Windcatcher: Book I of the Stone War Chronicles (18 page)

“Sure, I’ll go right away. Where did you find that?” said Raylan.

“I came across it today. It was on the shady side of the trees. Mostly in very wet spots…but that is not really a problem here,” she said with a small smile.

A few moments later, Raylan found himself moving from tree to tree, looking for the moss. As he crouched down, he heard the echo of howling wolves through the hills. He wondered if they were greeting the first stars of the night, or perhaps they were sending a warning that they were going on the hunt.

I’d better hurry up and get back. We shouldn’t let the fire die out tonight.

After a short search, he found what he was looking for and picked as much moss as he could carry before returning back.

Xi’Lao began making the paste as soon as he returned, asking Raylan to stay with Stephen until she was ready. The scout had slipped off into a restless sleep. He was tossing and turning as sweat ran down his face, sometimes incoherently talking to someone who was clearly not there.

“Ready,” said Xi’Lao, as she came back from the campfire.

“So what do we do now? Just smear it on?” asked Raylan.

“No, I first have to relieve pressure from the infection, get the leg as clean as possible…which means making a hole to let the bad stuff out…”

“You’re going to cut him?” said Raylan surprised.

“It’s the only way to get the infection out,” nodded Xi’Lao. “I will go prepare my knife in the fire. Can you please wake him and put this knife’s handle between his teeth. It will prevent him from biting his tongue…”

“Sure, but why place the knife in the fire?” asked Raylan, as he accepted the sheathed knife.

“The fire cleanses the knife, so using it does not add to the infection while we try to get rid of it.”

As Xi’Lao walked to the fire, Raylan woke up Stephen as softly as possible. Their injured friend seemed to be very far away, living almost in his own world. Xi’Lao explained what they had to do as best as possible, but Raylan doubted if Stephen understood any of it.

“Okay, put the handle between his teeth and grab his shoulders. Richard? Can you hold his other leg? Gavin, put pressure on the injured leg’s thigh.”

With the three of them holding Stephen down, Xi’Lao picked up the knife from the fire and let it cool slightly, so that it would not immediately cauterize the wound. As she made the incision, Stephen moaned painfully; but under the circumstances, Raylan thought he remained impressively quiet. The cut was deep and about an inch long in the thickest part of the swollen leg. Immediately, a white fluid came gushing out. A stench, like rotten eggs, filled the night’s air.

“Alright, that was the easy part. Now grab hold, I need to push out as much of the wound’s fluid as possible,” said Xi’Lao.

As she put pressure on the leg, the reeking, white fluid flowed out, mixing with blood from the freshly made cut. Stephen jolted under their hands, screaming from the sudden increase in pain. All haziness disappeared from his eyes as he looked Raylan straight in the eyes. Raylan saw Stephen’s jaws clutch the wrapped handle, as a tear ran down his cheek. Xi’Lao pushed on the leg for a second time, resulting in another muffled scream as they pinned him down with their full weight.

Stephen hyperventilated, as his body tensed up from the pressure. Suddenly, his body went limp, while Xi’Lao kept pushing on the leg. He lost consciousness.

The rancid fluid still came out but less now.

“Raylan…check if he is breathing, alright! Put his head slightly to the side and make sure he does not swallow his tongue. Gavin, I am almost done with this. Can you get the pot with boiling water, some clean rags and the medical paste for me…oh, and the cleanest bandages we have, too, please,” said Xi’Lao.

As Xi’Lao put the paste on Stephen’s leg and wrapped it up. Raylan was finally allowed to sit back. For the first time, he noticed his own heavy breathing. It had taken more energy than he expected to keep the scout down during the procedure.

Xi’Lao wiped the sweat off her forehead and sat back, after everything was done.

“Thank you all.”

“Will he be alright now?” asked Raylan.

“We will have to see. I have done all I can, so all we can do now is wait. Time will tell, sooner or later, time will tell…”

As Stephen stirred in his sleep, Raylan looked up to the stars, reacting to the wolves, who were howling at the moon again.

They seem closer…I wonder if they caught their dinner for today…

Chapter 6

Birth

Small rocks crumbled away from the wheels of the wagon, falling into the depths, as it was pulled along the precipice. The horses neighed as they put their weight forward to keep the wagon in motion. Over the last three days, they steadily gained altitude while moving southeast. The forest opened up, which made traveling with the wagon a bit easier. Even more so, when they eventually moved above the tree line.

The mountain range they approached was less intimidating than the peaks of the White North, which faded out of sight on the horizon. But, even though they were leaving the cold behind, it was still a dangerous road to travel. Crumbling paths, sheer drops and sudden wind gusts made for unpleasant surprises and too many close calls.

For once, the rain held off, which was a blessing; but the temperature dropped again as they traveled higher up in the mountains. Gavin explained to the group that the goal was to move over the mountain range to get to the south slopes. From there, he should see enough of the coastline to determine if they were close enough to the Drowned Man’s Fork to send the pigeons.

Raylan made sure that they restocked the wood supply, before they left the forest behind. Although the wood was not very dry yet, it would be ready to burn by the time all the older wood was all used up.

Riding behind the wagon, Raylan looked at Stephen, who sat with his back against the chest. He was trying to keep his leg up high and as motionless as possible, which was not an easy feat on the winding mountain slope. The path they traveled, if one could call it that, went up and down the side of the mountain; but up until now, it always provided enough footing for the wagon to continue onward. Raylan was not sure if it had ever been a proper road at all. If it had, it must have been ages ago, since there was no indication of recent travels.

“How’s the leg doing?” Raylan asked.

“Actually…I think it’s doing a little better now,” said Stephen, as he grabbed hold of the chest next to him when the wagon hit an unexpected stone. He smiled. “…it feels a lot less swollen and hot today. Though it still hurts like hell when I try to move it.”

Raylan saw Stephen put on his best smile; but on the side of his head, Raylan still saw the pearls of sweat form, perhaps from the pain of traveling.

“Does the cut still look clean?” Raylan asked, with a hopeful look in his eyes.

“It looked clean this morning. I’m hoping we’ll be able to wash it out again with some boiled water tonight. Xi’Lao said enough moss was collected to apply a fresh paste to the wound.”

“We’ll make sure it’s done,” said Raylan.

He was glad to see Stephen indeed had more energy again. The color had somewhat returned to his face, but it was still quite early in the day and traveling would take a lot of energy out of him before they stopped for the night to rest.

As they came to the top of the slope they had been climbing, the path widened enough for Raylan to ride up to the front of the wagon and keep pace beside it. Gavin looked straight ahead, checking the quality of the road, as they slowly rode into the shadow of the mountain again. It looked like this next dip in the path would be the last one before they passed over the top of the mountain and moved from the northern slope onto the south side.

It was impossible to scale the larger mountains with a wagon or horse; so, the path they traveled now was still quite low in comparison. They were basically scaling the edge of the mountain range. Still, Gavin was pleased with how high above sea level they had traveled in the last couple of days.

Raylan looked at his brother.

“How’s it looking?”

“Once we pass the mountain ridge and reach the south side, I expect we’ll see the western coastline run south for quite a distance. I’m just hoping the weather stays clear. You know how easy that can change in the mountains,” said Gavin.

“Oh yes, in fact, I remember us being very lucky when we snuck out of the city to explore the mountains behind the city when we were younger. That storm really came out of nowhere and pinned us on the side of the mountain without any warning whatsoever.”

The boys had sought shelter behind a large boulder; but the rain soaked them in moments and, together with the wind, froze them relentlessly without any warm clothes or fire nearby.

“I don’t think we would’ve made it, had the skies not cleared as fast as it had clouded over. What I remember most though was the wind. It came swirling around that boulder, bringing the rain with it, as if the drops were tiny little ice-cold blades,” said Raylan.

As soon as he had given words to that memory, Raylan felt a cold shiver pass through his body. His horse shook its head, twitching its ears, as if the same chill passed through its body, too.

“Not even the nights in this forsaken place felt as cold as I felt back then. Father was so glad we weren’t hurt that he completely forgot to punish us.”

“You maybe. As the oldest, he gave me an earful after you fell asleep. It was my duty to protect my little brother, which meant to be smart about those things.”

Gavin gave Raylan a small smile.

“Yeah, we were pretty stupid. Sometimes, I wonder how we managed to reach our twenties at all, but here we are,” added Gavin.

“Not that we find ourselves in a very safe situation now…” said Raylan, as he smiled back.

“Let’s hope the south side of the mountains gives us a little bit more warmth and hospitality than the north.”

Raylan noticed they had begun climbing again and looked up ahead. He saw that Ca’lek took the lead to check out the top of the slope. Pulling his cloak close, as he felt the wind pass underneath it, he urged his horse to speed up a little. The path running upward seemed safe enough, so he passed Xi’Lao and Richard, who rode at the front of their little caravan together with Ca’lek.

Looking over his shoulder, he called back.

“I’m going to meet up with Ca’lek and see what the other side brings us,” he said, after which he put his heels in his horse’s flank, taking off in a canter.

He reached the top shortly after Ca’lek did. At the sound of his approach, Ca’lek turned around.

“No enemy movement to report. Also, Gavin will be pleased. He can check out the coastline from here.”

Raylan pulled his ride to a halt and looked to the south. The landscape that unfolded before him had a dark beauty to it; he had never seen anything like it before. toward the east, the mountains continued to stretch out, slowly turning to the south and eventually lowering into rolling hills. Large forests covered the land, the dark pines holding most of the high ground, the dark green slowly mixing in with richer colors of the deciduous tree species at the lower altitudes. The forests they had seen in Aeterra, even while riding north, always seemed brighter, in a way. Back home, rays of sunshine penetrated through the roof of leaves, and the trees showed a bright green color. Here, it looked like the trees swallowed every bit of sun. The absence of reflected light made the forest look like a dark green ocean of leaves that stretched all the way out to the southern horizon.

The tree line on the south slope of the mountains seemed to be higher than on the north side of the mountain range. As he looked down the path, it would not take them long before they encountered the first tree stumps again, which was a good thing. Once they were below the canopy again, it would shield them, somewhat, from enemy eyes. Raylan figured the warmth of the sun on the south slope probably meant the trees could more easily grow to a higher altitude. Following the green sea of leaves toward the west, Raylan saw the horizon shimmer in the daylight. The Great Eastern Divide was out there, somewhere; he was surprised at how far they had actually traveled inland. The forests somewhat opened up toward the western horizon; but in most places, it seemed as though the trees reached all the way up to the coast.

“Amazing…” he mumbled.

“Just keep your eyes open. Don’t forget we’re in enemy territory.”

“I know we’re in a bad spot; but these moments just make me love being out of the city, seeing lands almost no one has seen. It reminds me of the open oceans. It always feels so liberating to have all that space around me. I mean, just take a look. Have a real moment. Take it all in and say to me that you don’t find it amazing.”

“What I see are difficulties. Dense forests which will slow our traveling down to a crawl again. No clear indication if there are any settlements out there that we need to avoid. And the area looks like it can sustain bigger wildlife.”

“Well great, that hopefully means we can hunt again,” Raylan said, optimistically.

Ca’lek looked at him.

“It also means the predators have more food, so they will likely be bigger and more abundant. We’ll need to have constant fires during the night to ward off any unwelcome guests which, in turn, means we’ll be easier to spot by the enemy.”