Bonesetter 2 -Winter- (31 page)

Then, the Cold Springs tribe had cooked a veritable feast for their dinner! Something like you would prepare for an honored visitor, not the meager fare you might consider furnishing to a vanquished foe. They had the rabbit and grouse that’d been roasting; and a stew with sliced tubers, beans, and grain. The food had even been salted! Sidean had only had salted food on a few occasions when someone in the Oppos had traded dearly for salt brought up from the sea. He would
never
have expected the precious condiment to be found on a meal served to him as a member of a defeated war-band!

And Pell! Pell, the very man they’d come to kill, was the kindest of all the people in Cold Springs. After he’d treated Pont, Pell had worked with Deltin to fashion sticks to bind around Haida’s arm and with their leather worker, Manute, to make Haida a sling. When Jalgon had died late in the evening, Pell had apologized to the rest of the Oppos, saying he hadn’t meant for the stone to hit him so hard!

Sidean had asked Yadin why Pell was being so nice to them, especially to Pont. Yadin had shrugged as if he also felt completely mystified. “He was cast out of the Aldans you know. Perhaps he swore some pact with himself to do what he can for others.” Yadin’d snorted, “If I were you Oppos, I’d just be
grateful
that he’s so kind. I wouldn’t ask any more questions.” He’d grinned and lifted an eyebrow at Sidean, “What if he comes to his senses?!”

Sidean’d said, “So you no longer consider yourself an Oppo?”

“No!” Yadin had exploded. Then he’d sighed, “Before Jalgon sent me to scout them out, I’d already been thinking about leaving.” He’d shot a disgusted glance at the Oppos’ medicine man, “I
hate
being around Nosset.”

Sidean’d nudged him, “It looks to me like you’ve got a thing for one of their women too.”

Yadin had looked a little embarrassed, but had nodded. “I do,” he’d said looking over at her. Then he’d glanced back at Sidean, “Believe it or not, she’s Pell’s mother.”

Sidean lay there on the bedding, wondering about the previous day’s events a moment longer. Then he lifted his head and looked around the dark cave. Dim red light from the glow of the low fires lit a man who sat upright. Sidean turned to his side and pushed himself up. When he looked toward the man again he felt the guy staring at him even though he couldn’t see the man’s eyes in the dimness. Sidean rose and slowly picked his way amongst the sleeping bodies over to where the man sat. Leaning down and warming his hands over the glowing coals, Sidean recognized Tando. He said quietly, “Couldn’t sleep either?”

The man snorted gently, “
I’m
on watch. In case one of you Oppos takes it into your mind to finish your mission while Pell’s asleep.”

Aghast, Sidean said, “We’d
never
…” Then he remembered Nosset was still there with them and uninjured. His eyes inadvertently tracked to where the pudgy medicine man lay next to Pont.

The watchman grunted, “Yeah, he’s the one I’m watching the most. But I don’t think I should trust
any
of you guys yet… Would you?”

Sidean shrugged, granting the truth of the statement. “Where do you guys go for your morning piss?”

***

As they ate their morning porridge, Gontra turned to Tando. “After all that happened yesterday I’d almost forgotten why I came. With the cold, our snares have stopped catching anything, so I’d thought I’d offer to help Cold Springs with their big winter hunt. In return for that, I was hoping a few of your hunters would come help the Aldans put away some meat for winter as well.”

Tando frowned at him, “Your snares aren’t working?”

Gontra gave him a surprised look, “Yours are?”

“Sure,” Tando shrugged, “that’s what we ate last night,” Tando said matter-of-factly. “I think they’ll probably stop working
sometime
during the winter, but so far we’re still catching things.”

Gontra shook his head in dismay, “At first, our snares were bringing in quite a bit, but they quickly tapered off. I decided to come talk to you about a big hunt yesterday when not a single snare caught anything.” He gave Tando a bleak look, “Do you think we’re cursed?”

Tando shrugged, “I don’t know. Let’s go talk to Pell, maybe he’ll have some ideas.” He glanced to the east, “Maybe he’d even go with you to check out your snares if the weather’s not too bad.”

They got up and went over to where Pell and Woday were working on Pont’s leg. Gontra and Tando squatted down to watch. Pell and Woday were loosening the leather straps binding the splints to either side of Pont’s ankle. Pell was saying, “The broken part keeps swelling for a while. While it’s doing that, you have to loosen the straps. Eventually, the swelling starts to go down and you need to tighten the straps.” He shrugged, “For the first few hands of days, you usually need to loosen or tighten the straps at least one or two times a day.”

When they’d finished adjusting the straps, Pell looked up at Gontra. “Thanks for coming to visit Gontra. How did you know we were going to have trouble and need your help?”

Gontra shrugged and looked a little embarrassed. “I haven’t been much help really. I’d
like
to claim that I came to help you guys, but actually I came to ask you to
help us
with a big hunt. Our snares stopped working so we really need to put away a few big animals to help us through the winter.”

Pell frowned, “
Our
snares are still working.” He turned his gaze on Tando, “Or at least I thought so. Weren’t the rabbits and grouse we ate last night from yesterday’s snare run?”

Tando shrugged, “Yeah, it was a good run or we wouldn’t have eaten so well when we had so many people. But,” he shrugged, “some days are better than others.” He looked at Gontra, “Maybe you just had a couple of bad days?”

Gontra shook his head, “No, I swear it’s gotten a little worse every day since you left. Two days ago we only got a single hedgehog and yesterday nothing at all!”

Musingly, Pell said, “And you’re putting them on animal trails narrow enough that the animals can’t slip past the noose?”

“Of course,” Gontra said indignantly. “We’re still trapping exactly the same trails you helped us pick out when you were there. We’re putting the same size nooses in precisely the same places! I swear, we’re not doing
anything
different!

Tando bit down to suppress his reaction. He saw Pell struggling not to laugh, though a grin certainly threatened to break through.

Gontra looked back and forth from one to the other of them, “What?!”

Pell cleared his throat, then said, “You don’t remember me telling you that you should move your snares to a different location each day?”

“Well, yeah. But just until we found a location that works… right?”

Unable to suppress it any longer, Tando barked a laugh. “What, Gontra? Do you think after you’ve eaten the rabbit that travels a particular trail, another one just pops up out of nowhere to replace him?!”

Gontra stared back and forth from Pell to Tando, “I don’t know! I guess so. Where
do
they come from?”

Tando slapped him jovially on the back, “Where do people come from Gontra?”

“Oh,” Gontra said, looking embarrassed. “I’ve seen some of the big animals doing it out on the plateau or down in the meadow. You think the little animals do the same?”

Tando grinned, “Well, I’ll admit I don’t go around watching the animals fornicate like you do, but I assume so!”

For a moment, Gontra looked sheepish. Then a smile dawned, “So you think we just need to move our snares to different trails?”

Pell nodded seriously, “
Every
time. We go out every day, picking up the snares from the day before, then putting them out in a different location. Sometimes farther away, sometimes on a different trail on the way back. We try not to put them back in the first location until moons have passed, so we wind up putting them pretty far away sometimes.”

Gontra grinned, “I guess it’s going to be a little more work than I’d thought, but it’ll be worth it if we get the food.”

Pell said, “Have you plaited a big enough rope to catch goats yet? That could help a lot.”

Gontra looked embarrassed, “I keep meaning to…”

Pell said, “I know working leather is a man’s thing, but women braid their hair all the time. They already know how and there isn’t much gathering for them to do right now…” He shrugged and shook his head a little despairingly, “I can’t believe you guys would rather
starve
than let the women do some of the men’s jobs.”

Woday and Pell were adjusting the splints on Haida’s arm. Woday said, “I thought you hadn’t treated anyone with a broken arm before?”

Pell shrugged, “No.”

“Then how do you know what to do for this man?” Woday knew Haida’s name, but was having a hard time calling people who’d come to attack them by name.

Pell chewed his lip, “I guess I don’t. I’m just treating it like we treated Panute’s leg. Splints like these seem to work well enough for her.”

Frustrated, Woday said, “But this is an arm! What makes you so sure it’s going to work the same way?”

Pell shrugged, “I’m not sure. But neither is anyone else. All we can do is the best we can do, right?” He looked Haida in the eye, “You heard that Haida. Do you want us to take these off?”

Haida gave a sharp little shake of his head, “No! It feels better with them on. Besides, Yadin says you’re really good at this so I trust you.”

Pell tilted his head, “I haven’t really treated very many broken bones. Everybody seems to think I’m good at it because the ones I took care of turned out well, but I might’ve just been lucky those times.”

Haida said emphatically, “I’ll take your luck and be glad of it.”

Pell turned to Woday, “I think this is better than nothing, but if you can think of a better way to do it…”

Woday shook his head as well, “No, no, I don’t have a better way. I’m not someone who comes up with… Whatever it is you do.”

“Sure you are,” Pell said, slapping him on the shoulder, “
you
had the idea to put the doors on the fish traps.”

Haida frowned, “Fish traps?”

Pell winked at him, “If you want to learn about fish traps, you’ll need to ask Agan.”

“Agan?”

Pell pointed her out.

“The old woman?”

Pell nodded, “She’s the leader of our tribe.”

Haida turned to look at Agan again, then back to Pell with a look of disbelief on his face, “Why would anyone do what
she
told them?”

Pell smiled, “Because she’s wise.” He turned to Woday, “Let’s look outside. Maybe it’s warm enough to go get our honey and check your fish traps.”

They stood and started toward the mouth of the cave, but then behind them they heard the irritating tones of Pont’s voice rise as he demanded, “… more hemp
and
more of that poppy seed tea. Now! I don’t want to have to wait until it really starts to hurt again!”

Pell’s spine stiffened and he turned slowly. Woday turned with him and saw that Pont had been speaking to Gia. Woday glanced up at Pell and for the first time saw him with rage on his face. However, Pell closed his eyes, took a deep breath and after a moment, his face relaxed. He shook out his tense shoulders then started across the room to where Pont lay on the bedding.

Pont glanced at Pell coming his way and shrank away from him. By the time Pell arrived at his side Pont’s haughty and demanding look became a look of terror. Despite the fact Pell had calmed himself before starting toward Pont, Woday still expected him to do something terrible to the medicine man. A vision of Pell undoing Pont’s splints and re-displacing his ankle flashed through Woday’s head.

Instead, Pell squatted down in front of Pont and smiled at him… though Woday thought the smile looked forced. In a calm tone, Pell said, “Pont, are you
at all
surprised you’re still alive?”

Pont stared at him for a moment, then his head made a jerky, spastic nod.

“Have you considered that we might
still
decide to throw you out… and if we did, you’d almost certainly die?”

Pont swallowed and gave another nod.

Pell shook his head as if he just couldn’t understand, then continued, “I want you to think about the fact that Gia
only
brings you hemp and poppy out of the kindness of her heart. If
she
doesn’t bring it to you, you can be
sure
no one else will.
You
can’t
make
her do it, neither she, nor anyone else here is afraid of you or the magic you claim to have. If you want your medicine, you’re going to have to ask nicely.”

Pont nodded.

“If you want food, you’re going to have to hope people
like
you enough to give you some.”

A look of fear shot through Pont’s eyes and he nodded again.