Chapter 31
Afiona knelt next to one 'dead' figure. "A heart shot, sorry, you're dead."
The young man that had just been informed of his early demise playfully clutched his heart and parodied his death throws. Afiona laughed and stood.
Looking around she saw three bodies waving, trying to catch someone's attention.
"Alsin, there are three fallen cavalry soldiers out there, what are you going to do?" Afiona called to one of the young Healers.
The younger woman, one of the day supervisors, snapped orders to four of the other healers who immediately dashed out to fetch the injured.
The 'cavalry' was actually Heralds and Companions, horses trained for battle could cause more damage than intended. Afiona straightened and sent the 'dead' soldier to the rear where he would face his senior officers.
At the next one she studied the slash mark on his right arm. "I hope you're left handed because you left your arm on the battlefield." She teased and moved on.
"Think it'll get me out of chores?" He asked hopefully.
Afiona chuckled. The majority were actually treating this exercise more as a game but the general mood of the camp was much improved from when she arrived.
A Companion with a black slash across her chest waited sheepishly for her turn.
"Where's your Herald?" Afiona asked, looking around for a white clad body.
She tossed her head at the direction of the battlefield.
"Still fighting? Well, you're alive but aren't going to far I'm afraid." Afiona said lightly. "But now you know to watch out for those foot soldiers."
The mare hung her head sheepishly and stayed put.
The next woman was sitting up, waiting impatiently to be judged dead or alive. It took Afiona a few seconds to find her wound.
"Finally, a back injury. You aren't walking away from this one. You can't move from the waist down." Afiona whistled for the same young woman who had asked about the back injuries. "This one's yours."
"What about me healer? Will I survive?" A Herald asked teasingly.
She ignored his flirting as she turned his chin so she could see the dark smudge on his cheek. "You'll survive, this isn't bad enough to take you off the field. Get back out there."
"Yes Healer." He rolled easily to his feet and jogged easily back to the fray.
Afiona looked around for the next victim. Patients were being bandaged and carted off by the Healers with good speed and none of her Healers had run screaming for Haven yet. "Any real wounded?" She hollered. No one answered.
"I think we better call an end to this. It's getting hot." The Lord Martial commented from behind her.
Afiona nodded. "I think we have enough wounded to practice on." She signaled to Mia to sound the horn, calling a halt to the fighting. Almost immediately the dull clang of pot metals blades ceased.
"The survivors will have a feast tonight, the wounded I am leaving in your tender care." The Lord Martial said with a teasing bow. "I'll be leaving in the morning with roughly half the men so don't keep them up all night."
"I won't." Afiona promised. "Other than a few sprains I believe everything went well, and those I will have back on their feet in time for dawn maneuvers or marching or whatever else you lot think up. By the end of the week we should be ready for a nice little triage practice."
The survivors trailed off to wash off leaving the dead to do all the daily chores and the wounded to get patched up.
Afiona waited until the last of the wounded was carried from the field before she headed to the Healer tents. All the tents had wounded in them, one just of Companions. She left the Companions in the care of Tika and the two other girls she had assigned to them. She expected to find chaos in the main two tents but found Shain had taken control as she hoped ordering the others about with authority. Afiona stayed quite as she watched Shain sort the patients by those who could wait and those who could not.
A few looked to her to confirm his orders but she just gestured for them to continue. A girl who was perhaps sixteen at best hurried to her. "Is it over?"
"Yes, that's the last of them."
"Good, we're out of beds." She sighed.
"Well, we have a few bare spots between the beds." Afiona pointed out, hoping the girl would get the hint and vacate some beds.
"Right." She said slowly then hurried off. Afiona wasn't surprised to see a few of the less injured ousted from their cots to sit between them until the healers had time for them.
Afiona collected some scarves from a pile she had set aside and walked down the rows placing scarves on the faces on those who would have bled out by now. She was generous about the time given to them so there was a minimal of 'deaths'.
"Why's he dead?" One healer demanded. "He's just got a wounded arm."
"This slash on his thigh would have caused him to bleed out quickly. Now get moving. Argue later, work now." Afiona ordered.
He scowled but obeyed.
Several candlemarks later she dismissed the wounded to their chores and called all the healers into the dining tent.
"You did well as a rule." Afiona said as they settled down. "I was rather surprised not to see a few of our own wounded."
"But, we're healers?" Someone protested tiredly. "Why would we be where the fighting is?"
Afiona decided to ignore the question and turned to a young woman that had exceeded her expectations. "Olgi, I noticed you going out to haul back some of the wounded, I was impressed. Would you do the same in a real battle?" Afiona asked.
"Of course. No sense sitting an' waitin' for them ta come ta us." Olgi, a sensible farm girl, said with a shrug.
"Can you ride?" Afiona asked.
"Course I can. Me father said I was quite good." She said uncomfortably.
"Good. You are to report to the stables in the morning. I've trained Whisper, my horse, to help retrieve wounded and I see no reason why you can't do the same to another horse." Afiona asked. "I have already gotten approval for this and a group of six horses from the Ashkevron herds are assigned to us. Anyone else interested in trying can report to the stables tomorrow morning, if you have a shift make certain you have someone to cover for you. You will probably go to the front sooner than the others, keep that in mind.
"I've made notes but I'd like to discuss them with each of you individually so I can also discuss what your observations are. If I pull you aside in the next few days, don't be surprised. Now, I hope everyone is hungry." Afiona said with a grin. "Because I do believe the cooks have a feast for us as well."
This was obviously the most welcome part of her entire speech. As everyone filed over to fill his or her plates Afiona left the tent. She didn't want to leave the Healers tent untended.
As always the patients were fed first so they could sleep early if they wish.
"You know you are a hard woman to track down?" Tashir teased as he entered the tent.
"Tashir. No one told me you were here already. I thought you were going to be tied up on the front for a few more weeks. Nothing's wrong, right?" Afiona asked praying he wasn't here to take any of the raw recruits south.
""I'm here to deliver messages, then we're staying so that Leshya and Nico can work together." Tashir explained. "I figured you'd want this immediately." He offered her a dingy, creased letter. "It was nearly sent to Haven."
Afiona snatched the letter from his hand and read the address. "Lance. I haven't had time to go and talk to him in weeks." She tucked the letter in a pocket if her robes. "Did you talk to him?"
Tashir laughed at her barely veiled eagerness to hear anything about Lance. "I spoke to him. Informed him that I will not tolerate anyone hurting my cousin and he informed me he already had that lecture from Medren."
"Before he was distracted by Mia, Medren tracked down Lance and warned him off." Afiona said with a reminiscent smile. "Nico was barely a week old then."
"What are you going to do when he gets here?" Tashir asked.
"Gets here he's coming here?" Afiona was torn between excitement and panic, excitement won. "When?"
"In the next few weeks. He's been inside the Karsite border for weeks now so he'll be getting a few days rest here. Also, you are supposed to check over Carmia." Tashir explained.
"Inside the Karsite border?" Afiona repeated worriedly.
Tashir glanced around. "Maybe we should talk else where."
"I can't leave. All the other Healers are at dinner." Afiona said. "Did he write this down there?"
"No, he wrote this before he left. They aren't allowed to carry anything personal that could be used against them." Tashir explained.
Afiona led the way to her office. Outside she could hear the soldiers celebrating. "Do you know he's alright?"
"Yes, he's been reporting in regularly." Tashir assured her.
Afiona sank into her chair. "Have I mentioned I hate war? I lost too many friends already."
"I take it he doesn't know you're here." Tashir said as he took a seat in on of her spare seats. "I hope I get to see his face when he sees you."
"Healer Afiona, may I speak with you?" Shain said as he peaked in the door.
"Certainly." Afiona said to Shain and turned back to her cousin. "Get settled and I will check Leshya later."
"I already bespoke a tent." Tashir said as he stood. "I'm glad things are going better with the Healers. I told you eventually they would haul their collectives heads out of the ground and see reason."
Afiona shook her head as Tashir left.
"Who was that?" Shain asked.
"My cousin." Afiona answered. "There was something you needed to talk to me about?"
"During our practice today I had some ideas." He said as he assumed the seat Tashir just emptied. "What about staggering the shifts so we don't have everyone exhausted at once? And we could move the tents so they'd be shaded by the trees down by the river."
"The trees are infested with bugs. That's why there are no tents there. But I like your idea about the staggered shifts." Afiona said.
Shain pulled his seat forward. "I have some other ideas, do you have time to hear them?"
"Of course, I just want to make certain everyone is comfortable first." Afiona stood.
Shain stood quickly. "I was thinking about what you said, why we are low priority for getting supplies. We covered how to make medicines in the Collegium, why don't we start making simple medicines here that we could trade with the other camps for their excess?"
"None of the herbs are ready to be harvested in the area." Afiona pointed out. "But we could send word back to Haven that we want raw ingredients. No one else will be requesting them."
Shain was obviously excited now as he followed her down the aisle. "We should also request playing cards."
Afiona stopped. "Playing cards?" She repeated doubtfully.
"And board games. Our patients are here to recover for a while and we don't want them getting bored." Shain pointed out. "It's bad for their state of mind."
"I agree." Afiona said.
"Really?" Shain asked eagerly. "I didn't think you would."
"It should be easy enough to make some boards and make some makeshift pieces." Afiona pointed out. "I am not an evil witch you know."
He flushed a dark red. "I'll go see about the game pieces." He said quickly.
Afiona sighed in disappointment as he practically ran. She doubted the Healers would ever completely accept her decision. After checking on the patients again as the Healers on duty started trickling in she retreated to her tent to read her letter.
~ * ~
Nico shook vigorously launching a flurry of white hairs into the air and yawned. Mama-Afi was still sitting against the wall in that weird sleep he couldn't wake her from. He butted her with his nose but she didn't react.
Looking around he snorted. There was nothing for him to do here.
Hesitating only a few seconds he pranced out the open door into the star studded night. His father was sleeping just outside the door where he was always posted. Nico considered waking him and asking for a story but his stories weren't as good as Medren's or Stefen's.
He could see the other adult Companions sleeping near the tents with their Chosen but he didn't want to play with them either. He wished Demon were not Forever-Sleeping, then he could have goaded the dog into playing if only for a little while.
Nico tried to think of someone who'd be awake and remembered the hurt-tent always had people.
It took only a short canter for him to reach the tent and slip inside. No few of the green-people stared at him as he looked around.
"What are you doing here?" A semi familiar asked.
Nico looked around and found the man who was mad at Mama-Afi standing Almost directly behind him. Nico's ears flipped back until they were almost flat against his head as he turned around.
:You! You a bad man!: Nico hollered. :You made Mama-Afi sad and Mama-Afi supposed to be happy. Mama Afi not bad!:
He stomped his hooves and snorted at the healer trying to intimidate him.
"Relax Nicodimus." Shain said as soothingly as possible.
Nico snorted and stomped up to him and butted him in the chest hard enough to send him stumbling back. :Papa says Mama-Afi has a big heart but you're blind so you can't see it.: Nico butted him in the chest again. :If Mama-Afi wasn't a good person Papa would never Chosen her.:
"What?" Shain said in disbelief.
:Papa says only dummies blame Mama-Afi for what he did.: Nico hit him one last time sending him tumbling into the dirt.
Nico stared down at the Healer in disbelief. :Sorry! I knocked you down on accident. Are you hurt? I get Mama-Afi, she makes hurts go away.: He started past Shain then stopped. :Mama-Afi's gonna be mad. I told.:
Shain quickly got to his feet and waved the concerned Healers away. "You told what?"
:That Mama-Afi got Chosed by Papa. I'm not supposed to tell.: Nico said and hung his head.
"What's going on?" One of the Healers asked.
"He's Healer Afiona's son." Shain explained. "He's just here for a visit."
"He just attacked you." The healer protested.
Nico raised his head and looked around worriedly. :Uh oh.:
"He's just upset with me over something I said. He already apologized." Shain protested.
Nico shook his head. :I sorry for knocking you over. But you still bad man.:
Shain chuckled. "Well, I am sorry, I should never have yelled at Mama-Afi."
Nico's ears pricked up. :I sorry I scare you.:
"Where is Mama-Afi?" Shain asked.
:She's sleeping.: Nico explained. :You play?:
Shain shook his head in wonder, he had never expected to actually speak to a Companion but speaking to Nico was like talking to a little boy. "We can't play here. Here we make people feel better."
:I do that!: Nico said excitedly. :But Mama-Afi says people have to feel some sads so they can feel the happies too.:
"We're like Mama-Afi, we make hurts go away." Shain explained.
:I can't do that.: Nico informed him. :You need Mama-Afi to help?:
"No, we're fine. If we need her we can call for her. Why don't you go make sure she's still sleeping?" Shain suggested.
:I go.: Nico started to the door. :I tell Mama-Afi you say sorry too.:
"I'll tell her." Shain assured him.
:Bye bye!: Nico called as he trotted out into the night.
~ * ~
Afiona was exhausted from her searching the night before when she stepped into her office the next morning to speak to the Night shift before they sought their beds.
"Mama-Afi, I didn't expect you this early." Shain said in surprise from behind her desk. "I was just going to leave you a note."
"What did you just call me?" Afiona said blearily.
"Mama-Afi. It seems to suit you." Shain said with a mischievous grin.
"You talked to Nico." Afiona said as she sat in one of the free chairs.
"He popped in last night and set me straight." Shain explained. "I'm going to scare up some breakfast before trying to get some sleep do you want any?"
Afiona frowned suspiciously. She was never at her best before dawn. "I thought you considered me a cold blooded killer."
"Yeah, about that." Shain cleared his throat uncomfortably. "I'm sorry for jumping to conclusions. You are no more cold blooded that I am."
Afiona's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "What changed your mind?"
"I hauled my head out of the dirt and asked around to find out what happened. I didn't realize he had tried to kill you before and that you weren't even the one who caused his injuries." Shain said uncomfortably.
"That doesn't make me a saint." Afiona warned.
Shain nodded. "None of us are." Standing he straightened his robes. "I'll get you some breakfast when I get mine."
Afiona watched him leave with confusion written over her features before deciding not to analyze his change of heart to closely.
Pulling out the list of Healers she started drawing up a new schedule.