From Across the Clouded Range (72 page)

“
Turn around,” Teth
ordered. “Let me take a look at it.” As soon as he did, Teth
started pulling painfully where the blanket clung to his back,
cutting off any attempts he made at speech.

“
This is a fine mess,” she
mumbled. “I save you yet again, and do you thank me? No, you run
through the forest like a mad man. Did you even think that I might
be trying to keep up with you, that you might get lost, might
sprint off a cliff, might run yourself to death?” She stopped and
looked around him, stern eyes pounding. “I didn’t think so. I had
to tackle you because I couldn’t keep up any longer. Then what did
you do? You, by the cursed Order, fell asleep! You went to sleep
and left me to clean up the mess in the pouring rain.”

She paused. Dasen opened his mouth,
but she tugged on the blanket, transforming his words to a gasp,
and spoke over him. “There was blood everywhere. I didn't think I
was ever going to get those cuts to stop bleeding, and the rain
wasn't much help. I finally just tied a blanket to your back and
rolled you over. I could barely stay awake, but I had to drag you
out of the rain, tend your wounds, and make sure you didn’t bleed
to death. You’re lucky I didn’t leave you lying where you landed.”
Teth was now decidedly upset. The joking affection from a few
minutes before was forgotten in the listing of his
transgressions.

Dasen remembered running from the
camp. He remembered feeling in control of his body like never
before, but to have outrun Teth left him stunned. He did not know
what to say. Despite her tirade, he was smiling. He was so happy to
see her, so happy they were both still alive that even a scolding
was welcome.

“
What are you smiling
about?” Teth looked at him. “Do you think it was funny? Well, see
how funny this is.”

Ripping pain flashed through Dasen. He
staggered to his toes, arching his back in an attempt to escape his
own body. The pain was so sudden and absolute that he couldn’t even
scream. He gasped, clenched his teeth, and felt tears welling in
his eyes. “By the holy loving Order . . . why did you . . . Shit!
That . . . that really . . . why did you . . . ?” Dasen was so
overwhelmed that he could not even form a sentence as he staggered
about the clearing with his back on fire.

“
It had to be done,” Teth
said without remorse. “I had to have the blanket off to clean it
and put on the medicine. Trust me, if those get infected, it will
be a lot, lot worse. Now sit down so I can tend those cuts. They’re
bleeding again.”

Dasen could feel that. His entire back
felt sticky and damp. The pain had subsided, but it still burned to
no end, and despite himself, tears were streaming down his cheeks.
He glowered at Teth, but she showed not the slightest remorse. “You
could . . . by the Order . . . you could have at least warned me.
Hilaal’s balls that hurt!”

“
Just sit down, you baby,”
Teth reprimanded. “If you hadn’t run away so fast, if you’d have
stopped before you collapsed, if you’d have stayed awake for ten
minutes, I probably could have found some blue-lace moss and
dressed it properly, but as it is, this is what you got. Don’t
blame me. You brought that on yourself. So stop whining and sit
down.”

Dasen scowled at her but made his
shaking way to a nearby log and sat.

“
This will kill the
infection,” Teth explained as she dabbed the blue moss painfully
along his back. “It should even ease the pain.” She worked on the
cuts for a while longer, picking and dabbing at them until his
teeth felt like they might crack. Any thought he had of missing
Teth or apologizing was forgotten. “These aren’t as bad as I
thought,” she eventually concluded. “They’re such clean cuts that
they should heal quickly. You know, they’re in almost the same
place as your first set. Maybe, you should stop showing the things
your back. People are going to think you’re a coward.” She laughed,
but Dasen failed to see the humor. He was starting to remember why
he had spent the last week barely talking to his wife.

Teth paused again, and Dasen could
hear the tearing of cloth. As she had promised, the moss had eased
the pain to a dull roar, and he was beginning to recover his
senses. He wiped the tears from his cheeks, blew his nose on the
ground, and took a deep, shaking breath. When he looked back, he
saw Teth ripping the small blanket apart.

“
You’re lucky I had this
in my satchel,” she said. “Otherwise, we’d probably have to use
your pants, and you’re already showing more than I want to
see.”

Dasen did not respond, did not feel
like participating in her repartee.

She spread moss over each of the cuts,
covered them with a strip of blanket, then covered the whole thing
with a large square. Finally, she created three longer strips that
she draped around him. “Here hold these,” she said as the strips
fell across his chest. Dasen held them together with his hands
until Teth came around to his front. “Now stand up, so I can tie
them.” Again he complied. Teth came in close, head just under his
chin to tie the strips. Her bottom lip had crept under her teeth
again, and she seemed uncertain.

Dasen was tempted by the proximity but
was too upset at the way she had pulled the blanket off and even
more at what she had said after to do anything about it. When she
had tied the knots almost painfully tight, she stood with her hand
on his chest, her face mere inches from his. It would have been the
ideal time, Dasen realized, to say the things he’d planned while he
was tied to the tree in the forest master’s camp. It would have
been the ideal time to kiss her, to tell her that he understood and
would try harder. But he didn’t do any of those things. He kept his
head high and thought about the easing throb of his
back.

“
Well, that should take
care of that.” Teth cleared her throat and stepped back into the
clearing. “Now, just leave it alone.” She slapped his elbow to keep
his hand away.

“
Thanks. I think.” Dasen
finally managed. “I’m . . . I’m sorry I ran like that last night. I
don’t know what happened. I . . . I wasn’t myself. I had some kind
of a . . . revelation, I guess. I don’t really remember now, but I
just felt like I could run forever. Then you tackled me and it all
came apart. I’m also sorry about the forest masters. I should have
thought.”

Teth looked at him with a strange
longing, like she wanted him to continue, like she knew that he had
more to say, but he couldn’t bring himself to say anything more. He
turned his eyes to the trees. “Do we have any water? I am
absolutely dying of thirst.”

“
Ah, no,” Teth looked
away. Her voice was husky and soft. “Almost everything we had was
in your pack. I still have my bow, a knife, and a few other things,
but it’s going to be a long trip to Thoren without that pack.” She
sounded deflated but not because of the pack.

“
You know, you’re right,”
Dasen began, trying to recapture some of their lost good humor. “I
should go back and get it. I’m sure it won’t be a problem. I’ll
just walk into the camp and say, ‘excuse me blood-thirsty,
chaos-worshiping demon, but you seem to be standing on my
pack.’”

The joke earned a forced smile. “Well,
if we weren’t five miles away, I might consider that. As it is . .
. .”

Dasen did not hear what
Teth said after that. He was overwhelmed.
I ran five miles last night. It felt like a mile at the most.
How fast was I going? What happened to me?

“
So, are you coming?” Teth
asked from in front of him. Dasen snapped out of his thoughts and
followed, trying to recapture what she’d just said.

“
Can I have my shirt
back?” he thought to ask as a chill struck him. It was a cool,
breezy morning, and the low clouds threatened more rain.

“
It’s over there, if you
want it.” Teth pointed to a muddy heap at one side of the clearing.
Through the mud, Dasen could see a brown crust that he knew was
blood. The thought of wearing it was repulsive.

“
I guess I’ll
pass.”

“
Here, you can carry the
satchel. Maybe that will keep you warm.” Teth pulled the bag off
and threw it toward him. It felt empty, but Dasen threw it over his
shoulder, keeping the bag at his front to protect his
back.

“
Come on. We’ll find some
water soon enough and maybe some berries. All I got to eat last
night was dried woodchuck. Not very appetizing or filling.” She
paused then continued almost to herself. “We may even find the end
of the forest today. The trees have really changed, and I have to
believe we’re getting close.”

“
That will be a welcome
change. We shouldn’t have any problem finding a farm. And even if
they don’t believe who we are or what we’ve seen, they’ll at least
give us something to eat.”

“
That’s if the invaders
haven’t already taken everything they have to eat. Or
worse.”

Dasen gulped. He suddenly remembered
what Captain Hobbleswood had told him. “The invaders were in
Rycroft six, now seven, days ago,” he blurted. “The forest masters
told me. They fought them there.”

Ahead of him, Teth took a deep breath.
“So they are going north.” She paused as if absorbing that then
shook it off. But to Dasen, it looked like another stone added to
the mountain already sitting on her back. “There’s nothing to do
about it now. We knew that was a possibility. In any case, I think
we keep walking and see what we can see. You agree?”

“
Yeah,” Dasen sighed.
“Let’s go.”

#

Teth was dead tired. That was all
there was to it. She could not remember the last time she had been
so exhausted. Her body was tired, muscles stiff and sore. Her mind
was tired, thoughts hazy and distant. And her spirit was tired,
downhearted and snappish. The first two she could blame on the
Dasen, but the last was her own fault entirely, and that only made
it worse.

A misty rain fell, adding to her
miseries. It had been cool and cloudy all day with the rain coming
and going, but never growing above a mist. It was just enough to
keep them damp, but not enough to force them to find shelter, so
they trudged on, cold and miserable.

They walked slowly despite the
relative ease of the terrain. The forest had become entirely
deciduous with big widely spaced trunks surrounded by tall grass.
There were no trails and no animals to be seen, but they had little
need for either. Though they were hungry, Teth did not bother to
string her bow – she did not want to risk the shaft or string in
the damp weather – so they made due with berries, wild onions, and
a few plums that Dasen, of all people, had found.

Ironically, given the rain, water was
still a problem. They had found a stream hours ago, but they had
nothing to carry the water, and there had been no other obvious
sources since. Teth opened her mouth hoping to catch enough tiny
droplets to quench her thirst, but the mist did little more than
wet her tongue. She looked toward the leaves all around them and
the tiny pools of water that had collected in them. The only thing
that kept her from drinking those pools was Dasen’s likely
reaction. She was not sure why she cared, but she didn’t have the
will or energy to put up with his shock and derision. Even if he
didn’t say anything, even if he copied her, she knew what he would
be thinking, that he was joined to a freak.

He’ll always think
that
, Teth thought in her gloom and spared
a look back at him. His thin arms crossed his long chest, hugging
himself for warmth. Water glistened in tiny drops on the patchy
hair of his chest and arms. His long hair dripped larger beads that
ran down to soak into his bandages. He watched the trees to the
side but did not seem to see them.

Teth had snapped at him enough times
over the course of the day that he was probably afraid to even look
at her. He probably missed the forest masters more than ever now
that he was back in the clutches of his peevish wife. It was those
thoughts that had dominated Teth’s mood throughout the day. But she
knew it didn’t have to be that way. That morning, he had said he
was happy to see her. He had looked at her with real fondness, had
seemed on the verge of accepting her. Until her stupid temper had
ruined it all. Milne had always said that it would be the end of
her, and it had certainly been the end of any hope she had of
bringing Dasen to her side.

She had been legitimately
mad at him but mostly because he had made her so worried about
losing him. First, she thought she’d lose him to the bastard forest
masters, then to the creatures, and finally to death. She had
barely slept for honest worry that he was dying. It appeared those
fears had been foolish, but in the dark, she had not been able to
tell how bad his injuries were, and the way he had acted after the
camp, she had thought that the creature’s claws might have
contained another strange poison. He had run faster and longer than
she could ever remember seeing from any man. He had run as if he
would never grow tired, as if he were running on a flat road, as if
he were the district champion. And at the pace he was running, he
would have been the district champion – she knew because she
was
the district
champion.

She had only been able to catch him
because he slowed, but once he had stopped, his body had revolted
against the way he had treated it. Even after he had lost
consciousness, he had continued to cough and retch. His heart had
been pounding so that she could barely tell one beat from the next,
and his legs had twitched for a full hour after he had stopped.
That, coupled with the gashes along his back and what appeared to
be blood everywhere, had left her in a panic.