Well of Sorrows (24 page)

As soon as the man took the flap, Tom darted to the edge of the wagon and looked out onto the fight before the wagons.

As he watched, Walter swung his sword in a loose arc, more brute force than skill, and cut into the spear the dwarren used to block the blow. Both maneuvered their animals around, the gaezel dancing out of the much larger horse’s way. Walter pressed his horse’s advantage, swinging again and again, the haft of the dwarren’s spear shattering on the last blow, Walter’s sword cutting down into the dwarren’s forearm. The man roared, blood flowing down his arm to his elbow, and kicked his gaezel away from the battle.

Walter wheeled his mount toward where Arten and a group of the expedition’s men were surrounded, the dwarren circling their gaezels around the group, continuously moving. Arten watched warily for an opening, while the others tried to cut into the dwarren’s flanks. Walter charged the dwarren line, Jackson and the three other Armory men on horses already engaged with the outskirts of the group.

As soon as Walter struck, the dwarren turning to meet his charge, Arten ducked in behind them and cut two of the dwarren down from behind. One of the animals screamed—the same haunting, grating scream they’d made when Tom’s group had hunted them before—as Arten’s sword cut a gash in its side. It bolted for the plains, a few of its brethren following suit with snorts. The rest of the men with Arten closed in.

But they were outnumbered, even with the dwarren they’d already killed, even with Walter and the others on horseback. Only those from the Armory were true fighters. The rest were farmers or tradesmen, unskilled with weapons, even Walter and Jackson.

Tom shot a glance to either side behind the wagons, but everyone was occupied trying to get the last of the women out of the burning wagons, even Colin, Karen still sawing at the hides on her side with her thin eating knife. Black smoke gusted into Tom’s face and he coughed, covered his mouth with one hand, and turned back—

To see a dwarren raise his spear at Arten’s back. The commander’s attention was on the dwarren before him, fending off that man’s thrusts. He couldn’t see the dwarren behind him.

Tom drew breath to shout a warning—

And three arrows sprouted in the dwarren’s chest with three distinct hissing thunks.

The dwarren fell back off of his gaezel with a stunned look on his face. Arten stabbed his sword forward and pierced the dwarren he fought through the chest, the blade sliding out freely as he stepped back, and then he turned, glanced down at the dead dwarren who’d been ready to spear him from behind, then up.

Tom followed his gaze.

On the far side of the burning wagons, Aeren and the rest of the Alvritshai stood, firing into the fight, their targets the dwarren, their faces calm and intent. Aeren nodded toward Arten, the gesture somehow formal, and then turned, drawing an arrow from his quiver and sighting along it into the melee, releasing it with no change at all in his expression. Dwarren fell right and left, and with a roaring command, the gray-eyed dwarren that Tom had watched lead the charge, who had thrown his spear at Tom as he came, broke away from the fighting, the rest of the dwarren following suit. They streamed out onto the plains on their gaezels, half of their number left behind either dead or dying. Walter and the others on horseback charged after them for a moment, before finally slowing and turning back.

Tom watched long enough to be certain that the dwarren weren’t returning, then spun back toward the wagons. Pillars of smoke rose into the air, one of the wagons already a total loss, but the other two—

“Sam! Paul! Get some blankets or buckets of water! We need to get these fires put out.” He suddenly remembered the sound of liquid splashing. “Wait! Not water. They used some type of oil to help the fire catch and spread. Use sand or dirt instead!”

He heard Sam shouting, and everyone began scrambling, beating at the flames. Some of the women rushed to help. As soon as he felt the situation was under control, Tom turned back toward the plains.

The area in front of the wagons was littered with bodies— dwarren, gaezels, one horse, and a few men from the wagon train. He found Arten kneeling at the side of one of the fallen men, the one that had taken an arrow to his shoulder, now propped up against one of the dead gaezels. The man’s breath came in short, hot, huffing gasps, punctuated by moans as Arten prodded the area around the wound. His shirt was soaked with blood, from the wound down across his chest to beneath his arm. His face was pale. He turned pleading eyes on Tom as he approached.

Arten sat back. “The arrow’s in deep, Brant, but it missed the lung. I’m afraid that if we try to pull it out, it will catch on your ribs, or worse.”

“So what should we do?” Tom asked, crouching down beside the commander.

“Here.” Arten placed his hand up under Brant’s armpit, below where the arrow had pierced his chest. “Feel right here, where my hand is.”

He withdrew his hand, and Tom slid his in where it had been. Blood coated his fingers, but he ignored it as he felt where Arten had indicated, frowning. “What am I—”

But then he halted.

He could feel something hard beneath his fingers, beneath Brant’s skin. He pushed it, barely even moved it, but Brant hissed and jerked away, the end of the arrow wobbling. His hiss became a harsh cough that he tried to control, the arrow shaking with every movement.

“That’s the tip of the arrow,” Arten explained, and Tom shuddered, his stomach turning. He could still feel it beneath his fingers. “Brant must have twisted away when the arrow was fired. It hit him in the chest, at an angle, missing anything vital, but lodging there beneath his armpit.”

“How do we get it out?”

“We’ll have to push it all the way through.” Tom’s breath caught. Brant’s did the same.

“You can’t just pull it out?” Brant gasped weakly. “Or cut it out?”

“The dwarren arrowheads are shaped with points on the back, like barbs, so that they’ll do almost as much damage on the way out as on the way in, especially if they’re jerked free. We could try to withdraw it, but we’d have to go slow, and we might hit something more vital on the way out. A good chunk of the shaft is still inside you as well. We might not cut in the right place for us to pull the shaft out without angling it and doing more damage. It needs to come straight out. The best option is to push it through.”

Brant sagged back, looked up into the blue sky. He muttered a prayer under his breath, winced in pain, then glanced toward Tom, pleading.

Tom shook his head. “It’s up to you, Brant. We can do it either way.”

He struggled with himself a moment, then sighed. “Do it. Push it through.”

Arten didn’t give him a chance to change his mind. “Get some clean rags, some wine, a stick for him to bite on, and some water.”

Tom lurched to his feet, trotted toward the wagons, noting that the fires had been put out on two of them, that the third had burned out of control. Someone had shifted the rest of the wagons away from the one that still burned.

Aeren and the Alvritshai were standing off to one side, three of them surveying the plains, watching, bows ready, the others talking to Aeren in animated voices, arguing with him. Tom wondered what they were arguing about—

Then he spotted Ana. She was climbing out of one of the wagons in the back, the one that held Tobin. “Ana!” he said, turning to head toward her.

“Tom! Thank Holy Diermani!” She crossed herself, hand clutching the pendant beneath the shirt on her chest, and then Tom was there, kissing her. It was a brief kiss, fierce and not perfunctory.

“Arten needs some rags, water, wine, and a stick,” Tom said as soon as it broke. “He needs to remove an arrow from Brant’s shoulder.”

“Where’s Colin? And Karen?” she asked, rummaging in the back of the wagon.

“They’re fine. What about Tobin?”

“He was in one of the wagons in the back. He’s still feverish, and he tried to get up to help, but he’s too weak to do more than exhaust himself. Did you see Miriam?” When Tom shook his head, she continued, while handing him rags, a thin dowel, and a skin of wine. “She heaved the kids out of the burning wagon—the one we lost—then started throwing out whatever supplies from inside she could get her hands on. She stayed inside a little too long and got burned.”

“How bad?”

“Not bad enough to fret over. She’s more concerned about the hair she singed off.” She rolled her eyes. “Now go. I’ll send someone with a bucket of water.”

Tom hesitated, the shock of everything that had happened starting to seep in. He felt his body trembling, tasted bile at the back of his throat because he knew that there were more than a few people dead. He’d seen their bodies on the grass.

Ana gripped his arm, her face stern. “Tom. We don’t have time. Brant doesn’t have time.”

Tom sucked in a large breath, noisily, swallowed the acrid taste in his mouth, and turned without a word. As he jogged across the remains of the camp between the wagons, horses whinnying and snorting, people dashing to and fro, or sitting stunned on the grass, he saw Walter on horseback, grouped together with six other men—three Armory men and three others—also mounted. And armed.

Walter saw Tom coming, said something, his face black with hatred, with purpose. The rest nodded.

Then they spun their horses and charged out across the plains, toward where the dwarren had fled.

“Walter!” Tom roared, lurching forward, but Walter ignored him. “Walter, goddamn it!”

He halted, juggled the rags and wine in his hand, then spat another curse under his breath. Walter and the others were nothing but figures in the distance.

“Tom!”

He turned toward Arten, dashed forward and spilled the supplies near Brant’s side.

“Where are Walter and the others going?” Arten asked.

“I don’t know,” Tom spat, furious. “They didn’t confer with me before they left.”

Arten grunted. “Give me the dowel.” He took the rounded chunk of wood and placed it between Brant’s teeth. “Bite down on this. It will keep you from biting your tongue off.”

Brant nodded. Arten had already ripped the wounded man’s shirt free, exposing the wound, the shaft of the arrow still protruding from it.

“What do you want me to do?” Tom asked.

“Hold him. I’m going to have to break the fletching off the arrow in order to push it through, and it’s impossible to do that without moving the arrow. He’s going to struggle.”

Tom placed his hands on Brant’s chest. As he did, one of the older children rushed forward with a bucket of water, the contents sloshing over the side as he dropped it to the ground near Arten, then stepped back and crouched down so he could watch.

Arten took the arrow in both hands, Brant hissing through the stick in his mouth. “On three,” he said, catching Tom’s gaze in warning. And then, without counting, he snapped the shaft of the arrow.

Brant screamed and bucked, throwing Tom off his body and into the grass. Tom heard Arten curse as he scrambled back to Brant’s side, grabbing hold of the younger man again. Brant twisted beneath Tom’s and Arten’s grip, body arched as he tried to roll away from the pain in his shoulder, but then he collapsed back, his scream dying down into harsh pants. Sweat and tears streaked his face, and his skin had turned a ghastly white. He’d bitten so hard into the dowel there were indentations in the wood. Fresh blood welled from his wound, thick and viscous. His skin felt hot and feverish beneath Tom’s hands.

“Now,” Arten said, his voice unnaturally calm to Tom’s ears, “we need to push it through. Ron, hold down Brant’s legs.” The commander didn’t even look as Ron slid in beside Tom and gripped Brant’s legs. Instead, he looked directly at Brant himself. “I’ll push it through as fast as I can, but you need to hold still. Once it’s out, I’ll have to clean the wound and dress it.”

Brant nodded, his breath harsh as he drew it in and out through his nostrils. Tears still welled from his eyes, and sweat plastered his hair to his scalp.

Arten nodded in return, and both Tom and Ron leaned into Brant’s shoulder and legs. “Here we go,” Arten said.

He took hold of the shaft of the arrow and pushed.

Brant growled, whimpered, bit down hard on the dowel, and caught Tom with wide, haunted, pleading eyes. Tom stared into them, into their warm hazel depths, and grimly held on as Brant began to shudder. The whimpering growl grew, escalating toward a scream, and Tom saw Brant’s eyes begin to dart around in desperation, saw them squeeze shut, then flare open as Arten did something that interrupted Brant’s growl with a moaning bark of pure pain—

Then he saw consciousness flicker in Brant’s eyes, saw it struggle to remain and then die.

Brant’s body slumped to the ground, and as it did, Arten slid the splintered end of the arrow free of the fresh wound beneath Brant’s armpit. Blood gushed from both cuts, but Arten had already set the arrowhead aside, the wood stained black. He began cleaning the wounds with the wine and water, using the rags to stanch the flow. He held the rags tight, pushing with his weight, and after a long moment withdrew them.

When new blood welled up through the cuts, he cursed.

“I’m not a doctor,” Arten said, pressing the rags down hard again. “But if we can’t get the blood flow to stop—”

He didn’t need to finish.

Ron suddenly gasped and lurched back, tripping over his own feet and falling to the ground. Tom spun, half standing, then halted.

Aeren stood a few paces away, Eraeth and another of the Alvritshai flanking him. He stared down at Brant, then held something toward Tom, murmuring in his own language. Tom hesitated, then stood and accepted what Aeren offered.

A small, clear, glass vial filled with what looked like pinkish water.

Tom looked at Aeren in consternation, but the Alvritshai motioned toward Brant, mimicked pouring the water over Brant’s wounds.

Tom returned to Arten’s side. “He wants us to pour this over the wound,” he said, as he began to remove the cork from the top of the bottle. It was sealed with wax, so he used the knife Arten had given him earlier to break it.

“And you’re going to use it?”

“We don’t have a choice. The blood isn’t stopping, and they haven’t given us any reason to distrust them so far.”