Change of Edict (The Change Series Book 2) Page 13

  Siray carefully controlled the urge to raise her eyebrows, and asked, ‘I still had an arrowhead in me?’

  ‘Yep. Apparently you managed to break off the rest of the arrow sometime during the fight. And then, while you were kindly transporting me out of there’—Baindan appeared to grimace at that thought—‘it did a bit more damage moving about inside.’

  He looked over at Siray’s food. ‘But, I do know that they put a little of the numbing agent in the food. Supposed to help us rest more easily or something.’

  Siray perked up a little at that and turned slightly so she could eye the small table beside her. Realising the top of the table was actually able to swing around so it hovered above the bed in front of her, Siray guided it forth with one hand. As she removed the covers from the small trays on the table, considering where she would start, she asked Baindan, ‘Did you learn all this from just listening in to the private conversations of the healers?’

  ‘Nah,’ Baindan said. ‘Nafren told me what they guessed from your injuries. And from what the others told them.’

  That almost made her drop her spoon into the broth-like substance in the bowl before her. How could she have forgotten her other friends?

  She looked quickly up at Baindan, her good eye intense. ‘The others—where are they? Are they okay?’

  Baindan waved away her concern. ‘I’ll tell you, but only on the condition that you eat something before I do.’

  Siray glowered at him, but when Baindan stubbornly refused to even blink in the face of her one-eyed glare, she relented. Turning back to pick up her spoon, she promptly spooned a small sip of the warm broth into her mouth. She didn’t really know what it was she was eating—but it was delicious. Without really thinking about it, she took another three spoonfuls of the dish without further encouragement before she turned to Baindan again. ‘Now. Talk.’

  ‘The others are staying somewhere a couple of levels below us, apparently, in a sectioned-off area from the rest of the main compound. They say they’re being treated well enough and hope to be able to mix with Gonron’s main populace soon.’

  Siray swallowed a mouthful of bread that she had torn off a mini loaf before asking, ‘Why are they being kept separate?’

  ‘I think it’s for security purposes. I gather they’re all being asked a lot of questions about what happened at the training camp, what we’ve been doing since, and how we found this place.’

  ‘They don’t trust us?’ Siray asked, grimacing slightly around her mouthful as her eyebrows rose painfully, tugging on the bandages on the left side of her face.

  Baindan shrugged, but his eyes closely tracked her expression. ‘I would do something similar in their position. Although Wex is not happy about it.’

  Siray tore another chunk of bread off the small loaf. ‘When will I get to see the others?’

  ‘Today most likely. They’re only allowed to move between their section, our room, and the therapy room.’ Baindan smirked. ‘Tamot appears to be chafing at the restriction.’

  Siray smiled again, picturing Tamot being told he could not fully explore the facility. Then she asked, ‘Have you been to this therapy room?’

  Baindan nodded. ‘Remember how I once told you that we can heal faster in larger animal forms?’

  She nodded.

  ‘Well,’ Baindan continued, ‘that’s what that room, and others like it, are for. They’ll get you to Change into one of your larger forms and spend some time there.’

  This was a concept that Siray had still been struggling with since the time Baindan had been grievously injured so many turn’s ago. ‘But wouldn’t the effort of Changing into my larger form make my injuries worse?’ she queried, hoping to understand how the healing process worked better.

  Baindan shook his head. ‘You’re forgetting one of the first things they would have taught you about Changing at the training camp—that the mind maps everything in each form.’

  She frowned at Baindan. ‘So …’

  ‘So, when you are injured in this form, your mind maps it against this body.’ He pointed to his own chest, which was covered in bandages. ‘My mind knows the length and depth of this injury on this body, how long it is, its impact, etc. But’—he held up a finger—‘if I were to switch into my rilander form, with its multiple tree-trunk-size legs, massive body, and immense strength, my mind will not adapt the injury I have received to match my new body. My mind will keep the same injury, as increasing it to match the size of the animal body would be inventing something new. Which, instinctively, we don’t do.’

  Siray felt like she was starting to wrap her head around the complex idea. ‘And if I Change into my yeibon form, this’—she waved her hand generally to encompass her multiple injuries—‘would be reduced in severity?’

  Baindan nodded. ‘For the time you were in the other form, yes. Which also means its reduced size, and the larger, stronger body of the animal form, could heal itself at a faster rate.’ He laid a hand carefully against his own chest. ‘For me, it takes this, and makes it seem like a scratch on a rilander. And the rilander’s body heals it as such, so that when I Change back to this form, my wound will have noticeably improved over the course of one or two spans.’

  Siray nodded her understanding as she finished her bit of bread and started in on the last dish before her, amazed at the abilities Changing itself could offer. ‘But I imagine it’s the reverse for animal forms that are smaller than this form?’ she asked, pointing down at her own body.

  Baindan nodded. ‘Yeah. So it’s always good to have a larger form—if you can learn it.’

  Satisfied with those answers, Siray applied herself to the rest of her meal, and when her hunger had finally been sated, she pushed the little table away from her and turned again to Baindan. ‘How is your chest anyway?’

  Baindan shrugged, then grimaced in regret as the movement pulled at his injured muscles. ‘It’s healing. Still painful,’ he admitted, acknowledging the expression she had seen, ‘but it’s better than yesterday.’ Baindan tilted his head. ‘They’ll probably take us down to the therapy room together, I reckon. They had me in there earlier.’

  Siray lay there silently for a while, trying to take everything in. Then she said, ‘I can’t believe we made it. I thought we were dead when I saw that sandstorm.’

  Baindan shuddered. ‘Glad I didn’t see it. I don’t know if I could have stood still on a riser with a storm like that bearing down on me.’

  ‘But we made it. You got us here,’ Siray insisted.

  Baindan chuckled. ‘Me? I had very little to do with it. This might sound like something you probably would have heard your cycle guide say over and over again, but it was a group effort.’ He was silent for a moment before he added, ‘And, obviously, the Great Mother loves us.’

  He grinned at Siray, and she laughed, her face, arm, and side burning.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  AS BAINDAN had predicted, the rest of their group came by later that day. Of course, Siray was only guessing it was daytime, giving that the facility they were in was somewhere underground and there was no natural light whatsoever.

  As her friends filed in, Genlie, who was at the front, squealed and ran to Siray’s bed to wrap her in a hug, her blonde hair flying out behind her.

  ‘I never get a greeting like that,’ said Baindan with humour.

  Genlie leaned back and said, ‘I was so worried. You collapsed right there in the room outside the riser after they asked you to Change back.’ She shook her head. ‘There was blood all over you.’

  Siray squeezed one of her friend’s hands. ‘I’m fine, Genlie. Well, no, that’s a lie. But the healers have said that I will be.’

  ‘And your eye?’

  Genlie motioned towards the injury, but Siray borrowed a gesture from Baindan, waving her hand as if she could alleviate the female’s concerns. ‘They think it’s undamaged. Although they said I’ll probably have some scarring on that side. A by-product of the venom on the kilften’
s claws, so Baindan tells me.’

  Genlie frowned for a moment, but then her eyebrows lifted a little as she leaned in close again to look. ‘Oooh, battle scars. The males will think it’s hot.’ Siray looked at Genlie in amusement, but Genlie winked and murmured, ‘Trust me.’

  When Genlie went across to chat with Baindan, Deson came over.

  Siray smiled at him, and that one effort seemed to crack the grim expression on Deson’s face, although concern still poured from him.

  She thought she knew why.

  ‘Siray, I’m so sorry. I never should—’

  ‘No apologies, Deson,’ she interrupted him. ‘If you hadn’t made me get up and move after the fight, you all would have done the heroic thing and stayed there with me. And then none of us would have made it here.’

  Deson gave a reluctant smile just before a loud crash made everyone jump.

  Siray didn’t even have to turn her head before she was asking the question and grimacing. ‘Jorgi … what did you do?’

  She turned her head fully to the left, and sure enough, there was Jorgi, sprawled on the floor between the two beds, the small table that had stood beside Baindan’s bed on its side.

  ‘Nothing! I just didn’t see—’

  ‘The floor?’ Kovi said, drawing a chuckle from all of them.

  Jorgi flushed, but Siray smiled down at him. ‘Good to see you, Jorgi. It’s way too quiet in here anyway.’

  Jorgi smiled gratefully, then looked up as Tamot moved around to his side to offer him a hand up.

  ‘Hey, that reminds me. Wexner!’ Siray called out. She hadn’t yet thanked the person whom they most owed their lives to.

  ‘Yes?’ Wexner said, making his way over to Siray’s bed, carefully stepping around Jorgi and Tamot.

  ‘You did a great job getting us here as you did,’ Siray said, giving him a small smile. Anything bigger would be wasted on Wexner. ‘But how did you know where to go after Baindan went unconscious?’ she asked, curious.

  ‘Ah,’ Wexner said, pausing. ‘Well, as to that … I’ll let Baindan explain,’ he said, backing away to clear the space between the two beds.

  Was it just her, or was Wexner acting even more socially awkward than usual? Even more intrigued, Siray glanced across to Baindan.

  He fidgeted with his blankets for a moment before looking up at them all, not meeting anyone’s eyes in particular. ‘Before we headed off, I told Wex my best guess at where I thought the facility might be.’

  Everyone was listening now, the room returned to quiet, and they all nodded, remembering the preparations they had made in the caves.

  ‘And,’ continued Baindan, ‘you remember that I said I had a fair idea of where it would be, but I didn’t know exactly, right?’

  ‘Right,’ chorused the group back at him.

  Wexner remained silent.

  ‘Well, what I didn’t tell you all was that it wasn’t really a matter of us finding this place but of them finding us.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Finding us?’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘So …?’

  ‘Are you saying—’

  ‘Just what—’

  Baindan grimaced a little at the deluge of responses that came from everyone except Wexner and Siray.

  She was listening too intently to make any comment.

  ‘Wexner and I knew the site would be underground somewhere but that they would have scouts or technology that would let them monitor any movement for a distance around the facility’s location. So, we knew all we had to do was get close enough for them to see us, and see that we weren’t members of the Faction.’

  There was a still silence in the room. As usual, Tamot recovered first. ‘So, your plan was to have us wander around in the desert, on dwindling rations, until they decided we weren’t a threat?’ he demanded incredulously.

  ‘We got here, didn’t we?’ Baindan said defensively.

  Siray frowned at him, ignoring the burst of pain that accompanied the expression, unable to believe he would take such a risk. ‘We could have been out there for days,’ she said, shaking her head in disapproval. ‘We could have …’ She trailed off as her mind answered the question she had just silently posed to herself. ‘No,’ she said softly, looking back at Baindan. ‘You wouldn’t have.’

  ‘What?’ Deson asked, frowning between her and Baindan, taking a step closer to her bed. What is it? he repeated silently. You’ve gone all pale.

  Siray pushed herself up higher on her pillows, grunting in pain at the effort, and shaking her head silently at Deson. She needed to see Baindan’s face more clearly.

  Deson remained at her bedside, an arm ready, and Genlie approached closer as well.

  Siray fixed her eyes on Baindan. ‘Tell me you didn’t.’ Her breath was beginning to come more rapidly as the horrible idea occurred to her. Please, she thought to herself as she waited for Baindan’s response. Please tell me you didn’t betray our trust like that. My trust.

  ‘Didn’t what?’ Deson prompted again, softly. Dangerously. He looked between Siray and Baindan once more.

  Siray didn’t take her eyes off Baindan, whose face had gone still. ‘Tell me,’ she said quietly, ‘that you didn’t allow that patrol to track us so that the head of this facility would know we were allies, and not the enemy.’

  The silence that filled the room this time was worse.

  Siray slid her gaze to Wexner, who was also looking guilty. ‘You knew, didn’t you?’ she said softly. Not a question.

  ‘Siray, we didn’t know for sure that it was a patrol,’ Wexner said. ‘We saw them—’

  ‘That evening, just before we set out,’ she finished for him.

  He nodded.

  Siray was firm, her voice hard. ‘I saw them too, but I thought it was a weird rock formation or something. If I’d thought for a moment that it was a patrol …’ She shook her head, something inside her going hard.

  Tamot, meanwhile, was looking angry. ‘So, let me get this right. You two saw that a patrol was following us from the second evening, and you didn’t tell us?’ He glared angrily at Baindan, then at Wexner. ‘What, was the battle part of your brilliant plan too?’

  ‘No,’ Baindan said firmly. ‘It wasn’t. When we first spotted the patrol, we counted only three soldiers. We thought they would catch up to us during the night and that we could easily dispatch them, which the facility’s scouts or their security would see.’

  Deson’s voice when he spoke was very quiet, and Siray saw that he had gone very still. ‘We could have been killed. Or captured.’ He gazed down at Siray possessively for a moment, then eyed Baindan, his face darkening. ‘Some of us came close.’

  Baindan looked around at the group in apology, and his eyes found Siray’s when he finally spoke. ‘I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean for it to happen the way it did. I honestly thought there was minimal risk, and that it would help convince those in charge of our allegiance.’

  Siray glanced away from him. She didn’t really know what to say to him.

  Deson didn’t seem to be having the same trouble. ‘Minimal risk?’ he growled out through his teeth.

  Siray heard something underneath that growl. Something that sounded familiar. And Deson was tensing …

  She realised what was about to happen a moment before the others. ‘Genlie—get Deson out of here.’

  Genlie snapped her head around to look at Deson, her eyes visibly registering the signs. ‘Kovi!’ she snapped as she moved swiftly toward Deson, who was beginning to stride purposefully around to Baindan’s bed.

  Kovi tackled him before he got there, Genlie also grabbing on to Deson from behind.

  But Deson was in a passion, his emotions beyond his control, and Siray could see it wasn’t going to be enough.

  ‘Minimal risk!’ Deson yelled, and another growl burst from him as he tried to lunge off the floor towards Baindan, his body rippling. ‘That scout saw her! Saw Siray, as a sevonix, after she Changed to save you!�
� he shouted, glaring angrily at Baindan as he strained to reach him. ‘What do you think he’s going to report as soon as he reaches another patrol? They know about her now!’

  ‘That scout’s probably dead from his injuries,’ Baindan shouted back heatedly, his face flushed. ‘He never would have survived the sands long enough to reach anyone!’

  Deson growled louder than before and lunged again for Baindan’s bed while Siray looked on in shock from amongst her pillows.

  ‘Jorgi, Tamot—help us!’ Kovi was pushing against Deson’s wide chest as he tried to keep the larger male from pushing past him and Genlie.

  Jorgi and Tamot—who were still in the space between the two beds—rushed forwards to help restrain Deson.

  Genlie, who was the only other person in the room besides Siray, and perhaps Baindan, who understood what was happening, slapped Deson twice across the face. Hard. ‘Siray’s okay, Deson! She’s okay!’

  Deson growled again, but Genlie merely served him another slap, even sharper than the last two. ‘Look at her!’ she commanded him. ‘Look!’ She forcefully directed Deson’s chin with a well-placed grip.

  It worked. Genlie’s slaps and shouts seemed to restore Deson’s wits enough that he heard her words, and as his eyes met with Siray’s, some semblance of rationality appeared to settle over him.

  It was enough that Kovi, Tamot, and Jorgi were able to turn him around and move him away from between the beds.

  But Genlie, being more experienced in these things, kept urging them forwards until they were able to get Deson to the door and then pushed him through once it opened.

  The door swished shut and silence hung over the room once more.

  Siray peeked over at Loce, who stood there for a moment, looking stunned.

  ‘I’m sure everything will be fine,’ he said nervously before he turned quickly and left.

  The door swished open and shut.

  She glanced over at Wexner, her face blank.

  For once, Wexner had the social grace, and awareness, to look remorseful. ‘I really am sorry, Siray,’ he said quietly, before he too departed from the room.