Valour and Victory (12 page)

This course in
practical nursing continued during their sail south to Port
Duchesne, augmented by lectures. Lucky Zilla found that she was a
good sailor, unlike Maura.

“Never mind,”
Zilla tried to comfort her friend during one of the intermittent
periods when Maura managed to get herself on deck. “Doctor Hallam
says that you’ll feel better when you reach land.”

“That will be
soon I hope,” Maura groaned. “I never knew a person could feel so
ill and still be alive. What have I missed?”

“Bandaging
again and bloods.”

“How to stem
it?”

“No, we’ve got
to be able to check the blood groups. It’s horribly complicated and
finicky but it’s got to be done in case of transfusions. The Garda
wear metal tags round their necks that tell us what blood group
they are. The Vada do too but many of the Militia don’t. If a
patient gets the wrong type of blood, they die. I’ve taken notes so
you can copy them out when you’re feeling better. You’re not the
only one who is unwell, even Doctor Hallam was looking a bit green
around the edges when I saw him last.”

“Anything
else?”

“We’ve been
assigned to our medical teams. You’re with me. We’re the lucky
ones; we’re with Doctor Hallam himself. I heard in the grapevine
that he asked for us specially.”

“He asked for
you
,” said Maura with a knowing look. “Funny how two
brothers are attracted to two sisters.”

“Don’t be
ridiculous,” Zilla laughed off Maura’s comment.

“Any idea what
section of the army we’ll be sent to?” asked Maura.

“Neither the
Vada nor the Lindars of course, the Holad sees to them. Rumour has
it that it will be one of the advance casualty stations of the
Garda.”

“Not the
Militia?” asked Maura, disappointed. She had hoped to be sent
somewhere near the Dunetown Militia where her sweetheart Joh
was.

“I’m ‘fraid
not. I’m not sure which battalion it is but it’ll be the infantry.
No point wondering about it, we’ll find out soon enough.”

“You look very
smart Zilla,” said Maura who was beginning to feel better as the
fresh air did its work and was beginning to take an interest in her
surroundings.

“Do I?” Zilla
gave her new uniform tunic a self-conscious twist. “They issued
them just after you fled below. Yours is waiting for you in the
store-hold.”

“It’s rather a
bright colour,” said Maura, eyeing the bright orange with
horror.

“Doctor Hallam
says it’s to make us easily identifiable on the battlefield, so
people know we’re medics.”

“So when do we
get to Port Duchesne?”

“Early tomorrow
morning. We’ve got to be ready to disembark at once, the ship’s got
a schedule to keep. I believe she’s taking north those being
evacuated.”

“Evacuated?
Why?” asked Maura, “I mean, if they’re evacuating the powers that
be must think there is danger. You don’t think we might lose the
battle against the Larg do you?”

“They’re
probably being safe rather than sorry. Course we won’t lose. There
are thousands of us going south to beat them before they can get to
the Island Chain.”

“I’ve heard
some of the officers talking whilst I’ve been lying down trying not
to be sick,” said Maura, “the bulkheads are thin and I don’t think
its just the Larg that we’ll be facing. There’s something more
dangerous out there.”

“What could
possibly be more dangerous than the Larg?”

Zilla knew
about the Dglai. Rilla had told her but she had also promised to
keep this knowledge to herself for the time being and if Zilla made
a promise she always kept it.

“There’s
something they’re not telling us,” insisted Maura, “something
that’s got them scared.”

“You’re
imagining things,” Zilla answered with a forced laugh. “Just keep
your mind on the job and stop worrying about something you
shouldn’t have overheard.”

* * * * *

Rilla

The Vada Cadets
were almost half way across the Island Chain. Weaponsmaster Jilmis,
as dusk had begun to fall, had called a halt on one of the larger
islands, one with trees big enough to shelter under and a fresh
water stream. The stream was more like a rill but it was big enough
to let the thirsty cadets of both species slake their thirst and
refill their water bottles. The trees had another use; as somewhere
they could hang up their damp clothing to dry. The Ryzcks who had
preceded them had tied long stands of twilled string to the
branches and hadn’t taken them down when they left.

This was much
appreciated by Rilla and the others. She shrugged herself out of
her uniform tunic (her oldest one) with a grimace. The fabric
wasn’t just damp, it was salty-damp and during the last few bells
it had begun to chafe at her skin.

“Fastia warned
me not to put on another tunic in the morning,” Shona informed
Rilla as she placed her own beside Rilla’s on the string the two of
them had appropriated. “She says that the sea can be quite deep
between a couple of the islands we’ll be passing over tomorrow and
it would be best to keep them salt-free.”

Rilla, who had
been considering doing exactly that, grimaced again.

“I feel so
sticky,” she complained.

“You and me
both,” agreed Shona with a shake of her black curls, “but she’s
right. We don’t know what the laundry arrangements will be like in
Duchesne and I certainly don’t want to have to fight in
salt-encrusted clothes. I wish I could find somewhere to have a
bath.”

Cadet Charles,
who was passing, overheard Shona’s last comment and stopped.

“Did I hear you
ladies mention a bath?” he enquired.

“Yes,” she
answered, “or a swim in any kind of water that’s not sea
water.”

“Wlya’s
complaining too,” Charles said, “says her fur is all tangles. I’ve
tried brushing but its made little difference.”

“Wait until her
coat is dry and then the salt will brush out,” advised Rilla
optimistically, “Zawlei’s grumpy about it too.”

“Jilmis did say
that we’d be stopping at a large island tomorrow night, larger than
this,” mentioned Charles, “said that he had heard there was a
freshwater lake on it too, not large but large enough.”

Both girls
turned blissful faces in his direction.

“Oh, I do hope
we
do
stop there,” said Rilla. “Did he really say that
Charles? It would be too wonderful for words.”

“The weather’s
so warm we would hardly need any drying either,” added Shona, “and
we could wash the salt out of our underclothes. They’re getting all
hard and nasty.”

“I’m sleeping
naked,” Charles announced with an arch look at Rilla, who blushed.
She and Charles had had a light-hearted fling some months back and
Rilla knew that he still retained a certain amount of liking for
her company. Unfortunately their respective Lind did not share
their attraction.

Wlya and Zawlei
did not like each other and had been relieved when Charles and
Rilla’s relationship had come to an amicable close. Charles was now
‘walking out’ (no one knew where that quaint phrase had come from)
with Toinette, a Cadet who had joined the Vada about the same time
as Rilla and whose Lind, Wlei found Charles’s Wlya
very
much
to his liking.

Only when both
pair-partners found the other pair-partners to their liking could
the four think about forming a long-term relationship. It was
called saneln.

Julia and Alyei
had not been able to find a vadeln-pair to both their liking. Julia
was married to one Verro, who was not vadeln-paired. Alyei himself
was mated to a singleton female Lind from one of the home rtaths.
Julia and Verro did not have any children but Alyei and his
Vanmandya had had a number of ltsctas, three litters to date, who
shared the Susa’s quarters at Vada with Julia and Verro.

There were very
few extended ‘lind-human double ‘marriages’’ in the Vada. Rilla
knew of half a dozen, the Niaill, Taraya, Nadala, Teriyei saneln
sprang to mind immediately. It now looked as if the Charles, Wlya,
Toinette, Wlei grouping might become another.

She smiled at
Charles, “enough of your nonsense, you get off to Toinette. I’m
sure she’s waiting for you.”

He nodded and
left.

Shona looked at
Rilla with sympathy and Rilla shrugged. “I’ve got over him. I’d
rather live without a hundred Charles’s than be without my Zawlei.
You know how it is. He really doesn’t like Wlya, says she makes his
hackles rise.”

“Are you going
to change right through?” Shona asked.

“You bet I am,”
Rilla answered.

“Me too,”
agreed Shona as she began to divest herself of her wet
undergarments while Rilla hunted in her pack for a clean breast
band and knickers.

The second year
Cadets had cook-duty that evening and did their best to make a
reasonably appetising stew out of the kurka they had brought with
them. The end result was, Rilla decided as she munched her way
through her share, much nicer than she had expected it to be (this
was due to the fact that Weaponsmaster Jilmis, who knew campaign
food of old, had approached the novice cooks with the offer of the
use of a bag of spices he had had the foresight to bring with him
and which the relieved cooks had added to the bubbling cook pots).
Even Zawlei pronounced himself desirous of a second helping. He
made himself very popular amongst the first year cadets who had
been given the unpleasant duty of the washing up when he forgot his
manners enough to lick not one but two of the larger cook-pots
clean.

“Wonder how
they got the cooking stuff and everything else here,” mused Shona
as she wiped her plate clean with the last morsel of bread and
popped it into her mouth.

“Toinette told
me that a coastal lugger delivered it days ago, her cousin is a
part of its crew. The lugger has what she calls a shallow
draft.”

“It would’ve
needed to be,” observed Shona, “the water around most of these
islands are not exactly deep.”

“Which I for
one am extremely grateful. I can swim but I’m not that good. I’m
dreading tomorrow if what Fastia says is true.”

“Just hold on
to Zawlei’s harness,” advised Shona, “let him pull you along.”

: I will not
let you drown :
‘said’ Zawlei who was lying beside them taking
his ease and who had been sleepily listening to their
conversation.

: I might let
me! I know you won’t but I can’t stop worrying about it, at least a
bit :

: Don’t. Shush,
I am going to sleep now :

He made himself
comfortable in a wallow in the bracken and closed his eyes. Rilla
‘felt’ his mind begin to ease away from hers as he drifted off.

Shona’s Danei
did the same and the two girls sat for a while listening to their
gentle snores before seeking their sleepbags.

The sleepbags
were standard issue in the Vada and were very comfortable, being
padded on one side and with a pillow arrangement at the head end.
Both girls slept well. They woke refreshed and ready for the next
day of their journey.

Rilla
experienced a bad moment or two when they all traversed the widest
and deepest channel in the middle of the Island Chain but as he had
promised, Zawlei did not let her drown, paddling lindfully through
the current and emerging into the surf eddying round the rocks with
a triumphant bark. This channel had been identified as the most
dangerous and two rescue boats had been stationed there by the
Argyllian Navy to make sure that nolind was dragged out to sea by
the current.

In fact, none
of the cadet duos needed any help, the only one to experience
danger was the embarrassed Weaponsmaster who confessed later that
he couldn’t swim a stroke and had panicked when a large wave had
swept over his head and water had gone up his nostrils and down his
throat.

Instead of
laughing at him for this sign of weakness in the Weaponsmaster of
all people, the cadets looked at him with new respect for daring to
make the journey at all.

On the big
island they found the lake Jilmis had mentioned to Charles. That
evening they all splashed around and had fun in the clear water,
even Weaponsmaster Jilmis.

* * * * *

The staging
area Duke William Duchesne’s son had prepared for the Armies of the
North covered a huge area. It would have to be, reasoned Rilla
looking round, as she and Zawlei rode in with the other cadets.

The Lindars
would start to arrive soon and the remainder of the Vada. When you
added the Garda, the Militias and the Horse cavalry
and
the
ducal levies, it made for an very large army and that wasn’t
counting all the support troops such as the commissariat and the
medics.

She could see
tents being raised at one end of the encampment. The Lind did not
need any tents and the Vada carried their own individual bivouacs
which the Lind carried attached to their harnesses.

It was
Weaponsmaster Jilmis and his Lind Alshya who led the cadets in, his
eyes here, there and everywhere as he assessed the layout of the
camp, or dom as the Lind called it, working out where his cadets
would be best placed. Somewhere in the middle he decided, near to
the large command tents, on hand to take messages between the
commanders of the various segments of the army, or at least to
those who did not have a vadeln-pair attached to them yet. When
Susyc Julia and Alyei arrived the cadet pairs would be allocated to
each segment. It made good sense.

During the
Battle of the Alliance in AL 2, Susyc Jim Cranston and his Larya
had instigated the practice and it had worked well. At the Battle
of the Gorge in AL 167 Susycs Lynsey and Bernei had used the cadets
thus, as the communication links between the Lindars, the Ryzcks
and the human soldiery. It was a major part of their training as
cadets. All but the very newest and youngest of the cadet vadeln
were with the army and knew what would be expected of them.