashen, Ingis turned to Sidean and said, “What happened to Jalgon and Ventus?!”

Sidean tore his eyes away from Pell and turned them to Ingis, “He,” Sidean indicated Pell with a tiny wave, “knocked them out with stones. I saw the stone bounce off Ventus’ head.”

Ingis’ brow knotted together, “He threw rocks?!
We’ve
got spears!” He lifted his spirit a little as if considering an attack.

Sidean’s eyes shot back to Pell and saw that the young man had focused intensely on Ingis. The arm holding the next stone was cocking back a little. Speaking out of the corner of his mouth to Ingis, he said, “If I were you, I’d put down that spear.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Sidean saw Ingis almost convulsively cast down his spear. Nonetheless, Pell’s arm cocked the rest of the way back and he lunged forward and threw his stone. For a moment, Sidean felt relieved that Pell had missed Ingis and reassured by the realization that the young man
could
miss. Then the stone hit something with a wet crack like a rotten stick breaking.

Sidean’s eyes shot around and saw Haida’s spear falling from nerveless fingers. The spear was falling from a grotesquely deformed arm which had obviously been cocking back to throw that spear. In his peripheral vision Sidean saw the stone that had struck Haida’s spear arm tumbling across the ground.

Haida’s knees bent as he crouched, his face twisted in a rictus of pain. His left arm rose to cover his right arm where it’d been broken between the shoulder and elbow.

Sidean barked at Doran, the last Oppo holding a spear, “Save yourself! Drop that spear!”

After a moment, Doran complied.

Sidean surveyed the situation with a feeling of despair. Pont was floundering in the stream. Jalgon and Ventus lay sprawled, though Ventus had rolled over and started to moan. Haida had sunk to a sitting position on the ground, his broken right arm cradled by his left. Nosset sat on the ground like a soft pile of bison shit, looking pale as ice. He shook so hard he looked like he might come apart. A moment later Nosset pitched forward and threw up.