"Soyoa apply more pressure" she did and the blood flow started to ebb from the three-inch gash Saraell was trying to close.
The soldier underneath her hands, lying prone on hard, uneven, tan-red rock watched the clouds through the heavy netting that served as a healer tent on the cliffs of the Tonduzi River.
Fighting had ceased for the middle of the day allowing time for the vultures to clear the battlefield, the healers to try and save in injured soldiers and the fighters a much-needed rest.
Finishing her last suture Saraell motioned for Soyoa a master-apprentice, ready for healer status, to move her hands away. Slathering aloe salve on she smiled at the young man who had fallen asleep due to sheer exhaustion, heat and probably the lullaby 'Aell had been humming.
The cut was deep but not enough to cause major damage, the sutures and salve would help immensely.
"'Aell?" Soyoa asked gently.
Pulling her eyes away from the sleeping soldier she nodded her thanks to the bowl of water Soyoa held out for her to wash her sticky hands in.
Saraell's stomach rumbled and glaring at it disgustedly she stood moving carefully between the rows of the less injured to the exit door flap.
The tents were set up in a loose semi-circle formation around individual fire pits that would help throw off some of the desert's night chill.
Four circles existed that were northeast of the main road through camp. Those were Healer Tents, big so they could accommodate lots of people and made of netting to let in a breeze and let out the smell.
At the top of the road was the Commander's Circle; on the west of the main road were the private tents for Healers when--or if-- they managed to sleep. South and still west were the fires surrounded by barrack tents or by private single person shelters on the ground. Healers and apprentices were posted at that end as well.
East of the barracks were three deep pits covered by tents made of the same netting that the Healer's tents were; thick enough so you couldn't see in and the sun couldn't burn the stuff inside but airy enough so that the stench didn't overwhelm you and knock you un-contious before you had time to pee.
North and far east of the road were the fifteen food tents, about ten to eat at or around and five unmoving ones that passed out food.
Hard south of that was a thick heavy grove of trees where those who died in Healer tents went. Their bodies were put into a deep, long trench. Heavy brush cleared from the main camp had been built up into a large wall, slowly coming down as more bodies were put in; each accompanied by an armful of the dry grasses and weeds.
Saraell hated the trench--and stench that rose from it--for it signified failure in her eyes.
Trudging to her tent she looked over the river and across the baking plains to where the fertile soil of the Aydaris River Valley lay. That was what these people were fighting over. The Aydaris didn't want to be ruled by anyone, were open to their own form of government and wanted the big one to leave them alone. It was the eastern side of the river against the western.
As a Healer, Saraell took no sides in the war she and her fellow healers had been asked to help in. Agreements had been signed by both sides recognizing that if a single healer or apprentice was harmed, in any way other than by the usual ways; needle pricks, cut hand from operating, simple things like that, that all Healers and apprentices would pull out.
Saraell shuddered hoping her friends that had been sent over to work on the Western side of the river would be okay.
The arrangement seemed stupid. Why heal people just to send them out again? Saraell often asked herself. What is the point? Because, it keeps the camps safe for those who are not fighting in the war, the laundresses and children who accompany father. Because it is your duty.
Arguments followed themselves in her head like that for hours when she was working on people. The old soldiers though, knew the benefits of having Healer folk in camp, and made sure the young fighters didn't take away their safety. "If a healer is about/ twill' keep the enemy out," was repeated often. Soyoa often confided she heard men muttering it as she passed them or looked them over in a recovery tent.
Saraell waved to Soyoa, "I'll speak with you tomorrow, you did well today." Soyoa nodded her thanks and called out before she entered her tent "get something to eat!"
"I will later!" called back 'Aell.
Soyoa who laughed at Saraell (knowing she would probably change then get sleep or do laundry or something, anything other than eat) nodded her head and ducked into the Master-apprentice tents to change into something fresh.
Soyoa's worries confirmed, 'Aell changed into a pair of loose fawn colored breeches and an off white shirt. Tossing a clean kerchief, clothesline, bar of soap, a leather fold with needles and thread, and her dirt and blood stained clothes all in a bucket, she started her trek to the base of the cliffs and the Tonduzi.
A few lewd looks were shot at her but that was about all that bothered her on the way down. Nodding to some of her friends who were coming up from the river, Saraell scrambled down the red-orange dusted limestone rocks and admired the beauty of midday.
Okay, so it was sweltering hot, so it was dry and left her throat parched and wishing for a bottle of water, but the sky was a beautiful, cloudless blue and the river flowed lazily below her. Some men fishing up stream nodded to her as she walked downstream, wishing solitude to think about the day and what she had done.
Mostly as a soon-to-be Junior-healer, one rank under Master-healer, Saraell got some nasty cases. The soldier-boy had been the least wounded person under her care; numerous others had to have limbs taken off, some she managed to save, one man had a gash down his right leg that reached the bone. Two men had horrible cuts in their head that almost left her asking what to do till a Junior-healer man stepped in, demonstrating on the first man, then leaving the second in her care as a screaming soldier with an open belly came in.
'Aell shuddered and fought the urge to retch. She waded into the shallows to cool herself and relax her aching muscles. It would take a couple hours to wash her aprons, tunics, kerchiefs, shirts, breeches and to bathe if she thought it was safe.
Checking the area, and making sure her clothes were in close reach, 'Aell slipped into the water, submerging herself and her long black hair. Scrubbing at her skin with the harsh, lye soap and her clean kerchief, that was supposed to be on her head, she managed to get fairly clean.
Dressing quickly she went over to her bucket and upending it, yanked out her clothesline from the pile of dirty clothes and strung it between two cottonwoods, hanging her wet kerchief on it.
She slapped her breast pocket to make sure her needles and thread were still there and yanked up a particularly grimy apron from her pile and attacked it with a vengeance.
Almost an hour later, working so hard on washing a shirt and getting a streak of blood off the waist she didn't notice when the soldier, carefully picking his way through the bush stopped to watch her.
Ducking carefully down when she stood to hang her wet things on a clothesline nearby, the man nearly fainted from relief when he saw the Healer aprons.
Forgetting stealth, he fell out of the bushes watching her whirl around, a fist-sized river rock in one hand, soap and shirt in the other.
He held up a bloody hand from a gouge wound in his side and saw gray eyes widen in shock and horror.
Her small body was at his side helping him into the shade almost immediately and was pealing off his ripped shirt carefully, murmuring softly.
The sharp pain in his side subsided into a dull ache, she stood and moved for her bucket, walking upstream a few yards and coming back just as quickly as she had come to his side to begin with.
She went to the clothesline pulling a pale blue kerchief off it, and carefully washing out his wound, started to hum. Something...familiar. A song, the song he sang to his Miri-bell...his daughter, yes that was it. The lullaby he had sung to Miri-bell when he took her fishing for the first time.
"Take me home, my silver friends
Guiding me so far
Directions point, do lead the way
Sway the mast, the ropes and spar.Stars that dot the heavens high
Sparkling in the night
Show the way by sea or land
Glowing ever bright."Dimly the soldier heard other voices; different from the calm one this Healer possessed. Ah, but there, his Healer's voice, firm, defiant, that's a good sign. Besides, what a healer saves is hard to kill. He did his best to murmur thanks, and drifted off to sleep.
'Aell gathered her clean clothes and folded them neatly inside the bucket she had just cleaned out, wrapped up her now used set of needles and tossed her now dry soap bar on top of it all. Two pairs of breeches and shirts, including the one she was wearing, still needed to be cleaned but she folded up the other pair and grimly put it on her to-do list. She watched other healers putting the wounded soldier onto a stretcher and hauling him up the cliff. She silently sent up a prayer that all would make it up the cliff fine.
"For pity's sake!" Called out River Samsong, a Junior-healer from the Temple in Aetus, capital of Alpes. "You work too much! Look at you, all rake thin and skin and bones! When did you last eat?" When Saraell couldn't find an excuse for her missing two meals in a row, River and another Junior-healer, Skyler Elans (also from Aetus), grabbed her by the arms and began hauling her towards the place the other healers and the soldiers had disappeared up the cliff moments before.
River snatched up Saraell's things and had Skyler gently push 'Aell up the rocks and back to her tent. River's eternally laughing blue eyes continued to giggle as she shoved the bucket and clean clothes at 'Aell and told her that under no circumstances were Skyler and she going to eat till 'Aell was in clean clothes and walking with them. Saraell sighed and nodded, changed quickly and stepped out into the glowing twilight.
The trio walked past the Healer's tents and the Commander's Circle. Past the grove of trees that served as a latrine and up to the guffawing and talking of soldiers, Healers, laundresses and an unusually somber Commander's table.
Skyler went ahead in line and tried to convince someone to let them go ahead but none relented so he, River and 'Aell stood waiting patiently. Listening to conversations, trying to lip-read what the Commanders were saying and eventually breaking into song.
One was about a dragon and a knight in the Lexa Mountains of Cereus, another about a fierce storm in Scorsana, one about Pirates being beached on Cove Island, part of the Cyaneus Island chain. Their throats were getting dry when they finished the song about Spizella and the siege on Beola, but they wrapped up with the song about Althea Odell and how she saved the kingdom of Sayorn before their meals were given to them and their voices gave out.
Bowing graciously to their audience (which was cheering, yelling and whistling), they took their meals to a table where some of Saraell's fellow Healers from Sayorn were sitting.
They joked and talked till a group of playfully indignant Healers complained that there hadn't been any song about Alpes or Cedrorum. So standing they sang about the great migration to the south and about a King in Alpes who spent years looking for a maiden to be Queen and found her as a childhood friend, then drifted into a song about the Mermaids on the island of Raste. They finished and dropped into their seats, quickly ate the rest of their food and had Saraell's fellow Sayornians banter at her till she went up for seconds.
'Aell was just thinking about doing some midnight rounds on some of her patients when River talked pale haired and eyed Elvina Shavoran and green eyed, raven haired Shida Livvy into escorting 'Aell back to her tent and making sure she went to sleep. All three drug themselves from the table; Saraell feeling weighed down by a thousand pounds in her stomach, and used the latrines on the way back to the tents. Shida was dragged away by someone, muttering something about eating and not wanting to look at her food for a second time. Elvina forced Saraell into her tent and warned her that if she saw a single light, she would tell River on her and 'Aell would be forced to take a day off. Saraell backed down from the daring light in Elvina's eyes and nodded somberly, trying to think of some way to get her sewing done without Elvina knowing.
In the end, Saraell lay awake though, thinking of home and wondering if her family was all right. How her brother was doing, eventually drifting back to the soldier and his mumbling, she'd need find him tomorrow…and drifted off to sleep.
*******
It was almost dawn with pearly gray light over the horizon when 'Aell woke next. She lay awake a few moments before she crawled out of bed and put on a fresh, clean pair of clothes.
She pulled on a cream colored shirt and her customary brownish breeches, her cloth shoes and her apron were each in need of repairs she thought sourly as she went through her pile of folded clothes, looking for her Healer's pouch.
She found it at the foot of her bed underneath her writing kit, that reminded her, she ought write to her mother about her goings on and reassure her that all the Healers were safe.
'Aell yanked on her little leather shoes and rolled up her mattress and blanket. She went north to the food tents knowing that River would eat her if she didn't get breakfast.
She ate light; knowing what the smell of blood could do to her stomach and went to do checkups on some of her patients. Either redressing wounds or releasing the soldiers to another day's slaughter.
She had finished her third person when Shida's brilliant green eyes appeared next to her. The Junior-healer wasted no time and immediately hauled her towards a man with pale white-blonde hair. Saraell was about to protest he wasn't her patient till she caught sight of his eyes. Brown met her gray and she sighed in relief as she realized her river-patient was alive.
She walked to his side, knelt and smiled. "Well river-man, how fare thee?" He smiled weakly back and said in a raspy dry voice that made her motion for water, "I am well river-healer, you are truly a blessing."
'Aell smiled, "anything to help you sir."
"Indeed, Healer, you have." An apprentice appeared with a bowl of water and Shida helped the man to sit up and drink. He sighed and lay back after he was finished, then stared at Saraell for a moment.
"We of the Aydaris River Valley will negotiate, I am going to send word for my people to pull back."
'Aell stared, mouth open for a moment before finding her voice, "you…your not--" she swallowed. "You're not a soldier."
The man laughed softly then winced as the wounds in his sides protested. He sighed and settled back onto his woven grass palate.
"I am no soldier," he spoke softly. "I am the one who wants Aydaris Valley independent."
Saraell stared, "you are the…" she struggled for the words and the name. "The leader O'lin, aren't you?" The man smiled softly and nodded.
"And you promise you'll negotiate?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
The man, O'lin, took his time thinking. "I see your injured and hear their prayers, our valley will no longer be the lovely, fertile land we know and love of it if it is littered with the dead. In the end, negotiations will come." He sighed softly, "my regret is that it has taken this long to see the truth. Many have perished."
His brown eyes met Saraell's; "you sang the lullaby my Miri loves to hear. I couldn't tarnish her song by warring any further."
The Captains moved into the tent, silver and gold swords on their hips, boots dusty, all looking tired and hot.
One man spoke: "your life is spared O'lin of Aydaris. Emperor Shahar is sending his people to speak with you."
'Aell turned to see her river-patient nodding calmly and respectfully. "My thanks to Emperor Shahar," he said formally. Though it sounded slightly impudent to her Northern ears, she realized, he was actually thanking him. Life or death was the Emperor's wish, here in the Southern.
"You are to wait at the Commander's Circle--in a tent--" he amended when he saw Shida's death glare at the thought that O'lin wait in the sun. "--for his messengers to arrive." Again O'lin nodded calmly and a Junior-healer and a Master-Apprentice helped the leader out of the tent and into the sunlight.
*******
The treaty with the Aydaris Valley was signed, giving it more freedom from the Emperor's rule.
Saraell saw O'lin twice more, once when he came to thank her for saving him and secondly when the bodies taken in battle were set aflame.
A horrible stench filled the air as the rest of the brush-wall was knocked into the deep pit. Heavy clouds of smoke, thick and black rose into the air.
The grimmest of the soldiers wept as they watched their comrade's ashes billowing up, as if shrouded in death itself, mixing with a second, horrible black billow. Each reaching towards each other, then climbing upward, into the brilliant, cloudless blue sky.