“Chele can hardly walk, butterfly.”
“She walks better during the day. When you’re not around, she leaves the teepee.”
Oh’na’s statement, and the charged silence that followed, gave Addie a pause. A huge one.
“Chele?” Addie called out. “Did you go out by yourself?”
Covers rustled as Chele pulled them tighter over her body. “I may have had to use the bushes. You’re out and about too much, not here to help old Chele at all. What do you want me to do, pile a load on my pallet?” She sounded extremely irritated.
“But I thought you couldn't stand up!”
“Yes, well, some days it’s a little better. Others it’s worse. I can’t tell which day it’s going to be. I’m tired today. Don’t bother me with your useless talk.” She gave an exaggerated yawn and turned her back on them all.
When Addie glanced at Melmie, the girl’s eyes looked back, sad and knowing.
Quietly, Addie finished gathering her medical supplies.
“Sav is dead,” Melmie stated.
Poised to leave, Addie lowered next to her. “I’m afraid she is.”
Melmie nodded. “If my pawi didn’t steal her mate, she would be alive.” There was a wealth of guilt in Melmie’s words, and resignation.
“Sav chose to go. Your pawi may have played a role in their quarrel, but no one pushed Sav away. She made a bad choice. We all make them sometimes.”
“I feel so wretched, Addie. I feel like pawi killed Sav.”
“No, Melmie. No.” She opened her arms and Melmie fell into her embrace, hugging her tightly. It lasted a few seconds, and then she let go.
“You need to go back to the wounded warriors.” Melmie nudged her gently toward the door.
Addie’s thoughts on her short walk across the settlement were troubled. The decimated tribe. Sav. And Chele.
Chele moved around the teepee when Addie was out. Chele went outside. Yet to Addie, she pretended to be an invalid, barely able to shuffle, assisted, to the bushes to answer nature calls.
That bit of information lodged itself in Addie’s brain like a crowbar in a spinning wheel. She analyzed this new fact, critically considered it at length, forcing herself to remain calm, not overreact. But it was hard to not feel betrayed.
She was afraid that Chele’s game of pretend had something to do with Qalae, and with them being watched, allegedly, by Illied.
She returned to the injured warriors and knelt next to their pallets. “I brought you the moss as I promised.” A large Hicar bug was noisily flying around, attracted by the smell of blood. Picking up a rock, Addie deftly disposed of it.
“We’re grateful,” Ell murmured but made no move to take the moss. His eyes were closed. His hand stubbornly covered the hole in his stomach.
Addie inspected the unconscious man from where she sat.
“Your warrior Egis has not awakened,” she commented.
“He got thrown to the ground during the Wrennlin attack, and hit his head,” the healthy one explained. “It knocked him out for a spell. And later, a marauder hit him with a rock. That’s two knocks on the same head. He’s not made sense ever since.”
“I would like to take a look at his eyes, warrior.” Slowly, Addie moved closer, keeping the healthy big For in her sights. His eyes, in return, roamed over her human form.
“You’re strange,” he said under his breath.
Lifting the still man’s eyelids, Addie examined the double-irised orbs. The red areas of the eye were almost covered up by the relaxed green rings, a clear abnormality. The eyes were fixed, and the man didn’t respond to the touch. She listened to his breathing - shallow and slow, also a bad sign.
All signs pointed to a severe concussion. His coma-like condition worried her. This wasn’t something she could apply herbs to.
“Your friend is very sick.”
