Page 22 of Red in Tooth and Claw

Chapter Twenty-two

Anna did everything she could to keep me awake as Zara fetched her wagon. Sergio stayed, keeping an eye on all of us. The gunslinger sat at my feet, almost as beat as I was. Well, I reckon what with him playing pack mule to my carcass, he was plumb exhausted. Tallis hovered at my feet like a fretful ghost, not wanting to get in Anna’s way.

Anna appeared to find this both funny and annoying. “If you’re going to hover, be useful. I need water from the river. Go on, then.”

Time seemed to be passing for me in jerky stops and starts. Next thing I knew, someone was picking me up. I mumbled about being sorry, feeling like an awful lot of people were carrying my weight about today.

This was met by irritation from Tallis. “Everyone needs to be taken care of sometimes, Little Fox, from the babe in arms to the elder. You think you’re above us mere mortals?”

“I take care of myself,” I said hotly. The cave cat growl-talked next to us in complaint.

“You’re doing a poor job,” Tallis snapped, then gentled his voice to the cave cat. “I don’t want to hear it. Someone has to tell her these things.”

I was trundled into Anna’s wagon and laid on one of the cots. After depositing me, Tallis stepped out and fetched the bucket of water. Zara immediately transferred some of it to the kettle and set it on the stove. The embers had been stoked already, the air inside the wagon much warmer than the outside. Everyone was shooed away except for Zara, who started helping the healer divest me of my clothing, or what was left of it.

Once they were done with that, Anna poked and prodded me in the way of healers everywhere, while Zara poured the steaming water into a bowl filled with herbs. The pungent smell filled the wagon. Zara dipped a rag into the water and began the tedious task of washing the blood from me.

Anna tutted at me. “You want the truth, or you want the pretty version?”

“Truth,” I gritted out.

“You’re a mess,” Anna said succinctly. “Your wrists and ankles are horribly abraded. If we’re lucky, you won’t get an infection, but you don’t seem terribly lucky. You have a concussion—a nasty one. Your ribs are likely cracked, or at the very least heavily bruised.” She turned and started plucking various bottles from their shelves. “The good news is, if you wake up tomorrow without a fever, you’ll probably live.”

“And if I have a fever?”

She smiled at me, tight-lipped. “Then you better send all your good words to the skies and hope I’m as good as I think I am.”

They cleaned me up as best they could, applying salve to my abrasions and a cool cloth to my head. My wounds were bandaged, and I was redressed in someone’s long cotton shirt.

Anna poured a foul potion down my gullet. “You’ll need to keep that in your belly,” she said firmly, “and not sick it up all over my nice wagon.”

I managed.

Blankets were then wrapped around me, and I was allowed to drift off at last. Once I was settled, the cat crawled into the cot with me. It was a tight fit, but somehow he succeeded, and it brought me comfort.

Throughout the night, I was prodded awake. Sometimes I was fed a little broth, others cold water. The wakings began to blur together. Images coming and going. Voices from the darkness, speaking softly to me. Cajoling. At some point, I swear I heard Tallis alternating between a quiet pleading and irritated, angry statements, but I couldn’t make sense of things.

I remember most his hand in mine and the warm heat of the cat along my side.

When I woke up, it was to rain pattering along the top of the wagon. The sleepy gray afternoon light seeped in through the cracked door. My eyes felt gummy, my body heavy with exhaustion. Tallis was sprawled in a chair next to my cot. His sleeping body was relaxed, but even in the dim light, I could see the bruising under his eyes, and the scratchy beginnings of a beard across his cheeks. It made his scar stand out more.

I must have made some sound, because he blinked awake, staring at me for several moments before suddenly straightening in his chair. “You’re awake.” There was an unmistakable note of surprise in his voice.

“Same as every morning so far,” I said, my voice sounding scratchy to my own ears.

He scoffed, levering himself out of his chair, rising with an easy grace I envied. He fit an arm around my shoulders and helped me sit before fetching me a cup of water that had been resting on a nearby folding table, pressing the cup to my lips.

“I’m not a babe,” I grumbled. “I can do this myself.”

“You go right ahead and fight me for this cup, Little Fox. We’ll see who’s the victor, hm?”

Irritated, I raised my hands to bat him away and discovered that I had all the strength of a newly birthed kitten.

Tallis smirked, keeping his hold on the cup. “You’ve had a fever for three nights.” His smirk faltered, and he swallowed hard. The sudden gravity of his expression weighted my belly. With shaking fingers, Tallis smoothed my short hair back. “We weren’t sure you were going to make it.”

His fingers continued to smooth and pet my hair, a faint smile returning to his face. “You look like a baby bird. Little tufts of flame feathers.” He pressed his hand against my skull, then released. “They won’t stay down.”

I glowered at him and snatched the cup from his hands, though it took all my meager resources to do it. “Little Fox, baby bird. I’m not an animal.”

Again that derisive scoffing noise. “You’re half wild. Animals have better manners.”

I emptied the cup down my throat, welcoming the cool water. I wasn’t going to win this argument, because he was right. I was a wild thing, more animal than person sometimes. I hadn’t fit back in New Retienne, a different beast than the others around me. Meanwhile, Tallis seemed elemental—patient as the woods, smooth as water.

It was irritating.

He took the cup back from my loose grip, hooking my chin with a finger so he knew he had my attention. “I like you wild. It wasn’t a criticism.”

This, by far, was the most unsettling thing about Tallis. His hawkeyed ability to peer inside me, my feelings the easy rabbit in open grass. All he had to do was swoop down and snatch them up for his consumption. It was a vulnerable feeling.

Something scratched at the door and Tallis got up and opened it. The creature from the cave padded in, chin up, eyes bright. He chirped, and I was met with a rush of relief.

“Yeah,” I said. “I’m sitting up, and apparently it’s a minor miracle.”

The creature grumble-growled at me, the sound having the unmistakable tone of a lecture to it.

I snorted. “It’s not like I got sick on purpose.”

He sat, chin up, long tail lashing. He certainly could pack a lot of attitude into his posture.

“Can you understand him?” Tallis asked, curious.

I opened my mouth to argue, Of course not. He’s an animal , when I realized that I sort of could understand the creature. “Of a kind,” I admitted slowly. I tapped my sternum. “I get a sense of things. More emotions than thought?” I peered at the cat. I truly had never seen anything like him. “What is he?”

Tallis tipped his head to the side. “I don’t know. None of us know. My uncle says you reached into the place of dreams and pulled him out.”

“What does that mean?”

Tallis stroked his fingers along my arm, above the bandages on my wrist. It seemed he was doing it as much to comfort himself as me. Like maybe if he stopped, I would disappear. “When Uncle Sergio was younger, he used to travel far. Sailed to strange lands. Saw many things. He said that on one island, he saw someone do evil workings. The man punched a hole in the world and brought something out.”

The hairs on my arms rose up as I listened, and Tallis paused to readjust my blanket. “Uncle wasn’t sure how the man did it, but there was a lot of blood and screaming. Strange writings covered the ground and even the man.” His voice grew soft. “What he remembers most is the smell. Blood and death and something wrong. That was how you smelled when Will brought you to us.”

I swallowed hard. “Did the man survive?”

Tallis shook his head slowly. “Whatever he brought out, it ate him.”

My stomach pitched and the cave cat trilled a soothing sound at me. “Did it—” I licked my lips. “Did it look like the cat?”

“No,” Tallis admitted.

I stared longingly at the empty cup in Tallis’s hand. “Whatever he is, he hasn’t tried to eat me yet.”

“No, he hasn’t,” Tallis said as he fetched a pitcher of water and refilled my cup. “In fact, he seems keen on doing the opposite. He’s been a useful sort of thing. He’s brought you a pheasant and two rabbits.” Tallis pressed the cup into my hands. “He obviously thinks you need fattening.”

“He would be correct,” I said, sipping this water more slowly. I grew more alert with every mouthful, the scene around me sharpening. Tallis moved with his usual grace, but there was a weight to each movement that spoke of exhaustion. He seemed stiff, like his muscles had been bunched too long. He wore the signs of someone who had been sitting vigil. I knew the signs well from when I sat with Pops.

The similarities made the reality of my situation hit me then.

I’d almost died.

I gulped more water.

I suddenly noticed how quiet it was. Tallis’s people were a noisy bunch when they went about their daily comings and goings. When I’d stayed with them before, it was a pleasant chorus of people talking, laughter, children hollering, horses, and snatches of song. Constant. A homey sort of sound, like the lifeblood of a people.

With the exception of Tallis and the cave creature, I couldn’t hear a blessed thing. “We’re not in your camp.”

Tallis had his back to me, but I was watching and saw him stiffen—just for a breath—then he relaxed. “You’re not allowed among my people.” He sighed, hooking the chair with his foot and bringing it closer before he sat. He settled in, resting his elbows on his knees. “My uncle is afraid that you are dangerous. At least he doesn’t think you’re the cause of all this anymore.”

“What?” I stared at him, shocked.

Tallis shrugged. “When you showed up outside our camp the other night in the same area we’d found Yakob, he grew suspicious. Now he’s thinking you’re more prey than predator.”

I set the empty cup in my lap. “Does he think the cave cat hurt Yakob?”

“Paws are too small. Claw marks wouldn’t match up.”

I nodded, regretting it. I was sore still. “I’ve never been seen as dangerous before.”

That earned me a ghost of a smile. He jerked his chin toward the cat. “I suspect you’ll be considered such to most people as long as you have Chirp.”

The cat raised its head and made a noise at Tallis that did sound like the cheerful sound of a cricket or a bird.

“Chirp?”

Tallis rolled his shoulders. “Had to call him something. You’ve been unconscious for three days. He’s been my most stalwart companion.” He leaned over and scratched Chirp’s chin. The beast made another noise, a trilling sort of rumble. His version of a purr, I reckoned. He certainly seemed smitten with Tallis.

Part of what Tallis said filtered into my brain. “You’ve been here the whole time?” I couldn’t quite wrap my head around it. Why sit with me for three days instead of being with his people? Guilt? Duty? Guard duty? Was Tallis here to make sure I didn’t scamper at the first opportunity? Fear seeped through me, and though I kept my face blank, Chirp still seemed to know. He turned his blue eyes on me and snapped his teeth.

“He told you,” Tallis said, his voice amused, even if his expression was serious when he gazed at me. “I wonder what you were thinking to get that response.”

I hedged a little. “I was wondering why you were here, like I said.”

Tallis glanced at Chirp before turning his attention back to me. When he finally spoke, his voice was rough. “You almost died, Faolan. Where else would I be?”

I wasn’t sure what to say to that. Of the categories I’d come up with, that answer didn’t quite fit. I frowned at Tallis, trying to figure him out.

He made a frustrated noise. “I’m going to go tell Anna you’re awake. While I’m gone, I want you to think on something.” He stood abruptly, sliding the chair back. Then he leaned until only an inch or two separated our faces. “If I’d almost died, would you have sat in the chair?”

And then he left.

Chirp made a series of clicking, growling noises.

“It’s a fine thing,” I grumbled, “getting lectured as soon as one crawls back from near death. I haven’t even had any coffee yet.”

Chirp wasn’t very sympathetic of my plight, flicking his tail in irritation.

I slumped against the wall, my meager energy spent. Would I have sat vigil for three days for Tallis? Except it wasn’t the same. Tallis didn’t need me to sit for him. He had his people. I didn’t have people. All I had was a weird cave cat and my own battered carcass.

I frowned. That wasn’t entirely true, now was it? In a way, I had the gunslinger. Sure, he’d been sent by the people trying to take what was mine, but he’d also carried me on his back for quite a distance. He’d pulled me out of the cave. He’d done a lot, really.

There was also Jesse and Dai Lo. They would sit vigil for me, if only to harangue me over whatever fool thing I’d done in the first place.

I reckoned I did have people, after a fashion.

Tallis didn’t need me worrying my hands by his sick bed.

But I would be there all the same, and I think he knew that. I found that thought worrisome, though I couldn’t put my finger on why, exactly. I found it funny to no end that I wasn’t scared of a cave cat from who-knows-where, but this…this gave me the shivers.

Voices and footsteps interrupted my thoughts as Anna came into the wagon, followed by Will.

Anna immediately took up my wrists, holding them, and then used her thumbs to edge my eyelids up so she could peer into my eyes in an unsettling manner. She huffed. “You’re alive. Isn’t that a surprise.” She spoke in my language, though her accent was heavy. I suspected this was for Will’s benefit. Like many Rovers, she probably knew our tongue better than we knew hers. They generally picked it up to make trading easier.

I scowled at her. “As a healer, maybe you should show less surprise.”

She snorted. “I’m a healer, not a god. You were burning up and speaking nonsense. I didn’t think you were long for this world.”

Will leaned against the opposite wall, his arms crossed. “You did give us a scare. Several of them.”

“I’m surprised you’re still here.”

Now it was his turn to snort. “While I might be interested in what’s going on at the Settlement, I’m not going to let you out of my sight. Besides, I wasn’t sure going back was a good idea.” He must have seen me start filling up with questions, because he shook his head. “Oh, no, all that’s going to keep. After Anna takes a gander at your sorry hide, and we stuff your gullet, then we’ll chatter all you want.”

“You will chatter exactly as long as I let you,” Anna said. “She needs rest.”

“I’ve been resting for three days!” I protested.

Anna deftly ran her fingers under my jaw, pressing the tissue. “Fighting a fever isn’t resting.” She straightened. “You’ll do as I say if you know what’s good for you.” Her eyes wandered over to Chirp. “Though I’m not certain you know what is good for you.”

Will laughed. I was starting to wonder if it would be better to go back to being unconscious.

After Anna declared me fit enough, she helped me wash and get dressed. Someone had managed to clean my boots and trousers. My shirt hadn’t made it, and my hat was somewhere back in the cave. I was given someone else’s worn cotton shirt and a thick, soft sweater that had seen better days but kept me warm enough. I missed my hat, as I felt weirdly vulnerable without it, but I missed Pops’s watch more. I could replace a hat.

I was basically carried out of the wagon, despite being on my own wobbly feet. Anna thought fresh air would do me good. I was wrapped in a blanket and deposited before the fire. Day was fading into dusk, the air holding only the faintest bite of cold.

Tallis handed me a bowl filled with a soup of rabbit meat and root vegetables, along with a flat round of griddle bread, which I used to mop it up.

I ate every bite, and then I was given another helping. I ate every bite of that, too.

With my belly full, we began to rehash the situation, Will, Tallis, Anna, and I, though Zara joined us shortly after I finished my meal. My reality was coming into focus, and I wasn’t sure I liked the picture.

I couldn’t go home because of the mayor and his men. I wasn’t sure I could get back into the Settlement, and Tallis’s people weren’t letting me within their camp. My options were very limited. In fact, it appeared I had no options.

I huddled into the blanket. “I have to go back to the Settlement.”

“Over my dead body.” Tallis folded his arms.

Will shook his head.

Zara’s lip curled. “Why?”

Anna finally ended it with “I didn’t pull you from the jaws of the serpent of death just to let you throw yourself back into them.”

“What’s my other option?” I said softly. “I have the clothes on my back, half of which aren’t even mine. I have my pack, I think. How long will I survive out here on my own? I can’t go home.” I speared Tallis with a gaze. “Your people won’t take me in. Otherwise we’d be in their camp right now.”

Tallis looked away, a muscle in his jaw ticking.

It was Zara who answered from where she was sprawled by the fire. “Uncle is scared. Perhaps for good reason, perhaps not.” She waved a hand at Chirp, who was curled against me, watching the fire. “Maybe if you told us how you got him, hm? Knowledge is how you chase away fear.”

Uneasiness moved through me with heavy feet. “I found him in the cave. That’s where he came from.”

Zara’s eyebrows winged up gracefully. “There are no creatures like him around here. Never have been. I think you know that.”

“Speak,” Anna said bluntly. “And tell us what happened.”

I thought about what Tallis had told me. Beyond the quiet fields, where we went when we died, and the realm of whatever gods one believed in, it hadn’t occurred to me that there could be other worlds. I curled deeper into my blanket. “Well, I didn’t do any magic. I don’t know any.”

Will jabbed at the fire with a stick, resettling some of the logs. “You did something. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have your new friend here.”

Chirp bumped his head against my shoulder, and I sighed. I told them everything I remembered about that day. The canteen and its weird taste. Stuckley and his ranting. The cave walls. Symbols covering them, rife with evil. Strange sights, unfamiliar sounds. Did I believe it was another world? I wasn’t sure. But they were right. I’d never seen anything like Chirp.

“You share space with him,” Tallis’s words were soft but not gentle. They were like the tide, calm if you gave yourself over to it, hard if you fought.

“That’s not true, I—”

Tallis carried on, unrelenting. “You can communicate. I’ve watched you. And he has other tricks.”

“What?” I asked, examining my companion warily. “Can he fetch or something?”

“Ask him to hide,” Tallis said.

I felt silly, but everyone was watching, and I couldn’t see a way around it. “Fine. Chirp. Hide.”

The cat disappeared.

I startled, then froze because I could still feel the warm, solid weight of his body next to mine. Slowly, I reached out, uncurling my fingers and dropping them down until they met the soft touch of fur. Chirp was still there. I just couldn’t see him. Only empty grass.

“Stop,” I said, my voice wavering.

Chirp reappeared, my hand resting on his back. He trilled at me.

I whistled low. “That’s some trick.”

“I think,” Will said, still fussing with the fire, “that maybe you should tell us again what happened in that cave.”