Bonesetter 2 -Winter- (30 page)

Of the eight who’d begun this ill-conceived mission, only Sidean, Wenax and Doran were still standing. Wenax and Doran were looking to him, he thought for leadership. Sidean turned to Pell, his open palms still raised, and said, “We surrender. We surrender and apologize for what our leaders brought us to do. Will you let our healer tend our wounded?”

Behind and to Sidean’s left, someone barked a laugh. Sidean turned and saw one of the Cold Springs tribe kneeling beside Jalgon. The man said, “What you
should
ask, is whether Pell, there, will treat your wounded. Best healer you’ll ever see.” The man’s eyes dropped to Jalgon, “Though I think this guy’s a goner. Back of his head’s smashed in and probably even Pell can’t fix that.”

Sidean turned his eyes back to Pell, “
May
I see to our men? If you can help them that would be a great blessing.”

Pell nodded, “Sure. I don’t know what to do for the two that were hit in the head, but I might be able to help the man with the broken arm.”

Sidean turned, going first to Jalgon. Absently, he noted that the sleet had stopped falling. A good thing since trying to care for wounded men out in a snowstorm would be almost impossible. He knelt next to Jalgon. The man from Cold Springs pointed to the back of Jalgon’s head. “Skull’s crushed. You can see he’s breathin’ funny. Waste of time tryin’ to help him, I think.”

Sidean touched the back of Jalgon’s head which was, in fact, dented inward. It felt soft. Jalgon’s color looked bad and his breathing had an odd rhythm. “I think you’re right, though we’ll do what we can. Let me check the others.”

Sidean’d turned to look at Ventus when he heard the irritating and demanding tones of Nosset’s voice, “
First
, you need to go get Pont out of the river! He’s going to die of the cold even if he doesn’t drown!”

Sidean closed his eyes in an attempt to control his anger. He didn’t want to start shouting at Nosset and perhaps make this Pell angry but… He heard a loud thump and opened his eyes in time to see Yadin kick Nosset a second time. Yadin’d had hated Nosset ever since he’d decided that Nosset had killed his mate Uva. Yadin bellowed, “Go help him yourself, you worthless turd! I’m sure you and Pont are the reason Jalgon brought the men here to attack us.
You’re
why men lie dead or injured today! Personally, I think if Pont drowned it would do all of us a
great
favor. But, if you want him saved, you need to do it yourself, not order other people around!” He paused, “And if
you
drown helping him, that
would
do us all a great service.”

With a small grin to himself, Sidean knelt next to Ventus. It looked like Ventus had only been knocked out. There was a bloody crease in his scalp, but he was continuing to moan and as Sidean touched the bloody area, Ventus’ eyes fluttered open. “Wha’ happened?” he mumbled, eyes rolling wildly.

Sidean let out a relieved breath he hadn’t realized he was holding. If Ventus recovered, Haida would be their only invalid. At first he’d thought they might have three cripples on their hands, a devastating blow for the Oppo tribe. Though it seemed a cold way to think, Jalgon would be better off dead than impaired. So would his family. Caring for a Jalgon crippled by head injury would suck the life out of those that loved him.

Sidean turned to check on Haida and found Pell kneeling next to him, probing gently at his arm. Pell quietly said, “I’m sorry to have hurt you, but I thought you were going to throw that spear.”

Gritting his teeth, Haida didn’t try to deny it.

Pell, standing, turned his eyes to the man who’d said Jalgon would die. “We need to get these men in to the cave and warm them up.”

The man nodded.             

To his astonishment, Pell helped Haida stand. He eyed Sidean and gave a jerk of his head toward Ventus, “Why don’t you help that guy?” Pell started leading Haida toward the cave.

Sidean helped Ventus to his feet and led him in a clumsy shamble behind Pell. As he entered the cave he heard the young boy excitedly telling the women, “Pell stopped them! He just threw three stones, but he knocked down a man with each one!” The boy shook his head in amazement, “He never missed!”

They sat inside a surprisingly spacious cave. Even with six extra people, it only felt a little crowded. Some of the women had helped Sidean lay Ventus down on bedding near one of two fires. Ventus still shivered, but seemed less confused.

The young man that Jalgon’s spear had injured lay nearby with a poultice on his side. From the murmurs Sidean had heard, the wound was superficial. If it didn’t get a wound fever the boy should do well.

Even though no one thought he’d make it, a couple of the Cold Springs men had carried Jalgon in and laid him on the bedding as well. So far he still breathed and twitched, but his breathing was irregular and Sidean didn’t think he’d last much longer.

Sidean would have sworn he’d seen Pell look over at Jalgon several times like he felt guilty. Why anyone would feel guilty for taking down a man actively attacking his own tribe, Sidean didn’t know.

Pell and two other Cold Springs men, Woday and Deltin, were sitting with Haida. They were having an intense discussion on the best way to care for his arm. Sidean didn’t understand why, but the other two men seemed to be calling Pell “Bonesetter.”

Yadin came over and squatted down next to Sidean. He shook his head sadly, “I guess I should’ve gone back and told Jalgon that Pell wasn’t possessed by spirits. Maybe this wouldn’t have happened.”

Sidean sighed and shook his head. “It wouldn’t have done any good. When you didn’t return, he sent Wenax and me to scout the Aldans and then Cold Springs. We reported back that we didn’t see any evidence of an evil spirit or of anything bad happening, but Nosset and Pont told Jalgon that the evil spirit just kept us from
seeing
the terrible things that were actually happening.” He shrugged, “How can you argue with that? It was crazy. They sent us to look, then didn’t believe what we told them. Anyway, Jalgon chose to believe two medicine men who hadn’t been here over those of us who had.” He glanced over at Pell, “Pont
really
wanted Pell dead.” He looked up at Yadin and asked curiously, “Are those guys calling
Pell
‘Bonesetter’? Or are they talking about someone else?”

Yadin snorted, “Pell. Just one of the
many
things he can do, apparently.”

Sidean tilted his head curiously, “But he’s still practically a boy! Who taught him to set bones?”

“Taught himself, they tell me.” Yadin’s eyes wandered the cave, then he pointed to the wall with his chin, “Did you notice the wall of the cave isn’t natural?”

Sidean turned and looked. Though dried mud covered the wall, he could still see that it consisted of upright poles, sticks, and grass. “Oh!” He looked around, “This was one of those really shallow caves before they built the wall, wasn’t it?” He turned back to Yadin and frowned, “I’d like to meet the guy who thought of that!”

Yadin gave him a little grin, then turned his eyes on Pell, “Even though he’s practically a boy?”

“Really?!” Sidean breathed, his eyes also going to Pell.

Yadin shook his head as if in awe, “That’s not all either.” Yadin described a number of other amazing things that Pell was supposed to have thought up. Deciding some of the things Yadin depicted weren’t possible, and that the quantity of things attributed to the boy, even if possible, were too many for any one man, Sidean wondered if Yadin’d taken leave of his senses.

The flap covering the opening of the cave drew back and Nosset stepped in. The pudgy little medicine man stood just inside the opening, shaking. He looked cold, so part of the shaking was probably shivering, but Sidean thought he was quaking in fear as well. Everyone in the cave had turned to stare at him. His throat worked for a moment before he got any words out, finally, he said, “Pont’s ankle is broken. I got him out of the river, but I can’t… can’t start a fire… I don’t know… don’t know a way to get him warmed up. He’ll die outside.”

Yadin snarled, “You two are just gettin’ what you deserve!”

Sidean looked around at the other people in the cave. He thought their eyes all showed agreement with Yadin’s sentiment. He expected at any moment someone would usher Nosset back outside at spear point.

Pell unfolded gracefully from where he’d been squatting by Haida. Sidean had known the young man was tall, but something about the way he’d stood so smoothly to tower over everyone made him seem… splendid. Pell stepped toward the opening of the cave and Nosset shrank back. Sidean expected Nosset to turn and run at any moment, but then Pell said in a weary tone, “Let’s go get him.” Pell and Nosset ducked under the skins covering the opening of the cave and went outside.

Sidean didn’t know what to make of what had just happened, so he turned and looked around at the people in the cave again. He thought they looked just as startled as he felt.
Maybe Pell’s going out there to finish the bastard off?

Yadin got up and walked over to peer out the opening of the cave. He sat by Sidean when he returned. Sidean asked, “What’s Pell doing?”

Yadin said, “Can’t tell, the light’s fading pretty fast.”

Sidean thought about asking Yadin if he thought Pell had gone out to kill Pont, or maybe even Pont
and
Nosset, but he didn’t. Instead, he was distracted by sizzling from the direction of the fire. When he looked that way, he saw some of the women suspending skewered rabbits and birds to roast above the flames.

What kind of hunters were these, who’d gotten so many small animals on a cold day like today?!
Sidean turned to pose that question to Yadin, but before he could Nosset stepped back through the furs over the entrance, this time lifting them high so Pell could enter behind him. Sidean didn’t think he was any more dumbfounded than the rest of the people in the cave to see Pell carrying Pont in his arms like one might carry a large child.

From the look on Pont’s face, he’d nearly been overcome by the cold before Nosset had developed the courage to come ask for help. Sidean could see the man was breathing, but he looked unconscious. Pont’s ankle was twisted grotesquely to the side. Sidean thought to himself that it would’ve been kinder to leave him outside to die rather than bring him in to survive as a cripple.

Pell gently laid Pont down on some bedding near what appeared to be the cave’s night fire. He waved the young man named Woday to his side, then turned Pont onto his stomach. The two young men spoke for a moment, then Pell bent Pont’s leg up behind him so that the shaft of his lower leg pointed straight up into the air. Pell placed his own foot on the back of Pont’s knee and grabbing Pont’s foot bent it even farther.
Is he trying to torture the medicine man?!
What had looked like a horrible deformity suddenly looked so bad that Sidean expected the bone to burst out through the skin! Then Pell heaved up straight, pulling mightily on the foot and ankle, all the while talking calmly to Woday as if he
weren’t
straining with all his strength.

Pont awakened and began thrashing and squealing like a speared rabbit. Sidean glanced around at the others and saw them all staring wide-eyed. If the others thought, like he did, that Pell was torturing or trying to kill Pont, they apparently thought Pont deserved it. No one moved to stop him.

Then, with a squelching thunk, Pont’s ankle slid back into place. Gripping it with both hands, Pell squatted down to look at it from several different angles. Then he shifted his hands around so that four fingers were curled around the inside of the shaft of the bone just above the ankle and his thumb was pushing from the other side just below the ankle. He didn’t seem to be straining, but the ankle stayed straight. It looked like Pont had either passed out again or was having less pain. He’d stopped thrashing around. Deltin got up and went over to look at the ankle. He and Pell discussed something at length.

Eventually, Pell showed Woday how to hold the ankle in place while he and Deltin went to the other side of the cave to begin carving some wood!

***

When Sidean woke in the morning, he lay silently considering all the ways the previous day had confounded him.

He felt ashamed that his fear of Jalgon had brought him here, to attack people who’d done him no wrong.

He found it hard to believe how the Oppos’ strong band of six accomplished hunters and two—perhaps useless—medicine men had been laid waste by a boy with three stones.

Well, three stones and a wolf! Though he’d seen the wolf with Pell on several occasions now, he still found it hard to believe.

Sidean would have counted the previous day amazing, simply because he’d witnessed a crippling injury to a man’s ankle corrected so that the bone now lay straight. The people here in Cold Springs seemed fully confident that, because Pell had treated him, Pont would walk again. Sidean had gone over to look at Pont’s ankle himself. It lay trussed up between two pieces of wood that Deltin and Pell had shaped to fit it. He thought the ankle really did seem straight enough that, once the bones healed, Pont might walk once again.

It seemed almost impossible to believe that Pell had worked so hard to put Pont’s ankle back in place. Especially if he’d actually understood that Pont had been the driving force behind an Oppo mission to
kill
Pell. When the little medicine man had awakened from his swoon, it’d seemed to Sidean that Pont himself was astonished to see his leg back in place. That the Cold Springs medicine women had brewed teas for his pain left Pont looking dumbfounded.