Jeanne G'Fellers - No Sister of Mine by Jeanne G'Fellers (reading tree TXT) 📗

Cave?” He looked up in the same dumbfounded manner.

“A place to which Taelachs can flee in times of crisis.”

Trazar stopped what he was doing. “Why would your people need something like this with all your technology?”

“We’ve had them since the time of the Hunts.” LaRenna briefly explained the Kinship’s history to her brother. He listened with locked interest, gaining new understanding and respect of how survival had influenced Taelach culture.

“Amazing,” he muttered when she paused. “Autlach teachers never teach any older history.”

“They should.” LaRenna rasped. “Taelachs learn their own and Autlach history in detail.”

“Let’s get out of this wind.” Trazar helped her hobble into a dark interior chamber and propped her against the wall.

“There should be a light panel here somewhere.” LaRenna leaned against the damp stone as Trazar felt for the main panel. His hand grasped something that wiggled like a switch, so he jerked it down, flooding the chamber in a low, pleasing light.

“Got it. Now what are these?” He pointed to the corrosion-proof crates stacked in the room’s center.

“Stores. Open them. They should have everything we need.”

Trazar unlatched one of the heavy lids and shuffled through the box’s contents. “Want some dry clothes?”

“Please!” LaRenna appreciated the thought of being warm again. “I’m frozen through and through.”

Trazar gathered a knit tunic, leggings, and underclothing for her. “Will these do?”

“Perfect as long as they’re dry.” She managed to fumble out of her wet garments without assistance and slid into renewed comfort. Trazar dug back into the crate and pulled out two bedrolls before moving to the next one. It was full of charged lighting rods. Trazar stacked several near the rolls. A third crate provided extensive food stores that he set aside for later.

“Now if we had a little heat to burn off the dampness,” he mumbled, “we’d be set.”

LaRenna’s keen hearing picked up her brother’s lament. “Throw the orange breaker beside the one for the lights. Maybe the heating cells still have—” A violent cough brought her sliding toward the floor. Trazar caught her before she landed and carried her near the room’s large central vent, where he remained at her side, afraid to move until she assured him heat would help the cough.

The heating system sprang to life with a rusted clank. “There. That should do it.” Trazar returned to the crates. “Any of these contain medical supplies?”

“Try the small ones.”

He carried one of the smaller crates to where she sat. “Let me change and I’ll tend your foot.” He resumed his search in the clothing crate, complaining about the selection as he looked. “Skirts and leggings for lanky-limbed women. Don’t your people have something for those of lesser height?”

“Not really.” She smiled. “Not even children’s clothing fits me right. I have to have everything cut to fit. Roll a smaller pair of leggings at the waist and leg bottoms and hold them up with a belt. That’s what I do.”

Trazar did as she suggested and slid a heavy tunic over the top. The combination fit loosely once he’d rolled the sleeves. “Did I give you anything for your feet?”

“Nope.” She sniffled. “It would be appreciated as would some assistance with my boots.”

Two sets of warm footlings and bedroll in hand, Trazar joined her on the floor. He unrolled the bedding and helped her onto it. “Rest yourself while I warm our feet.” He slid the leather from her shriveled toes and rubbed the sole of her good foot.

“Oh, thank you.” LaRenna stretched into the warming massage. “I was beginning to think it as dead as the other one.”

“You still can’t feel it?” Trazar moved to the injured leg and removed the brace and bandages. The skin had turned an almost blue-black from toes to heel. Dark drainage coated the arch, crusting into rot-smelling clots on the bandages. “LaRenna,” he stammered. “This is in desperate need of a healer. It’s infected.”

LaRenna propped on her elbows to look for herself. “See what’s in the medical crates.” She stared at the dying flesh. The foot seemed so detached that the thought of removing it didn’t matter. It was useless anyway.

Trazar removed several small packs from the crate. “Your people aren’t much for pain medications, are they?”

“We rely on each other for relief. Phasing is faster and more effective than any drug.”

“I was afraid of that.”

“Why?” LaRenna began to pull her foot away. Trazar shook his head and gripped her leg just above the knee.

“No you don’t. The bottom is abscessing. If I don’t open it and clean out the infection, it’ll spread to your blood.” He slid forward until his own legs wrapped around her injured one, his thigh muscles tensing to immobilize the limb. LaRenna squirmed with discomfort as he doused the foot in antibiotic cleanser. “You feel that?”

“Cold.”

Trazar opened two surgical packs then washed his hands in the cleansing solution. “Lie back and be very, very still.”

LaRenna lay back, her eyes tight in anticipation. She focused on a relaxing meditation chant to ward away the pain, repeating it as Trazar opened the abscess with a small scalpel. The chant was lost, replaced by a low moan when he squeezed the infection into squares of sterile packing surrounding the abscess. A brief reprieve as he changed the packing allowed her to begin again, harder and faster than before. Trazar glanced sympathetically at her pain-riddled face while he swabbed underneath the skin with a medicine-soaked piece of packing. Eventually, she began launching obscenities at him, the words growing louder and harsher with her gasping breaths.

“Go ahead if it helps.” His grip became all the harder. “It has to be done.”

“Then get it over with!” She restrained her instinct to phase him limp. “Dear Mother take me so it’ll stop!”

“There.” He removed the last of the packing. “You’re not dead and there’s nothing left but to stitch it up.” He inserted a threaded wire just beneath her skin and loosely closed the wound, providing plenty of room for proper drainage, LaRenna continuing to mumble obscenities the entire time. “I don’t