The Burning Ground

5. Hatching

The child’s eyes were open and aware, watching Shadith as she unbuckled the straps that bound her and her anya into the seat. When Shadith reached under her to lift her from Thann’s lap, she was stiff and afraid at first, then that fear suddenly vanished and she relaxed, smiling and sleepy.

Shadith shook her head and settled the child on the blanket she’d spread beside the skip.

Thann didn’t move through all this; xe sat hunched over, eyes squeezed shut. Shadith touched xe’s cold, clammy skin, then quickly got xe off the seat and onto the blanket beside Isaho. She snapped the quilt out, transferred xe onto that, and got out the medkit.

As she knelt beside the anya, she looked over her shoulder at Isaho. “What’s wrong? Do you know?”

The femlit stared at her a moment, then she spoke with an odd and troubling calmness. “Xe’s in egg. I think the babbit hatched when we were flying. Sometimes hatchlings use their eggteeth to bite before they start sucking. Thann and Main talked about it when they didn’t know I was listening. They said I did, bite, I mean, but it was just skin I got: Sometimes they bite the wrong place, and there’s lots of blood.”

“Oh, shays! Can I take the babbit out of the pouch? Will it drown if I don’t?”

Isaho shrugged. “Main and Thann, they didn’t talk much about that.”

Thann’s eyes opened to crusted slits. Xe’s hands moved. +Please… my babbit… please+ A hand moved down xe’s body, pressed against the swollen pouch, and a gout of blood came rushing through the cloth of xe’s trousers.

“Isaho, come help me. Quick.” Shadith began working on the ties to the anya’s trousers, the sodden cloth resisting her fingers. With an impatient exclamation, she cut the tie with her belt knife, and with Isaho’s help, rolled the trousers away from the pouch.

“Your hand is smaller than mine, Isaho.” Shadith spoke quickly, reached out, caught hold of the femlit’s wrist. “See if you can catch the hatchling and get it out of there.” Isaho tried to draw back, the smell of fear sharp in her, so Shadith put more urgency in her voice. “I have to stop the bleeding, but I don’t dare while the babbit’s in pouch.”

Shaking, eyes squeezed almost shut, Isaho forced a hand through the pulsing sphincter of the pouch. She squeaked suddenly, snatched her hand back, a dark wormlike thing attached to it, teeth sunk in the flesh of her smallest finger; it was slightly larger than her hand, with eye bulges sealed shut and a stubby tail. Silent and determined, Isaho cuddled the anyalit against her chest and squatted, watching as Shadith worked over Thann.

“Good femlit,” Shadith said. She drew on a glove, worked her hand into the pouch, watching a readout as the sensors on the fingertips sent data back. “With a little luck, we’ll… ah, got you. Looks like it isn’t as bad as I thought, Isaho. It’s only a nick in a small vein. It’s been leaking quite a while, that’s all. I wish… ah, lie still, Thann. This may hurt a bit. I’m going to cauterize the wound, and I don’t think I’d better give you any drugs, not if you’re going to be feeding the baby. Let’s see, slide the tube in… right, right… good! In position. Stay as still as you can. Wait, just a moment. Isaho, there’s a bit of wood beside you… tight, that one… wipe it off… yes, that’s good… now, set it in your anya’s mouth so xe can bite down on it… yes, that’s right… get a good grip, Thann… bite down! Now! Good… I think… yes, that got it. Now a little blind gluing… what do you think about that, hm? Glued together like a nice little cabinet. Now we suck the blood out, get things neat and tidy in the nursery… now comes the really bad part, you’re going to have to eat a tube of hipro every hour till you’ve replaced that blood and gotten your strength back. Isaho, slip the babbit back home and I’ll have a look at that bite.”

Isaho watched as Shadith painted antiseptic over the wound and sprayed it with faux skin. Her eyes opened wider as Shadith set the pharmacopoeia’s spray nozzle against the inside of her elbow and touched the sensor. “Oh! That tickles.”

“What it does is keep you from getting infection in the bite.”

“Oh.” She smoothed her finger across the faux skin. “Is this what you put inside Thanny?”

“No. That was something else. Does the same job, though. How are you feeling otherwise?”

Isaho’s eyes went suddenly blank, then she looked away, her gaze shifting rapidly from point to point until she’d forced herself to forget the question. Only then did she turn back and smile at Shadith. “We’re going to Linojin. Mam and Baba and my brother Keleen, they’re waiting for us there.” Her eyes flickered again, then her smile brightened like a sheet of ice concealing the turmoil in an undertow. “Did God send you to take us to Linojin?”

“I wouldn’t know about that, Isaho. Do you think you could go to sleep for a while? We’ll be traveling all night again.”

She sensed a sudden wild burst of fear in the child, but Isaho’s smile didn’t falter. The femlit put out a hand, touched her knee. “Will you be sleeping, too, Messenger of God?”

“No, I have to see that Thann eats and I’ll be keeping watch for strangers.”

“Then I can sleep.”

Shadith chuckled as Thann made a face when xe saw the tube she was holding. “I’ve run some water through the filtra and you can have a nice cup of hot tea once you get this down.”

+Isaho?+

“Sleeping. In the beginning she woke up several times an hour to make sure I was still there watching, but she’s been sleeping really well since noon. Not like before, just good healthy sleep. There. That’s over for now. And here’s your tea. Hang onto the mug, let me lift you up. There. You can rest your head and shoulders on my knee.”

When Thann was finished, Shadith took the mug back and set it on the ground beside her. “Want more? No? Feeling like talking a while?”

+Yes. I owe you my life. Ask what you want.+

“Well, first of all, when you’re in Linojin, I’d be grateful if you forget how you got there. Don’t mention me, not even a hint of what I look like. Or anything about flying. Isaho told me her mother and father and brother are there. I doubt you can keep her from talking to them, so see if you can get them to keep quiet, too.”

Thann sighed. +Isaho won’t say anything to them, Shadow. They’re dead. All of them. Her brother five years ago, her Mam and Baba just before we left Khokuhl. She saw them dead, but she won’t let herself remember that.+

“Then why…?”

+Because five times she started out to walk to Linojin by herself, twice she was nearly killed. I thought at least we’d be away from the war and the Anyas of Mercy have their hospital there and they know about such hurts to the soul, they might be able to heal her and bring her back to peace with God.+ Thann sighed. +And there was no place for us in Khokuhl. My clan was never big and they’re mostly dead. Bazekiyl and Mandall, those were my bondmates, their cousins had their own families to care for. So there wasn’t much choice about what to do.+

“I see. How’s the babbit?”

+Doing well. Xe’s a hungry and lively little one. I was afraid… not trusting God’s providence enough. But One has forgiven my weakness and blessed me.+

“Hm. Good to hear. We’ll reach the mountains above Linojin by daybreak tomorrow. I’ll set you down beside the Pilgrim Road. Will you be strong enough to walk the last stretch, or do you want to lay up for a day and start the next morning?”

+That paste you’ve been feeding me is amazing. A little sleep and I can run the rest of the way.+ Xe’s hands made a smile.

“Then you’d best get that sleep.’ Shadith eased the anya’s head down, thrust her arms under xe, and lifted xe quilt and all. “I’ll tuck you in beside your daughter.” She chuckled. “You can snore up a partsong together.”