It was time the queen figured out what she wanted to do.
Chapter 30
Addie slept deeply through the night and woke up when strong hands grabbed her body and carried her out of her teepee to throw on the hard ground. She landed awkwardly on her side, her arm twisting under her.
“What in effing hell is going on?” She raised her eyes to look around, blinking from the light. She lay in front of the pole with Oh’nil tied to it. Yellow robes swished over her. The chief was here too, and Qalae, and Vuskas who had dragged her out. A couple of sentries loomed in the background.
“The strange woman speaks her strange language! She may be cursing us, and we don’t know. Shush, creature!” Chemmusaayl pointed a stick he was holding at her.
The chief frowned ominously.
Addie kept her mouth shut.
“She did it!” Chemmusaayl’s voice rang with triumph.
Addie looked frantically around. “Did what?”
“Interfered with this warrior’s punishment!” he flung his arm in the direction of Oh’nil.
Looking closely, Addie discovered that Oh’nil’s wounds were no longer bleeding. They were taped over with leaves held in place by sticky patches of a spiderweb-like material that. Very neat technique, actually. She wished she’d known about this method sooner.
The stick prodded her painfully in the thigh.
“Answer!” the High Counselor barked.
“I didn’t do it.”
The High Counselor turned to Chief Net’ok. “She lies.”
“No, I’m not lying! I didn’t come near Oh’nil.” She glanced at Zoark’s brother in anguish, knowing he couldn't speak on her behalf even if he wanted to, with the rawhide tied across his mouth, but he wasn’t looking back at her. Instead, his liquid, burning eyes were trained on the queen, and anger poured out of his tortured gaze. He was mad. At Qalae. And Qalae was pretending very hard not to notice it.
“The strange woman violates the rules of our people and lies about her actions!” The High Counselor intoned in a voice that was too loud for just the chief and Vuskas. While he may have been addressing the two of them, he made sure others heard what he was saying.
“I didn’t treat Oh’nil’s wounds!” Addie also spoke loud enough for everyone to hear.
“Then who did?” asked Vuskas.
“I don’t know!”
Chemmusaayl hit her with his stick again, this time on the back, and it shot shocks through her body where it connected with her vertebrae. Addie pressed her lips together to stifle a whimper and scooted away from Chemmusaayl.
Suddenly, Oh’na was kneeling next to Addie, hugging her. “She slept at home all night. Please, High Counselor, let her go.”
“Shoo, pest. Where is your guardian, that old woman? Someone, take that girl away. Qalae!”
Subdued, Qalae approached Oh’na with uncertainty. Leaning over, she had to unclasp the girl’s reaching hands from Addie’s body and wrestle Oh’na away, wincing all the while from her loud wails. Oh’na’s cries broke Addie’s heart.
“This woman is ahealer,” Chemmusaayl pointed at Addie with the stick like there was ever any doubt who he was talking about. “We don’t need no healers, but we allowed her to stay. And what did she do to thank us for our hospitality? She continues to use her unnatural healing skill in secret!”
Addie noticed how Oma, one of the recipients of the unnatural healing skills, dropped her eyes. If anyone should hide their eyes in shame, it should be that bitch Qalae.
The stick extended toward her again, and Addie shrunk back.
“She has outlived our hospitality.”
If Chemmusaayl expected a murmur of agreement to follow his announcement, his expectation fell flat. There was silence. It echoed around the area for several uncomfortably long seconds before a quiet low voice said, “I did it.”
Zoark.
