35. HYRAN
35
HYRAN
Hyran brought the Darkling healer to Lowvalley, the town in which he’d forged unexpected friendships over time. He stopped outside the Old House, and whether it was imagined or real, he thought he could smell the blood on the air, even from outside.
“So very fast,” the Darkling said when Hyran let him off. He wasn’t the least bit fazed by the run. “Useful.” He patted Hyran’s shoulder before hurrying inside without having to be told. Hyran followed.
Taros was bandaging a leg wound but looked up. “You left Col there?”
Hyran nodded. His heart was squeezing with something that wasn’t quite pain. Rather it was longing, but physical, the soothing touch just a brief run away.
Anandas clapped his hands. “We must sort. Speedling, come here.”
Hyran did and was handed the healer’s bag after he put his bow and arrows away to the side.
“We don’t know you,” Sinex said. His clothes and hands were stained, red and brown.
Anandas looked him over. “I am Anandas, son of winter kings, and a healer.” He pulled a small satchel from his bag, opened it, and took out something white that looked like a piece of candy. “Eat this. Put it under your tongue, let it dissolve. Tell me when it has.”
Sinex nodded, glad to be given clear instructions. He took the candy and put it in his mouth. Anandas gave one to Li as well, the mechanic’s daughter too, then went about sorting his patients and administering his Darkling medicine. Before too long, Hyran put the healer’s bag on a table and carried out corpses.
It was when he had a girl in her twenties in his arms, cooling with death, that he realized he’d been wrong to miss Col. It’s better that he isn’t here. I don’t want him to see this. No one in their right mind would want their Conduit to see this.
The work was bleak, and everyone was glad to have Anandas tell them what to do, at least that’s what it felt like to Hyran. Sinex was sent to wash his hands before bringing everyone water to drink and spoon feeding it to those who were healing, those who were dying. Taros handed Anandas things from his bag and wrapped burns and cuts.
They didn’t rest for a long time.
The sky had turned the color of the dead.
“There’s a dead boy in the fields,” Hyran said.
He stood next to the healer. The light was almost gone, sunset just around the corner, and the illumination in the Old House wasn’t very bright, was too bright, shining a light on the suffering within. The town had always been small, but now there were five people on the tables in the Old House, still battling for their lives, and the three children, all of them sitting with their backs against the wall next to the door, their eyes unfocused.
Li, Sinex, and the mechanic’s daughter were the only ones who had gone through this massacre unscathed. Or unscathed on the outside at least, Hyran thought, recalling what the town had looked like when he’d first come here, the people suspicious, but reasonable. Kind, once he’d gotten to know them. The younger ones so curious about his life behind city walls.
“I said, will you bring him, ma?”
The healer was squeezing Hyran’s shoulder, his yellow eyes sharp.
“Who?”
“The dead boy in the field.”
Hyran nodded. “Yes. Of course. His name’s Tomo.”
Anandas nodded. “Once he is with the others, we have to ask for succor and bring the children to Thistletown.”
Hyran blinked. “What now?”
Anandas pointed at the door. “First, the boy. Bring him to where the others rest.”
Hyran nodded and walked out of the house just as Taros came in. He’d found food somewhere, squatted by the three survivors to get them to drink and eat. I should have thought of that.
The run to the field was short. Tomo was where Hyran had first found him, dull, all the life gone out of him in rivers of red. He’d been around nineteen or twenty, intelligent. He’d listened to Hyran talk about Ferrea and asked one question after another.
“You mean you have bots that do things for you, clean and make food, ma? There are rules for how many children you’re allowed to have unless you have a power, ma?”
It was those bright eyes, brown, always wide open and waiting to see what life held for him that Hyran couldn’t get out of his head, the way Tomo had smiled when Hyran had gifted him those stupid shoes.
Hyran sagged to his knees, strength going out of his legs, something that never happened, not to him, not when he could run or move. The field, sheltered between the trees, was quiet but for insects, the earthy smell of the mushroom cultures hanging in the air and barely covering that other stench. Death, before it was the right time for it.
Hyran didn’t cry, or he thought he didn’t. “I think I should drink something. Don’t think I did. Kinetomancers always should drink plenty of water.”
Tomo did not respond nor stir from where he’d fallen. Hyran pulled out his screen. There was no word there from Col, which probably meant everything was fine, but all of a sudden, that didn’t matter, and Hyran needed to hear that voice. He needed his Conduit, not here, not here of all the places, but knowing he was well. Hyran made the call, and it took a while to connect, given they were out here.
“Hyran? Are you on your way back? How are…what’s the status out there?”
Hyran let out a breath. “Col, sweet, you’re fine?”
He didn’t respond right away. It had Hyran worried all over again.
“Of course I’m fine. We’re having even more tea. Rose wants to make dinner so it’s ready when you get back. He hates the idea of letting us stay here, but I think Avan made some sort of point and told him to suck it up.”
Hyran’s jaw dropped, and he looked at the screen to make sure he wasn’t hallucinating. I should really hydrate. “Avan? Avan, Wilan’s first Conduit?” Then it clicked. “Shit, Col, I’m running there now.”
“No! Stop.” Hyran froze, moved the screen closer to his ear again. “This isn’t a distress code. The other H—Darkling here is called Avan. It’s a coincidence, nothing else.”
Hyran sighed and got back to his feet. “Okay.”
“Uh, Rose wants to know when you’ll be back. Is Anandas there? Can you let them talk for a moment?”
Hyran shook his head. “No. I’m at the field. I…I’m getting Tomo. He said something about succor. Anandas I mean. I can call again when we’re…when I…”
“It’s okay. You’re doing so well, Hyran. Do something for me right now, yes?”
“Anything.”
“You have an emergency dose of channeling medication on you. A little metallic box with a red circle on it. Where is it?”
“Pants pocket, why?”
“Get it out and take it. It has a double dose. I want you to take only one for now.”
“But—”
“I’m your Conduit. You trust me. Yes?”
“Of course.”
“Get the box out of your pocket and tell me when you have it.”
Hyran sighed but did as Col said. “I have it. Have it open too. I don’t need these, and I hate them. They taste like soap.”
“I know. Take one. If you do, I’ll kiss you as a reward the moment you get back.”
That was bone-shakingly appealing, and without thinking too much about it, Hyran put one of the two doses into his mouth. The emergency doses came in jelly form, which made them even worse in Hyran’s opinion. He didn’t bother chewing, just swallowed.
“There, done. I’ll move Tomo now.”
“Yes, do that. And call once you’re back where Anandas is.”
Hyran ended the call, then looked down at Tomo.
“You wanted to run with me, you said.” He bit his lip until it hurt, until he could taste blood. “I’m sorry I never took you. I should have.”
He picked up the dead boy, stiff, a shell. For once, everything blurred while he ran. Hyran was almost surprised to see the illumination turned up in brightness in the Old House, those lamps as they called them.
He sped past, put Tomo with the others. Where they lay, it was dark, but Hyran’s eyesight in low light was above average. With his last burden released, Hyran walked back to the house at normal speed.
Taros had managed to get the kids to sit out front on benches he had moved there, and while neither of them looked as if they were really aware of what they were doing, they were all chewing food.
Taros looked up from the bench when Hyran grabbed the water pitcher and poured himself a glass.
“Hyran, are you okay?”
“No.”
“Need rest?”
“No. I need to—Anandas. Do you have a moment? Ma?” Hyran pulled out his screen and placed the call even as he crossed the threshold. Inside the house, the stench of blood hung like a veil.
“What, ma?”
“Col wants you to talk to Rose. Col? I’m back. I have Anandas here.”
“Good. I’m setting it to speaker on our end.”
Hyran did the same. He fumbled a little, his fingers mildly shaking.
“Anandas?” Rose’s voice rang loudly in the Old House.
“I’m here. Not yet done. It is good there is a speedling.”
Rose shifted into the Hound tongue, and it went back and forth like that for a few beats.
“What’s happening?” Col finally asked.
“You city dwellers, always bring trouble, that’s what,” Rose said and groaned. “Anandas says there are a few that will need more healing. He says there are young people who need succor and safety, is that right, ma?”
“They’re…yes, town leader’s daughter, two young apprentices. Taros is keeping an eye on them.”
“This is not a place for them,” Anandas said. “And they”—He indicated the people he was seeing to still—”will need more than I can give here. I would have to stay for weeks or longer, and that I cannot do. But there are Darklings nearby. They can offer the sick succor.”
Li stumbled back into the house. “You’re leaving us, ma?”
Anandas shook his head. “No, child. We are taking you to where you will be safe.”
“Thistletown,” Rose said.
Li lifted her chin. “We don’t know where that is. We live here. This is our home.”
“Li,” Hyran began, but Anandas motioned him to be quiet.
“This is a home no more,” the Hound said. “I would take you to my people, but you do not speak the language at all, and those of the water lands don’t love strangers. But they will help in this instance. They will see your sick brought back to you once the healing is done.”
Col spoke up next, his voice composed and clear over the screen. “I understand correctly that the plan is Hyran takes you to those Darklings, Anandas, and then he brings everyone back here for the night?”
“I said you are a good leader. Yes, I will not need much talking with my people. Long enough for a speedling to move the young, then return another healer and helpers here for the night. They will want to move the sick in the morning.”
“Or I could move them?” Hyran asked.
But Anandas shook his head. “They cannot travel that way. They are too fragile.”
“But,” Li said, the rest of her objections dying to nothing on her tongue.
She doesn’t know what to say or do. I sympathize. “Follow my words, Li. My Conduit trusts Anandas, and I know he saved people from the cities without hesitation.” On the other end of the connection, someone snorted. “He’ll help you, and if he thinks this is best, it’ll be fine.”
She nodded. “I suppose it doesn’t really matter one way or another. My family and friends are dead, and eight people don’t need a leader’s daughter to speak for them.”
“Then it’s an agreement,” Col said. “Start moving. It’s already pretty dark out there.”
“We move,” Anandas said.
He and Rose exchanged something in the Houndish tongue, and Hyran ended the call. Knowing what to do next gave him a goal, and once he’d reached that, he’d get to hold Col all through the night. It was all he wanted, all that mattered.