Survivors: Book 4 Circles of Light series (50 page)

None of the gijan were
communicative: they made their displeasure with Brin extremely
clear. They repeatedly circled within the crater, working from the
top downwards, checking and double checking. Leaf thawed enough on
the second day to confess that the air and the rock inside the
crater was still in a state of such flux that she and her siblings
were confused time and again by conflicting reactions to their mind
probing.

Khosa curled with Akomi
against Farn’s chest, both cats disturbed and distressed. Driven
nearly mad by inactivity and a feeling of useless frustration, Gan
and Navan searched the outer area for anything to make a fire. As
Maressa pointed out to Ren, they had enough fuel gathered now for a
beacon, let alone a small cook fire. Navan discovered a water
supply which he then found was contaminated. Storm and Brin
quartered the area until they uncovered a clean spring about half a
league away. Gan found some wooden pails, battered but usable after
a few repairs, and they all felt happier knowing plenty of water
would thus be available when Tika and Sket were found.

The sun was setting for
the third time amid lurid red clouds when the gijan cries rang out.
Everyone was on their feet, staring at three feathered creatures
flying slowly towards them. Leaf landed first, her high arched feet
stepping daintily across the dry grass, Tika held easily in her
arms. She laid Tika gently in front of Farn, leaned over to kiss
her lips, then stepped away. Willow repeated his sister’s
movements, placing Sket carefully beside Tika. Jakri gave both a
cursory inspection and then snapped orders. Neither Ren nor Maressa
were strongly gifted in healing and both were mightily relieved to
find that Jakri apparently was.

Maressa and Navan
fetched warm water to wash the filth and dust from Sket and Tika’s
faces. Sket remained unconscious but Tika’s eyes opened as soon as
her eyelashes were unclogged. She looked up into the anxious faces
above her and opened her mouth. Jakri placed his middle finger
between her brows and her eyes closed instantly. Gan frowned. Jakri
glanced up at him.

‘She has severe burns
Master Gan; the pain will be bad at first while I clean
them’

Gan bit his lip. Jakri
had cut away Tika’s torn shirt to better get at the burn on her
chest and breaths caught as they all saw just how bad the injury
was. Jakri bent close, shaking his head.

‘I will clean this then
I will have to try to use power to at least begin the mending.’ He
looked up at the others apologetically. ‘I am trained in the use of
healing herbs and in practical treatments but I am not an expert in
using power to heal.’

Ren grunted. ‘Maressa
and I are next to useless.’

Navan had pulled Tika’s
sleeve free and turned her left hand palm up. Jakri’s golden face
paled. The hand was burned to the bone. He swallowed hard and stood
up.

‘Clean her of this dust
and I’ll check Sket properly.’

Ren and Navan bent to
their task, Brin and Storm peering worriedly over their shoulders.
Willow was helping Maressa get Sket’s clothes off and begin to
clean him. Jakri found a large bump on the side of Sket’s head
which he frowned over, then Maressa gasped. She’d lifted Sket’s
left arm to pull off his shirt and the water she’d then sluiced
over his arm revealed his damaged hand. The two fingers furthest
from his thumb were completely mangled, the smallest finger nearly
detached in fact.

‘They must be cut off,’
Willow said calmly.

Jakri stared up into
the gijan’s dark eyes.

‘If you can heal then
help me now,’ he said softly.

Willow stared
impassively back. He tilted his head one side then the
other.

‘We will,’ he agreed.
‘They must both be cleaned before we start, but these,’ he pointed
to Sket’s hand, ‘must be cut off.’

Jakri nodded. Tiny
pieces of bone stuck out from Sket’s fingers and he could see no
way of repairing such damage.

‘I can do that.’ He
sounded more confident. ‘That is the type of treatment I am
practised in.’

Willow moved to stare
down at Tika and up at Farn. ‘Wake the young Dragon,’ he said to
Jakri. ‘His strength will help her.’ The gijan met Khosa’s slitted
turquoise eyes and he smiled. ‘Don’t worry, he will be
calm.’

Jakri rose to touch
Farn’s brow. He waited a moment then turned away to scrub his hands
in the water Gan had ready for him. He instructed Ren to fetch his
pack and search out a packet of instruments which Ren then set out
on a clean cloth near Sket. Ren repressed a shiver seeing the
slender blades of obsidian set in smooth jade shafts. Jakri checked
the level of Sket’s unconsciousness and set to work, Gan and Ren
passing him whatever he requested. Queasy though Ren felt, he found
himself admiring Jakri’s skill. The Wendlan removed the fingers,
scoured the injuries for bone chips and neatly stitched a flap of
skin over each knuckle. He sat back with a groan, surprised to find
how dark the sky had grown.

‘I can bind it if you
wish,’ Ren offered, and set to work.

Maressa and Navan stood
one each side of Farn. Maressa sensed the young Dragon’s distressed
feelings had been muffled somehow: there had been no near
hysterical outburst when he’d woken to find Tika returned to him
which is what they had all feared might happen. He had simply
lowered his face to hers and studied her burns intently, his eyes
whirring sapphire and pearl. But there had been no
panic.

The three gijan stood
around Tika, Leaf and Piper facing each other across her prone
figure, Willow at her feet. They extended their huge wings, raising
a black feathered wall around them, Farn at Tika’s head. They
joined hands, Leaf and Piper placing their free hands on Farn’s
shoulders, and bowed their heads. Maressa, Navan and the two cats
crouching forgotten by Farn’s chest, watched.

A faint glow surrounded
the burn between Tika’s small breasts. Flesh began to move, to
ripple, and slowly the hole was covered with fragile new skin. Leaf
had left Tika’s chain around her neck but had moved the pendant so
that it rested on the ground beside her head. Maressa and Navan
both felt the gijan relax momentarily and then Piper stooped,
moving Tika’s upturned hand off her stomach to lie on the grass.
Again the tension hummed between the gijan and the exposed bones of
Tika’s hand were concealed beneath a flimsy layer of new
flesh.

The gijan sighed,
furling their wings. Leaf looked over her shoulder to where Jakri
was attending to Sket’s skull.

‘Master Mage,’ she
called. ‘We can do no more for her hand. You will know better how
to finish this mending now.’

Jakri got creakily to
his feet and hobbled on numbed legs to Tika’s side. He bent to lift
Tika’s hand, peering closely in the failing light.

‘It will need dressings
daily, many salves for encouraging suppleness, and a system of
exercises. But she must not attempt to use this hand for anything
other than the exercises I will show her for some time to
come.’

The gijan all nodded
agreement, casually turning away to hop onto Brin’s back. His eyes
flashed in alarm: he had felt the sting of disapproval from the
gijan but now they acted as if nothing had annoyed them. Storm
crept closer to Farn, his grey scaled face touching Farn’s neck.
Farn turned to him then back to watch Tika. Jakri was ordering that
his two patients be wrapped warmly and for either tea or a thin
broth to be readied: he would rouse both invalids sufficiently to
allow them to swallow a good amount of fluid before letting them
settle for the night.

Maressa sat between
Sket and Tika. She would watch through this night while the others
rested. Jakri soon rolled in his blankets and slept. Ren and Gan
sat quietly by the fire, the sound of Navan’s cloth working Tika’s
sword blade the only sound.

‘I have given no
thought these last days for what the people of Harbour City may be
suffering,’ Gan murmured.

Ren refilled his tea
bowl from the pot perched above the embers. ‘Maressa has far spoken
Sheoma,’ he said, speaking as softly as Gan. ‘The temples of the
Elder Races throughout the city withstood the earth
movements.’

Navan paused in his
rhythmic working on the blade. Ren shrugged,

‘Sheoma says none of
them understand why that should be. And the Xantip palace is
unharmed. She says Zerran estimates half the population is dead or
missing and nearly every building is unsafe if not in ruins. Many
people are living in the public gardens, afraid to stay near the
remaining buildings. The priests of the temples of the Elder Races
are providing food as they can for all who are in need. Sheoma said
the people are shocked at present, too dazed to help themselves.
She also says that the Wendlan mages on the Emperor’s ships report
the earth shook in the north, although nowhere near as badly as
here. It did not stop yet more warriors pouring from the desert.
There is terrible fighting throughout the northern
farmlands.’

Ren fell silent and Gan
wondered just what they were supposed to do now. Khosa butted her
head against his bent knee and he obligingly stretched out his long
legs to offer her his lap.

‘Tika and Sket will not
be able to travel for many days,’ she said in their minds. ‘Grek
will surely return and advise us what our plans must
be.’

Akomi crept onto Gan’s
lap beside Khosa and Gan absently scratched the old cat’s
ears.

‘I’ve noticed the gijan
have grown taller,’ Navan remarked. ‘But even so, I am surprised at
the strength they must have. Leaf carried Tika as easily as you or
I would carry Khosa or Akomi.’

Gan sighed. ‘The longer
we go on, the more confused I seem to become,’ he confessed. ‘It
sounds as though Harbour City itself is in chaos: where might we
find supplies I wonder?’

‘Brin says the region
here appears virtually lifeless.’ Navan set Tika’s sword aside and
began to work on Sket’s. ‘He has seen very few humans and he said
their minds feel empty.’

Ren got to his feet,
filling a tea bowl to take over to Maressa. ‘I am concerned by
Grek’s absence,’ he said.

He returned from
checking the two injured ones and sat back down.

‘Grek was afraid,’
Khosa mind spoke them. ‘He feared he would be unmade if he ventured
too near the power vortex Valesh was creating.’

‘And would he?’ asked
Ren.

‘Of course. While being
unbodied has many advantages, it is also an extremely vulnerable
condition in a situation dealing with a large body of wild energy –
which is what Valesh had become.’

‘Can we be sure that
Tika’s mind has suffered no – contamination?’ Gan asked.

Khosa yawned and gave
the sleeping Akomi’s head a brisk wash before she answered. ‘I
cannot be sure, but I suspect those gijan can. They would not have
healed her had they any doubts.’

‘But they adore her,’
Navan interposed. ‘They all told her that their lives were hers
when they woke after their wings came.’

Khosa yawned again. ‘If
they suspected Tika had been manipulated by Valesh’s warped
intelligence, they would all have died, Tika with them.’

She buried her nose
under Akomi’s chin and left the three men to silently ponder her
words.

Jakri was tending his
patients and Maressa was fast asleep when Gan woke in the early
morning. He stirred the embers of the fire and set a pot of water
to boil. Then he crossed to where Jakri knelt beside Sket. Seeing
Tika’s eyes were open he squatted next to her. ‘How do you
feel?’

‘As if Farn has sat on
me all night.’

Farn rumbled above her
and Tika struggled to free her right hand from the cocoon of
blankets. ‘I’m teasing dear one,’ she assured him, letting his face
rest against her palm. She tried to push herself up and Gan helped
prop her shoulders on Farn’s chest.

‘Sket’s been sick and
Jakri says he’s feverish. I can’t help him – there is nothing left
in me at the moment. Jakri won’t even let me try.’

Jakri glared over
Sket’s chest. ‘Just regain some strength and you can help, but if
you try now you’ll fail and hurt yourself badly into the bargain.
Fever I can deal with and it isn’t unusual for a patient to be sick
after a bump on the head such as Sket has suffered.’

He glanced up at the
sky and Gan followed his gaze. The wind had been light, blowing off
the western sea two or three leagues away, but it had swung round
during the dawn. The sky looked dirty, a brownish red. Gan rose to
his full height, his head very nearly level with Brin who reclined
close by.

‘It is dust,’ Brin told
him. ‘I flew to seek meat for Farn. At the moment, it is high but I
think soon it will fill all the air.’

Gan tried to imagine
the vast sprawl of Harbour City cluttered with fallen buildings and
its people choking in the pall of dust of which this must be the
furthest fringe. He glanced down at Tika and Sket: Tika’s eyes were
closed again.

‘Brin, did you see any
buildings close enough to us here where we might shelter? We have
no awnings with us as we had in the desert – there seemed no reason
to pack them. Tika and Sket can’t lie unprotected if the wind
brings that dust storm this far.’